Florian Zeller

[laughs] Okay.

It's directed by Florian Zeller, who made The Father-

Oh

... with Anthony Hopkins.

God.

Jackman was nominated for a Golden Globe for some reason.

The Hopkins role does not exist in Florian Zeller's original screenplay.

It was written specifically for Sir Anthony Hopkins after he's excelled and won his Oscar for The Father, and he's only on screen for approximately five minutes, and he was 84 years old when this was filmed.

It was, yeah, I had, it was closing.

A nice chat with Florian Zeller, who, as you say, Wendy, not on a Netflix film, but has Bunker that is around at the moment in the festival.

And he was there until closing time.

And, you know, we were sat there on the sunshine until 1pm when it was the end of the event and we had moved on.

Moving on.

Florian Zeller's Bunker, [laughs] which I saw.

Uh-oh.

Which Javier Bard-

Javier Bardem, Nathaniel.

We both saw Javier Bardem movies we should recommend.

But, uh, Florian Zeller, I have a soft spot for this man's film.

The Father, The Son, and Bunker.

In some other news, Anna Jane Casey has joined the cast of One Day, which is transferring to the Garrick with Jamie Muscato and Sharon Rose.

The Truth is returning to the West End, that's the Florian Zeller play, for a second run, this time at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from the 29th of July for, or ahead of a UK tour.

In Pieces will have its fully staged world premiere at the Other Palace next year.

And Rowan Atkinson, the legend that is, is performing a new show at the Gillian Lynne Theatre for just 30 performances from the 8th of February, marking 40 years since he last did a sketch comedy show in the West End.

People reported Penelope or Penelope Cruz at the October 10 premiere, the Banker and the Scarlett Johnson or Johansson's, I should say, at the festival presentation of Ray Gun.

The BFI's official listing identifies the Banker as a psychological thriller written by, directed by Florian Zeller.

Its cast includes Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Stephen Graham, and Paul Dano, and Patrick Schwarzenegger.

Oh, Patrick Schwarzenegger.

Okay.

Uh, so my personal bottom, uh, movie that I saw at TIFF, honestly for me was, uh, Florian Zeller's follow-up to a disastrous sophomore film, The Son, and that was Bunker, or the film that I'm talking about now.

Uh, I had extremely low expectations, uh, with this film.

I mean, because of the fact that The Son wasn't really good.

And Florian Zeller, uh, coming from, like, his first movie, The Father, uh, I was just, like, really excited to kinda, like, see what he would've done next, um, in his, in his, uh, career.

And I think Bunker could've been that type of film to kinda, like, return to that sensibility of, uh, what I felt with The Father.

But Bunker is pretty much just a generic, uh, psychological thriller about a couple who is, uh, going through a lot of stuff in their lives, and the husband has to build a bunker for a tech, uh, billionaire.

Yeah.

Like I remember the first play I went to watch was called The Father by Florian Zeller.

And I just thought, oh wow, like theater is...

It's not this, it's not Shakespearean.

Yeah, it's cleaner.

It's Florian Zeller's new movie.

He's the guy who did The Father, the Anthony Hopkins movie.

It's Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and Stephen Graham, and Patrick Schwarzenegger.

Perhaps the least subtle metaphor about the need for solidarity.

Yeah, because the fact that he... sorry go

ahead i just love that like you know it's like the ultra best was like oh like you know i'm gonna learn to build windows instead of walls because i like humanity it is such a bad cluttered metaphor it's like it's so clumsy and like florian zeller is a playwright and this feels it's like this feels like a play in some ways because it's pretty much mostly it's set in this architect's mansion it's never really set in like a You don't see this doomsday bunker he's building really at all.

Like, it's just like a very, like, a pretty, like, it's a low, it's a pretty low budget, it seems.

And the results showed that the dramatization group gained seventy-eight percent more knowledge than the paper group, control group, which told us that this wasn't just emotionally effective, it was scientifically measurable.

On the other hand, as a director, I adapted Florian Zeller's play, The Father, but not as a direct translation.

I relocated, reframed a story through a maternal identity and staged it in San Francisco as La Madre.

I also staged it in Turkey, Annem, The Mother, my mom.