With the North American festival season heating up, festival contenders are beginning to push out more promotional materials. Recently we’ve seen a couple of ho-hum images from Roman Polanski‘s new film Carnage but now there are a whole bunch of new shots which shed some more light on the film.
The film is based on the stage play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza and is about a clash between two couples whose children who have been injured in a playground incident.
The film, like the play, is essentially a four hander. A conversation in one location between four actors, and Polanski has got quite a cast. Jodie Foster & John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz & Kate Winslet are the two couples and they give the project some extra kudos, all these actors are pretty much at the top of their game and I can see them working brilliantly together. Also, with this and We Need To Talk About Kevin, it is nice to see Reilly returning to drama and moving away from comedy.
The images seem to reveal a human and almost comedic side not promised by the premise, one has Christoph Waltz drying out John C. Reilly‘s mobile phone with a hair dryer and another has Waltz and Winslet sharing a bathroom. To me it sounds great, however being a stage play set in one room it will have to try really hard to free itself from the shackles of the stage and become cinematic. Also, with a theatrical adaptation of this intensity and about a touchy subject it could boil down to acting with a capital A. However, I remain optimistic.
Carnage will have its world premiere at Venice, before opening the New York Film Festival.
Source: The Playlist