Stan & Ollie (film)

Movie
German title	Stan & Ollie
Original title	Stan & Ollie
Country of production	United Kingdom
original language	English
Publishing year	2018
length	99 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0
Rod
Director	Jon S. Baird
script	Jeff Pope
production	Faye Ward
music	Rolfe Kent
camera	Laurie Rose
cut	Úna Ní Dhonghaíle , ; Billy Sneddon
occupation
	Steve Coogan : Stan Laurel ; John C. Reilly : Oliver Hardy ; Shirley Henderson : Lucille Hardy; Nina Arianda : Ida Kitaeva Laurel; Danny Huston : Hal Roach ; Rufus Jones : Bernard Delfont ; John Henshaw : Nobby Cook; Joseph Balderrama : James W. Horne ; Keith MacPherson : James Finlayson ; Richard Cant : Harry Langdon ; Susy Kane : Cynthia, Miffin's assistant;

Stan & Ollie is a 2018 British biopic directed by Jon S. Baird. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly star the world-famous comedian duo Laurel and Hardy .

action

1937: While filming Zwei Ritten nach Texas , Stan Laurel had an argument with his studio boss Hal Roach , because he felt underpaid given his worldwide fame. Laurel's film partner Oliver Hardy , on the other hand, feels obliged to be loyalty to Roach. Roach lets Hardy direct the film Zenobia, the fairground elephant, with the fallen silent film comedian Harry Langdon in the second lead role , which becomes a failed attempt to replace Stan with Langdon. Laurel and Hardy reunite as a comedian duo afterwards, but Stan feels betrayed by Oliver for years. After their departure from Roach, Laurel and Hardy shoot for other film studios, but lose their artistic freedom and their success decreases.

In 1953 Laurel and Hardy are on a tour of England's music halls . Since the organizer Bernard Delfont paid little attention to advertising the aging comedian duo, their performances initially remained sparsely attended. Only gradually do more people find out about their tour and the halls get full (they perform, among other things, skits from Laurel and Hardy: In the hospital ). Besides that, Laurel and Hardy try to create a comedic film adaptation of Robin Hood with Delfont .

background

Stan & Ollie is the third feature film from director Jon S. Baird. His two previous films, Cass - Legend of a Hooligan (2008) and Drecksau (2013), were more likely to be associated with social drama or crime films, which is why he said in an interview that he was "not the logical choice on paper" for this film material. However, he has always been a big fan of the comedian duo and once as a child he dressed up as Stan Laurel at a party. Baird and screenwriter Jeff Pope wanted to focus less on the comedian duo's greatest success in the 1930s and more on their late life and their friendship: “We wanted to tell a love story about two friends who face challenges in their lives , with money worries, health problems and confrontations about difficult things that happened in their past. It's a simple story, really. "

Stan and Olli have done three tours of the UK, in 1947, 1952 and 1953/54. Unlike what is portrayed in the film, her last film, Dick and Doof inherit an island, was in 1951 and no further film was planned. The Robin Hood film was supposed to be made after her penultimate film Dick und Doof as a bullfighter , but was only mentioned in 1947 and never shot.

publication

The film had its world premiere on October 21, 2018 at the London Film Festival ; it was released in American cinemas on December 28, 2018, and in British cinemas on January 11, 2019. In Germany, it only opened in cinemas on May 9, 2019 . Stan & Ollie , filmed with a budget of around ten million US dollars, has grossed over 23.6 million US dollars worldwide (as of March 16, 2019).

reception

Reviews

The English-language critic portal Rotten Tomatoes reports a positive critic rating of 92% for the film from a total of 198 reviews.

In Die Welt , Wolf Lepenies was particularly impressed by the achievements of the leading actors: "Coogan and Reilly make Stan & Ollie a masterpiece of empathy - in gestures and facial expressions as well as in tone and speed."

Hannah Pilarczyk called the film a “wonderful biopic” at Spiegel Online , which “very often brings form and content to coincide”. Also thanks to the great physical resemblance, the two main actors would play the comedian duo "so immersively" that "their performance is reversed into the opposite of large-scale acting: They do not show their own art, but that of Laurel and Hardy." match the comedian duo.

Rüdiger Suchsland criticized the SWR that the film was “nowhere near as subversive and anarchistic” as the comedian duo portrayed by him. The film's “sleazy moral” is that the show must go on despite the artist's suffering. “Everything is saturated with a certain nostalgic melancholy, a longing for the good old days . This longing is less bittersweet than, above all, sweet. If in doubt, everything is softened here, stays nice and cute. ”The most interesting character in the film is Hal Roach, played by Danny Huston.