Beauty (2011 film)
| Beauty | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Oliver Hermanus |
| Produced by | Didier Costet |
| Starring |
Deon Lotz Charlie Keegan |
| Music by | Ben Ludik |
| Cinematography | Jamie Ramsay |
| Edited by | George Hanmer |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 minutes |
| Country | South Africa |
| Language | Afrikaans English |
Beauty (Afrikaans: Skoonheid) is a 2011 South African film directed by Oliver Hermanus. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the South African entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.
The film starts with a man named François (Deon Lotz), an Afrikaner man in his late forties, who lives an apparently happy life. He is also openly racist and mostly homophobic, but at the same time he has been sexually attracted to other men and has frequent sex encounters with other white and married men.
At his daughter's wedding party, he meets Christian (Charlie Keegan), a handsome young man, and he quickly becomes obsessed with Christian. François starts chasing Christian, learning everything he can about him.
Eventually, his attraction for the young guy turns into hatred that seems poised to explode into violence.
The film received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of professional critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.8 out of 10. The majority of critics praised Deon Lotz's performance, Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian 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."
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.
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