Looking Back in Anger (1959)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Look back in anger |
| Original title | Look back in Anger |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tony Richardson |
| script |
Nigel Kneale John Osborne based on Osborne's play “Look Back in Anger” (1956) |
| production |
Harry Saltzman Gordon Scott |
| music | Chris Barber |
| camera | Oswald Morris |
| cut | Richard Best |
| occupation | |
| |
Looking Back in Anger is a 1959 British drama film directed by Tony Richardson based on a 1956 film by John Osborne . The main roles are played by Richard Burton and Claire Bloom .
action
Jimmy Porter, 25, has finished college and runs a candy stand with his wife Alison somewhere in a desolate London suburb. Jimmy is deeply disillusioned with his life so far. He just doesn't want to succeed, he is angry with everything and everyone and is extensively despised and hated by his mother-in-law, who was against this marriage from the beginning and lets him feel this every day. Alison and Jimmy come from different walks of life and live in a small attic apartment. While Jimmy often screams outbursts of anger, Alison is a calm, withdrawn person. The constant anger of Jimmy, who comes from the English lower class, is particularly aimed at the middle class, which, with regard to her origins, also includes Alison. Alison tells both roommates, Cliff, with a worried expression, that Jimmy accidentally made her pregnant and doesn't know how to teach Jimmy. Jimmy is getting more and more obnoxious; on Alison's announcement that she is expecting her friend Helena Charles, her insufferable husband reacts very aggressively and surly.
Helena learns from Alison the reasons why she first took Jimmy as a boyfriend and finally married. His rebelliousness made him appear interesting to her, almost like a "knight". As soon as Jimmy enters the room, he immediately begins to piss off Helena. Turned off by his recent failures, the two friends decide to leave, whereupon Jimmy assumes that Alison is cheating on him. The young wife tells her friend that she called her parents so that they could finally free her from this narrow hole and the expanding hell of a relationship. When her father appears, Alison returns with him to her parents' house. Helena wants to send a message to Jimmy through Cliff, but he refuses to accept the letter. Jimmy suddenly appears and threatens his wife's girlfriend. One word leads to another, and finally Helena makes it clear to Jimmy that Alison is pregnant. Although he is surprised, he shows no change in his behavior. Suddenly the mood changes. Passion arises from verbal aggression: Both young people, who have hated each other extensively, literally fall on each other and kiss passionately. Then they let themselves fall on the marriage bed.
Months later, the external situation has calmed down. Helena and Jimmy get on much better, and she is treated much more friendly by the quick-tempered loser of society than his wife Alison. They attend a variety show with Cliff. The eternal roommate explains to the two that he will move out of the Potter attic. Helena, Jimmy and Cliff decide to spend an evening with their mutual friend for the last time as a team of three. Alison appears in the apartment, leaving a sad and dejected impression. Jimmy is not looking at her properly and is obviously not interested in the health of his wife. Alison confesses to Helena that she lost the baby. Helena realizes she misbehaved when she started an affair with her best friend's husband. She decides to go. Jimmy responds to Helen's explanation of her behavior and the subsequent exit with sheer sarcasm. The couple are reconciled again, but there are no signs of hope. Alison goes on living dull, and Jimmy Potter sinks into resignation and self-pity.
Production notes
Looking Back in Anger , Tony Richardson's feature film debut, was shot in 1958 and premiered on May 28, 1959 in London in the presence of Princess Margaret . The German premiere took place on February 26, 1960. On March 23, 1967, the first German television broadcast took place on ARD .
Nigel Davenport , who had already gained a lot of experience in front of television cameras, made his film debut here.
John Addison was in charge of the music surveillance. Peter Glazier designed the film structures, Jocelyn Rickards the costumes.
The film cost around a quarter of a million pounds sterling.
Reviews
“Tony Richardson as director skilfully changed and expanded the story for the film and, with fine empathy, created the atmosphere of today's jazz-obsessed youth who have been thrown off the rails. The film is brilliant, its portrayal brilliant. Richard Burton's Jimmy Porter is a dynamic performance, has dominated the movie and should make many new friends to the former Old Vic star. Mary Ure as Jimmy's wife Alison, who played this role at the world premiere of the play in London - she has since married Osborne - is perhaps even more pathetic in her helpless suffering in the film. Helena - Alison's feisty friend who opposes Jimmy and later falls for it - is one of the best things Claire Bloom has shown in the film so far. Also very good is Gary Raymond as Jimmy's friend Cliff, who cheers up the unbearable whims of the rebel with occasional humor. "
"" The angry British John Osborne's play was cleverly stitched together for film use and, with the help of the author, was re-tailored to suit the cinema ... Director Tony Richardson left the attic apartment (the only location for the play) and photographed the eruptions of the uncontrolled Osborne- Heroes at train stations, in jazz cellars and at a weekly market. To the same extent that the play was enriched with - impressively filmed - scenes and faces, it lost credibility: The 36 year old Richard Burton, as Osborne's Jimmy Porter, is more like a veteran of angry young men. ""
In the Lexicon of International Film it says: "" New Cinema "director Tony Richardson extends the claustrophobic setting of the play by John Osborne and integrates the action into the oppressively realistic milieu study of a dreary British working class suburb. Richard Burton, however, gives the main character a dominance and fascination that largely fades the social environment into the background. "
“Richardson rose to fame with this adaptation made for his own, John Osbornes and Harry Saltzman's company 'Woodfall'. He advanced to become the spokesman for the 'angry young men' in British cinema who attacked the level of current British film entertainment and called for a fundamental change, a revolution in domestic filmmaking. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Looking back in anger. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 6: N - R. Mary Nolan - Meg Ryan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 517.
Web links
- Look Back in Anger at the Internet Movie Database (English)