The Thing with Feathers
Dylan Southern is making the jump into the world of fictional storytelling withThe Thing with feathering . Better lie with for his work in the athletic field of docudrama , music videos and recorded live performances , ranging from the blur - focusedNo Distance Left to Runto Aziz Ansari’sBuried Alivestand - up special and Showtime’sMeet Me in the Bathroom . Even amid these labor , however , Southern never lose stack ofhisThing with Feathersdreamas he spent the better part of a decade developing the film .
base on Max Porter ’s similarly titledGrief Is the Thing with Feathers , the movie centerfield on Dad , a pictorial novelist with two son whose domain is sway by the sudden last of his married woman and their mother . In the midst of his grief , Dad is dead tormented by the appearance of Crow , an eight - foot - tall talk reflexion of the book he ’s working on who may or may not be a force for good . Benedict Cumberbatch leads the film ’s castas Dad , alongside Richard and Henry Boxall as his son , Eric Lampaert as the physical performing artist of Crow and David Thewlis as his voice .
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The matter with Feathers , direct by Dylan Southern , watch a father and his two young son as they navigate the emotional landscape of grief and healing after the sudden decease of their married woman and female parent .
Southern Had 1 Big Goal When Figuring Out How To Adapt Porter’s Book For The Screen
“You feel seen when you’ve read the book.”
With Southern having spent the better part of a decade trying to crack the codification on how to read the source fabric to the CRT screen , it would be understandable if the author / director made some alteration along the way . Regardless of whatever changes were made , however , Southern ’s biggest destination was " retaining the desoxyribonucleic acid of the book " , even as he found himself verify departures from the seed material to better equip the film social structure :
Dylan Southern : Yeah , I suppose the thing that was most important to me was retain the desoxyribonucleic acid of the book and all of the things that feel incredibly special about the book to me . And I suppose for me , the book is visceral , it ’s experiential , you experience like you ’re go bad through this period with the crime syndicate . There ’s no secret plan in the book , it ’s kind of episodic , but not — that sounds bad , but these are import from this folk ’s animation over a immense duad of time . The large modification was that to make this work as a film , I would have to shorten that point . By the time you get to the third section of the book , it ’s parachute 30 year in the hereafter , or it ’s going back in the past .
It becomes very , very split in a way that a piece of lit can , but if you do that in the film , you ’re into kind of far too data-based soil . So , it was about maintaining the DNA of the al-Qur’an and maintaining the kindness and the cathartic nature of the leger , especially if you interpret it , and you ’ve been through a mourning , if you ’ve been through a flow of brokenheartedness . You experience seen when you ’ve read the book . And I require to make a film that had those qualities . But , by its very nature , a cinema has to be contained , it has to agree . I did n’t need to make something that fit perfectly into a film templet , but I could n’t make something that was so godforsaken that it just threw people out .
Another major element of the novel that bear witness to be an interesting challenge for Southern was capturing the writing style fluidity of it , which the movie does as it fluctuates between being a horror movie to a drama and absurd drollery . For the author / director , he really found this to fit the overall point of the fib in that it ’s Dad going through the various point of grief , for which the initial stages " do experience like horror " :
Dylan Southern : I wanted to make a film that , as much as it could , feel like the experience of grief . The initial microscope stage of grief do feel like horror . But I never said to myself , " I ’m making a revulsion film here . " There are moments in this experience that we go through that flavour like horror , and it ’s also a really useful musical genre to unsettle people and to mess up with their skittish organisation , which then make some of the more tender or naked as a jaybird — the lawful horror in this film is in the position the family obtain themselves in , domestically .
locomote on without a enjoy one , having your whole variety of sept relationship completely blown apart . That ’s the matter that ’s horror to me . But , when you ’re making a film , you require thing that are intimate to an hearing , that you could then use in a direction that is unexpected . This was never a repugnance movie , and it was never just a play , and it was in the same mode that Max ’s ledger is kind of uncategorizable . This pic was a big swing music in terms of making a movie that does n’t conform to multitude ’s expectations , and honestly , that ’s what excited me about it . It can be something that is its own thing , it does n’t have to be one affair or the other .
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And I think largely that ’s worked with hearing , because they ’re kind of blindsided a fiddling bit by having these outlook , and then finding themselves fabulously impress by the closing of it . And I think for me , that ’s what ’s exciting about filmmaking , is that you do n’t have to go into a templet . More multitude should be trying to do things that do n’t adjust and are unusual . That was what was exciting to me about the prospect of take this particular book and adapting it for the screen door .
Crow Proved To Be One Of The Most Important Elements For Southern To Nail
“…he’s a creation that came about through so many different artists and craftspeople.”
One of the biggest component that help anchor the various genre shifts is that of Crow , who begins the film as a more terrifying entity before transition into something of a tough - beloved therapist . For Southern , Crow remark that the grapheme ’s personality " was never meant to be elusive " , and as such , by flex him into an eight - foot - marvelous talk crow , it proved to be one of the most exciting elements for the filmmaker to put together , as he pulled in a unique squad of artists to create him :
Dylan Southern : The first affair I ’ll say is Crow is not subtle , and was never meant to be subtle . This is an eight - base gasconade that ’s survive in a very small plane with a family . The matter I have intercourse about Crow is he represents our bad instincts about ourselves . Anytime Crow is state something to Dad , that ’s what Dad is recall about himself in that minute . And just being able-bodied to put that into a human body , put it into this formidable and imposing character of Crow was really exciting . And I love Crow , because he ’s a creation that amount about through so many different creative person and craftspeople .
When I first register the record book , everyone would say , " How are you go to do Crow ? How are you last to do crow ? Is it going to be CGI ? Is it go to be this ? Is it pass to be that ? " And I ’m an ' 80s kidskin , so the only option for me was in - camera practical effects . It had to be a dude in a suit , but I also require him to have the right look . There ’s a sculptor that I perfectly adore call Nicola Hicks , who ’s really observe in the fine art world . She makes these incredible carving that are sort of half - adult male , half - savage , almost mythic - looking thing . And I was like , " She has to design Crow , but she ’s in the o.k. art world . " I spent two year trying to get in a room with Nicola Hicks , and eventually I did , and she was the most adorable , willing collaborator . She said yes , straight away .
Later on , I ordered one of her catalogs from one of her art display from eBay , and when I opened it , Max Porter had write an essay inside it , so there was already a connexion there . She does these huge sculpture that ’s kind of the right aesthetic , because Crow is n’t a crow . In the book , Dad ’s an academic , and he ’s writing a thesis on the poet Ted Hughes , who did this awesome account book of poetry after the decease of his wife called Crow , and there ’s this bounteous literary illusion . And [ Grief is the Thing with feather ] is a book that got flex into a play with Cillian Murphy , and then my film is the third iteration of it .
I wanted each thing — the Holy Scripture does what a book can do , the play did what a play can do . And I wanted my picture to be ocular , so I change Dad to a graphic novelist who ’s still doing a task on Ted Hughes ' Crow , but it ’s all these kinds of abstract drawings , which is where the next partner fare in , who was this brilliant graphic novelist called Lucy Sullivan , and I ’d see a book she did holler Barking , which is this incredibly kind of personal , semi - autobiographic piece of oeuvre that she ’d done , and I ’d lie with the way of it . So I was like , " She ’s get to do Dad ’s lottery . " So , that was the starting point for Crow with these scratchy , abstract drawing that Lucy did .
So , this film was a dreaming for me , because there ’s a handmade timbre to it . Everyone I impart on was an artist that I really screw , and I was like , " Okay , so you could bring your thing to the party , we ’re all creating this . And then the next part of Crow was getting Conor [ O’Sullivan ] and the guys at Creatures Inc. to render Nicola ’s excogitation into this wearable suit . And then , there was someone who had to wear it , who ’s this amazing strong-arm actor , Eric Lampaert , who read at Lecoq in Paris and brought this immense , intimidating sort of physicality to Crow .
We speak to the cast and crews of over 25 raw moving picture at the Sundance Film Festival . Here ’s what we get wind about 2025 ’s first batch of unexampled films .
After frame together the various physical elements of the eccentric , the terminal piece to the Crow puzzle was that ofcastingThe Sandmanalum David Thewlisto voice him . For Southern , he recalled that the Golden Globe nominee was " the only voice in my head " when he was writing the script for the moving picture , specifically point to a picture from the acclaimed 1993 disgraceful comedyNakedas being a sort of inspiration for Crow ’s vox :
Dylan Southern : So , we ’ve set about these four or five factor already , and then the final part , when I was writing the script , the only voice in my heading was David Thewlis , and specially his operation in Mike Leigh ’s film Naked . Thewlis does this whole actor’s line where someone asks him why he ’s hail to London . " Was it because he was blase ? " And he starts move , " Was I drill ? No , I was n’t f—-ng bored . " When I take Max ’s book , when I spell the script , when I was working on the film , it was always David Thewlis ' voice . It was always this kind of rhythmic , tempestuous , spiky spokesperson .
And when he came on control board , I was over the moon , because we ’d created this whole character through a graphic novelist , a carver , an astonishing forcible carrying out , the skills of a whole squad of model makers , and then David Thewlis ' representative on top . For the nerd in me , that ’s filmmaking . It ’s like , we ’ve made this new thing out of the incredible talents of all of these different people , and to be there , sort of watching it happen was just sort of a dreaming come true . That is the element of it that I loved the most .
For all the effort put into the character , though , Crow is used stylistically for many scenes in the flick , often being kept just somewhat out of skeleton even while talking to Cumberbatch ’s persona . Southern explicate that the extent of Crow ’s part in the film comes from the fact thathe interpret multiple aspects of Dad ’s grief , including the " little ear " of intrusive thoughts he ca n’t forfend , and even taper to a few unique breathing in for the character :
Dylan Southern : Yeah , well , I always saw the motion-picture show as a journeying into Dad ’s head . So , you ’re stick kind of objectively in the other stage of the film observe Dad , and then we get these little spikes , anytime those horror twinges come in , we ’re going into a form of subjective or representational opinion of what ’s happening for Dad in his head . These intrusive thoughts , these thing that you ca n’t keep off , and Crow comes into it really more and more . But , like anything , less is more . You watch Jaws , and there ’s a ground you see less of the shark than perhaps Spielberg originally mean it . There is something implausibly dependable about defend something off that makes it potent , in a way .
It construct those scenes where we do kind of cutpurse into absurdism , like the dancing tantrum or the demon fight , all the more herculean , because Crow , you want him to ferment up at the right moment and do the right thing , even if the right affair is improper . And that ’s the neat thing about Crow , is he ’s sort of horrible , but compelling , and you desire to expend time with him . And finally , without give too much away , he ’s a force for adept , but he ’s sort of dangerous and weird . Those form of characters are always interesting to me . I ’ve always said he ’s a combining of a demented Mary Poppins , Tyler Durden — you ever see the film Harvey with James Stewart ? He ’s Harvey , but he ’s also Don Logan from Sexy Beast . He ’s also the hint vocaliser of The Fall , Mark E. Smith , was someone I kept thinking of . He ’s this combination of compelling , but serious characters , but he ’s there for good .
The Movie’s Wide Release Plans Are Starting To Come Together
“…we’re just getting such positive feedback from audiences and there’s a lot of conversations happening…”
Having now made itsworld premiere at Sundanceand also being shown at Berlinale , sake is steady rising in a wide handout forThe matter with Feathers . While there was nothing concrete when we talk , Southern did assure that the right pieces are strike into place for it to do so , saying they ’re sustain " such positive feedback " from those seeing the picture show at both festival and convey his fervour for a European audience to see it :
Dylan Southern : Yeah , we ’re doing Berlin next week , so we play Berlinale on Tuesday the 18th . I ’m try confident things from all the producers , but I think it ’s just been a weird Sundance this year in that I remember the first sentence I went to Sundance was with one of my documentaries , and it was in 2012 , back in the days where the film plays , and then suddenly your whisk off aside to the menage that you ’re staying at with a bunch of agents and sales event people , and the phones are going and hooey . And those mean solar day seem to have go a fiddling bit . But we ’re just getting such positivistic feedback from audiences and there ’s a lot of conversation hap , so we ’ll be hitting a encompassing interview this year . But I just need to get through Berlin next . It ’s gon na be really interesting to show it to a European audience and to see it in that circumstance , so I ’m really excited about it .
About The Thing With Feathers
fight to process the sudden and unexpected destruction of his married woman , a vernal male parent mislay his clutch on realness as a seemingly malign presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recess of the apartment he shares with his two young Word .
Two - sentence Sundance Film Festival alum Dylan Southern ’s ( keep out Up and flirt the hitting , 2012 ; foregather Me in the Bathroom , 2022 ) adjustment of the acclaimed Max Porter novelette Grief Is the Thing with Feathers artfully emphasizes the transformative and atrocious momentousness of one family ’s mourning . The moving picture ’s inspired carrying out of the strong-arm demonstration of their grief on projection screen create an dainty visual interpreting of the forbidding reality dominate the family ’s broken household and shattered lives .
Benedict Cumberbatch submerges himself in his performance of a shell - shocked father while the film juxtapose his character reference ’s altered reality with that of his two vivacious male child . The sons , played with sensitivity by Richard and Henry Boxall , grapple with both the outrageousness of their loss as well as their unmoored Father of the Church ’s attempts to carry on parenting them alone .
Check out our previousThing with Feathersinterview with Benedict Cumberbatch and Dylan Southernat 2025 ’s Sundance Film Festival !
The matter with Feathersmade its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25 and has not yet been acquire for a wide of the mark release .
Source : ScreenRant Plus
