''Carnage'' is a 2011

black comedy film Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

directed by

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

, based on the Tony Award-winning 2006 play '' Le Dieu du carnage'' by French playwright

Yasmina Reza Yasmina Reza (; born 1 May 1959) is a French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter best known for her plays ''Art (play), 'Art and ''God of Carnage''. Many of her brief satiric plays have reflected on contemporary middle-class issues. ...

. The screenplay is by Reza and Polanski. The film is an

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint vent ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It stars

Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. Foster started her career as a child actor before establishing herself as leading actress in film. She has received List of awards and nominations re ...

Kate Winslet Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Primarily known for her roles as headstrong and complicated women in independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including an Ac ...

, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly. In this

comedy of errors ''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farce, farcical Shakespearean comedy, comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addit ...

, two sets of parents try to resolve a situation in a civilised manner as their idiosyncrasies rise to the surface. ''Carnage'' premiered at the 2011 Venice International Film Festival on 1 September 2011, where it competed for the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

. It was theatrically released on 18 November 2011. The film received positive reviews, with critics praising the performances of the cast and Polanski's direction. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards, Foster and Winslet received nominations for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. It was Polanski's last film to be shot in English until ''

The Palace ''The Palace'' is a British drama television series that aired on ITV (TV network), ITV in 2008. Produced by Company Pictures for the ITV network, it was created by Tom Grieves and follows a fictional British Royal Family in the aftermath of t ...

'' in 2023.

Plot

When two grade-school boys get into a fight in the park that results in one boy, Zachary Cowan, hitting the other, Ethan Longstreet, in the face with a stick, their parents meet in a

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

apartment to discuss the matter. Zachary's parents, Alan ( Christoph Waltz) and Nancy Cowan (

), visit the home of Michael ( John C. Reilly) and Penelope Longstreet (

), Ethan's parents. Their meeting is initially intended to be short, but due to various circumstances, the conversation continues to draw out. In fact, Alan and Nancy begin to leave the apartment on two occasions, but are drawn back in to further discussion. At first, the couples are friendly to each other, but their respective comments start to hurt feelings, making everyone argue with one another. Apart from fighting amongst themselves, the couples blame each other about who is responsible for the fight between their sons. Nancy calls the Longstreets "superficially fair-minded" and Penelope and Michael complain about Alan's arrogant and dull attitude. Everyone also gets irritated with Alan when he accepts endless business phone calls on his

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

, interrupting the discussion, and showing he has more interest in his business problems than the matter at hand. Michael also receives many phone calls from his ailing mother, to his frustration. Nancy accuses Michael of being a murderer because he, annoyed by the constant noise it made during the night, had earlier turned his daughter Courtney's pet hamster loose in the street. Penelope becomes emotional about the hamster and with everyone arguing with each other. Other issues include a risky drug Alan is working to defend and Michael's mother has been prescribed, and the question of idealism and responsibility that is part of Penelope's current work. Michael offers everyone a glass of fine Scotch. Penelope claims she doesn't "get drunk" and Nancy drinks way too many and finally stops Alan's phone calls by dropping his cellphone in Penelope's flower vase full of tulips and water. Penelope and Nancy both laugh uproariously while Michael and Alan try to blow-dry the BlackBerry. The conversation continues to decay into personal attacks and opinionated statements and, eventually, epithets are uttered. Penelope is ranting, calling Nancy's son a "snitch", and Nancy's true colors are revealed when she destroys the tulips and drunkenly and vulgarly states she is glad that her son beat up Penelope's and Michael's son. The couples realize the conversation is going nowhere. Alan's BlackBerry, lying on the coffee table, vibrates, and all four stare at it. The film cuts to the hamster, alive and well in the park, where Ethan and Zachary are reconciling on their own.

Cast

as Penelope Longstreet *

as Nancy Cowan * Christoph Waltz as Alan Cowan * John C. Reilly as Michael Longstreet * Elvis Polanski as Zachary Cowan * Eliot Berger as Ethan Longstreet *

Julie Adams Julie Adams (born Betty May Adams; October 17, 1926 – February 3, 2019) was an American actress, billed as Julia Adams in her early career, primarily known for her numerous television guest roles. She starred in a number of films in the 1 ...

as Alan’s secretary *

as a neighbor * Joseph Rezwin as Walter * Nathan Rippy as Dennis * Tanya Lopert as Mother

Production

Although set in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, the film was shot in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, because of Polanski's fugitive status. The opening and closing scenes, ostensibly filmed in Brooklyn Bridge Park, were shot in France against a green screen. Polanski's son Elvis, seen only in

long shot In photography, filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) is a shot that typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surro ...

s in the opening and closing scenes, portrays the Cowans' son. Actress

voices Alan Cowan's secretary on the phone and was a dialect coach for Waltz. The apartment, in which almost the whole film takes place, was designed in a sound studio on the outskirts of Paris. Production designer

Dean Tavoularis Dean Tavoularis (born May 18, 1932) is an American motion picture production designer whose work appeared in numerous box office hits such as ''The Godfather'' films, ''Apocalypse Now'', '' The Brink's Job'', '' One from the Heart'', and '' Bo ...

placed a priority on making the set look authentically American, having numerous products and appliances shipped from the US, and renting American ironmongery for the doors.

Release

The film premiered at the

68th Venice International Film Festival The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August and 10 September 2011, at Venice Lido in Italy. American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actre ...

. The film was released in the United States on 16 December 2011 by Sony Pictures Classics.

Reception

Critical response

''Carnage'' received generally positive reviews from critics. "Carnage Reviews, Ratings, Credits"
''

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

''.

CBS Interactive Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media, CBS Interactive, and ViacomCBS Streaming) is a division of Paramount Global that oversees the company's video streaming technology and direct-to-consumer services; including Pluto TV and Paramo ...

. Retrieved 16 December 2011. John Anderson of ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

'' compared the film to ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of middle-aged couple Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they rece ...

'' and said: "The astonishing Waltz steals the picture, possibly because he's the one with a rational perspective (despite his telephonic obsessiveness). He sees the whole exercise as pointless. Ultimately, so do we." Giuseppe Sedia of the '' Krakow Post'' remarked that the descent of four adults to a thuggish level has been featured as well in Polanski's short film '' Rozbijemy zabawę''. He added that "it is interesting to speculate on what Hitchcock might have made of Reza's oeuvre".

Box office

''Carnage'' grossed $2.5 million at the U.S. box office after twenty weeks in theaters, with another $27.5 million in foreign countries, for a worldwide gross of $30,035,601.

Accolades

Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual Awards ceremony, award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally ...

Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Jodie Foster (nominee)
Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Kate Winslet (nominee)

Satellite Awards The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. The award ceremonies take place ...

Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture - Kate Winslet (nominee)
Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture - Christoph Waltz (nominee)

European Film Awards The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mos ...

Best Actress - Kate Winslet (nominee)
Best Screenwriter - Roman Polanski and Yasmina Reza (nominee)

Goya Awards The Goya Awards () are Spain's main national annual film awards. They are presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. The first ceremony was held in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Ar ...

Best European Film - Roman Polanski (nominee)

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

Best Adaptation - Roman Polanski and Yasmina Reza (nominee) Cinema Writers of Spain
Best Adapted Screenplay - Roman Polanski, Yasmina Reza (nominee)

Boston Society of Film Critics The Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts. History The BSFC was formed in 1981 as a society of film critics in the New England area. It was founded to make “Boston’s unique critic ...

Best Ensemble Cast - Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly San Diego Film Critics Society Awards
Best Ensemble Performance - Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly (nominee)

Nominated - Golden Lion
Won - Little Golden Lion

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carnage 2011 films 2011 comedy-drama films French comedy-drama films German black comedy films German comedy-drama films Spanish independent films Polish black comedy films American comedy-drama films 2010s English-language films Films directed by Roman Polanski Spanish black comedy films French black comedy films Films about dysfunctional families Films about social class French films based on plays Films set in apartment buildings Films set in Brooklyn Films set in New York City Films shot in Paris Constantin Film films Sony Pictures Classics films French independent films German independent films Polish independent films Films scored by Alexandre Desplat Films with screenplays by Roman Polanski English-language French films English-language German films English-language Spanish films English-language Polish films 2010s French films 2010s German films English-language comedy-drama films