Being John Malkovich

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Movie
German title Being John Malkovich
Original title Being John Malkovich
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1999
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Spike Jonze
script Charlie Kaufman
production Steve Golin ,
Vincent Landay ,
Sandy Stern ,
Michael Stipe
music Carter Burwell
camera Lance Acord
cut Eric Zumbrunnen
occupation

Being John Malkovich is a comedy film produced in 1999 and the most commercially successful film by director Spike Jonze to date . Charlie Kaufman wrote the script . The film opened in German cinemas on May 4, 2000.

action

Craig Schwartz is a talented but unsuccessful puppeteer . He is mostly just ignored by his audience, as his top-heavy performances are as melancholy as they are demanding. The relationship with his wife Lotte is also unhappy. She cares more about numerous animals that she looks after in her basement apartment than about him. At Lotte's suggestion, he applied for a job at a company on floor 7½ of an office building in Manhattan . The floor can only be reached by an emergency stop of the elevator and is only half as high as the other floors. All employees must therefore bend down when walking. Craig gets the job and meets a delightful colleague, Maxine. She treats him condescendingly and coolly in his advances. Only with a trick does Craig manage to meet Maxine.

A short time later, Craig accidentally discovers a small door behind a filing cabinet that leads directly into the head of actor John Malkovich . Craig is literally sucked into the actor through a tunnel. He feels and sees like John Malkovich and participates directly in his life as an observer. The absurd trip lasts 15 minutes, after which Craig is thrown back out of nowhere next to the New Jersey Turnpike , a freeway from New York to the south.

Maxine now begins to exploit this experience together with Craig. They found JM Inc. and sell nightly trips into Malkovich's brain for $ 200 to people who have always wanted to be someone else. Lotte also enjoys being John Malkovich. She also fell in love with Maxine. Maxine in turn loves Lotte, but only when Lotte is in Malkovich. Maxine meets Malkovich several times to be with Lotte at certain times. The jealous Craig intercepts Lotte and puts her tied up in the cage of her chimpanzee, who later frees her. He gets into Malkovich's brain himself to be with Maxine. Craig discovers that he can not only control Malkovich's movements like those of his puppets, but also master his language.

Malkovich then becomes suspicious and follows Maxine into the office building at night. He meets a number of people who all want to be him. Craig and Maxine have to allow Malkovich to crawl into his own head through the portal. Here, inside, Malkovich is now amazed at countless Malkovichs, all of whom are different, but all of whom are him too. The only word he sees and hears written is "Malkovich". When he is thrown out again at the New Jersey Turnpike, he forbids Craig any further use of the portal. However, Craig makes an appointment with Maxine in Malkovich and eventually gains uninterrupted control of Malkovich through training. Maxine is fascinated by the power she has over Craig and therefore over Malkovich. The two get married. Craig reorientates Malkovich professionally, he lets him give up acting and become a puppeteer. In this job, Craig finally celebrates as John Malkovich those successes with the audience and in the media that he could only dream of in his identity as Craig.

Meanwhile, Lotte, scorned by Maxine, seeks consolation from Craig's eccentric, aged employer Dr. Lester, who lets her in on his plan: He wants to live forever and has been entering new "host bodies" through the portal for a while. Together with a group of elderly people, he wants to enter this new body on Malkovich's 44th birthday. He warns Lotte not to use the portal later, because then you will no longer end up in Malkovich, but in a completely different consciousness and then forever trapped in it as a powerless observer. Lotte tells him that Malkovich is controlled by Craig.

Eight months later, Maxine, who is now pregnant, is kidnapped by Lester and the old people. The group keeps her trapped near the portal and demands that Craig leave Malkovich's body. He is torn between his career as a puppeteer and Maxine's life. Meanwhile, the still disappointed Lotte confronts and threatens Maxine, who escapes through the portal in Malkovich. Lotte follows her. As Craig keeps Malkovich's consciousness occupied, the two stumble in a wild chase through repressed memories in Malkovich's subconscious . When both women leave Malkovich's body, Maxine confesses to Lotte that she only wanted to keep her child because it was from Lotte in Malkovich. The two discover that they actually love each other, and they drive away together just when Craig leaves Malkovich's body to save Maxine. He looks after them desperately. Malkovich's regained freedom from the consciousness of others only lasts for a short time, however, as the group of older people now enters the portal and takes control of it.

Seven years later, Malkovich, now controlled by Craig's ex-employer, introduces his friend Charlie Sheen to the next landlord: Maxine and Lotte's daughter in Malkovich. In a final idyllic scene of Maxine, Lotte and their daughter Emily, the voice over makes it clear that Craig has re-entered the portal after the elderly and is now trapped in the little girl's consciousness.

backgrounds

The film was in Los Angeles , in Long Beach ( California ) and New Jersey turned. Its production cost was 13 million US dollars estimated.

Kaufman said in a 2008 interview that he wrote the script without knowing who director Spike Jonze (who was famous at the time for his various directing and producing music videos ) was. Apparently, he had also been offered by John Malkovich at the beginning that he (Malkovich) would direct this film if the subject of the film was anyone else.

The next collaboration between Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman in the constellation of direction / screenplay took place in the bizarre film drama Adaption , which was released in 2002 . Nicolas Cage plays the main character named Charlie Kaufmann, who is shown briefly at the beginning of the film during the (re-enactment) filming of Being John Malkovich .

reception

Theatrical release

The film played in the United States around 23 million dollars and reached about 4.4 million moviegoers. A total of around 2.6 million cinema visitors were counted in Europe. It was most successful in France, where around 750,000 people saw the film; Germany came in second with 420,000 moviegoers, followed by Great Britain with 400,000 and the comparatively small Austria with a surprising 310,000 moviegoers. In Switzerland the film reached around 60,000 cinema-goers.

Reviews

Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times on October 29, 1999 that the film was "a clever, brilliant, and quirky fantasy" that was "unique, unpredictable and more than a little weird." He asks philosophical questions about reality and identity "in an ingenious way" . John Cusack, Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener would look different from any other of their films and would have energy, daring and enthusiasm for the unusual. The director's talent makes it possible to handle the highly unusual plot as if it were about completely normal situations.

The lexicon of international films wrote: "A comedy overflowing with imagination, which occasionally tends to go too far, but ultimately convinces with its wealth of ideas, polished dialogues and a wonderful, playful cast."

The critic Joanna Berry writes in her review that director Jonze is transforming one of the craziest scripts into one of “the most imaginative Hollywood films of recent years.” In particular, she pays tribute to the performance of the four main actors whom director Jonze “gorgeous cast”. The director amazes with every twist, this subversive and comical story. Overall, she concluded with the verdict "Wonderfully funky, absolutely gorgeous."

Awards

Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Catherine Keener were nominated for an Oscar in 2000. The film for Best Picture - Comedy or Musical , Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener and Charlie Kaufman were nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 2000. Spike Jonze was nominated for the César in 2000. Charlie Kaufman received the BAFTA Award in 2000 , for which Cameron Diaz and the film editor Eric Zumbrunnen were also nominated.

The film and Charlie Kaufman won the Independent Spirit Award in 2000 . John Cusack was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award. The film and Charlie Kaufman won the Saturn Award in 2000 , Catherine Keener was nominated for the same award. The film and Catherine Keener won the 2000 Golden Satellite Award , for which Cameron Diaz and Charlie Kaufman were also nominated.

The cast, Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award in 2000. The film won the GLAAD Media Award in 2000 . John Malkovich won the American Comedy Award in 2000 , for which the film and Cameron Diaz were also nominated. Cameron Diaz was also nominated for the Teen Choice Award in 2000. Spike Jonze received the MTV Movie Award in 2000 .

Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Catherine Keener received the Online Film Critics Society Award in 2000 . The six other nominees for this award included John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, and the film itself for Best Picture . The film as Best Picture and Charlie Kaufman won in 2000 and the National Society of Film Critics Award . Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Catherine Keener won the Chlotrudis Award in 2000 . Charlie Kaufman was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award in 2000.

Spike Jonze, John Malkovich and Catherine Keener received the New York Film Critics Circle Award in 1999 . Charlie Kaufman received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award , the Toronto Film Critics Association Award and the San Diego Film Critics Society Award in the same year, and the Santa Fe Film Critics Circle Award in 2000 . Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, and Eric Zumbrunnen received the 2000 Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award (Sierra Award) ; The five other nominations for the same award included the nominations for John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener. Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, and Film of the Year won the 2001 London Critics Circle Film Award , for which John Cusack was also nominated.

Spike Jonze was nominated for the Empire Award and the Bodil in 2001, Charlie Kaufman for the Nebula Award in the same year .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Age rating for Being John Malkovich . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ^ Filming locations for Being John Malkovich, accessed November 27, 2007
  3. ^ Box office / business for Being John Malkovich, accessed November 27, 2007
  4. ↑ a b Berry, Joanna: Being John Malkovich (1999) . In: Schneider, Steven Jay, Ueberle-Pfaff, Maja (ed.): 1001 films that you should see before life is over. Selected and presented by 77 international film critics. Twelfth, updated new edition. Edition Olms, Oetwil am See 2017, ISBN 978-3-283-01243-4 , p. 875 .
  5. ↑ Box Office Mojo (accessed May 20, 2008)
  6. ↑ a b Lumiere - database of film attendance figures in Europe (page accessed on May 20, 2008)
  7. ↑ Kenneth Turan's film review, accessed November 27, 2007
  8. ^ Being John Malkovich in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed November 27, 2007