The Son director responds to criticism of mental health portrayals
Florian Zeller's second feature is released in UK cinemas this weekend.
Florian Zeller's directorial debut The Father – adapted from his stage play of the same name – was a huge critical hit when it was released in 2020, earning a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars and helping its star Anthony Hopkins to his second Best Actor win.
Now the French director has once again brought one of his own plays to the screen for his second feature The Son, but the response this time has been less broadly positive, with some critics objecting to the film's portrayal of mental health.
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The film – which stars Hugh Jackman, Vanessa Kirby, Laura Dern, and newcomer Zen McGrath – explores a father's attempts to care for his teenaged son as he is going through a major mental health crisis.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Zeller said that while he acknowledged some viewers had not found the depiction of mental health struggles to be "authentic", he had gone to great lengths to ensure that the film was as close to reality as possible.
"It was coming from a personal place, so this is something that was not foreign to me," he explained. "Of course, cinema is about trying to catch something real, so we worked with a lot of American psychiatrists to make sure that we were close to reality.
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"Some people were not certain in the end that it was that authentic because I think that... you know, we are talking a lot about mental health issues but I still feel that we are not comfortable talking about it, even though we are using that expression all the time.
"And I was surprised in the US, for example, that we worked with this association named NAMI, the biggest Mental Health Association in the country and they were very supportive of the film – saying that it's so close to what they are experiencing every day. But somehow, I found that some people had trouble to imagine that it was authentic or real."
He added that it was difficult to create "universality" with the film because "in every country it's different and in every family it's different" but pointed out that when the original play was being performed in both Paris and London he received a lot of positive feedback from audience members.
"It was really striking to see the response of the audience," he explained. "People were waiting for us after every performance to share their own story – meaning that when the play was ending something else was beginning, like a conversation.
"And so many people told me, 'I know what you were talking about because of my son, or my daughter, or my uncle, whatever. They were saying something about what they knew, something that maybe they wouldn't have said in another situation, because of the shame and because of the guilt. And that's really what gave me the desire to make this film."
The Son is in UK cinemas from Friday 17th February 2023. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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