''Beauty'' () is a 2011 South African film co-written and directed by Oliver Hermanus. It premiered in the

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

section at the

2011 Cannes Film Festival The 64th Cannes Film Festival took place from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition. American filmmaker Terrence Malick won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for t ...

. The film was selected as the South African entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in H ...

, but it did not make the final shortlist.

Plot

François van Heerden (Deon Lotz), is a white man in his late forties who lives in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein ( ; ), also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State (province), Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongsi ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Married with two grown daughters, he runs his own timber business and leads a seemingly comfortable life. He is also openly

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

, but at the same time he is sexually attracted to other men and regularly has secret sexual encounters with other white closeted men. At his daughter's wedding reception, he encounters Christian Roodt (Charlie Keegan), the handsome young son of old family friends who live in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. Christian is studying law at university while also enjoying a budding side career appearing in television commercials. François becomes infatuated with Christian, learning everything he can about him. When François' other daughter Anika later starts dating Christian, François becomes jealous and contrives a way to punish her. During a visit to his doctor for an examination, it becomes clear that François is suffering from psychological problems that are affecting his health, no doubt partly related to his inability to come to terms with his sexuality. After telling his wife he needs to go to Cape Town on business for a few days, François goes to visit the Roodts so that he can be around Christian. When Christian is not there, he asks for Christian's phone number under the pretext of discussing a legal matter with him. Later, after getting drunk in a gay bar in the city, François calls Christian and asks him to come and collect him. Christian obliges and the two have a meal. François is thrilled at the chance to be alone with him, and later invites him back to his hotel room for a drink. Once there, Christian takes the opportunity to ask François if he would invest in his plan to start his own business. Suspecting that Christian may not actually be interested in him but only his money, François clumsily attempts to kiss him but is gently rebuffed. After a few moments, François erupts into a violent rage and assaults and rapes Christian. Days later, back at home, François asks Anika if she is still seeing Christian but she says she hasn't heard from him in a while. François quietly continues with his life as usual, seemingly unrepentant. One day, he goes for lunch, and spots Christian with a new, male, partner. They laugh and kiss in the distance, as François looks at them, clearly distressed and lonely.

Cast

* Deon Lotz as François van Heerden * Roeline Daneel as Anika van Heerden * Sue Diepeveen as Marika Roodt * Charlie Keegan as Christian Roodt * Albert Maritz as Willem Roodt * Michelle Scott as Elena van Heerden

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports that of professional critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of . The majority of critics praised Deon Lotz's performance, Peter Bradshaw from ''''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called it "A ferociously powerful, yet subtle and complex performance" and said it gave the film "a tragic dimension". David Parkinson from ''Empire Magazine'' also praised Lotz, and in his three out of five stars review summarized his verdict as "Despite that title, there's an ugly power to this study of obsession and anger."

Awards

''Beauty'' was awarded the Queer Palm Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Actor Deon Lotz received a special mention in the 2011 Zurich Film Festival for his performance in the film.

References

External links