The girl and the killer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The girl and the killer |
| Original title | L'assassino di Trotsky L'assassinat de Trotsky |
| Country of production | France Italy |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1972 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joseph Losey |
| script |
Nicholas Mosley Masolino d'Amico |
| production |
Norman Priggen Joseph Losey |
| music | Egisto Macchi |
| camera | Pasqualino de Santis |
| cut | Reginald Beck |
| occupation | |
| |
The Girl and the Murderer , often read under the title The Assassination of Trotsky or a combination of both titles, is an Italian-French drama directed by Joseph Losey in 1971 . In addition to Richard Burton as the revolutionary Trotsky in exile in Mexico, Alain Delon (as Trotsky's murderer) and Romy Schneider (as the eponymous girl) play other leading roles.
action
Mexico City in 1940. The Bolshevik revolutionary and former companion of Lenin, Leon Trotsky, has lived in exile in the suburb of Coyoacán since his escape from Stalin's Soviet Union. The old man, who is always on the lookout for possible assassins hired by Stalin, allows only a few people to approach him. His house is heavily guarded; only Trotsky's partner Natalia has completely free access. On May 23, 1940, a group of loyal communists working on behalf of Stalin's NKVD , led by the Mexican painter Ruiz, carried out an attack on the building. The assassination attempt failed, only Sheldon Harte, Trotsky's American bodyguard, fell into the hands of the criminals and was found dead a little later. In a conversation with the chief of police in the Mexican capital, Salazar, Trotsky admits that he had been warned of an impending attack, but firmly denies that he orchestrated the attack himself in order to influence public sympathy in his favor .
Gita Samuels works for Trotsky as an interpreter and is a staunch supporter of the 60-year-old. She lives with an alleged Canadian named Frank Jacson, who is said to be involved in the import and export business. In truth, he got the order directly from Moscow to murder Leon Trotsky. He hopes to gain the trust of the Stalin opponent through Gita. After a while, thanks to Gita’s intercession, Trotsky actually lets him into his environment. Indeed, the aging revolutionary begins to take a liking to the young man. On August 20, 1940, Jacson asked Trotsky to help him write a journalistic article. While the exile bends over the article to read it, Jacson, who is actually a native of Catalonia named Ramón Mercader, pulls out a hidden ice ax and hits Trotsky senselessly on the head. He still has enough strength to get up, fend off the assassin and even attack Jacson. Trotsky asks the rushing bodyguards not to kill the assassin.
Jacson alias Mercader is arrested, and his conspirators waiting in front of the house have to flee without him. Trotsky sustained severe head injuries, but is still conscious and admitted to the nearest hospital. Natalya watches over his sick bed there. Eventually he passes out. Meanwhile, Jacson is severely interrogated by Police Commissioner Salazar. Above all, you want to know your client who paid him for this particularly cruel and bloody act and what motives he had. But Jacson is absolutely silent. To "soften" him, they even lead Gita into the interrogation room, who furiously shouts to the police: "Kill him!" Her disappointment over her mistake in this man she once loved has given way to hatred. It's the only time that Jacson loses his composure and almost collapses. But he only says: “Yes, I murdered Trotsky.” During these hours, the revolutionary exile in hospital succumbs to his serious injuries. Fragments of a revolutionary song can be heard from the streets, the tones of which can still be heard high up in the interrogation room.
Production notes
The Girl and the Killer first ran in France on March 30, 1972, and was released in Germany on October 26, 1972. Richard McDonald created the movie structures.
Reviews
“A Losey theme: trapped, mentally and physically isolated from the outside world; relationships in this hermetic terrain strangely ritualized and shaped by a morbid or unreal interior; the intruder as the moment of irritation, of threat. The extremely cool and precisely calculated protocol of an almost determined, mechanical event, the distant view of a human panopticon, of complex characters beyond known patterns of identification and movie heroes - most of Losey's films followed this pattern. (...) Hardly any other film director today achieves such intense, disciplined play. Romy Schneider as the murderer's tool: a strict, bitter young lady ..., fanatically enthusiastic about Trotsky, sometimes as if amazed at her own erotic fire, because she never expected the great love ... A wonderfully successful portrait. Alain Delon moves more in the usual ways. The face is an impenetrable mask, the demeanor statuesque. (...) An unstable, weak person, nothing. (…) Finally, Richard Burton: You rarely see the face large, the aura is given to the figure solely by the constellation, the plot. A curious, suspicious old man, sometimes nervous and unruly; more robust than intellectual. Despite glasses and a goatee and (ill-fitting) wig, that has little to do with Trotsky. "
The Lexicon of International Films says: “For Joseph Losey, for all historical accuracy, the interpretation of people and their relationships is essential. Worth seeing despite a certain one-sidedness and not entirely convincing concept. "
“In cold, gray-tinted images, Joseph Losey delivers his version of a crime that has not yet been fully resolved. Conclusion: Big stars in extremely sober drama. "
Der Spiegel called the film “Joseph Losey's all too private recourse to the history of the revolution” and also found: “Out of sheer fear of losing his beloved" balance ", the director has his title hero (Richard Burton) amid harmonious details on the apolitical old man demoted, whose fear of death is only balanced by the scruples of his murderer. "
The Movie & Video Guide wrote: "The last days of the Russian rebel, prepared for an inconsistent melodrama about the hunter and the hunted".
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "Desolate, historical reconstruction with plenty of fictional content, fundamentally undramatic".
When the film was released in France, France's Le Monde drew the terse conclusion: “A banal film”.
Web links
- The girl and the killer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Anonymous intrigue film criticism on zeit.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The girl and the murderer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 17, 2015 .
- ^ Der Spiegel , November 13, 1972, p. 198
- ↑ ibid., Edition of June 5, 1972, p. 115
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 59
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 56