There is never anything typical or conventional about a film by the acclaimed British auteur Terence Davies. It is therefore not a huge surprise that Benediction, his film about First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, is less a standard biopic and more an impression of a complex character. It is a film that is more about memory and ideas, rather than facts and details. Indeed, Benediction is not interested in providing any background information, leaving it up to the viewer to read up on Sassoon beforehand or afterwards if they feel the need. Instead, through what has become Davies’s recognisable mosaic style of presenting moments rather than conventional scenes, a complex portrait of Sassoon gently unfolds.
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CINEMA AUTOPSY 