An aspiring actor, Edward goes through audition after audition in vain. He is talented, but suffers from neurofibromatosis, a disease causing the appearance of tumors on the nervous tissues of the face. And clearly, the industry is unable to see beyond appearances. But now, thanks to an experimental treatment, Edward finds himself with a movie star face. Chosen to play the lead role in a play, his dream, Edward is replaced at the eleventh hour by a certain Oswald… who suffers from neurofibromatosis. A strange, funny and cruel fable about the tyranny of beauty, A Different Man benefits from the excellent performances of Sebastian Stan, prize winner in Berlin, and Adam Pearson.
This is the second feature film written and directed by Aaron Schimberg. For the record, we owe him the discovery Chained for Life. Adam Pearson, who actually suffers from neurofibromatosis, was already there, against the backdrop of the social marginalization suffered by people displaying an appearance that does not conform to the established norm.
At the time, the filmmaker told us that being born with a cleft lip and palate had very early on made him aware of the simplistic, often negative representations of physical difference in cinema in general, and Hollywood in particular.
“A cleft lip and palate is basically having a hole in the middle of your face. I found myself on an operating table from birth. I’ve had about 70 surgeries. This was my reality from the start. And what has also always been my reality is to see that in the cinema, when we include a character suffering from a physical anomaly, it is either someone endowed with incredible wisdom, or a victim powerless to take pity… But most often, by far, he is the villain of the story. It is never a just… banal figure, and even less heroic, unless the character is so pitiful that he becomes heroic in the eyes of the film,” he then explained to Duty.
These words apply equally to A Different Manin which the filmmaker continues his deconstruction of imposed figures in terms of appearance and beauty (a double bill with The Substance / The substanceby Coralie Fargeat, would be great).
Mises en abyme
After an aesthetic with accents of the 1950s, it’s time for an aesthetic evoking the 1970s, for a once again offbeat, slightly timeless side (like the subject). The mise en abyme games Chained for Life are also back in A Different Man. In the first, an actress is immersed in the increasingly surreal shooting of a film, while in the second, an actor sees his reality shift into absurdity during the rehearsal of a play (the content, which will remain silent, turns out to be very ingenious).
Throughout, Aaron Schimberg addresses, sometimes obliquely, sometimes satirically, a host of considerations. For example, the filmmaker spends the entire first act showing Sebastian Stan/Edward decked out in very elaborate makeup aimed at reproducing the effects of neurofibromatosis. Later, Edward wears a simple mask during rehearsals for the play, whose protagonist suffers from neurofibromatosis. And the playwright questions the relevance of such subterfuge: wouldn’t it be more ethical to use an actor who really looks like the character? Enter Oswald (Adam Pearson).
Here, Schimberg sets out a relevant dilemma, while defusing the criticisms that one might be tempted to address to him in view of the said first part. Why not hire an actor for this segment who, like Adam Pearson, has neurofibromatosis? Because, we understand after the fact, Schimberg is having fun with our a priori — including by suggesting that the difference in others is sometimes welcomed with a kindness that is as feigned as it is ostentatious (the corporate video set in the workplace in which Edward stars is a masterpiece of black humor).
Through the metanarrative brilliance of Adam Schimberg, the very concept of representation – theatrical, cinematographic – ultimately becomes the subject of self-criticism, even of fascinating introspection.