Quiet days in Clichy (1970)

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Movie
German title Quiet days in Clichy
Original title Silence i Clichy
Country of production Denmark
original language English
Publishing year 1970
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jens Jørgen Thorsen
script Jens Jørgen Thorsen
production Klaus Pagh
Henrik Sandberg
music Country Joe McDonald , Lasse Lunderskov ( Young Flowers ), Andy Sundstrøm , Ben Webster , Papa Bue's Viking Jazzband
camera Jesper Høm
cut Anchor Sørensen
occupation

Silent days in Clichy is a 1970 Danish film by Jens Jørgen Thorsen that closely follows the plot of the novel by Henry Miller . He describes in episodes the idleness and the erotic experiences of two womanizer hunters in Paris . Songs by Country Joe McDonald can be heard several times, commenting on the plot or providing insight into the characters' feelings. The black and white pictures are made with little effort, and there are stylistic devices such as still photo montages and speech bubbles. In addition to the recordings made in Denmark, the film contains external recordings from contemporary Paris; In contradiction to this, Thorsen did not adapt plot details of the novel set in the 1930s to the present. Repeated text displays tell of the time when "cunts were in the air". Most of the women appearing are either explicitly prostitutes or receive other compensation for the sex. The image of women, the nude and sex scenes and the sometimes rough language have been criticized many times and have been the cause of censorship in some countries.

action

The American writer Joey and his colleague friend Carl shared an apartment in Paris at the end of the 1960s. The unemployed bon vivants devote themselves entirely to erotic adventures with the female sex; if they occasionally get money, spend it on prostitutes. A surrealist comes to them in their apartment, offers their services for sale and paints texts on the walls of the bathroom.

Joey meets the young Nys at the Place de Clichy in Café Wepler. The two sleep together in the hotel. When Nys asked for money, Joey gave her everything he had, but soon regretted it because he didn't have any for food himself. Hungry, he restlessly wanders through the city, looking in vain for a chance to eat something. At home he has difficulty falling asleep. In the middle of the night he is woken up by Carl, who introduces him to the underage, feeble-minded girl Colette who moves in with them. When their parents pick them up one day, Carl and Joey can be happy that their parents do not call the police on the condition that Carl cannot see them again. To be on the safe side, they go to Luxembourg for a while , where they beat up the landlord of a “Café Judenfrei”. But then they are happy to be back in Paris. They stop at a bar and pick up some girls there to take home with them. Joey takes them a bath and then goes to sleep tiredly. Mara and the two Christines insist that they get paid before they leave. Finally, Joey and Carl have fun with two Danish women.

Origin, performances and censorship measures

Thorsen asked Miller in 1967 if he could film the novel, and the writer agreed. He was present at the shooting. Given the result, he confirmed Thorsen that he had hit the spirit of his novel. The production cost the equivalent of 800,000 German marks. Thorsen needed a total of 35 weeks for filming and editing. In addition to the regular actors, real prostitutes were also hired. Most of the interior photos were taken in Denmark in May and June 1969. The cameraman Jesper Høm shot the exterior in Clichy and between Place Clichy and Montmartre. On August 11, 1969, Høm married the actress Elsebeth Reingaard . The German dubbed version was created at the Berlin Institute in Lüdecke and was personally monitored for quality by Thorsen.

At the 1970 Cannes International Film Festival he was shown out of competition. The film was later excluded from competition at the last minute at the Berlin Film Festival on the grounds that its previous screening in Cannes disqualified it. The film was sold in 87 countries. It could be shown without cuts in Sweden, Canada and the United States, among others. In Denmark it was shown unabridged in cinemas, but it caused a scandal when excerpts were shown on Danish television. The fact that in France of all places, where his book was first published, the censorship severely cut the film, prompted Miller to protest.

In 1970 it was presented to the public in full in the original English version at the Nordic Film Days in Lübeck. The German dubbed version, checked by the FSK, was released in cinemas on February 27, 1971 with slight cuts in erotic scenes and was approved for ages 18 and over. Today she is classified as FSK-16. The first television broadcast in German-speaking countries was on April 11, 1994 on ORF2.

In the novel, the men in Luxembourg visit a café that does not allow Jews to enter. Such a café actually existed in the 1930s. The transfer of this “Café Judenfrei” into the present of the film gave it a defamatory character and outraged many Luxembourgers. Contrary to the cinema commission, which recommended that the film be banned because of its erotic content, the liberal minister Emile Schaus approved its showing, removing the café scene and other parts of the Luxembourg sequence. Regardless of this, the Luxembourg public prosecutor's office confiscated the film on the day of the scheduled gala screening, at which Thorsen was supposed to be personally present. Investigations up to the Supreme Court followed, which eventually ended with clearance.

Reviews

Contemporary German reviews

Der Spiegel was of the opinion that Thorsen, who had staged a “love celebration with beautiful naked people”, was mixing different stylistic devices into a “uniform” film. For Die Zeit , the camera and montage were “a means of ironic, humorous distance,” and she praised the music. The “successful” film is not a “sterile, stupid, ecstatic excitement like Kolles , but full of charm, natural joy and an almost creatural beauty.” The time was also convinced of the “sympathetic” actors. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung thought Paul Valjean was a good choice and "despite all the sensuality of intellectual melancholy" was credible. “The music and the light rhythm of the montage, the effortless gliding from reality into surrealistic Miller dream sequences, give the film precisely that individual flair of optimism at a time when 'the world was busy digging at its grave'.” The relocation of the But action in the present appears "carefree".

For the film critics it was “a joking film that thoughtlessly equated the Paris of the present with that of 1930. What he completely lacks: erotic fantasy. ”The film-dienst also found that the relocation into the presence of the atmospheric credibility was a shame. He stated that the film adhered to the plot of the novel, which crossed the boundaries of pornography, but had a philosophical foundation. This film adaptation, however, is stupid and unaesthetic, offers "visual dullness and outright boredom". Thorsen had “stuck to nothing but the sexual context”, the main character seemed to not use her “bespectacled intellectual head”. There is a lack of real actresses, the film service only found words of praise for the music .

Other contemporary reviews

According to the French Positif , the work skilfully stood out from the glut of cheap Danish sex films. Thorsen film the novel literally and in spirit, and preserve its strength and joyful fornication. The rhythm never falls off for a moment. The actors are excellent, with a Joey resembling Henry Miller and with beautiful girls. The judgments of the British film magazines were different. For Sight and Sound , the faithful film was "disgusting and dreary pornographic". The Monthly Film Bulletin found the film to be visually inventive and musically attractive. All in all, however, it turns out to be “noticeably silly” because the film fails to develop the repetitiveness of the novel into something higher. The men could hardly get beyond their permanent lust, and the women remained toys.

Recent reviews

In 2007 Oliver Nöding from f-lm.de rated the e – m – s DVD. The “pornographic outbursts and the rough language” were given “a playful and almost innocent touch”. Thorsen is celebrating “the joy of the here and now” and has “perfectly internalized Miller's philosophy. [...] Poetry and atmosphere [...] come into their own. "

music

The film contains numerous pieces by Country Joe McDonald , who composed and recorded them (guitar and vocals). He was commissioned to do this shortly after he became known at the Woodstock Festival . At that time he was in Europe a lot, especially in France and Scandinavia. With the pieces Quiet Days in Clichy Part 1 and 2 he commented on parts of the plot while singing. He also quoted passages from Henry Miller's text and brought them into rhyme. Nys Love and Hungry Miller and the Hungry World are instrumental pieces in the film scene.

After the film was first released, Country Joe came under fire for playing Quiet Days in Clichy 2 . The line of text “All of her brains is between her legs” was criticized as misogynistic . When he played it on campus, he was booed. This passage did not spring from his mind, but was a direct quote from Miller's book and from the dialogue between Carl and Joey in the film. It didn't go with his music, in which he was at the same time increasingly campaigning for women's rights (such as in Coulene Ann and Sexist Pig from the album Paris Sessions ), and the musician apologized for this.

Music also came from popular musicians on the Danish music scene, such as the Danish rock band Young Flowers with their guest guitarist and composer Lasse Lunderskov . The film shows the American jazz musician Ben Webster , who was then in Denmark and who had one of his last appearances in the film. Andy Sandstrøm contributed three musette waltzes with which the pictures of Paris are accompanied. The Luxembourg escapade is accompanied by Dixieland from the Danish Papa Bue's Viking jazz band .

Lengths of different frames

The length of the original film version is 96 minutes.

The DVD by ems, released in 2006, is 91 minutes long because the closing music and other short passages have also been removed.

The BBFC in Great Britain also refused admission to cinemas in 1970 because of the vulgar language. The uncensored film was only released on DVD in 2002, but the allegedly uncensored version was missing a complete scene.

The uncut English original version of Arrow Films (DVD from 2002), which was also adopted by ems and the Dutch publisher Kandyfilmz, is only 91 minutes long. The reason for this is the lack of a complete scene.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Lausanne Underground and Music Festival, 12.-16. October 2005 , accessed August 26, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Brigitte Jeremias: Simply just live . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 5, 1971, p. 32
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Der Spiegel , No. 45/1970 of November 2, 1970, not drawn: Love in Wine
  4. ↑ a b Booklet for the German DVD from ems
  5. ↑ Frauke Hanck, Die Welt, October 29, 1970 quoted by the 54th Nordic Film Days Lübeck, accessed on August 26, 2012.
  6. ↑ Zweiausendeins.de Filmlexikon. Accessed August 26, 2012.
  7. ^ Paul Lesch: Au nom de l'ordre public & des bonnes moeurs. Contrôle des cinémas et censure de films au Luxembourg 1895-2005 . CNA, 2005. Quoted in the program article (PDF; 69 kB) of the Luxembourg Center National de l'Audiovisuel, 2010. Retrieved on October 7, 2012.
  8. ↑ Wolf Donner: Film Tips . In: Die Zeit , March 5, 1971
  9. ^ Wilhelm Roth: Quiet days in Clichy . In: Filmkritik , No. 4/1971, p. 216
  10. ↑ film-dienst, no., 3/1971, drawn by "USE."
  11. ^ Hubert Niogret: Quiet days in Clichy . In: Positif , No. 9/1970, pp. 31-32
  12. ↑ Sight and Sound , Vol. 41, No. 3 (Summer 1972), p. 178
  13. ↑ Nigel Andrews : Stille Dage i Clichy (Quiet Days in Clichy) . In: Monthly Film Bulletin , vol. 39 (1972), p. 123
  14. ↑ Oliver Nöding: A Period when Cunt was in the Air. ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed August 26, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.f-lm.de
  15. ↑ a b IMDB: Did you know. Accessed August 26, 2012.
  16. ↑ Country Joe, letter dated September 25, 1998. Link on his home page , accessed August 26, 2012.
  17. ^ DFI , Stille dage i Clichy, accessed September 1, 2012.
  18. ↑ Danskefilm , Stille dage i Clichy, access on September 1, 2012th
  19. ↑ Silent days in Clichy, ems new media AG, DVD No. 115601
  20. ↑ Quiet Days in Clichy, Arrow Films / Fremantle Home Entertainment, DVD No. FCD 131
  21. ↑ This is the relatively harmless, 5-minute-long final scene of the first fragment Silent Days in Clichy , in which Joey's dreams are shown, underlaid by the play Menilmontant .