On the Beach (2017)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | At the beach |
| Original title | On Chesil Beach |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Dominic Cooke |
| script | Ian McEwan |
| production |
Elizabeth Karlsen , Stephen Woolley |
| music | Dan Jones |
| camera | Sean Bobbitt |
| cut | Nick Fenton |
| occupation | |
| |
On the beach (Original title: On Chesil Beach ) is a film adaptation of the novel On the beach by Ian McEwan , who also wrote the screenplay for the film. Directed by Dominic Cooke . The premiere was on September 7, 2017 at the Toronto Film Festival . The film opened in German cinemas on June 21, 2018.
action
Edward Mayhew and Florence Ponting plan to spend their wedding night and honeymoon in a hotel on a beach, Chesil Beach in Dorset , in 1962 . Both are only a few years over 20 and come from very different families and social classes. Neither of them shows any real understanding of the other's preferences: Edward loves the outdoors, jazz bars and Chuck Berry , Florence plays the violin, likes Bach and Mozart, and she dreams of performing at Wigmore Hall .
Their social background is shown in flashbacks. Edward's mother is brain damaged as a result of an accident with a serious head injury. He has two younger sisters, twins. His father is a teacher and, in addition to his work, devotedly takes care of the whole family, especially the mother, who lives with them despite her disability. Edward's family has shown sympathy for Florence from the start and welcomes her lovingly. The Ponting family belongs to the upper class. The mother is a lecturer in Oxford , cool and self-centered, the father is an entrepreneur and humiliates his future son-in-law and daughter wherever he can. Florence attended music college and over time will develop into a respected violinist who has formed her own quartet , the Ennismore Quartet. In a flashback, Florence and her father are shown on the family's own sailing boat, where Florence is clumsy sailing and therefore incurs an uncontrolled outburst of anger from her father.
Edward studied history. He and Florence get to know each other at a political gathering of left-wing students, which indicates the impending social changes in the late 1960s. Edward and Florence have fallen madly in love with each other, but both wait with very different feelings for what will happen on their wedding night. Edward, who apparently has hardly any sexual experience with women, has so far tried unsuccessfully to get closer to Florence sexually before her marriage. Florence is a virgin and read in disgust in a book what the marital relationship is all about. On their wedding night, Edward is sexually aroused, while Florence is frightened and downright repulsed by what she sees ahead of her. But she doesn't want to hurt Edward under any circumstances. Both find no words for their state of mind, and Florence is even convinced that there are no words at all for their problem. After an unsuccessful attempt to consummate the marriage, Florence escapes from the hotel room to the beach. Edward hesitantly follows her. Florence doesn't want to hurt Edward and offers him a future life together, but without sex, but with all the freedom. This leads to a heated argument, as a result of which Edward leaves the beach and the hotel. Their marriage failed after just six hours and was divorced.
Thirteen years later, Edward runs a record store in London. One day a girl of about twelve wants to buy a Chuck Berry record for her mother's birthday. Edward realizes that it must be Florence's daughter.
Another 32 years later the Ennismore Quartet gives its final concert in the Wigmore Hall. The radio tells us that Florence is married and has three children. Edward sits in the third row and tears of lost love come to him while listening to the music. Florence recognizes him on stage and she too cries.
production
The soundtrack of the film comes from Dan Jones. In addition to his original compositions, you can hear excerpts from Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 77, No. 1, Bach's Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E major and Suite for Cello Solo No. 1, Mozart's Haffner Symphony and his String Quintet in D major, KV 593, Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 and Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances op. 45. The violin solos are played by Esther Yoo and Don Jones directed the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
The verse Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three ... quoted at the beginning of the film comes from the poem Annus mirabilis by Philip Larkin .
The film was shot in Oxford , in the Chiltern Hills area and on Chesil Beach in Dorset .
criticism
Esther Buss from the film service describes the film as formally "a little sedate". The "sequence of hotel room scene and flashback" creates "a pretty dull dramaturgy." "The film does not succeed in convincingly interlacing the two levels".
Susanne Ostwald wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung that the film shows "where the crux of literature adaptations lies". She criticizes the fact that in its film adaptation of the novel "the conventions of love life are imposed, as if there were no cinematic ways to adequately fathom its specific topics: it is about sexual fears and their fatal consequences, memories and regrets". While Edward's regrets and the conclusion of the book are “bitter” in the literary model, the cinematic adaptation tends to be a “sentimental film that deviates from the original in decisive points, unnecessarily embellishes it and makes it an average love story about missed opportunities”.
Web links
- On the beach in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for the beach . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ Age rating for On the beach . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ 'On Chesil Beach' soundtrack details Filmmusic Reporter, April 6, 2018, accessed July 17, 2018
- ↑ Track listing on Allmusic.com, accessed July 17, 2018
- ↑ Q&A with Esther Yoo , accessed July 17, 2018.
- ↑ Philip Larkin: Annus mirabilis , accessed July 17, 2018.
- ↑ The end of nostalgia. femundo.de, September 28, 2018, accessed on January 15, 2019 .
- ^ Esther Buss: On the beach. In: Filmdienst . Retrieved July 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Susanne Ostwald: On the beach, at the end - two novel adaptations are reaching the limits of their art. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . Retrieved August 19, 2018 .