Birth (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Birth |
| Original title | Birth |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jonathan Glazer |
| script | Jean-Claude Carrière , Milo Addica and Jonathan Glazer |
| production | Lizie Gower , Nick Morris and Jean-Louis Piel |
| music | Alexandre Desplat |
| camera | Harris Savides |
| cut | Sam Sneade and Claus Wehlisch |
| occupation | |
| |
Birth is a feature film of British director Jonathan Glazer from the year 2004 . The Mystery - Drama based on an original screenplay Glazers that he and Jean-Claude Carriere and Milo Addica adapted for the screen.
action
New York City , in winter - ten years after her husband's death, Anna decided to marry her new boyfriend Joseph after years of courting. Both give a reception announcing their imminent marriage, but one day later at Anna's mother Eleanor's birthday party, a ten-year-old boy suddenly appears in the dining room and wants to talk to Anna in private. In the kitchen the boy replies that he is Sean, Anna's first husband who died years ago. Amazed and at the same time horrified, she sends the boy away, believing that she has fallen victim to a bitter joke. She tells the strange incident to her family, who also do not take this incident seriously. But a day later a letter arrives in which it is written in clumsy children's handwriting that Anna should not marry Joseph. Both Anna and her fiancé feel harassed by the boy, and they talk to his father, who as a private tutor regularly gives lessons to the neighbors and takes Sean with him to the luxurious apartment complex. In conversation with his father, Anna and Joseph, Sean does not want to give in that he may not see Anna again in the future. He collapses after Anna explains that the boy should leave her alone. Anna observes Sean's collapse and later goes to an opera to suffer mental agony herself. Is her late husband actually reborn in the boy?
Days later, Sean arranged a meeting in the park, Anna would know where. In fact, she meets the boy under the exact bridge where her husband collapsed while running. But when Anna still doesn't want to believe the boy, he demands a test. To prove that he is Sean, Anna is supposed to ask him questions that only her late husband can answer. Bob, Anna's brother-in-law and former doctor, records the conversation with the boy, who reveals facts only the real Sean can know. Even with a second test in Anna's mother's apartment, Sean can demonstrate knowledge of intimate details from Anna's marriage. Anna then gives in to spend a day with the boy to take away his delusions. Before she picks up Sean from school, however, she pays a visit to Clara and Clifford, who were close friends of her late husband. She tells the couple, who also attended the reception, about the mysterious incident and asks Clifford to tell the boy to leave as she begins to fall in love with Sean again.
Meanwhile, Anna's fiancé Joseph feels more and more overwhelmed by the unusual situation and believes that Anna is falling for a fool. He sees the boy as a competitor who stands between him and a future life with Anna. His fears are confirmed when his fiancée forgets an appointment to view an apartment while she spends the day with Sean. Anna got more and more lost in the idea that her late husband had actually come back to her. She asks the boy how he should feed her and how he can satisfy her sexual needs. When Anna is in the bathtub that evening, Sean comes into the bathroom, undresses and joins her in the tub. He pretends to look at his wife . Joseph hears their common voices in the bathroom and notices that the door is locked. Anna asks Sean to leave, but lets him attend a private concert that evening, at which the music for their planned wedding will be performed on a trial basis. This tries to make it clear to the boy that Anna's marriage to Joseph is imminent. Joseph is tense and unable to contain his anger at the boy. He grabs Sean and tries to beat him up, but is held back by the other family members. Sean escapes from the apartment, Anna follows him and both are watched by Bob as they kiss in the street.
Hours after the scene, Clifford comes into the apartment where Joseph is just starting to pack his things and move out. He finds Anna dissolved in the dark kitchen. The boy seems to recognize his old friend Clifford and falls into his arms, but in a private conversation, Clifford tells Anna that the 10-year-old cannot be Sean. However, Anna does not want to listen to him and constantly contradicts him. Falling under the illusion that she has found her still deeply loved first husband in the boy, she plans to run away with Sean. However, the illusion is destroyed by Clara, who was the secret lover of Anna's husband. The deceased had an affair with her and as proof of his love he entrusted her with Anna's unopened love letters. At the reception, Clara wanted to give Anna as a malicious gift, but then had remorse and buried the letters in the nearby park. The boy had followed Clara, found the letters, and got into the idea of being Anna's husband.
After Anna offers Sean to run away with him until he comes of age, he reveals to her that he is not her deceased husband. Anna realizes that she has fled into a false belief. She returns to her fiancé Joseph, who forgives her. Both are getting married by the sea in May as planned. However, during the wedding, Anna makes a suicide attempt. She tries to go into the water, but is saved from it by Joseph.
reception
The chamber play-like drama Birth met with very little approval from critics and audiences in the USA . Jonathan Glazer's metaphysical love story has been too closely associated with the themes of pedophilia and child abuse . In particular, a scene in which at the time of filming, 11-year-old co-star Cameron Bright takes a bath with Nicole Kidman, angry critics, despite assurances that both actors were wearing skin-colored bathing suits. In the USA alone, the film only brought in a quarter of its estimated production costs of 20 million US dollars and was dubbed a financial flop at the box office. Birth was similarly received in Europe , where lead actress Nicole Kidman was even booed for her disturbing role at the film's premiere at the 2004 Venice Film Festival .
Remarks
- Nicole Kidman received a salary of $ 15 million for the lead role in Jonathan Glazer's drama. So far, this has only been topped by Nora Ephron's comedy In Love with a Witch and Sydney Pollack's thriller The Interpreter (both 2005 ) for which the Australian actress received 17.5 million US dollars (July 2005).
Reviews
"More exciting and unusual than anything you've seen before."
“It is one thing that his (Glazers) work provokes discussions and makes you think. The other, the technical one, he solved perfectly. The gloomy, colorless images by cameraman Harris Savides ('The Game'; 'Elephant') underline the supernatural nature of the plot as well as the angular, somewhat old-fashioned, autumnal brown tones production design by Kevin Thompson and the spherical music by Alexandre Desplat. The excellent actors around Kidman and Bright, above all Huston as a jealous fiancé and Arliss Howard as the melancholy brother-in-law Bob do the rest to give 'Birth' enough independence compared to related genre highlights. "
"A wonderful mystery of crystal clear beauty."
“Ex-commercial filmmaker Jonathan Glazer remains true to his line after his remarkable directorial debut 'Sexy Beast' and once again presents original and disturbing things, this time even supernatural. His reincarnation drama, which ran in the 2004 competition in Venice, is on the one hand an almost philosophical treatise on the subject of rebirth, on the other hand it is also a scandalous love story by US standards - between 'interpreter' Nicole Kidman and young hope Cameron Bright (' Godsend '). For art house adepts and Kidman fans. "
“Questions upon questions that turn this film into elegantly protracted guesswork. Until director Jonathan Glazer is so succinctly satisfying the pent-up need for explanation that it amounts to coitus interruptus. Kidman fans may forgive that, for others it remains a piece of nonsense filmed in style on the subject of reincarnation. "
Awards
Nicole Kidman was nominated for the seventh time for a Golden Globe for her portrait of Anna, who believes in the rebirth of her late husband, and for the fourth time in her career by the American Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films as Best Actress nominated for a Saturn Award . Nicole Kidman's teenage co-star Cameron Bright and the score for the French composer Alexandre Desplat were also considered for several film awards .
The German Film and Media Evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.
Golden Globe 2005
- nominated in the category Best Actress - Drama ( Nicole Kidman )
Further
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films 2005
Nominated in the categories
- Best movie
- Best Actress (Nicole Kidman)
- Best Young Actor ( Cameron Bright )
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2005
- nominated for Best Young Actor (Cameron Bright)
Catalonian International Film Festival 2004
- Best director
- nominated as best film
Online Film Critics Society Awards 2005
- nominated for the best film music
- nominated for the Golden Lion for best film
- nominated for Best Young Actor (Cameron Bright)
literature
- Eberhard Ostermann: Love or Marriage? The problem of partner choice in “Birth”. In: ders .: The film count. Eight exemplary analyzes. Fink, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7705-4562-9 , pp. 95-111.
Web links
- Official German site for the film
- Birth in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- birthmovie.com - Official website for the film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Age designation for Birth . Youth Media Commission .