The main character, Anthony, is also the lens through which we see the characters and all the scenes, no matter the timeline. What I mean is that the timeline is a bit confusing, which makes sense if we are seeing things as Anthony tries to see them. The movie Sliding Doors starring Gwenyth Paltrow about two different lives lived is simple compared to this one.
The back-and-forth mingling of scenes and what might be-- or might have been-- is a study in what makes Florian Zeller tick. He wrote the play “The Father” and is the co-author of the screenplay with Christopher Hampton. His madness, more than a study of dementia and Alzheimer’s, is in view. Whatever you couldn’t follow in the 90-minute movie perhaps will drive you to pause the playback and rewind a bit, or even watch the movie a second or third time. I don’t think you will be disappointed.
I am not familiar with the singing of Maria Callas whose recording of “Norma, “Casta Diva” seemed to be a highlight, along with Bizet’s “Je Crois entendre encore.” The music was unknown and seemed to be repeated, but maybe my ignorance played into the effects as well. Anthony had great love for all the music he played. I wonder why Zeller chose those works particularly. I’ll ask others later.
By the way the cast includes Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams (do we really need a double Olivia at this point?), Mark Gatiss, Rufus Sewell and Imogen Poots. It bordered on a play by Edward Albee or Sartre and asked the same question of many of their works.
What is true? That theme of struggling to sift through the scenery and the characters, of finding one’s way in a troubled, albeit simple, chicken-for-dinner world, jumped out at me at almost every turn. Finding truth is not only an ancient Greek concern. With all the strident accusations in these days of ‘fake news’, the question is not baseless. What is true in 2021? What is true in your world? And beyond that, what is truth?
For instance, did Anne finally move to Paris? Is Paul the husband or is it James or…even Bill? The very clever mingling of the cast and the mental weakening of Anthony helped me to ponder the “What is truth?” question.
I loved the repeated opening of the drapes whether in the flat Anne owned or Anthony owned or even in the hospital or home. A simple dramatic device, but I felt it was as if to say, let’s get a picture of the real world through the eyes of Anthony. His struggle for “What is truth?” kept repeating itself.
The use of the repeated references to the ‘walk in the park on such a lovely day’, and to the watch that is stolen or misplaced both remind me of the ordinary parts of time and days, and to be honest, of life, actually. In the midst of normal, how do we find truth and reality? You who are reading this blog post, how do you find it yourself?
For me, it boils down to this. Beauty might be in the eyes of the beholder, but truth is not.
I taught high school mathematics in the 1970s and each problem had a solution, and if a student showed me their work in ‘draft’ form and they came to the solution for a problem, whether in logic, or in geometry, in algebra or any of the disciplines of mathematics, I was able to give them a very good score. Being true mattered, and math gives us the opportunity to speak to it. But truth itself--- that’s another matter.
True religion is one of the themes of my life as I turn 70 next month. I don’t want to go through the motions; I don’t want to live one more day without God’s all-consuming fire within me. Living honestly and personally—that’s how I’m going to make it in the last chapters and scenes of my life. Quoting Casting Crowns above about ‘through the motions’ haunts and motivates me. Will I live as if I have only an audience of One?
You see, a biblical character named Pontius Pilate asked that same question that I see Zeller asking. The scene in the Bible is the last day of the 30-year life of Yeshua, the messianic hopeful many call Jesus to this day. He was brought before Pilate, and this dialogue takes place.
“Therefore Pilate said to Jesus, ‘So You are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’ Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, ‘I find no guilt in Him.’” (recorded in John chapter 18.37-38)
What is truth? Is that a philosophical question or one of even more significance? Pilate, the Roman governor over that part of ancient Israel (as we know it today) is conducting his own investigation after some of the Jewish leadership brought Jesus to him that Passover morning.
George Beasley-Murray wrote this about that setting: “Jesus is not speaking of truth in an abstract, or even general way, but specifically in relation to his ministry. He came among men with a mission from God to bear witness to the truth of God’s saving sovereignty, and to reveal it in word and deed.” Again, truth then is not a philosophical tenet, but a representative of the authority of God in this world, even in my world!
Pilate seems to shrug his shoulders and ponders like so many have before and afterwards…”What is truth?”
This question is answered earlier in that same short biography by John in the setting of the Last Supper. Jesus, whom his disciples would have called Yeshua, is seated with them. He has served them for years and even earlier this evening. He washed their feet. He taught them and even informed them that his time was coming to an end. He said, “ ‘In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I’m going to prepare a place for you. If I go, I will come again to receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way I’m going.’ Just then, Thomas, one of the 12 asked him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, and how do we know the way?’ Yeshua answered, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.’” (John 14.2-6)
There it is! The claim of Truth is one that Yeshua makes about himself. He is not saying, “what I say is true.” He is not saying, “I have a philosophy class I want you to sit and learn and grow in metaphysics with me.” He is saying to the effect that if you are serious about truth, and the Kingdom of God, then follow me. I’m the way. I’m the truth. There is no truth apart from Yeshua. He alone is the key to the kingdom of God and to the truth that settles a man’s soul and gives us clarity in a muddled and increasingly muddying world.
You want truth, Pilate? You want truth, Anthony? You want truth, Zeller? Look to Jesus. Learn his ways; learn of him; see what and how and when and why he did what he did. Get to know him through the writings in the Word of God (The Scriptures) and pray to the Father of Lights, the Lord of creation and parks and Sydney and even Hollywood. Prayer is a way to learn about God, and to focus your being on him. That’s the truth. That’s the life. That’s the way.
The Father? Our heavenly One is the One to know. See things from his point of view. Let him open the curtains in your life and you will see all things clearly.
As we Aussies say, ‘strewth!’
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