Life is a novel
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Life is a novel |
| Original title | La Vie est un roman |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1983 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alain Resnais |
| script | Jean Gruault |
| production | Philippe Dussart |
| music | Michel Philippe-Gérard |
| camera | Bruno Nuytten |
| cut |
Jean-Pierre Besnard , Albert Jurgenson |
| occupation | |
| |
Life is a novel (original title: La Vie est un roman ) is a French feature film by Alain Resnais from 1983. It is a mixture of film comedy , melodrama , fairy tale film and Singspiel .
action
In 1914, the rich and eccentric Count Michel Forbek assembled a company on a large area in the Ardennes where he wanted to build a pompous castle. However, the First World War delayed construction work, so that five years later the castle is still not ready. Nevertheless, he invites his wealthy friends to spend several weeks at the castle to take part in an experiment. In search of happiness and new harmony that was lost through the war, experiment should turn them into new people. They forget their old life through a mysterious drink and regain consciousness in an ominous ceremony - like a rebirth. The beautiful Livia does not drink the cocktail, however, and only pretends that she has also fallen into a state of oblivion. The count once wanted to marry her, but she chose someone else. This is ultimately killed by the experiment. When Livia found out about this, she made serious accusations against the count and said that his obsessive understanding of happiness was the wrong one. She then tries in vain to release the other participants in the experiment from their trance .
In 1982 the castle is still not finished. It now serves as an institution for raising children under the name “Institut Holberg”. A wide variety of educators as well as the Italian architect Walter Guarini and the American anthropologist Nora Winkle meet there for a colloquium to debate the best educational methods. The focus should be on the happiness and imagination of the children. The young teacher Élisabeth Rousseau, who is attending a seminar at the castle for the first time, takes her job very seriously and is therefore appalled by the unconventional and sometimes childish behavior of her colleagues. When the teachers quarrel with their differing views, the meeting ends prematurely.
Meanwhile, the children who live in the castle take part in a fairytale adventure in an imaginary world, in which a royal boulder matures into a man, frees a captive princess, defeats a tyrannical ruler and finally ushers in an "age of love and happiness" .
background
In Life is a Novel , a chronicle of human striving for love, happiness and progress, director Alain Resnais has interwoven three stories from different times through montage . With the film's three interlocking narrative and reality levels, Resnais paid tribute to three directors who each shaped an era of French film history : Georges Méliès , the inventor of “narrative film”, Marcel L'Herbier , who was one of the avant-garde of French film 1920s belonged, and Éric Rohmer , who is best known for his film cycle Moral Stories ( Contes Moraux ) from the 1960s. For the scenes from 1919, which combine Expressionism and Art Nouveau in the decor , Kodak film was used, which was supposed to give this narrative strand a dream-like appearance. In contrast, the 1982 plot was shot with more modern Fujifilm to make these scenes more realistic.
Four of the actors - Sabine Azéma , Pierre Arditi , André Dussollier and Fanny Ardant - also played in Resnais' subsequent films Love to Death (1984) and Mélo (1987).
Life is a Novel premiered in France on April 20, 1983 . The film also opened in German cinemas on January 13, 1984.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films called Life is a novel "a playful, formally original comedy that mixes melodrama, social criticism, fairy tales and comedy and loosens and overcomes the serious subject matter through the cheerfulness of the narrative tone". Janet Maslin of the New York Times believed that the film was "visually appealing and well cast", but only stuck in the mind with "different, isolated gags and images" and not as a "coherent whole". According to Craig Butler of the All Movie Guide , "Resnais's sense of style is in its prime here." The cast is "also a dream". Due to the structure of the film, “none of the actors get the opportunity to dominate”. Instead, they played "wonderfully together as an ensemble, with Fanny Ardant, Vittorio Gassman and Geraldine Chaplin standing out slightly". With the “right state of mind” the film becomes “a captivating experience”.
Awards
At the 1984 César Awards , Sabine Azéma was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Jacques Saulnier for Best Production Design. While Azéma Suzanne Flon had to admit defeat in A Murderous Summer , Saulnier lost to Hilton McConnico , who received the César for his set design in The Moon in the Gutter .
German version
A first German dubbed version was produced by Interopa Film GmbH , Berlin.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Walter Guarini | Vittorio Gassman | Claus Biederstaedt |
| Count Michel Forbek | Ruggero Raimondi | Jürgen Thormann |
| Nora Winkle | Geraldine Chaplin | Elisabeth Schwarz |
| Livia Cerasquier | Fanny Ardant | Gisela Fritsch |
| Robert Dufresne | Pierre Arditi | Joachim Kerzel |
| Elisabeth Rousseau | Sabine Azéma | Susanna Bonaséwicz |
| Georges Leroux | Robert Manuel | Heinz Theo branding |
| Claudine Obertin | Martine Kelly | Katja Nottke |
| Zoltán Forbek | Samson fine silver | Ernst Wilhelm Borchert |
| Nathalie Holberg | Véronique Silver | Bettina Schön |
Web links
- Life Is a Bed of Roses in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film analysis on filmzentrale.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. omovie.com
- ↑ Life is a novel. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ "Despite the film's handsome look and its fine cast […], it's more memorable for various isolated witticisms and images than it is as a coherent whole." Janet Maslin : Life is a Bed of Roses (1983) . In: The New York Times , September 29, 1983.
- ↑ “Resnais' sense of style is in full flower here […]. The cast is also a dream; if no one actor is given the chance to dominate due to the film's triadic structure, they all play together extremely well as an ensemble, with perhaps Fanny Ardantt, Vittorio Gassman, and Geraldine Chaplin standing out slightly. Approached in the right frame of mind, Roman is an engrossing experience. " Craig Butler, cf. omovie.com
- ↑ Life is a novel. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on August 4, 2018 .