Calabuig
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Calabuig |
| Original title | Calabuch |
| Country of production |
Spain Italy |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luis García Berlanga |
| script |
Leonardo Martín Fiorentino Soria Ennio Flaiano Luis García Berlanga based on an idea by Leonardo Martín |
| production | José Luís Jerez for Aguila (Madrid) / Costellazione (Rome) |
| music | Guido Guerrini |
| camera | Francisco Sempere |
| cut | Pepita Orduña |
| occupation | |
| |
Calabuig is a Spanish-Italian comedy film directed by Luis García Berlanga in 1956 and starring 80-year-old Hollywood actor Edmund Gwenn in the leading role of a bizarre rocket builder.
action
The old, famous rocket specialist and nuclear physicist Professor George Hamilton has retired to a small Spanish fishing village on the Mediterranean coast called Calabuig (in the original: Calabuch ), where he is secluded and incognito. He gave up his job because he had to realize, disillusioned, that his research serves exclusively the military complex. One day the rumor got around that this strange and also a little scary foreigner to the locals must be an accomplice of the smuggler Langosta. As a result, Hamilton is temporarily locked in the village prison. As luck would have it, this is where the emeritus got to know Langosta for the first time, who is as harmless as he is rascal. Langosta shows Hamilton that everything is handled very loosely here in town. For example, everyone locked up can go in and out of prison as they please.
Langosta first introduces the professor to the village community: There is, for example, the pretty teacher, then the pastor and the lighthouse keeper and finally the village policeman, who is just as harmless as everyone else. Hamilton's encounter with the lighthouse keeper allowed both of them to develop the idea of constructing a rocket as the highlight of the planned pyrotechnic fireworks for the upcoming summer festival. Since Hamilton is an absolute expert in this kind of thing, it is easy for him to get the components and put them together. The local newspaper immediately reported on this story, presented as a "sensation". However, this has the consequence that Hamilton's well-kept secret about his origin, his incognito, is revealed. A huge hustle and bustle arises around him: Calabuig is cordoned off from the curious, a helicopter picks him up from his retreat. In the face of all this hype, Hamilton swears this missile will be his last and returns to his homeland unnerved.
production
Calabuig was filmed in and around Peñíscola and premiered in Madrid on October 1, 1956. The film opened in Germany on April 18, 1958. On April 3, 1961, the film was broadcast for the first time on ARD .
For the film veteran Gwenn, this should be the last cinema production. He then retired, like his rocket builder Hamilton.
A village called Calabuch does not exist in Spain, but one with the name chosen for the German title: Calabuig in Catalonia .
Awards
- 1956: OCIC Prize, International Prize and Award of the Italian Film Critics at the Venice Film Festival for Berlanga, who was also nominated for the Golden Lion .
- 1956: Premio del Sindicato Nacional del Espectáculo for the categories Best Film, Best Supporting Actor ( Juan Calvo ) and Best Dialogue.
- 1957: CEC Prize for Best Supporting Actor (Juan Calvo) and Best Original Story (Leonardo Martín).
Reviews
Reclam's film guide wrote about Calabuig: “Berlanga has made another comedy with a serious background. This time it is about the responsibility of the scientist for the consequences of his research. The subject is undoubtedly treated in a very popular way, but food for thought is given. And if the "simple life" seems a little romanticized, then a number of bizarre and cleverly sketched types make up for it. "
Kay Wenigers The film's great personal lexicon called the film a "cheerful and contemplative social satire."
Handbook V of the Catholic Film Critics stated: "A cheerful film that is in love with Spanish reality and has so many artistic and human virtues that it is highly recommended."
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "Semi-satirical Ealing-type comedy which starts engagingly but runs out of steam".
The lexicon of international films writes: "A cheerful and optimistic film about the nature of human happiness, whose artistic qualities find their lovable expression in the optical realization of a piece of an intact world."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 249. Stuttgart 1973.
- ↑ 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 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 454.
- ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945/58, 4th edition, Düsseldorf 1980, p. 58
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 163
- ↑ Translation: "Semi-satirical comedy in the Ealing style, which starts quickly, but which soon runs out of air".
- ↑ Calabuig in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on May 17, 2014.
Web links
- Calabuig in the Internet Movie Database (English)