Auto Focus
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Auto Focus |
| Original title | Auto Focus |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2002 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Schrader |
| script |
Michael Gerbosi Paul Schrader ( anonymous ) |
| production | Scott Alexander Alicia Allain Patrick Dollard Larry Karaszewski Brian Oliver Todd Rosken |
| music | Angelo Badalamenti |
| camera |
Jeffrey Greeley Fred Murphy |
| cut | Kristina Boden |
| occupation | |
| |
Auto Focus is an American satirical film drama from 2002 directed by Paul Schrader . The script was written by Michael Gerbosi and Paul Schrader.
The very free biopic is based on the non-fiction book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith and shows the descent of the devout Catholic family man Bob Crane , who, seduced by his success as the leading actor in the television series A Cage Full of Heroes , becomes a sex addict and takes control loses his life.
action
When the radio host Bob Crane from his agent Lenny the lead role of the 1964 CBS - series Hogan's Heroes is offered, it is initially less than enthusiastic: The offered project is a shallow comedy series, in a German POW camp plays. At Lenny's urging, he reads the script and accepts the role. The series was a success and Crane was a celebrated actor. Meanwhile, his wife Anne, with whom he has been married for 15 years, repeatedly discovers erotic magazines between his things and expresses her displeasure at his lack of attention to her.
One day, Crane meets video technician John Carpenter on the studio premises , who invites him to a strip club . Crane begins to enjoy the continued success with women due to his fame and is celebrating more and more sex parties with Carpenter, with the latter often taking on the part of "tearing up". The two men record the parties with photos and Carpenter's video equipment and enjoy the recordings afterwards. At the same time, Crane spends his evenings alone with changing partners and begins an affair with his fellow actor Patricia alias Sigrid Valdis. Because Carpenter touches Crane during an orgy, the disgusted Crane temporarily breaks off contact with him. In addition, because of his Catholic faith, Crane feels guilty about his way of life, but a conversation with a priest friend does not give him the relief he had hoped for.
When Anne finds Cranes sex photos, she files for divorce. Sigrid admits to Crane that she knows about his sex addiction , but accepts it without reservation. The two get married on the set of the television series. However, the series will soon be discontinued, and since Crane's antics have made the rounds in Hollywood , there are no follow-up offers. Lenny suggests trying your hand at the dinner theater. Crane goes on tour through the United States with the piece Beginners Luck , accompanied by Carpenter, with whom he has become reconciled. Together, the men live out their increasingly compulsive, voyeuristic sexuality. Crane lands a role in the Disney film Superdad - Papa is the greatest , but it is a failure.
When no more offers are received, he falls out with his agent Lenny and his marriage to Sigrid fails, Crane realizes that he has to change his lifestyle. He tries to get his erotomania under control, gets in contact with his son from his first marriage and breaks the relationship with Carpenter irrevocably. Unable to cope with the sudden break in his life, he tries repeatedly to get in touch with Crane. One night, a stranger climbs into Crane's apartment in Scottsdale , Arizona , and kills him with a tripod . The closing title reveals that Carpenter was charged as the prime suspect but was acquitted for lack of evidence.
background
Cameras with autofocus technology did not come onto the market until the second half of the 1970s, shortly before Crane's death. In the film, however, the use of this technology is explained by the fact that Carpenter, as a representative of the electronics company Sony, has exclusive access to new developments that are not yet ready for the market. Schrader wanted the film's title to be understood as a paraphrase of Crane's self-centered character.
For background research, Schrader interviewed Crane's first wife, Anne, and his son from his first marriage, Robert David Crane. For dramaturgical reasons, however, Schrader allowed himself artistic freedom. According to Crane's son Robert Scott "Scotty" Crane (from the marriage to Patricia Crane aka Sigrid Valdis) the film contains many misrepresentations. Long before the success of the series A Cage Full of Heroes , his father led a promiscuous life and captured his antics in photos. The joint ventures of Cranes and Carpenters did not begin until 1975, long after the series was discontinued. Also, despite his religious affiliation, his father was not an active churchgoer.
Auto Focus was the third collaboration (after Light Sleeper and The Hunted ) between director and writer Paul Schrader and actor Willem Dafoe .
Auto Focus celebrated its world premiere on September 8, 2002 at the Toronto International Film Festival , before it was shown at other film festivals and was released on October 18, 2002 in selected cinemas in the United States. After grossing US $ 123,761 at 11 properties on the weekend's launch (at an estimated production cost of US $ 7 million), it had grossed US $ 2 million in three months. Although the film does not contain any explicit sexual depictions, it has been censored for the American market. For example, images of an orgy and fellatio on a TV screen were made unrecognizable through blurring.
In Germany the film was released on June 26, 2003. Auto Focus was released on DVD in 2003 in the USA and 2004 in Germany .
criticism
The film received mostly positive reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website counted 112 positive out of 155 professional reviews, which corresponds to a value of 72 percent.
James Berardinelli said on Reelviews.com that Auto Focus is "a compelling film that depicts the American tragedy of the transformation of a family man into an addict".
"The film is a hypnotic portrait of a sad, compulsive life" about a "superficial, lonely and empty man," said Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times , who also praised the performance of the actors. Although the film is full of sex, it does not contain any eroticism.
AO Scott described Auto Focus in the New York Times as a "clinical case study" based on a "well-written script". Since Schrader was very interested in Crane's psyche, Scott suspected that the "staging of this dramatic crisis" was under the cover of "dispassionate objectivity [a] heavy, strong moralism ".
The lexicon of international films saw in Auto Focus a “masterful study of the milieu and time on the social awakening of the western world and its downside, which unfolds the dialectic of self-discovery and loss of reality in the fate of Crane”, whereby it is also referred to as an “encoded parable about the History of New Hollywood ”.
Awards
Auto Focus was nominated for several awards ( Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Greg Kinnear , New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Kinnear and Willem Dafoe), but received nothing in all cases.
Web links
- Autofocus in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Autofocus atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Auto Focus in the German dubbing index
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Auto Focus . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2003 (PDF; test number: 94 119 K).
- ↑ a b c d Interview ( memento from April 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) with Paul Schrader on Film Freak Central
- ↑ a b Article by Scotty Crane in The Stranger , Seattle 24. – 30. October 2002.
- ^ Interview with Paul Schrader on Morphizm.com, accessed October 28, 2011.
- ↑ Article on Mortystv.com, accessed October 28, 2011.
- ↑ a b Auto Focus in the Internet Movie Database .
- ^ Auto Focus on Rottentomatoes.com, accessed October 7, 2011.
- ↑ Review on Reelviews.com, accessed October 7, 2011.
- ↑ Reviewed in the Chicago Sun-Times on October 25, 2002, accessed October 7, 2011.
- ↑ Review in the New York Times of October 4, 2002, accessed October 7, 2011.
- ↑ Auto Focus in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on January 1, 2012.