“The Green Knight” in the cinema: a portrait of Dev Patel – culture

When Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” was the surprise success of the year in 2009, won eight Oscars and four Golden Globes, leading actor Dev Patel, almost 19 years old, was catapulted to Hollywood overnight. The long, thin boy with Indian roots and protruding ears suddenly found himself standing on the red carpet, he received prizes and was considered a hope for the next generation. He was also in his first real relationship – with his “Slumdog” film partner, the unreally beautiful Freida Pinto. Dev Patel did not come from the slums, like his film character, but from a decent part of the city on the north-west edge of London. But like his “Slumdog” the Indian game show à la “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” wins, he too suddenly rose to unimagined heights. What a dream. But also: what a shock.

The 31-year-old who virtually sits across from you on this Saturday morning in July, twelve years later, is no longer thin. Even if the muscles that he trained for his current role in “The Green Knight” have shrunk a bit. You can’t tell whether his ears are sticking out, his hair is well-groomed and lion’s mane, and he has a short beard. Dev Patel looks like an intellectual surfer. And of course he no longer looks shocked. Rather: humble, professional, friendly. An audio call was announced, but he turned the camera on anyway. Turns his laptop around so that you can look with it from the hotel room in Adelaide, Australia: high up, with a view of the skyline. He is currently editing his directorial debut here, which is due to hit theaters next year.

But that’s not the point now, it’s about the new and, so much in advance, really terrific film by director David Lowery (“A Ghost Story”). “The Green Knight” is based on a Middle English chivalric romance from the 14th century, which begins at the court of King Arthur. Dev Patel plays a round table knight. A role that is not the most obvious for someone of his skin color. “I usually don’t get the chance to exist in an era like this,” he says and laughs. “Most likely I would have thought that I could stand in the background and hold a tray during something like this.”

Patel speaks from experience. After arriving in triumph, things got tough for the skinny boy in Hollywood. The film industry had not yet heard of the fact that diversity could be an asset. Because of his debut role and because he has roots in India, Patel should play stereotypical Indian again and again. The waiter, the penniless hotelier, the technology nerd. He, the Londoner, learned to speak broken English in Indian.

He took on these roles because he wanted to work – and when they had other advantages, for example: great colleagues. He starred in Aaron Sorkin’s journalism series “The Newsroom” with Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer, in “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” with Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith. The big turning point came in 2016 with “Lion”. He played an adopted child from India who had grown up and who lives in Tasmania and who uses Google Maps to search for his origins. The film is based on a true story. Also an Indian, but not a cliché. Patel received an Oscar nomination for the role.

Dickens and King Arthur are, of course, also part of the cultural heritage of British immigrant children

Since then, you can tell from Dev Patel’s career that things have changed a bit here and there when it comes to clichés in Hollywood. In 2019 he played the title role in Armando Ianucci’s Dickens film adaptation “David Copperfield”. Colorblind Casting is the name of the relatively new practice of casting actors of different skin colors, also historically or literarily, as white roles. But there is nothing color-blind about it. For the film industry, which has long been very conservative on such issues, it is a revolutionary act.

Patel sees his own role in this development as modest: “I give that credit to the directors. I would never have dared imagine myself playing David Copperfield or Sir Gawain. It really speaks for these filmmakers and their particular vision. It fits the way they approach movies. They add something new, fresh to the old legends. ” Of course, Dickens and King Arthur are also part of the cultural heritage of British immigrant children like Dev Patel. “To be able to put on armor and hold the Excalibur sword in my hand,” he says, “that makes the child in me jump for joy.”

Lowery has turned the text “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, which is at least 600 years old, into a dark, glowing film that preserves the strangeness of Middle English mythology in a unique way. “The Green Knight” is mysterious, dream-wandering, an art film that is barely still suitable for the mainstream, with the budget and the visual possibilities of a large fantasy film. There are no classic sword fights. Instead, a talking fox, an apparition of a saint and a clever fireplace monologue by Alicia Vikander about green as the color of life and decay. Between the stages of the hero’s journey there are text panels such as: “An interlude”.

The story goes like this: Gawain, the king’s nephew and heir to the throne, is a spoiled, pleasure-seeking young man. When he realizes that life is slowly getting more serious, he wants to prove himself and accepts a challenge from the green knight, who looks like a humanoid tree in the film. Anyone who strikes a blow against this mythical fighter will receive the same blow back from him a year later. However, Gawain immediately cuts off the head of the immortal green instead of giving him a small scratch, which would have been wiser, which will not harm himself one day.

After twelve months, Gawain goes to the Green Knight, towards his possible death. But even on the hard, wintry journey he has to prove that he is worthy of the round table. “The Green Knight” was filmed in Ireland in winter. “It was freezing,” says Patel. “Even the horse was frozen, between the scenes it always got a blanket thrown over it. It was a crazy shoot. We were constantly wading through rivers or had to pull the camera equipment up a hill. But I preferred it so much to a green screen . To shoot in these landscapes made me humble. ” You can see it in the finished film. He has a great but broken presence. Serious and looking for honor and greatness, but also hanging on to life like any young person – and constantly in doubt about what is the right thing to do.

The romance of chivalry is not that far from Dev Patel’s own life

What attracted him to this role, which doesn’t seem very contemporary, besides the joy of the costume? “When I first talked to David Lowery about the film, he said,” It’s the story of a young man’s journey to self-integrity. That impressed me. The film tells a coming-of-age story. “

Surprisingly, this ancient chivalric romance is not far from Patel’s own life. “My youth passed pretty quickly,” he says. He got his first role in the youth series “Skins” and has been working since then. “This young Gawain wants to earn his place in the Round Table. I can understand his insecurity very well. He is surrounded by all these legendary knights, a bit like me on my first red carpets. He wants to prove himself worthy of this environment.”

In “The Green Knight” it is implied that Gawain’s mother is behind the challenge for her son in a dark and magical way. “I can testify to the power of mothers,” says Dev Patel. His own brought her hyperactive son to taekwondo as a child – where he was supposed to get rid of his excess energies that made him a difficult student. At some point she thought: acting could be something for him too. So she took him to an open casting. As a thank you, he often takes her with him to accompany premieres and award ceremonies. One could say: chivalrous.