The Canterville Ghost (1996)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Canterville Ghost |
| Original title | The Canterville Ghost |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1996 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sydney Macartney |
| script | Robert Benedetti |
| production | Robert Benedetti |
| music | Ernest Troost |
| camera | Dennis C. Lewiston |
| cut |
Jim Oliver Paul Martin Smith |
| occupation | |
| |
The Canterville Ghost (English title: The Canterville Ghost ) is an American television film directed by Sydney Macartney in 1996. The film is based on the short story by Oscar Wilde . Ernest Troost's score was awarded an Emmy in 1996.
action
The family of an American physicist moves to a rural area of England for four months on a research assignment. The father is already at Canterville Hall Castle, which he has rented , when his wife arrives with their pubescent daughter Virginia and their younger brothers Adam and Washington. An old couple lives in the castle and is part of the inventory as a butler and cook.
Virginia is fascinated at first sight by a painting in the ancestral gallery showing Sir Simon de Canterville, a sixteenth-century ancestor of the family. At first she is bored of staying in the old walls, but this soon changes with the visit of young Francis, Duke of the neighboring property.
Already in the first night the castle ghost, whose presence can initially only be assumed by hints of the domestic workers and the villagers, rattles chains and moans through the rooms, but does not yet show itself to the family. At breakfast, both the boys and Virginia talk about the nocturnal noises, but their father, who as a scientist does not believe in supernatural phenomena, is not heard. Even a stain of blood in front of the fireplace, which, according to the cook, has been there for centuries and has so far not been removed by anything, does not impress the parents and is quickly wiped away by the mother with a stain remover.
In the following nights, the ghost, which is Sir Simon shown in the painting, appears to the children in a visible form, but is unable to frighten the boys or Virginia in the long term. The parents, awakened by the noise, cannot see the spirit at first because (as will be explained later) they do not believe in it. The ghost renews the blood stain with the oil paints from Virginia - after the mother repeatedly removes it - also in green. The father suspects his daughter of staging the nightly haunted actions to induce the family to leave the unloved England.
Virginia eventually finds a secret passage that leads to the ghost's dungeon . After Sir Simon initially feels disturbed by her, he befriends Virginia in the following days and shows her the right way in her relationship with Francis, with whom she has since fallen in love. Since her father wants to send her back to her aunt in America after another nightly scandal, she stages a play with Sir Simon with herself in the role of Hamlet and the ghost in the role of the ghost of Hamlet's father. She hopes to convince her father of the ghost's existence (and her innocence in the nightly actions) because she no longer wants to leave because of her love for Francis.
This does not succeed, even because Sir Simon interrupts the performance, but she visits the ghost again in his dungeon, whereupon the ghost tells her his story of love, betrayal and jealousy, which finally led to his wife's suicide. Found guilty of himself and the family of the dead, Sir Simon was chained in his dungeon, where he died in agony and has found no rest for four hundred years. According to an old prophecy, he only finds redemption through a virgin who asks for forgiveness for him and accompanies him to the realm of the dead.
Virginia is ready to do so and disappears at midnight with Sir Simon, which causes the whole family and the villagers to conduct a desperate search the next day. Finally, at midnight of the following day, her family and Francis pull her back through the briefly opening gate of the realm of the dead in the library. All go into the dungeon with the bony remains of Sir Simon that are now there; then the other parts of the prophecy come true: the broken bell of the castle chapel rings and the withered almond tree in the courtyard begins to bloom. Sir Simon is buried in the garden under the statue of a stone angel next to his beloved wife. The family can stay on Canterville indefinitely because of an extension of the research project and the gratitude of the castle owner, Lord George Canterville, for having redeemed his ancestor.
background
The Canterville Ghost was filmed in Knebworth House , Stevenage and Hertfordshire . The film first ran on January 27, 1996 on American television, and in Germany on October 3, 1996. The film has been available on DVD since October 5, 2012.
Reviews
Peter Osteried at Kino-Zeit.de writes: “The Canterville Ghost is a sweet but not kitschy family film that lives from large presentations and an appealing staging. However, anyone who speaks English should definitely look at the original to enjoy Patrick Stewart's Shakespeare intonation. "
The critics of the TV magazine TV Spielfilm think: "After a bumpy start, the Hallmark production is turning into a loose slapstick." Conclusion: "Successful adaptation with teen appeal."
Web links
- The Canterville Ghost in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Filming locations at Internet Movie Database , accessed February 17, 2016.
- ^ The Canterville Ghost at filmstarts.de, accessed on February 17, 2016.
- ↑ Von der Enterprise nach Canterville ( Memento from September 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) at kino-zeit.de, accessed on February 17, 2016.
- ↑ TV ghost comedy based on Oscar Wilde at tvspielfilm.de , accessed on February 17, 2016.