Categories: Entertainment

“The Hunger Games 5”: That’s why we hear Donald Sutherland as Snow at the end of “The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes”

In the prequel “The Hunger Games 5 – The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes” the backstory of the later president Coriolanus Snow is told. In the four original Hunger Games series films, released between 2012 and 2015, the role was played by Donald Sutherland, with Tom Blyth now portraying his 18-year-old self for the prequel.










The Hunger Games – The ballad of songbirds and snakes
Starting date

November 16, 2023


|
2 hours 38 minutes
By
Francis Laurens
Of
Tom Blyth,
Rachel Zegler,
Peter Dinklage
User rating

3.7

Movie releases

3.5


Performances (661)

Donald Sutherland himself did not return for this fifth Hunger Games film – but we still hear the actor in a voice-over in the film’s final scene, after we end on Tom Blyth’s face. The ‘old’ Snow formulates the important sentence from the original ‘Hunger Games’ films: “It’s the things we love most that destroy us.”

But why do we hear Donald Sutherland say a line from the original films without seeing him? And what connection does this sentence create between young and old Snow, Lucy Gray (Rachel Zegler) and Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence)? We asked director Francis Lawrence when we met him for an interview in Berlin.

The idea came about by chance

Francis Lawrence explained: that from the beginning it was not intended to hear Donald Sutherland’s voice say this line at the end of the filmbut it was used in an advertising compilation for foreign distributors – which in turn gave Lawrence the idea to actually use the phrase in the film:

“We didn’t really want to bring Donald back. We only hear these lines because they are an afterthought. This was actually something that the marketing department edited together during the production process, I think for overseas distributors who wanted to know where we stood with the shoot. We were maybe two-thirds done. They cut this little reel together and it worked really well with that line at the end.

And then it was also used at the end of our first trailer. This has hardened in me. When I was working on the film, I thought it would be very strong, Donald [Sutherland] to actually hear that line from “Mockingjay Part 1” said, especially at the end: reinforcing the idea that this man really should become Donald Sutherland and the Snow we know.

And this line is very special, because we have this tragic love story in our film, which is part of what ultimately changes the film. And that gives this sentence a new meaning. That’s something I really like about this movie. For fans of the books, it’s a chance to return to lines like this and think about what it really means for Snow and how the relationship dynamics change as a result as we learn more about the characters we know. ”

The ‘Panem’ films take on new meaning

If we remember this line from Mockingjay Part 1, Snow says it to Katniss in reference to Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who is captured and tortured by the Capitol. He is fed false memories of Katniss so that he associates her with pain, suffering and lies. When Peeta is released from the Capitol and meets Katniss in the Rebel base, he attacks her. This situation is difficult for Katniss to bear, because the man she loves has changed significantly and is now turning against her.

Returning to this story after “The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes”, we can see Snow’s association with Lucy Gray, as Francis Lawrence explained: “Before the book existed, it probably meant something different. But now you can tell this story like this. Now you hear that phrase and it takes on a whole new meaning. I think it remembers now [Snow] about that time and how it changed him.”

The full FILMSTARTS interview with director Francis Lawrence about “The Hunger Games – The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes” can be found here:

Author: Joana Muller

Source : Film Starts

Share
Published by
Malan

Recent Posts

Terror suspect Chechen ‘hanged himself’ in Russian custody Egyptian President al-Sisi has been sworn in for a third term

On the same day of the terrorist attack on the Krokus City Hall in Moscow,…

1 year ago

Locals demand tourist tax for Tenerife: “Like a cancer consuming the island”

class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/4Residents of Tenerife have had enough of noisy and dirty tourists.It's too loud, the…

1 year ago

Agreement reached: this is how much Tuchel will receive for his departure from Bayern

class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/7Packing his things in Munich in the summer: Thomas Tuchel.After just over a year,…

1 year ago

Worst earthquake in 25 years in Taiwan +++ Number of deaths increased Is Russia running out of tanks? Now ‘Chinese coffins’ are used

At least seven people have been killed and 57 injured in severe earthquakes in the…

1 year ago

Now the moon should also have its own time (and its own clocks). These 11 photos and videos show just how intense the Taiwan earthquake was

The American space agency NASA would establish a uniform lunar time on behalf of the…

1 year ago

This is how the Swiss experienced the earthquake in Taiwan: “I saw a crack in the wall”

class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/8Bode Obwegeser was surprised by the earthquake while he was sleeping. “It was a…

1 year ago