The girl from the coral reef
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The girl from the coral reef |
| Original title | Age of Consent |
| Country of production | Australia |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1969 |
| length | 103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Michael Powell |
| script |
Peter Yeldham based on the novel Age of Consent ( Norman Lindsay ) |
| production |
Michael Powell , James Mason |
| music |
Peter Sculthorpe (Original Version ) Stanley Myers (UK, US Version) Peter Sculthorpe (Restored Version) |
| camera |
Hannes Staudinger Ron and Valerie Taylor (underwater shots) |
| cut | Anthony Buckley |
| occupation | |
| |
The girl from the coral reef (original title Age of Consent , German about sexual maturity ) is an Australian film from 1969 . The romantic comedies - Drama was the penultimate feature film by British director Michael Powell . Peter Yeldham wrote the screenplay based on the 1935, partly autobiographical novel Age of Consent by Norman Lindsay . He died in the year the film was released. The main roles are played by James Mason , who co-produced the film, Helen Mirren in her first cinema lead role, Irish character actor Jack MacGowran and Australian Neva Carr Glyn . The cinema release in Germany was November 28, 1969.
action
Bradley Morahan is a New York City- based Australian painter who is tired of success and life in the big city. To get back to his old creative strength, he decides to return to Australia, where he moves into a hut on a sparsely populated island in the Great Barrier Reef .
At his new home, Morahan meets the young, wild-grown Cora Ryan, who lives with her only relative, her difficult, gin- drinking grandmother Ma. Cora sells marine animals she has caught herself. A chicken later sold to him and stolen by his neighbor Isabel Marley leads Morahan to be suspected of theft. He pays Isabel the chicken and gets Cora to promise not to steal anymore. Since she saves money to fulfill her dream of leaving the island and becoming a hairdresser in Brisbane , he pays her as a model. At the same time it inspires him; she becomes his artistic muse .
Morahan's work is interrupted when his longtime parasite Nat Kelly shows up on the island. He is hiding from the police because of alimony debts. When Morahan refuses to lend money, Kelly first settles in with him. After a few days, Morahan's patience with the uninvited guest is slowly exhausted, but the latter approaches Isabel in the hope of getting some money there. Instead, she unexpectedly picks him up. The next day, Kelly leaves in a hurry, with money stolen from Morahan and some of his paintings.
Ma catches Cora posing naked for Morahan. She accuses him of having sex with her underage granddaughter. He protests. Finally he gives Ma the little extra money to get rid of her.
When Cora discovers that Ma has found her hiding place, she goes after her. After a tough fight, Ma falls down a hill and breaks her neck, causing her to die. The local police officer did not investigate further because the grandmother is known to be an alcoholic .
Cora later visits Morahan at his hut, but is disappointed that he only sees her as a model. She runs away, but Morahan follows her into the water and finally recognizes her as a desirable young woman.
production
Norman Lindsay's novel was published in 1938 and was banned in Australia. A film version was announced in 1961 by producer Oscar Nichols, who starred Dan O'Herlihy and Glynis Johns . In 1962 Michael Pate obtained the rights and brought Michael Powell into contact with the material. They hired Peter Yeldham to write the canvas adaptation.
Several changes were made to Lindsay's novel, including relocating the location from New South Wales to the Great Barrier Reef and changing the portrayal of the artist from unsuccessful to successful. The majority of the budget was provided by Columbia Pictures in London.
Before filming on Age of Consent began, director Michael Powell said
“My next film is the story of a painter who believes that he will no longer paint and of a girl who persuades him to begin again ... He will probably end up painting her; but to see a painter sit down and paint a girl, this could be exciting, but I had the hardest time explaining to my scriptwriter that this didn't excite me at all. What interested me was the problem of Creation and the fact that this creation in the case of the painter was very physical. He will have to struggle, to fight, even more strongly than he will move away from reality. It will be a slightly bitter comedy that I will produce with James Mason who will play the leading role. "
“My next film is the story of a painter who thinks he won't paint anymore and a girl who convinces him to start all over ... He'll probably paint her eventually; but watching a painter sit down and paint a girl can be exciting, but I found it difficult to explain to my scriptwriter that I am not at all excited. What interested me was the problem of creation and the fact that in the case of a painter this creation is very physical. He has to make an effort, fight, even more than he has to break away from reality. It will be a bit of a bitter comedy that I will produce with James Mason, who will play the leading role. "
Powell and Mason had previously wanted to work together (in I Know Where I'm Going ) but hadn't been able to come to an agreement financially, and Mason wasn't ready to go to Scotland. After Age of Consent , Powell tried to get Mason to work on his version of Shakespeare's The Tempest , a project that never came to fruition.
Originally, an unknown 17-year-old Australian actress was to be cast as the opposite pole to Mason; in the end, 22 year old Helen Mirren was selected.
James Mason met his future wife Clarissa Kaye on the set of this film; she played Meg, Bradley's ex-girlfriend in Australia. Their scene together took place in bed and Kaye, who was recovering from pneumonia at the time, had a fever of 39 ° C. After filming, Mason began corresponding with Kaye; they married in 1971 and stayed together until Mason's death in 1984. Clarissa Kaye was sometimes called Clarissa Kaye-Mason.
Filming began in March 1968 in Brisbane , u. a. at Albion Park Racecourse . Other locations were original locations on Dunk Island and Purtaboi Island on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland . The interior was shot at the Ajax Film Center in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.
Ron and Valerie Taylor's underwater filming was their first feature film work.
title
The original title Age of Consent refers to the sex laws set limit for sexual consent and marks the end of the age of consent . In the late 1960s, in Queensland , Australia, where the main film plot is located, this was 16 years. When she was 22, Helen Mirren was far too old for the role of Cora, who, according to the original title, might be 15 or 16 years old. Mirren's nude photos are at least not youth pornography .
censorship
Although The Coral Reef Girl was initially released uncut in Australia and also passed the British Board of Film Classification without editing instructions, the film distributor Columbia Pictures decided to cut the bed scene with James Mason and Clarissa Kaye at the beginning of the film. Furthermore, some nude photos of Helen Mirren fell victim to the scissors. As a result, only 98 minutes of the original 106 minutes remained; in this version the film was released in Great Britain and the United States. The distributor was also dissatisfied with the score by Peter Sculthorpe , which is why it was replaced by Stanley Myers . Both the cut scenes and the soundtrack were restored in 2005.
criticism
The Coral Reef Girl was a huge hit in Australia, both in terms of reviews and admissions. The film ran continuously in a cinema in Sydney for seven months . The box office earnings amounted to approximately 981,000 Australian dollars (AUD), which, adjusted for inflation, was equivalent to approximately 11,541,000 AUD (approximately 7.2 million euros) in 2017. The film was the thirteenth most popular film in Australia in 1969.
In the UK and the US, reviews were not as positive. Penelope Mortimer wrote in the Observer : "I tremendously admire James Mason and believed, until I saw Age of Consent , that he could do no wrong ... It is best forgiven and forgotten" ("I admire James Mason tremendously and believed until I Age of Consent had seen that he couldn't do anything wrong .... [The film] we best forgive him. ") The reviewer of Variety wrote:" The film has plenty of corn, is sometimes too slow, repetitious and badly edited ... Yet [it] has immense charm, and the photography and superb scenery make it a good travelog ad for the Great Barrier Reef. "(" The film has a lot of lard, is sometimes too slow, repetitive and poorly edited .. .. But [he] has an immense charm, and the camera shots and the wonderful landscape make him a good travel advertisement for the Great Barrier Reef. ")
The lexicon of international film summarized the film with the words "Beautifully illustrated, meaningful dropout story in the magazine style."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The girl from the coral reef. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 9, 2019 .
- ↑ Nat Segaloff, Final Cuts: The Last Films of 50 Great Directors , Bear Manor Media 2013, pp. 224–226
- ^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production , Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 242.
- ^ A b c d e Jeff Stafford: Age of Consent (1969). In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved February 15, 2019 .
- ↑ James Mason regards himself as a talented painter. In: The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia, March 6, 1968, accessed September 9, 2012 .
- ↑ Unknown Australian girl to be film star. In: The Canberra Times . National Library of Australia, July 18, 1967, accessed December 9, 2013 .
- ↑ An American reputation. In: The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia, August 22, 1979, accessed September 9, 2012 .
- ↑ The film could be a winner. In: The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia, April 17, 1968, accessed September 9, 2012 .
- ↑ IMDB locations
- ↑ FAQ at Powell-Pressburger.com
- ^ A b c d e Scott Murray: Michael Powell Down Under: Norman Lindsay's Age of Consent . In: Sense of Cinema. July 9, 2009, accessed December 13, 2012 .
- ↑ Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualDecimal.html
- ^ "The World's Top Twenty Films." Sunday Times [London, England] 27 September 1970: 27. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Accessed April 5, 2014
Web links
- The Age of Consent in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Age of Consent at Rotten Tomatoes (English)