Père

Twenty-four years have passed since Strindberg’s The Father was last performed at the Comédie-Française, since it entered the repertoire in the staging by Patrice Kerbrat, which the filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin remembers. While The Father will mark Desplechin’s first time directing for theatre, it is a work that has stayed with him for a long time, with Jean-Luc Boutté’s performance as the Captain in the 1991 production leaving a strong impression. This play is one of those theatrical nuggets that nourished Desplechin before he set down to write a film. Less frequently performed than Miss Julie and The Dance of Death, the infernal, confined drama of The Father beautifully illustrates what Strindberg described as “the war that men as individuals perpetually engage in: ‘the struggle of minds’” through a couple whose initial rift arises from a disagreement concerning their daughter’s education. To present his vision of the play, by way of a homage, Arnaud Desplechin will be reunited with the Troupe with which he has enjoyed a genuine companionship since first casting Denis Podalydès and Michel Vuillermoz in 1996 in My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument, and almost twenty years later directing La Fôret (The Forest), a film adaptation of the Alexander Ostrovsky play for the Comédie-Française.