Owning Mahowny

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Owning Mahowny
Original title Owning Mahowny
Country of production United Kingdom , Canada
original language English
Publishing year 2003
length 101 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Richard Kwietniowski
script Maurice Chauvet
production Alessandro Camon
András Hámori
Seaton McLean
music Richard Grassby-Lewis
The Insects
camera Oliver Curtis
cut Mike Munn
occupation

Owning Mahowny is a 2003 Canadian-British drama film directed by Richard Kwietniowski based on a true story from the early 1980s in Toronto . The main role was played by Philip Seymour Hoffman .

action

Dan Mahowny's secret life was brought to the public. He looks back on it with a psychologist:

Dan is a hardworking, meticulous bank clerk who doesn't indulge in luxury despite being promoted. He leads a respectable existence with his girlfriend Belinda. As the youngest member of the board, the bank's board of directors fully trusts him.

In secret, however, he is becoming more and more addicted to gambling . Due to debts with Frank Perlin on the racetrack, despite a bad conscience, he begins to use his position of trust at the bank to get ever larger amounts of money. He uses these for wagers in the casinos of Atlantic City and Las Vegas. The gambling guests are under video surveillance and psychological studies by the calculating casino owner Victor Foss to keep them happy while they have money. Dan Mahowny is never tired of gambling, losing or winning. He doesn't take time to eat or sleep. He forgets his girlfriend who is waiting in the hotel room and who feels more and more neglected. Dan wagers ever larger amounts. He loses, he embezzles money. He is a welcome guest in the casino, and every possible wish should be fulfilled. But Dan wants peace and quiet when betting and has no needs except for a simple meal. He doesn't want fast sex, alcohol or drugs. He gets the nickname Eismann because he shows hardly any emotions and only concentrates doggedly on the game. His head is usually directed downwards, as if he could not look in any other direction than the gaming table. Bernie, who is employed in the casino, is the only one who is honest and friendly to Dan. His advice to quit the table with a profit of nine million dollars has no effect, except that Bernie is fired. Dan can't help but lose it all again. Even his girlfriend can't help him. Dan denies his addiction. He has a financial problem and nothing else because of his debts. Despite the revision, no suspicious transactions were found in the bank.

The police are now monitoring the team owner's phone and are aware of Dan Mahowny. Because so much money is being turned over, they assume drug deals first. Eventually Dan is arrested on suspicion of embezzlement. The bank director is surprised to find a deficit of $ 10.2 million. Although Dan is solely responsible for this, a number of other bank employees are also fired. Belinda continues to stand by Dan.

In the credits you can read that they are getting married during a short vacation. Dan is sentenced to six years in prison for banking fraud. After his arrest, he doesn't play again. The bank's proceedings against the casino are settled out of court. She also receives part of Dan's earnings for years. The casino will be closed for 24 hours due to violations of the regulations. In Atlantic City, this is known as Dan Mahowny Day.

Reviews

  • “A captivating study of an addiction, brilliantly played […] Grandiose: Hoffman plays to the limit, everything is reflected in his face! The chilled portrait of an eternal loser creates - as the tragic antihero Hoffman aptly puts it - 'excruciating tension'. "( Cinema )
  • “Director Richard Kwietniowski ('Life and Death on Long Island') tells a dramatic gambler story based on real events with an excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role. Unfortunately, many unnecessary lengths crept into the story, which often make the cool drama seem tired. "( Prisma )
  • Carsten Baumgardt, filmstarts.de, described the film as “intense” and wrote: “If the (film) world were fair, it would have received an Oscar nomination. (...) But at least the film, which ran with a maximum of 24 copies, lasted a good five months in US cinemas. "

Awards

  • 2004: Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award Philip Seymour Hoffman for Best Actor
  • 2004: Chlotrudis Award for Philip Seymour Hoffman for best actor
  • 2004: four nominations for the Genie Awards :
    • Alessandro Camon, Seaton McLean, Andras Hamori for the best film
    • Tim Norfolk, Bob Locke, Jon Hassell , Richard Grassby-Lewis for Best Music
    • Philip Seymour Hoffman as Best Actor
    • Maurice Chauvet for Best Screenplay.
  • 2005: nominated for the literary film award

Background information

The biographical film is based on the book Stung: The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony by Gary Stephen Ross. The book was on the bestseller list for six months in 1987 and won several awards. The author took the idea of ​​this true story about the largest one-man bank fraud in Canadian history from newspaper articles in Toronto in 1982. The real Dan Mahowny was addicted to gambling for years. He was serving his prison sentence and never went back to a casino after receiving therapy. He married his girlfriend and is a consultant for a company investigating fraud.

The budget for the film was around 10 million US dollars and was shot from March 2001. The film was produced by the Canadian media company Alliance Atlantis .

The film premiered on January 23, 2003 at the Sundance Film Festival . It was screened in the Panorama section at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival . The film ran in German cinemas from October 2004.

DVDs have been available in German and English since May 2005 . They contain German subtitles and a making of . The player film was shown for the first time on German television in March 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Owning Mahowny. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ^ Cinema
  3. ↑ Prism
  4. ^ Carsten Baumgardt, filmstarts.de
  5. ↑ The film was a commercial failure; he grossed just over $ 1 million worldwide. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=owningmahowny.htm