An immersive film from Willem Dafoe's wife. . To date, the biography of a very charismatic actor Willem Dafoe has almost a hundred and a half films. But not all of them turns out that they say, on hearing from the audience, often Dafoe plays in the author's paintings. But at least there, in addition to the fact that he clearly feels comfortable and cozy in them, he has the title roles and he can enjoy creating the image presented to him. So Dafoe may end up in the hands of the most highly regarded independent directors in critical circles, such as David Lynch (Wild at Heart (1990), Lars von Trier (Antichrist (2009), or Werner Herzog (My Son, My Son, What Have You Done (2009). And at the same time alternate these films with declared blockbusters, for example, with Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002), or Spider-Man (2006). But in any case, whatever direction in the cinema, where Willem Dafoe lit up, the viewer did not face - this impressive actor with a unique appearance is immediately remembered.
So in 2016, Willem Dafoe played one of the few characters in the film “Father” staged by his legal wife – Italian director, actress, screenwriter and producer Jada Colagrande. I must say that Jada Colagrande is a very non-standard creative person, which, in fact, all creative people are. At the age of twenty, she began to shoot various documentary films about art. Further, Colagrande worked on one art project, and in 2002 she released her first feature film - the drama "Open My Heart", which opened the annual screening at the representative Venice Film Festival. The film attracted critics, Colagrande even received a nomination for Best New Director of the Silver Ribbon award. But the public “Open My Heart” did not receive demand, but this did not stop Colagrande, although her subsequent works – “Black Widow” (2005) and “Woman” (2010) – may have become a little more famous, but if you take into account the average viewer’s assessment, then the attractiveness in them is extremely small.
Willem Dafoe and Jada Colagrande married in 2005 and since then Dafoe has been a regular actor in his wife’s work. And their third joint full-length art film was the drama “Father”. And, apparently, this work for Jada Colagrande became quite personal. In the center of the plot is a girl named Julia Fontana (performed by Colagrande herself), who recently experienced the untimely loss of her father. Feeling the devastation of this loss, she delves into her work. And this work consists in the fact that Julia prepares a theatrical production, very similar to an immersive spectacle. So it is not in vain that Colagrande’s creative path was described – thus one becomes even more convinced as the Father progresses, that the script for it was written according to the author’s own feelings and experience. Between her loneliness, Julia also meets her mother (played by Marina Abramovich, a longtime friend and creative collaborator of Kolagrande). At the same time, Julia receives news from her deceased father. Willem Dafoe in “Father” plays a co-author of the theatrical production.
Most likely, the drama “Father” will approach the viewing of that narrow circle of people who pay tribute to the very specific activities of immersive theaters. There are innumerable metaphors, hints and references that an ordinary person in his usual state can hardly understand. So "Father" is in no way suitable for a viewer who was brought up in mainstream culture. "Father" is a really poignant spectacle, like incoherent speech, because it's very difficult to connect individual scenes. They are like various miniature productions, constantly trying to express the state of the main character "Father" after the departure of the parent. And in fact, it is very difficult to pay attention to this, because after the opening episodes, a shadow of boredom falls on you. There is almost nothing going on in the Father. And the greatest drowsiness comes when Jada Colagrande makes editing inserts in her film of her theatrical production. It is possible that this she tried to reveal the inner torment of the heroine, but, again, not every viewer has the opportunity to dig so deeply. And still the question remains: does this film have a metaphorical depth corresponding to arthouse?
In general, summing up his perception of the Father, we can once again conclude that this work of Jada Colagrande is adapted for a certain audience, which does not have a large number of adherents. Most likely, Colagrande was trying to convey something of her own, something personal, something peculiar. I can’t recommend this film to anyone, these projects have fans. And yet I want to tell Jada Colagrande that the viewer expects that something will happen in the film, and the scenes will be interconnected and develop the plot, and not presented with stubborn straightforwardness, like a horizontal line in the notebook.
4 out of 10