Les carnets de Siegfried

My Review- Benediction

My Score 7/10

I always find something to enjoy in a Terence Davies film but often come away thinking that his screenplays and Direction tell us more about Terence Davies than they do about the subject of his story .

The subject in this movie is Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE who was born on September 8th 1886 . He was a famous English war poet, writer, and soldier who was decorated for bravery on the Western Front and became one of the leading poets of the First World War.

I was surprised to read that Terence Davies the writer and Director of Benediction has only made feature 24 films . Three of those are biographical and known as the Terence Davies Trilogy Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992) and the collage film Of Time and the City (2008) a nostalgic look at his birthplace city Liverpool U. K. In 2000 Terence Davies Directed and wrote the screenplay for his movie adaptation of The House of Mirth the 1905 novel by American author Edith Wharton.

After seeing Benediction Terence David's most recent movie I looked back on my previous review of his last feature film "A Quiet Passion " (2016) about the life of Emily Dickinson the famous American poet . I was interested to see that I felt similarly about that movie as do about "Benediction." a quote from my review- of A Quiet Passion ."

A bleak film written and directed by Terence Davies I thought though at times it's very beautiful that it would have been more balanced if he had shown less suffering and more of the joyful influences that inspired her poetry . I doubt her life was all despair and angst, perhaps it says more about Terence Davies than Emily Dickinson.

After seeing Benediction I read that Terence Davies has said I don't like being gay. It has ruined my life. I am celibate, although I think I would have been celibate even if I was straight because I'm not good-looking; why would anyone be interested in me? And nobody has been. Work was my substitute.

I think I understand all his films a little better after reading that as they all have a poetic undertone of sadness and regret while still at the same time especially in Benediction display the gift of panache and sophistication that many older Gay men ,especially in the film and television industry possess .

Benediction traces the life of the famous English poet Siegfried Sassoon CBE who was a brave and decorated First World War hero who won the Military Cross then left the Army and in 1917 .

Sassoon wrote his "Soldiers Declaration."in which he described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the pretensions of those responsible in his view that promoted a jingoistic-fuelled war.

This of course outraged the British Parliament and the Army Chiefs and resulted in Siegfried Sassoon being sent to a War Hospital in Edinburgh where he was treated for shell shock.

Jack Lowdon a Scottish actor who was so good in Dunkirk as an RAF fighter pilot is very impressive as the young and charming Siegfried Sassoon .

Siegfried has a number of affairs with male lovers including the famous and handsome actor composer Ivor Novello and later a very interesting affair with German Prince Philipp of Hesse which oddly is not mentioned in this story?

I wondered why after reading more about Siegfried's affairs that stated the two men exchanged love letters after meeting in Rome in 1922. The affair ended apparently due to Prince Phillipp of Hesse's promiscuity but in Sassoon's diary he wrote "I am the only one of P's regular succession of affairs " A biographical movie of course can't tell the whole story and we do get a glimpse of the elegant and sophisticated literary and art circles that Siegfried Sassoon and his friends frequented . However I found out much more about Siegfried Sassoon after seeing the movie Benediction than before.

The apparent sadness of Siegfried Sassoon's later life is portrayed by Peter Capaldi as the aged and bitter Siegfried who after marrying Hester Gatty in 1933 ( in reality 2O years his junior) rages at his son and friends this to me seemed at odds with his younger self. Perhaps I'm reading more into it but I wondered if Terence Davies was transferring some of his own regret about his own sexuality into the character by depicting a sad closeted existence?.

The elder Hester is played by the wonderful Gemma Jones and she also is a reflection of a sad marriage .

These facts about Siegfried Sassoon's last years depicted in Terence Davies film are at odds with the truth as Siegfried and Hester separated in 1945 after 12 years of marriage when Siegfried was unable to find a compromise between the "companionship " and solitude he craved.

Their son George Sassoon( 1936 -2006) became a scientist and linguist ,and author and was adored by Siegfried,who wrote several poems addressed to his son.

This information just made me think while this movie is well crafted and interesting that it's missing the true character of its subject Siegfried Sassoon.

It's an anti-war biopic of the English poet Siegfried Sassoon that covers Sassoon's life from 1914 to the 1960s.

Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden/Peter Capaldi) was a Second Lieutenant during World War I. His younger brother, Hamo (Thom Ashley), is killed during the war. Siegfried is further horrified by the tremendous human toll in death and lifelong disability caused by military leadership in which he no longer believes. Already a well-known poet, he refuses further participation in the war and is sent to the Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh technically for shell shock. There Siegfried meets and befriends Wilfred Owen (Matthew Tennyson), a much younger man. Siegfried also explicitly recognizes his own homosexuality.

The film then follows his anti-war sensibilities through snippets of his poetry and his chaotic love life, mainly focused on Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine) and Stephen Tennant (Calam Lynch/Anton Lesser). At a certain point, he tries to escape the chaos by marrying Hester Gatty (Kate Phillips/Gemma Jones). Together they have a son. George (Richard Goulding), but clearly, the marriage does not heal Sassoon's memories.

The film uses footage from the trenches in World War I and occasionally flips in time between the young Sassoon and the elderly Sassoon. Some of the editing decisions made little sense to me, particularly the early scene forecasting his conversion to Catholicism. Some edits made the film more complex than necessary. Nevertheless, the movie successfully portrays Sassoon as disabled because of World War I, from which he never psychologically recovered. This is clear from the multiple references to Wilfred Owens' poem, "Disabled."

Brownie points to Netflix for sponsoring this movie, which must have only limited appeal even to older gay viewers. Jack Lowden stars as World War One poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden), whose emotional and sexual life director Terence Davies explores in this gloomy biopic. After publishing a letter condemning the military chiefs for the appalling death toll the conflict has brought, Sassoon is lucky not to be shot as a traitor; they send him to a mental institution where he meets and falls in love with fellow poet Wilfred Owen who's suffering from shell-shock (as PTSD was called in those dark days). Owen is sent back to die in Picardy in the last week of the war. The screenplay skates past Sassoon's brief return to active service.

After the war Siegfried has a brief affair with Ivor Novello (Jeremy Irvine), shown here as the uber-bitch in London's far-from-discreet gay set. Siegfried has a longer but equally unhappy affair with upper-crust socialite Stephen Tennant (Calam Lynch), the model for Sebastian Flyte in Evelyn Waugh's BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. Unhappy with homosexual life and converting to Catholicism, Sassoon marries. Flash-forward to his later life shows Sassoon (now played by Peter Capaldi) at odds with his wife and their son.

Throughout the movie Davies inserts horrific glimpses of battle casualties which never cease to haunt Sassoon. His poems are voice-overed from time to time, although two poems of Owen's make it clear that Sassoon was somewhat Second Division in comparison.

This is a beautifully shot movie, and all the cast perfectly evoke the look and feel of the 1920s and 30s, but the scriptwriter's prevailing tone is depressing. Male lovers and a wife all fail to bring happiness to Siegfried Sassoon. A life unfulfilled; a glum movie.

Ignore the naysayers. This is a beautiful, deeply sad, elegant, and poetic film from one of the greatest filmmakers working today, Terence Davies. Many here are dismissing this film as "catty", "stereotypical", etc. It's not in the least. It's a film based on the life of Siegfried Sassoon, a real UK poet who served in WW1 with Wilfred Owen, the brilliant soldier who wrote the poetry that was the basis for Benjamin Britten's magnificent War Requiem and who was a friend/lover of Sassoon. Sasson was a poet himself, an artist, and like all artists, felt alienated throughout his life from the world he lived in. We see that art world from behind the curtain, and anyone who has ever worked, or been privvy to, the behind the scenes of the artistic world will attest this is how it is. This is the huge source of Sassoon's "alienation", not just that he's a homosexual, which many reviewers are insisting. There's a wonderful line that sums him up perfectly, and that is "most people live in the moment. You want to live in eternity". That's a beautiful, poetic summation not only of Sassoon's life, but of art in general. Davies's films often draw on art for their inspiration, and this one is no exception.

All of the performances are 1st rate, the cinematography is exquisite, the production design is breath taking, and the dialogue is some of the best I've heard in a film in a very, very long time. Thanks to Mr. Terence Davies for making such an extraordinary movie.

Davies is a masterful filmmaker. He has stated that he is not a "Gay" filmmaker in the way that, possibly, Jarman was. I think this is generally true. Davies seems more concerned with individual struggle and self-expression than homosexual rights. His period films recall a time when individuals created and asserted their identity in opposition to social conformity. While he emphasizes the personal and the private sphere of experience, he also recognizes how these can transform society. A Quiet Passion, Sunset Song, and Benediction are about people revolting in very unique ways. The performances and control of other elements are subtle, complex, and always interesting.