The film is titled “Carnage.” The play was named “God of Carnage.”
It tells the story of how two sets of parents react after the son of one set attacks the son of the other pair. Educated and well-mannered parents at the start, they progressively become more primitive and dissolve into childishness.
The film is directed by Roman Polanski. The film script was written by Polanski and Reza and adheres closely to the play.
Reza had not approved movie versions of any of her other plays. But when Polanski, a personal friend, lobbied her to let him do “God of Carnage,” she relented.
And with the film done, she is happy that she did.
“I realized what the movie adds to the play. It’s the close-ups. You can be really near the face, really in the eyes, in the voice. You can see them so close, and you are deep inside he intimacy.”
Reza, 51, is the daughter of an Iranian father and a Hungarian mother, both Jewish. She was born in Paris and writes in French. She has been an actress and novelist, but she has won international acclaim as a playwright, first with “Art” in 1995 and then with “God of Carnage” in 2007.
“Art” has so far been performed in more than 30 languages. In the United States, it won the Tony Award for best play of the year a decade ago. And “God of Carnage” won that award in 2009.
The stage play of “God of Carnage” opened in New York with James Gondolfino, better known as the chief of the “Sopranos” on television, in one of the four starring roles.
In the film, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly play the roles of the parents.
The film opened December 16 in New York and Los Angeles and will now circulate around major cities in the country.
Those who saw the play may be surprised to find that the ending in the film is different, at Polanski’s insistence.
“The end of the play is much more somber,” Reza told the Los Angeles Times. “But Roman did not want this end.” He told her, “I want to find something more brutal and more optimistic, in a way—not more optimistic, but more open.”
Reza has also written a best-selling French journalistic memoir about the year she spent on the campaign trail with Nicolas Sarkozy as he ran successfully for president of France.
