The really big thing
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The really big thing |
| Original title | La baby sitter |
| Country of production |
France , Italy , Germany |
| original language |
English , French , Italian |
| Publishing year | 1975 |
| length | 107, 110 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | René Clément |
| script |
Nicola Badalucco René Clément Mark Peploe Luciano Vincenzoni |
| production |
Jacques Bar Carlo Ponti Wolfdieter von Stein |
| music | Francis Lai |
| camera | Alberto Spagnoli |
| cut | Christiane Lack |
| occupation | |
| |
The really big thing is a French-Italian-German crime film about child abduction from 1975. Directed by René Clément , Maria Schneider plays a nanny and Sydne Rome the kidnapper.
action
One morning in Rome. The young Michelle Johnson is in a great hurry, she has to go to the airport and take a taxi. On the way, a young woman named Ann Carson runs in front of the vehicle, is hit by the taxi and thrown into the air. The young woman lies bleeding on the street. A man named Henderson witnessed these events.
Months later: Since this incident, the film actress Ann has been given roses by Henderson in silent admiration and also visited on her set. The Rosenkavalier sees himself as an admirer of her beauty and art. Ann, who is currently filming in Rome, turns out to be difficult; she throws an erotic scene in the costume film shot with her. Film partner Stuart Chase has no understanding of her diva-like behavior, but it soon becomes understandable why she does not want to undress in front of the camera: a large scar runs across Ann's left breast down to her stomach, obviously the result of the serious car accident. At home in her shared apartment, which she now shares with Michelle, she cries in front of her friend. Michelle, the accident witness, is a talented young sculptor. She earns extra income as a babysitter. With Michelle's second job as a babysitter, Ann finds out when a nanny is wanted. One evening she puts on a dark-haired curly wig and sunglasses over her eyes, then goes to a manorial house and says she is the babysitter who has been ordered. The boy to be looked after is called Peter, known as “Boots”. His father is the extremely wealthy food industrialist Cyrus Franklin. The housekeeper lets Ann in. Mr. Franklin went to bed early while his son is still watching TV. A flashback shows that Ann clearly had a sex affair with Franklin. In the kitchen of the villa, Ann cooks a cocoa for the boy, who doesn't know her, and throws several sleeping pills into it. When Boots does not want to drink the cocoa, she forcibly instills the hot drink into him. Ann leaves the house with the dormant boy in her arms. The kidnapper pinned a letter to Mr. Franklin with a ransom note on the TV set.
That same night, babysitter Michelle arrives at another house. A new job as a babysitter. A key hidden next to the front door gives her access to the unoccupied house. The boy to be looked after is already in bed and asleep. It is the recently hijacked Boots. Michelle knows nothing about the circumstances of her booking as a babysitter and is therefore not suspicious. She is reading a book on sculpture while Boots lies peacefully in his crib. The phone rings and her client asks Michelle to take care of the boy all night, contrary to the agreement, because her client, a “Mrs. Werner ”, allegedly had a serious accident with her husband. This doesn't fit Michelle at all, as she later has a date with her boyfriend Gianni, whom she now has to cancel. Nevertheless, she gives in to Mrs. Werner. Immediately afterwards Michelle wants to reach Gianni by phone, but now the phone is suddenly dead: outside, one of those involved in the kidnapping, a certain Vic, has unplugged the telephone wires to the outside world, so that Michelle is completely isolated. Meanwhile, Gianni waits for Michelle at the agreed meeting point on a piazza.
Since she no longer comes, Gianni goes to her apartment disappointed and lies down in front of her door asleep. Ann comes home and brusquely casts off the Italian who is as love-hungry as he is disappointed because of his missed date. When Boots wakes up the next morning, Michelle is in great surprise: while Michelle says that his mother, “Mrs. Werner “, having hired her as a babysitter, the boy replies that he no longer has a mother at all and confronts Michelle with the claim that she kidnapped him last evening. Michelle doesn't understand a word. The distraught boy rushes out of the bedroom when Michelle arrives with a cup of coffee that reminds Boots of the cocoa he was forced to drink the previous night. Terrified, he locks himself up in another room in the house that is strange to him. Michelle does not understand his behavior, thinks Peter is a little over-the-top and wants to make another call, but the line is still dead. Meanwhile, Gianni has met the police and wants to report his girlfriend, who did not show up that night, as missing. State authorities have other things to do, however, because the son of the wealthy Mr. Franklin was kidnapped last night.
Since Michelle doesn't behave like a kidnapper at all, the boy comes out of his hiding place, but reproaches his babysitter. Only when he tries to escape from the house and a man with a bandage over his mouth and nose appears in front of him - it's Vic - Peter runs away screaming. Now Michelle also realizes that she got caught in a kidnapping case. She flees the house, calls for help and wants to leave the property, but the locked entrance gate is far too high for the small, young woman. Then the phone rings again and Michelle runs back into the house. Vic is on the line and threatens her massively if she tries to escape the property again. Meanwhile, Peter begins to flood the house as a kind of silent protest by turning on the tap and letting the bathtub fill up over the edge. Michelle can persuade Peter aka Boots to turn off the tap. Then she questions him, and Boots says that a nanny with a dark, curly wig forcibly fed him cocoa last night.
Gianni reports the missing person to the police for his girlfriend. They don't take him very seriously there. The investigating commissioner then shows Gianni a newspaper that reports on the kidnapping of Boots Franklin. The housekeeper at the Franklin house states that she let a 22-year-old babysitter into the house on the evening of Boots disappeared and that she and the boy have since disappeared. A connection quickly emerges between this kidnapping case and the disappearance of Michelle. The police are now starting a raid on Michelle's apartment and find Ann there, who is completely clueless. Meanwhile, Vic pulls all the blinds of the kidnapping villa in front of the windows, so that the trapped Michelle and Boots completely lose contact with the outside world. Meanwhile, Henderson arrives at Villa Franklin. Apparently, Henderson is doing Franklins financial transactions, having already brought the three million dollar ransom with him. In the meantime, when Michelle and Boots put a little dog named Bonzo on a message about their captivity on the collar, they are watched by Vic. The dog can escape and cross the busy thoroughfare, but Vic is on my heels. The neighbor across the street takes the note and wants to call the police, but Vic is already in her apartment. A little later he killed her. During a phone call, a woman's voice accuses him of a grave accusation. When Michelle from the kidnapping villa sees Vic closing a shutter in the house opposite, she knows that her call for help was probably not passed on and that the neighbor is dead.
Meanwhile, Gianni found out where his girlfriend Michelle must be and therefore drove to Via della Magnolia, where Villa Werner is located. He calls for Michelle and slips a Polaroid under the front door. While Gianni is looking for an entrance, he is surprised from behind by Vic returning to the property. In the following scene, the connections are gradually clearing up: Ann, who is in danger of panicking, was persuaded by her film partner Stuart Chase and his wife Lotte to take part in the kidnapping. Vic, the executive body, is none other than Stuart's former stuntman, who like everyone involved in the crime has seen better days. Ann, on the other hand, obviously took part in it for very personal motives from Franklin, her former lover, but now, after the murder committed by Vic, wants to get out of the matter. Then Gianni shows up with the three of them and says that he thinks he knows where Michelle is being held. Chase tries to make it clear to him that he must be wrong and finally suggests that he, Gianni and Ann drive together in Via della Magnolia to see the facts for themselves. Meanwhile, the two trapped Michelle and Boots barricade themselves in their prison camp. When the phone rings again, Michelle receives instructions that she should go to the garage with the boy and get in the car, and finally follow the instructions of the motorcyclist waiting in front of the door. The voice on the phone is none other than the Lottes who spoke to Michelle on the first call.
It's dark again outside and a car drives up. In it sit Chase, Ann and Gianni. While Gianni desperately wants to go inside to see if Michelle is really not being held captive, Chase can stop him. Michelle gets out, supposedly to check the right thing herself in the villa, and meets her buddies Vic and Lotte at a linen van, while Chase and Gianni continue to drive to the police. Vic breaks into the house with Lotte and Ann and looks for Michelle and Boots, who are hiding in the spacious house. When Vic finds Michelle hidden in a barrel, he furiously beats her, while Lotte Ann confesses that her supposedly noble admirer, Mr. Henderson, of all people, hatched the entire kidnapping plan. Meanwhile, Vic fights Michelle and threatens her with a large kitchen knife. Boots tries to help her, but has no chance against the sturdy Vic. At the same time, Stuart Chase Gianni drives to the police, who starts the gendarmerie there. Chase knows very well that Gianni cannot make it back to the house in time with the state power in tow, since, according to the kidnappers' plan, Boots and Michelle should have been transported away by then. When several police cars arrive in front of the kidnapper's house - in reality the property of the famous conductor Bruno Werner, who is currently on a trip to Mexico - only Ann stands in front of the entrance and plays the innocence of the country. In fact, the only thing to be found in the mansion is a few cut dark hair that could belong to Michelle, and in the garden is the house dog, Bonzo, who was killed by Vic. The kidnappers obviously want to use the hair to reassure the police that Michelle is actually involved in the kidnapping.
A little later, Vic forces Michelle to call Peter's father, asking her to call the kidnappers ransom from a phone booth. At the same time, the police discovered the body of the helpful neighbor from the house opposite the villa in Via della Magnolia. Ann is horrified, she hadn't known what brutality her comrade Vic is capable of. At the money transfer point, Chase and Lotte are waiting, Mr. Henderson, who frankly admits that he only instrumentalized Ann from the start and never had any other interest in her, comes unexpectedly. All three watch the arrival of Mr. Franklin from a hill, who, as agreed, leaves the suitcase in a parked car. Then Franklin continues again. Vic, dressed in motorcyclist uniforms and a hem on his head to avoid being recognized, orders Michelle and Boots to get into the vehicle with Franklin's suitcase and follow him on the motorcycle. Then the motorcycle turns. From now on Lotte and her husband Stuart followed the two freedmen when the car of the pursuers exploded. Chase and Lotte are dead instantly. Henderson, who wanted to eliminate those who knew about it, had just left a suitcase bomb behind the passenger seat for them. Little did Michelle and Boots know that they are driving their small car on a street that ends in a dead end. Eventually they end up in the nowhere of a quarry. Henderson suddenly appears in full mask in a second car and takes the bag with the money from them. Michelle Boots can finally go to his father's house. In the presence of the returned Henderson he takes his son in his arms.
After delivering Boots to his father, Michelle returns to her apartment deranged, with plucked hair and completely exhausted, as if in a trance. There she finds a short farewell letter from Ann, in which she asks Michelle for forgiveness, and discovers her body in the bathtub filled with water. Ann cut her wrists there. Suddenly the doorbell rings. Michelle opened it and Vic broke into the apartment. He's looking for Ann. Only now does Michelle understand that she too was involved in the kidnapping. When Vic starts to strangle Michelle, she tells him that she has already informed the police. Vic lets go of her and leaves the apartment. Michelle goes to the nearest public phone and reports both Ann's suicide and Henderson's wiretapping to the police. Michelle wanders through the streets of Rome and lies down on an old mattress, completely exhausted. In the final scene, her friend Gianni approaches, accompanied by a man from the locksmith.
Production notes
The really big thing was filmed in Rome (probably in the spring of 1975) and celebrated its first demonstrable performance in France on October 15, 1975. It is currently unknown whether the film was previously shown in Italy. The international cast was shown for the first time in Germany on November 27, 1975. The Big Thing was René Clément's last production.
The film constructions come from Carlo Egidi . The rogue kidnapper Vic's cast member, Hollywood film veteran Vic Morrow , also did the stunts.
Reviews
“The slow narrative flow deliberately keeps the viewer at a distance from what is happening, but not from the people who are presented in all intensity. Suggestive close-ups and close-ups on a plain, only seemingly neutral background dominate this film. "
“A film with stars and a lot of effort, a complicated intrigue, but told in a cool and pragmatic way. Clément ('The One Out of the Rain', 'Driven Hunt') creates tension from psychological constellations and extraordinary situations (here: babysitter and millionaire's son in a besieged villa), but this kidnapper story never really ignites: the plot spills over into episodes, the retardations tired, the strangely disparate game of the rolling eyes Sydne Rome and the fascinatingly succinct Maria Schneider upset as well as the flat image of the villains. An insignificant, far too long film. "
“Already in the first scene (...) René Clement hints at the stylistic principle of this extremely cleverly constructed crime film. Here the narration is not linear, a tricky story of revelation unfolds, which surprises the viewer with ever new fints and volts. "
“Complicated crime film about child abduction. The intelligently staged psychological thriller cleverly contrasts the set pieces of the genre with the irritating traps into which René Clément lures the viewer again and again, and thus offers captivating entertainment. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ The really big thing. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2019 .
Web links
- The really big thing in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The really big thing at filmportal.de