Direction: Terence Davies
Country: UK
English poet Siegfried Sassoon was a decorated if subversive Lieutenant during WWI; a fierce anti-war protester who refused to perform any military duty due to the government’s continued support for armed conflict. Acclaimed director Terence Davies (The House of Mirth, 2000; A Quiet Passion, 2016), who has an unerring instinct to compose period/literary dramas, helmed this strangely lyrical biopic of the war poet with a transparent narrative tempered by intermittent recitations of his lugubrious yet touching poetry.
Siegfried is captured in his artistic circle of friends and lovers with impressive work from Jack Lowden in the main role, well supported by Jeremy Irvine as the cruel and infidel entertainer Ivor Novello, and Calam Lynch as the narcissistic and mordant socialite Stephen Tennant. The volatile, sometimes gossipy, often turbulent love affairs between Siegfried and his lovers are pigmented with jealousy and tense arguments, giving the film the bitter taste of a soap opera. Still, Davies avoids unnecessary melodrama in this sober staging. The inner state of the protagonist, a homosexual in constant battle with his choices and the course of life, is where the movie gains points.
Bit by bit, the portrait of a complex character full of contradictions and distressed by Catholic guilt takes shape. It’s not a happy story, not even sympathetic, but rather a deeply fascinating one. Embracing the classic style for which he is known, the director demonstrates a masterful command of tone, period framework and visual style. Although a little stifling in its analytical rigor, Benediction conquers us by the way it’s done, but also devastates us through the poignancy of the life depicted.
