Atlantic City, USA

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Atlantic City, USA
Original title Atlantic City
Country of production France , Canada
original language English
Publishing year 1980
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Louis Malle
script John Guare
production Denis Héroux ,
John Kemeny
music Michel Legrand
camera Richard Ciupka
cut Suzanne Baron
occupation

Atlantic City, USA [ ətˈlæn.tɪk ˈsɪti | ˌJuː ɛs ˈeɪ ] is a feature film by the director Louis Malle in a French - Canadian co-production from 1980 . In this crime drama with comedic undertones, Burt Lancaster plays the aging would-be gangster Lou, whose long-cherished wishes are fulfilled when he meets young Sally ( Susan Sarandon ). The city of Atlantic City plays a leading role in the film at its turning point from a shabby seaside resort to a modern, impersonal gamer's paradise.

action

Lou Pascal, a seedy little crook in Atlantic City, takes care of bedridden and moody ex-beauty Grace Pinza. Every evening he secretly observes his neighbor Sally Matthews, while she stands by the window to the music of an aria from Norma, cleaning her arms and breasts with lemon juice. Sally works in a casino at the oyster bar, but wants to become a blackjack card dealer, for which she takes lessons from the lustful Frenchman Joseph.

Sally's ex-husband Dave and her sister Chrissie, who is pregnant by Dave, two hippies who stole cocaine from the drug mafia in Philadelphia , turn up at Sally and want to have shelter with her. Sally drops Dave out after an argument. Dave wants to sell the drug in the underworld of Atlantic City and meets Lou, whom he persuades to work with him. While Lou is bringing some of the cocaine to the man, Felix and Vinnie, the stolen drug gangster from Philadelphia, find Dave, chase him through a parking garage and kill him.

Lou meets Sally, who has been notified by the police, in the hospital at Dave's deathbed, identifies herself as her neighbor and offers her to attend to Dave's funeral. While Sally slowly gains trust in Lou, Lou is transformed by new clothes from the proceeds of the cocaine sale into the wealthy and urbane gangster he always wanted to be. They eat together and after Lou confesses that he watches her every day, they have sex in Sally's new apartment, which she will move into soon.

Felix and Vinnie lie in wait for the couple in front of their apartment house and attack Sally to get the drug. Lou is threatened with a gun and stands by helplessly. When the two gangsters leave, Lou and Sally notice that Sally's old apartment has been ransacked and destroyed. Sally learns about the cocaine theft from Chrissie while Lou packs his things and a gun and lets the gangsters know that he has the money and the rest of the drug. Sally is angry with Lou and wants to confront him. She learns that the casino has quit her because of her criminal ex-husband. Joseph wants to force her into prostitution. When Sally finds Lou and they discuss the use of the drug money, they are attacked again by Felix and Vinnie. Lou shoots the two gangsters, and the dissimilar couple flees Atlantic City. When the two realize that they cannot have a future together, Sally drives off into an uncertain future, perhaps in France, while Lou returns to Atlantic City and sells the rest of the cocaine together with the recovered Grace. Arm in arm, Lou and Grace walk the Atlantic City boardwalk.

History of origin

Script and preproduction

After Male's first American film, the controversial Pretty Baby , there was no opportunity for him to realize a film project for 18 months. In mid-1979 he received an offer to film the crime thriller The Neighbor by Laird Koenig : A Canadian film fund had provided five million dollars and a finished script; the prerequisite was that the film had to be shot by the end of 1979 in order to take advantage of the tax-saving opportunities. Malle didn't like the script, but agreed on two conditions: The playwright John Guare , who had already celebrated success on Broadway , was to write a completely new script for the material and Male's girlfriend at the time, Susan Sarandon, was supposed to do the next to a cash-rich Hollywood star to be found Play the main role.

Malle and Guare debated where the film should take place and came up with Atlantic City, which made headlines across the country with the recent legalization of gambling. They visited Atlantic City and were fascinated by the upheaval and the ambivalence of the city. Malle said, “We saw the glamor and we saw the contradictions. Behind the gleaming facade, the city was literally a single slum . ”Literally on the day of their visit, the two constructed the story they wanted to tell based on what they saw and experienced. Guare recalls: “We went to Resort International […] and there was an oyster bar. There were lots of pretty girls and we asked, 'Who are they?' We were told, 'Well, they all want to be card dealers, but to be a blackjack dealer you have to work here for three or four months to show that you stick with it.' We said, 'Oh yeah, that fits exactly for Susan.' "

Malle traveled to France and Guare followed him to rewrite the entire script within two weeks. Henry Fonda , James Mason , James Stewart and Laurence Olivier were considered for the male lead of the aging gangster . Male's favorite was Robert Mitchum , whom he admired , but he, freshly lifted, had little interest in an age role. Finally, Burt Lancaster was ready to play the gentlemen of the set age and recognized the potential of the script to shine in this role and to add a late climax to his life's work in a self-deprecating way. For the role of Grace, Ginger Rogers was asked first, but she rejected the bedridden, tyrannical figure as too embarrassing for her. Canadian Kate Reid eventually took on the role.

Production and post-production

Filming began with a Canadian-French-American team in October 1979. First all the outdoor shots were shot in Atlantic City, then the indoor shots in the studio in Montreal . Lancaster, who had a dreadfully large ego, was quite disrespectful to Malle and Sarandon during the filming. He wanted to make his role more difficult and aggressive and got into an argument with Malle about it. It was only in their mutual admiration for the great director Luchino Visconti that the two found a starting point for further cooperation. In any case, Lancaster succeeded in changing the ending to a Casablanca- like ending, in which Lou is not abandoned by Sally as a duped person, but rather he keeps the reins in his hand when Sally leaves him.

Shooting finished on December 31, but finding a studio to distribute and market the film was difficult. Paramount , which had just made a $ 10 million loss on Reds and Ragtime , only agreed to market the film after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival . That is why it was only released in the United States in April 1981, while in Europe it was released in 1980. The film was first shown on German television on October 2, 1982 at 10:20 p.m. on ARD.

Reception and aftermath

The film was well received by critics and audiences in Europe and the United States. While in America viewers understood the background of the turnaround in the run-down city well, the film only met with rejection in Male's native France. The critic Claude-Michel Cluny said in the film magazine Cinéma : "I have to tell you that there is nothing wonderful to report about Atlantic City, a film that skids just because of its woodcut-like dramatic structure". The critics of Les Cahiers du cinéma expressed themselves sarcastically, the images of the film "in the Hamilton style" accentuated the "sugary, backward-looking side of Atlantic City". Malle creates these images "with the same casualness as if you were leafing through a tourist brochure". Frey suspects that "sugar-coated" is a tip of the cahiers against the upper middle class origin of Male. His family had made their fortune in the sugar industry.

The British press was more enthusiastic: Philip French wrote in the Observer : “This is a funny, precise, ironic and deeply sad film that avoids being dryly cynical or […] condescending because of the eccentric affection the Malle and Guare consider their main characters. The film hardly sets a false accent. "

Edgar Wettstein judged in the film service that the characters were “excellently played”, but the film had “a trait of smooth routine” because it lacked “the gripping strength and commitment that would also involve the viewer”.

The American press was also benevolent and predicted a good performance at the Oscars. Bruce Williamson wrote about the film in Playboy : “As a counterpart to Sarandon, Burt Lancaster is doing his best acting performance in years [...]. Guare's sharp-tongued dialogues [...] are the main reason for Atlantic City's success as a quirky, amoral comedy [...]. Quite strange, but simply irresistible in the long run. "

David Danby was more nuanced. Atlantic City is “sweet, funny and lovable, but there is not much narrative or poetic momentum in it […]. Guare has a tendency to repeat his guiding themes over and over as if they were particularly weighty or funny, and the humanism of the film becomes a bit annoying after a while [...]. "

Film analysis

The film as a social fairy tale

The most superficial view of the film is that of a social fairy tale, a fantasy that wishes can come true: Lou becomes the real gangster, as he has always wanted. Sally makes her dream come true and escapes to a better world. Grace overcomes her self-pity and becomes the gangster bride at Lou's side. They all dream the American dream, but from the point of view of the European filmmaker it is projected back to old Europe: For Sally, France is the destination of her dreams and wishes.

Self-mystification

Similar to the situation in Atlantic City, self-mystification is a theme of the film. Just as the city only pretended to have a glamor like European seaside resorts, as it served as a stage for self-expression for its visitors, Lou Pascal pretends to be something he is not. Lou stylized himself to be the gangster colleague of Capone , Lansky and Siegel , but none of it is true. Only in the course of the film does Lou discover that this pretended self is really in him, that he is strong enough to really live out his ideas of how he should be. Frey sees the film as an "accurate and well thought-out study of the protagonist's psychological obsession with history". Lou suffered from a mistake in his past by not being able to fill the hero role when a friend died in a shootout and he was unable to help. He relived this drama of the past and defeated his inferiority complexes, this time being able to save Sally from the threats.

European perspectives

What distinguishes Atlantic City from American crime grotesques is the drawing of characters and plot, which is characterized by European cinematic art. The narrative structure breaks due to Guare's script, which is characterized by a carefully composed design coming from the theater, with the free narration of Male's earlier films, which is characterized by cinematic means, but typically for Malle, the film does not offer a linear, closed plot model, but that The end remains open: what happens to Sally and what happens to Lou is left to the imagination of the viewer.

The character Lou, who is childishly happy when she finally committed her first murder, has no counterpart in the history of American film, rather she is a typical Malle figure who likes to make childish anarchy the subject of his films.

By placing the aspect of voyeurism in the foreground, Malle also distinguishes himself from conventional American crime stories. Susan Sarandon explains: “What made it interesting for Louis was the [...] voyeurism [...]. This is where the French point of view came into play […], the European sensibility, whereas it would have been a completely normal heist crime thriller if an American had made the film. ”The director and main actor avoid the danger of Lou as a voyeur just getting dirty old man to restrict. Lou's admiration for Sally is more like adoration of saints, which is emphasized by the solemn opera music and the almost Madonna-like staging of Sarandons in the backlight at the window.

The city as the main actress

Atlantic City in its heyday in the 1920s

The seaside resort of Atlantic City, which had its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s , was in a state of upheaval at the end of the 1970s : the legalization of gambling meant that investors like Donald Trump came to the city to search for the shabby remains of the past regardless of history To tear down values ​​and build casinos and hotels. This newly emerging structure was not based on planning considerations for a functioning city, but only on profit hopes and, in its portrayal in the film by Malle, is rated as visionary for the coming 1980s in America.

Malle and Guare were influenced by Robert Altman's film Nashville in their view of Atlantic City . As there, they wanted to advance different narrative strands in front of the different scenarios of a city in order to let them collide towards the end. Behind the urban structures, according to Frey, a “quasi-sociological investigation” should make clear the various social structures and the change that they are subject to at the same time as the city changes. "From the first to the last minute, there is not the slightest doubt that Atlantic City is playing the leading role [...]," confirms Malle.

Homage to the film noir

Atlantic City pays homage to American gangster films , especially noir , in content and imagery . The typical stock of figures of street crime is served as well as the expectation of the viewer after a big chase scene, which is staged here in a bizarre parking garage, which consists of lots of elevators.

Lancaster, who played his first film role in the classic film noir Avengers of the Underworld , can here ironically reverse the role of gangster: if he was an honest guy in his first film, whom circumstances force him to become a crook against his will, so he is the failed figure who wants nothing more than to be a real criminal.

At the same time, however, the homage with the European filmmaker's point of view is also undermined: While the pursuit of money is synonymous with happiness in the classic gangster film, with Malle money is only the means to self-realization and merely the impetus that enables the characters to find themselves to change.

Cinematic means

Semi-documentary style

Due to his background as a documentary filmmaker , Malle endeavored to bring as much of the urban development of the city as possible into his film. “The film is about the city and what happens to it.” Malle said, “In that way it was a documentary about America [...] I was obsessed with having Atlantic City present in every moment and as much outside as possible to shoot. ”During the shooting, Malle improvised and always looked for locations where a building had just been demolished in order to be able to use the real action as a background for his plot.

Sound and music

The music in Atlantic City consists exclusively of source music, i.e. jazz and pop songs that are thematically related to the city and result from the respective scene as background music in casinos, cafes, etc. For the end credits of the film, in which you see a wrecking ball smashing an old building in Atlantic City, these songs can be heard again as a recapitulation to the beat of the pear . The composer Michel Legrand had prepared a complete symphonic soundtrack, but Malle decided to forego it to emphasize the documentary character of the film. In the scene when Dave is being followed in the parking garage, he only relies on the sound effects of the screeching and humming elevator motors to generate the necessary tension.

The Bellini aria from Norma , which can be heard in Sally's washing ritual, was originally the famous recording with Maria Callas during filming , but the license fees for it were so high that Elizabeth Harwood's aria was re-sung for the film with the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been.

Awards

Atlantic City won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1980 , ex aequo with Gloria, the gangster bride of John Cassavetes .

At the 1982 Academy Awards, the film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture , Best Director , Best Actor (Burt Lancaster), Best Actress (Susan Sarandon), and Best Original Screenplay , but did not win any of the awards. Malle is certain that Lancaster would have won its category if Henry Fonda hadn't been dying at the time of the award ceremony. The jury awarded him the prize for his role in Am golden See .

The film won over 20 awards in total. In 1981 Anne Pritchard, Susan Sarandon and Kate Reid each received a Genie Award . In 2003, Atlantic City was included in the National Film Registry for its cultural significance .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Southern / Weissgerber pp. 185–200.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g French: pp. 171-184.
  3. ↑ Frey: p. 108.
  4. ↑ film-dienst edition 25/1980.
  5. ↑ a b c d Jansen / Schütte pp. 108–113.
  6. ↑ Frey: p. 109.
  7. ↑ Frey: p. 20.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 6, 2007 .