Amok (1993)

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Movie
German title amok
Original title amok
Country of production France , Portugal , Germany
original language French , German
Publishing year 1993
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Joël Farges
script Joël Farges,
Catherine Foussadier ,
Dominique Rousset
production Tino Navarro
music Nicola Piovani
camera Fabio Conversi
cut Laure Blancherie ,
Luce Grunenwaldt
occupation

Amok is a film drama with Fanny Ardant and Andrzej Seweryn from 1993, which was made in French , Portuguese and German co-production. The novella Der Amokläufer (1922) by Stefan Zweig served as a literary model .

action

The Portuguese colony of Goa in western India : while a coffin is being carried out of a chapel and loaded onto a ship, a Frenchman is returning from India to Europe in March 1939 . Because he can't stand it in his cabin, he goes on deck of the ship. There he meets a German who asks him for cigarettes and alcohol and tells him his story in the evening: When Dr. Steiner had once worked in a German hospital. There he fell for the charms of an attractive patient. She became his lover and asked him for a large sum of money. When he was caught embezzling hospital funds and red-handed with his mistress, his career was over and his reputation was ruined. He was forced to go abroad. He then found a new job as a doctor in a remote clinic in Goa.

After several years in the wilderness, he met a white woman again for the first time and was immediately fascinated by her beauty. The woman was French and her husband, a Portuguese diplomat, had been in Europe for five months. In the meantime she had become pregnant by her lover. She went to Steiner because she had heard nothing but good things about him from the governor of the colony, and offered him a large sum of money for a discreet abortion with which he could have paid his debts in Germany. However, Steiner did not want any money for the risky operation; instead he asked for a night of love together in return. Outraged, the French woman refused his offer and allowed her chauffeur to drive her back to town. Seized by a frenzy, Steiner followed her on a bicycle and tried to stop her.

Steiner lost as a result increasingly in control of himself. In the state of intoxication, a gunman not dissimilar, he began to pursue them. He broke into her home, where he implored her to be the only doctor who could perform a clean abortion. Convinced that he loved her more by the minute, he broke into her house that night and begged for her affection, as her contempt was driving him crazy. He met her again at a governor's ball. She introduced him to other guests, but left the ball early. Her lover ran after her and protested that he still loved her. When she continued on her way home alone, Steiner lay in wait for her. Terrified, she assured him that she wasn't pregnant at all. He didn't believe her and urged her again to come to him. After their renewed rejection, Steiner sought refuge in alcohol and began a brawl with locals in a drunken state. He woke up the next morning in a boarding house, where the woman's chauffeur came to see him to drive him quickly to a remote hut.

In order to get rid of the unborn child before her husband's return, the Frenchwoman had sought out a local healer. But the procedure had gone wrong. Steiner wanted to take her to a hospital, but the woman refused. In her home she succumbed to internal bleeding. Before she died, she made Steiner's promise to make sure that no one, especially not her husband, learns why she died. Still obsessed with her and plagued by guilt at the same time, Steiner complied with her last wish. He forced her family doctor to issue a surgeon, against whose will, a false death certificate, according to which the woman had had an accident and died of peritonitis after unsuccessful treatment . Then met Steiner and her lover, telling him that they Suicide I committed to it but this is not guilty. During the night Steiner woke up at her deathbed and passed out.

Now he is leading the coffin of the dead to Europe. When the ship arrives on a stopover in a port, Steiner tells the French traveler that the wife's husband had filed a lawsuit against him and that he therefore had to flee. The Frenchman offers to come with him, saying that he could use a competent doctor. After the Frenchman left the ship with the other passengers, it turns out that he works for an international organization that helps Jews flee Europe. When he returns to the ship - anticipating misfortune - Steiner wants to throw himself into the water of the harbor basin with the leaden coffin. His attempts to change the doctor's mind and to rescue him from the water with the coffin after his fall are unsuccessful. In April 1939 the Frenchman arrives at the port of Lisbon and - shaken by Steiner's senseless death - is more determined than ever to continue his work with the organization.

background

Stefan Zweig's novella The Gunman was first published in 1922 and filmed in 1927 in the Soviet Union . The first French version followed in 1934. In 1944 the story was also adapted for the screen in Mexico with María Félix . The second French film adaptation, directed by Joël Farges, was filmed in Portugal, where the port of Lisbon and the Palácio Nacional de Queluz were used as locations. The film premiered in France on October 10, 1993. In Germany, Amok was first shown on television on October 20, 1994.

Reviews

“A largely dialogue-oriented, unconvincingly staged film adaptation of a novella by Stefan Zweig”, which is “an internalized drama about the guilt and failure of a person”, was the verdict of the lexicon of international film .

Lisa Nesselson from Variety saw the film as "a well-intentioned, but at times cumbersome adaptation" of the literary model. The “somehow artificial” and “poetic” film becomes “much more captivating than the stunning Ardant makes her first appearance after 20 minutes of the plot”. The actors do justice to the material, but “cannot give the story the necessary depth”. In addition, "Nicola Piovani's lush film music [...] sometimes stands out more than it should".

literature

Soundtrack

  • Nicola Piovani : Amok . Milan 1994, a CD with ten recordings of the film music.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amok. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 19, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ “ Amok is a well-intentioned but occasionally clumsy adaptation of a Stefan Zweig story […]. Somewhat stilted and literary pic gets much more compelling when stunning Ardant makes her entrance about 20 minutes into the narrative. […] Thesps lend approximately the right tone to the material but can't give the story the haunting depth it requires. Nicola Piovani's hearty score sometimes stands out more than it should. " Lisa Nesselson: Amok . In: Variety , July 19, 1993.