Black Moon (1975)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Black moon |
| Original title | Black moon |
| Country of production | France , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1975 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Louis Malle |
| script | Louis Malle, Joyce Buñuel , Ghislain Uhry |
| production | Claude Nejar |
| music |
Diego Masson , Richard Wagner |
| camera | Sven Nykvist |
| cut | Suzanne Baron |
| occupation | |
| |
Black Moon is a surrealist fantasy film by French director Louis Malle , shot in 1975 in France , Germany and Italy .
action
In order to escape a bloody civil war between men and women, the young Lily flees by car and comes across a remote property in the middle of almost untouched nature. Strange things are already happening in the immediate vicinity of the rural dwelling: flowers make plaintive noises when you step on them, a shaggy unicorn crosses the path as a matter of course, naked children run along one path together with a big pig and one on one The woman pulling the black horse looks at Lily for a short time before she makes her way back to the house in silence.
Lily also discovers the unexpected in the fairytale-like house. When she reaches for an oversized glass full of milk to quench her thirst, a small but loudly grunting domestic pig is noticeable, sitting in a child's chair at the table. Slightly irritated, she then searches for the human occupants of the house and ultimately finds what she is looking for: an old lady is lying in bed in one room, debating with a rat in a foreign language. After a short and unproductive dialogue between Lily and the old lady, she turns to a radio and describes Lily's appearance, but also mentions that Lily must be stupid and think there is a war going on.
“She has a very vivid imagination, you know, she hears things. Grenades, machine guns [...]. She thinks there's a war going on! But that's not all. A little while ago, she thought she saw a unicorn! "
“She has a very vivid imagination, you know, she hears things. Grenades, machine guns [...]. She thinks there is war! But that's not all. Recently she thought she saw a unicorn! "
Now a man in the garden attracts attention by loudly singing an aria from Richard Wagner's Mastersingers . Lily then learns from him that his name is also Lily and that he and his sister, who is also called Lily, live on the property.
Little by little, she begins to get used to life in this strange world and later actively participates in it. So she even offers the old lady her breast to drink and plays the piano accompaniment to the second act of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde while the naked children sing.
At the end you see Lily lying on the bed after an unsuccessful attempt to contact the outside world with the radio set while a snake crawls under her skirt. Then she prepares to offer her breast to the unicorn as well.
background
Louis Malle takes up many well-known motifs in Black Moon . What is particularly striking are the similarities with Lewis Carroll's children 's book Alice in Wonderland , which also tells of a girl in a strange world in which logic does not follow the previously applicable laws. Due to the alleged lack of originality and the obscure narrative style, the film did not have much success in the cinema after its release. Nevertheless, he is valued by many viewers today, especially because of Nykvist's impressive pictures. Malle himself called the film " a mythological fairy tale that lies in the near future ".
Black Moon was the last feature film that Therese Giehse worked on before her death on March 3, 1975. Malle then dedicated this film to her.
Premieres
- France September 24th 1975
- Germany February 12th 1976
Reviews
The value of Black Moon is quite controversial among critics . The online magazine schnitt.de is particularly enthusiastic about the depth of the film:
“ Louis Male's metaphorical ingenuity is striking and creates a psychedelic new version of the Alice motif with a huge range of associations that encompasses the entire history of mankind. But you quickly notice that you don't have to understand all of this as a logical whole, and so the initial interpretive tension gives way to an unclouded, sensual pleasure that may be even greater through the use of drugs. "
In contrast, filmtext.com accuses Malle of “ riddling ” what is actually a simple matter:
“ Didn't you find out? Neither do I. And I don't even feel like looking up the manual of basic psychoanalytic concepts. Successful mythologemes are characterized by the compelling fluency with which the semi-rational action drills into us. That is how it is in Goethe's 'Märchen', and that is how it is with Alice in Wonderland. It's not like that with Louis Malle. "
The film historian Ulrich Gregor judges the film in his standard work on the history of film since 1960:
“ The film, which is loaded with peculiar symbols, irritates more than it fascinates; partly made shiny, he plays a confusing game with encrypted dream images. "
Awards
Two awards for Black Moon followed at the French César film award . Sven Nykvist won in the Best Cinematography category , Luc Perini and Nara Kollery in the Best Sound category .
Web links
- Black Moon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b arsenal.de: Films by Louis Malle ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) . March 2006.
- ↑ a b schnitt.de: criticism of Mark Stöhr ( Memento of 27 September 2007 at the Internet Archive ) . June 11, 2007.
- ↑ a b filmtext.com: criticism of Jabok Hesler . June 11, 2007.
- ^ Ulrich Gregor, History of the Film from 1960. Bertelsmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-570-00816-9 , p. 40