Justine SebbagDecember 17, 2024
Anthony Hopkins plays with moving grace Nicholas Winton, this London banker who saved 669 Jewish children from the clutches of the Nazis. A little-known true story that reminds us that heroism is sometimes hidden in the most silent gestures. And what a masterstroke for James Hawes who makes his first feature film!
James Hawes immerses us in the Prague of 1938, a city on the edge of the abyss. No big speeches or spectaculars here: the director chooses to show the relentless mechanics of a rescue which plays out in the details – a stamp here, a signature there. It is in this apparent administrative banality that all the strength of the film lies. Suspense arises from a race against time where each snatched document represents a life saved.
At 86 years old, Sir Anthony Hopkins offers us one of his most beautiful compositions. In front of the camera, he embodies this hero who is not one in his eyes, with a restraint that says more than all the monologues. Johnny Flynn, who plays a young Winton, brings a feverish energy to the 1938 scenes, while Helena Bonham Carter lights up each of his appearances. But it is during the final sequence, inspired by a real television show from 1988, that the film reaches heights of emotion rarely equaled.
Without falling into the trap of comparison with Schindler’s List, A Life carves its own path. The horror of the Shoah is never shown, only suggested, and this is perhaps where the strength of the film lies: reminding us that in the face of the unspeakable, sometimes all it takes is an ordinary man to change. the course of hundreds of destinies. A deeply human film, served by a refined staging which leaves plenty of room for the essential: hope.
