APT PUPIL
US, 1998, 112 minutes, Colour.
Brad Renfro, Ian Mc Kellen, Bruce Davison, David Schwimmer, Joshua Jackson, Ann Dowd.
Directed by Bryan Singer.
Apt Pupil is a sinister film. It focuses on a sixteen-year-old boy, seemingly a very ordinary All- American type, from a wonderful family, good at sport, good at his studies, possibly first in his class. As he listens to lessons on the Holocaust, he becomes morbidly absorbed. When he discovers a man whom he thinks is a Nazi war criminal hiding in his town, he researches him, confronts him, gets him to tell the stories of the Holocaust and what it felt like. As he becomes more involved, he neglects his studies. However, the Nazi officer turns the tables by pretending that he has a bank deposit box in which he has left the story of what has happened to be found on his death.
The two become interdependent, the officer discovering his zest for his Nazi past, the boy becoming more and more powerful and absorbed. A crisis comes when the officer kills a beggar and has a heart attack. There are complications because the officer has posed as the boy’s grandfather in order to meet the counsellor at school. With the investigation by the FBI into the officer because it has been revealed by a fellow patient in the hospital, the young boy is interrogated but is able to get out of the situation. Finally, he uses his power to control the counsellor who wants to expose him – by suggesting that he would accuse him of molestation.
The film was based on a Stephen King short story. It is very well written, very well acted by Ian Mc Kellen as the Nazi and Brad Renfro (The Client, Bully) completely believable as the young boy. The supporting cast includes Joshua Jackson as his best friend, Bruce Davison and Ann Dowd as his parents and David Schwimmer is the counsellor.
Bryan Singer had made a big impact with the Oscar-winning The Usual Suspects. He then went on to direct two of the X- Men films and Superman Returns. Ian Mc Kellen worked with him in the two X-Men? films.
1.The work of Stephen King? This story as different from his horror stories? A psychological story, social history?
2.America in the 1980s, the Californian town, affluent homes, school? The gymnasium? Hospitals? Situations familiar to audiences? A context for the sinister happenings?
3.The visual style of the film, the straightforward narrative, the insertion of dreams and fantasies, superimpositions, different angles and crane shots for disorientation of the audience? The musical score?
4.The title, the relationship between Dussander and Todd? The end and Todd exercising power over Edward French? Todd as the apt pupil?
5.The emotional response of the audience to Nazism, to the Holocaust, to meeting Dussander, to Todd and his exploration of the themes?
6.Todd as the centre of the film, his age, experience, a good family, ordinary life, his support of the family, his being tops at his studies, at sport? Joey and his friendship, talking? The later distance between them? The classes on the Holocaust, the information, his response, gathering data?
7.Todd and his being on the bus, seeing Dussander, doing the research, the fascination? The reasons, his motivation? Inner curiosity, malice?
8.Ian Mc Kellen as Dussander, his age, the story of the past, Berlin, and the United States? His papers, identity? The Jewish search for him? His life, alone? Todd’s initial visit, his hostile reaction, Todd’s command over him, talking, his explaining the stories? The collage of the stories, his relishing them? Todd as a threat? The uniform and Todd forcing him to wear it, marching, his later dressing up, seeing the beggar? His going to Todd’s house, meeting the parents and grandparents, the genial meal?
9.Todd and the effect of listening to the stories, deceiving his parents, the meal and his being quiet, sports, the shower – and his imagination of the concentration camp showers? The people in his dreams? Alienation from Joey? His becoming more avid, yet his marks and his failure at school, the interview with Edward French?
10.His going to Dussander, the power, Dussander and the threats, the story of the deposit box and his narrating the story of what had happened, control? His decision to pose as Todd’s grandfather, the genial interview with Edward French?
11.Todd and his despair about study, Dussander forcing him to study, constant, the good results, his graduation, the encounter with Edward French and his puzzle?
12.The beggar, seeing Dussander in the uniform, accosting him, wanting something to eat, their discussions in the house, Dussander stabbing him, pushing him down the stairs? His heart attack, ringing Todd? Todd and the confrontation with the beggar, the shovel and killing him? Dussander asking what it felt like? The ambulance, Todd’s father and his looking through the house?
13.The hospital sequences, Todd and his visits, the patient calling him a good boy? The patient, the recognition of Dussander? The memory and the agony? Dussander waking and finding the FBI, the Jewish researcher? The discussions, his denials? The last time for seeing Todd?
14.Dussander and the FBI coming for him, the protests outside the hospital? His suicide?
15.Todd, the support of his father after the interrogation? His handling the interrogations of the FBI well? Seeming innocence? Edward French’s visit, threatening to expose him, Todd as the apt pupil exercising his power and the threat of denouncing him for molestation?
16.A sinister film, amoral and malevolent people?
