Contagion (film)

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Movie
German title Contagion
Original title Contagion
Country of production United States ,
United Arab Emirates
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Steven Soderbergh
script Scott Z. Burns
production Michael Shamberg
Stacey Sher
Gregory Jacobs
music Cliff Martinez
camera Steven Soderbergh
cut Stephen Mirrione
occupation

Contagion (Engl. For "contagion") is a thriller from the year 2011 by director Steven Soderbergh , a pandemic of a deadly virus discussed.

action

Mitch Emhoff's second wife, Beth, is returning to Minneapolis from a business trip to Asia after meeting a former lover on a layover in Chicago . Her health is in poor health, has a fever and coughing fits. Shortly after her consciousness clouded over, she collapsed and was taken by Mitch to the hospital, where she died. Clark - her son from her first marriage - also dies while Mitch is in Beth's hospital. Mitch is taken into quarantine , but later turns out to be immune to the pathogen from which Beth - according to the doctors' suspected diagnosis - died. Jory, Mitch's daughter by first marriage, was not in the house when Beth came home from the business trip, so she doesn't get sick. In the following, Mitch keeps Jory in quarantine at home.

When a pandemic breaks out, the World Health Organization (WHO) initiates the search for a vaccine. In Atlanta , employees of the Department of Homeland Security meet with Dr. Ellis Cheever of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for fear of a bioweapons attack over Thanksgiving weekend. Cheever hires Dr. Erin Mears with flying to Minneapolis and tracking down everyone who had contact with Beth. In doing so, she becomes infected and dies. Meanwhile, Dr. Leonora Orantes, WHO epidemiologist , went to Asia to determine the history of the pathogen's spread. In addition, the medical professionals make it their task to bring the panic that is spreading rapidly in the population under control. They estimate that one person in twelve of the world's population will be infected with a mortality rate of 25-30%.

The blogger and conspiracy theorist Alan Krumwiede tries to increase the number of visitors to his blog by promoting the ineffective homeopathic preparation " Forsythia " as a remedy.

As the virus spreads worldwide, several cities are being quarantined, leading to hamster purchases, looting and violence.

In the meantime, Dr. Ally Hextall to isolate, analyze and breed the virus. It turns out that it contains the genome of swine and bat viruses. This can now be used to make a vaccine, but the quantities are insufficient to vaccinate large numbers of people quickly. All over the world, kidnappings and extortions occur in order to get a vaccine sooner. Dr. Orantes is kidnapped and released in exchange for a shipment of vaccine that turns out to be a placebo . In the USA the vaccination dates will be raffled in a raffle. Krumwiede is arrested by the Department of Homeland Security, but is released when readers of his blog bail him out. After Jory's friend receives a vaccination, she is allowed to meet with him again.

Finally, a scene shows the beginning of the pandemic. A bat is startled by a bulldozer from the American mining company where Beth works. The bat flies with a piece of banana into the hall of a pig farmer and drops it there. A pig eats the piece of banana and is later bought by a casino chef. The chef cooks the pork but doesn't wash his hands before shaking hands with Beth in the casino.

Emergence

Soderbergh received support for the production of the film from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US agency for the protection of public health.

According to the director, production costs were $ 60 million. It was filmed in Atlanta , Chicago , Minneapolis , Dubai , Japan , Switzerland , Great Britain , Brazil , Russia , Malaysia , Hong Kong and San Francisco , among others .

The film shows clear parallels to the real pandemics SARS (2002 and 2003) and COVID-19 (2020).

publication

The cinema release in the USA was on September 9, 2011, in Germany on October 20, 2011.

The film received renewed attention in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic of 2019 and 2020 and became Warner Bros. Entertainment's second most sought-after film as the virus spread . Since then, it has been one of the most viewed films by streaming providers .

reception

Reviews

This section consists only of a cunning collection of quotes from movie reviews. Instead, a summary of the reception of the film should be provided as continuous text, which can also include striking quotations, see also the explanations in the film format .

"Attractively cast with a star ensemble, but told in a cool and distant manner, the thriller does not rely on the mechanisms of a disaster spectacle or on drastic body horror, but shocked by the credibility and scientific accuracy of the scenario described."

“We are networked to death: The furious virus shocker 'Contagion' shows how rapidly diseases are spreading in times of globalization. Despite big stars like Kate Winslet or Matt Damon, the film is convincing as a joint effort. "

- David Kleingers - The mirror

“Soderbergh can quickly and efficiently tell how the epidemic is spreading, how the countermeasures are organized by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and the World Health Organization in Geneva. He has a firm grip on the widespread network of narrative threads, and yet he hardly manages to evoke real sympathy. "

- Rainer Gansera - Süddeutsche Zeitung

“[…] It does the film good that both communicators of the crisis are ambivalent characters, with whom the common good has a hard time asserting itself against personal interests. Stock market speculation in pharmaceutical stocks is just as much a part of this multifaceted horror vision as conspiracy theories and obscure miracle cures. [...] The intellectual Soderbergh is not exactly known as a sentimentalist, and here, too, his cool head protects him from the overly bold. Usually, disaster films are full of heartbreaking death and farewell scenes. Soderbergh prefers to show two helpers talking about when they ran out of body bags. "

- Daniel Kothenschulte - Berliner Zeitung

“[...] it is simply impressive how well Soderbergh knows his craft. He gives the genre what it needs with great elegance and can do without the usual mythological lard of class, race and gender reconciliation in times of need. His camera traces the movement of its protagonists with surgical precision and takes a look at the change between people. Greetings, farewells, touchpads passed on, grab handles in the subway. Little things that determine our social life and now mark the path of the pathogen. What defines a person, his longing for closeness and contact, becomes the transmission route of the deadly germ. That is essentially the drama of "Contagion". And that's, well, touching. "

- Birgit Glombitza - The daily newspaper

“Like his appropriately chosen electronic soundtrack, Soderbergh's thriller is close to the zeitgeist and the present. 'Contagion' is also an extremely globalized film, which shows once again how much the modern world is intertwined with the world maps that are repeatedly shown in the picture, the many locations from Hong Kong to London to Chicago and the rapid spread of the pathogen across continents takes effect: Lying alone off Madagascar with the plague on board, that was yesterday. "

- Christian Horn - floodlights

Awards

The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) awarded the film the rating “valuable”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Release certificate for Contagion . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2011 (PDF; test number: 129 564 K).
  2. Age rating for Contagion . Youth Media Commission .
  3. a b How do you explain a cinema flop, Mr Soderbergh? , FAZ.net of March 2, 2012
  4. Filming locations in the IMDb
  5. Corona and no end: Suddenly Steven Soderbergh's “Contagion” is a hit , accessed on March 9, 2020
  6. Contagion, Steven Soderbergh's 2011 Thriller, Is Climbing Up the Charts , accessed March 9, 2020
  7. ^ Contagion. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. Film review Death Comes with the Touchscreen from October 20, 2011
  9. Film review Clinically cold, we enjoy the catastrophe of October 20, 2011
  10. ^ Film review Mutated Swine Flu from October 18, 2011
  11. Film review A virus knows no morals from October 20, 2011
  12. Welt in Angst ( Memento from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) from October 20, 2011
  13. ^ FBW press release