2023-09-08 11:08:27
Bill Nighy stars in “Live,” a remake of the Japanese film of the same name. (HBOMax)
There are so many crossover talents in Vivir (Living, Great Britain, 2022) that it is not surprising that the result is so exciting and special. This film starring Bill Nighy and directed by South African director Oliver Hermanus is a remake of the Japanese film Live (Ikiru, 1952) directed by Akira Kurosawa. This truly unforgettable classic was in turn an adaptation of another essential but literary title, the 1886 Russian novel The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy.
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It takes place in London in 1953, a few years following the end of the Second World War, still being rebuilt following the bombings of the war. The first character we meet is young Peter Wakeling, who begins his job in the public works concessions department at London County Hall. That day he will meet the head of the section, Mr. Williams, and his new colleagues Middleton, Rusbridger and Hart. Williams is an older man, widowed, very serious and formal. He takes every little detail very seriously. The bureaucracy of which he is a part is much larger, but even so he experiences his task as a fundamental piece. Mr. Williams is the protagonist and is played by Nighy.
A diagnosis changes everything: Mr. Williams seeks to leave a tangible and emotional legacy in London. (HBOMax)
Everything will change radically when Williams discovers that he has only a few months to live. She doesn’t know how to break the news to her son or her daughter-in-law, but she begins to change her behavior toward work and her colleagues. On the one hand, he begins a friendship with a young former colleague from work, Margaret Harris, whom he tries to guide in her new stage and on the other, he takes it personally to build a small playground in the middle of the ruins of a neighborhood. bombed. The park had been rejected by the authorities despite the insistent request of the neighbors. All this change is observed carefully by the young Peter Wakeling, the person at the other end of Williams’ career path.
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Vivir combines the talents of Tolstoi, Kurosawa and Ishiguro, showing how the simplest details and stories without so many twists and turns can reach frankly moving levels of depth and humanity. The film creates, scene following scene, a portrait of a man who faces the inexorable and tries to leave a small legacy. It explores the idea that there are two types of legacies, one of which there is a physical record, the park, and one that has to do with marking people’s lives, as is the case with young Wakeling and young Margaret.
Margaret Harris, the young former colleague who finds guidance and friendship in the changeable Williams. (HBOMax)
Billy Nighy, of course, is fantastic in his role. The legendary actor, famous for his histrionic roles in, for example, Love Actually, here puts together a delicate portrait of a bureaucrat who seeks to say goodbye to the world with some dignity and generosity. The sadness before the diagnosis, and the melancholy following, show his unparalleled acting talent. For this work he earned an Oscar nomination for best actor at the last Academy Awards. Deserved, because both his work and the fiction itself are unforgettable.
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The movie Vivir is available in the HBO Max catalog.
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