The Power of the Dog (2021, Jane Campion)
13/11/2023
The Power of the Dog is a 2021 film written and directed by Jane Campion.
Film adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. It was presented in competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, where the director was awarded the Silver Lion - Special Award for Direction. Campion also repeated her success in Hollywood by winning the 2022 Oscar for directing.
In 1925, in Montona, brothers Phil and George Burbank, wealthy ranch owners, are engaged in transhumance.
Rose, George's wife, cannot play more than a few notes of Strauss's Radetzky March and is humiliated several times by Phil, who starts whistling the tune every time they are near each other.
Rose's son Peter rides alone one day and finds a dead cow, probably due to an anthrax infection: the boy puts on gloves and cuts off pieces of the cow's skin.
Peter, who did not go to Phil's funeral, opens a prayer book for funeral rites and reads Psalm 22:20:
"Deliver my life from the sword and my love from the power of the dog"
The project originated from producer Roger Frappier, who acquired the rights to the novel in 2012, but it did not go into production until Campion agreed to write and direct the adaptation in 2019. Paul Dano was supposed to play George Burbank, but was replaced by Plemons due to scheduling conflicts with filming him in The Batman. Elisabeth Moss had to give up the role of Rose as she was already busy on the set of The Handmaid's Tale.
Filming of the film, which took place entirely in New Zealand, began in January 2020 in Maniototo, in the Otago region, then moving to Dunedin. Work was interrupted due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic: Cumberbatch, Dunst and Plemons remained in the country for the entire duration of the lockdown, then resumed filming in June.
The film premiered on September 1, 2021 in competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. It will also be presented at the BFI London Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
