An eccentric artist (Benedict Cumberbatch) introduces Victorian London to the delights of cats, in Will Sharpe’s enlightening biopic.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain Movie Storyline. From Ancient Egypt to TikTok, cats have accompanied humans on life’s journey. But who made the creatures cute? The Electrical Life of Louis Wain tells the story of the Victorian-era artist whose widely published drawings of anthropomorphized cats transformed them from mysterious to irresistible. In a dazzling, career-best performance, Benedict Cumberbatch plays one of Britain’s most influential eccentrics as a flurry of wild ideas and prodigious artistic output.
Louis Wain (Cumberbatch, also at the Festival in The Power of the Dog) brims with creativity, even as his life in the 1880s oscillates between the delightful and the dizzying. To support his widowed mother and five younger sisters, the academy-trained artist sells drawings of animals from the country fair. His skilled and speedy portraiture impresses, but his often stormy view of the world and those in it keeps him from engaging much with society.
That is, until he hires a kind, curious governess for his youngest sisters, Emily Richardson (Claire Foy), who illuminates his life in a way even he’d never imagined. Love blooms across the class divide — albeit to the chagrin of Louis’s stern sister Caroline (Andrea Riseborough), second oldest and second in command.
Writer-director Will Sharpe (television’s Flowers, whose co-star Olivia Colman narrates here) uses dynamic visual technique and colourfully shifting mood to convey Louis’s complicated mind, fickle wealth, momentous love, and consuming grief. Cumberbatch’s transcendent performance stands at the centre of an impressive cast that includes Toby Jones and Adeel Akhtar (also at the Festival in Ali & Ava). Alive with imagination in every scene, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain shows just how we came to live in a cat’s world. Meow.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is a 2021 biographical film directed by Will Sharpe and written by Sharpe and Simon Stephenson. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, Sharon Rooney, and Toby Jones.
The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2021, followed by a screening at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival that same month. It is scheduled to begin its limited release on October 22, 2021. It is scheduled to be released on Prime Video on November 5, 2021.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
Directed by: Will Sharpe
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Jamie Demetriou, Andrea Riseborough, Toby Jones, Hayley Squires, Julian Barratt, Sharon Rooney, Asim Chaudhry, Indica Watson, Sophia Di Martino
Screenplay by: Simon Stephenson, Will Sharpe
Production Design by: Suzie Davies
Cinematography by: Erik Wilson
Film Editing by: Selina Macarthur
Costume Design by: Michael O’Connor
Set Decoration by: Charlotte Dirickx, Robert Haynes
Art Direction by: Caroline Barclay, Thalia Ecclestone
Music by: Arthur Sharpe
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some thematic material and strong language.
Distributed by: Amazon Studios, StudioCanal
Release Date: September 2, 2021 (Telluride), October 22, 2021 (United States
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