The obsessed with Tahiti

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Movie
German title The obsessed with Tahiti
Original title The moon and sixpence
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1942
length 89 minutes
Rod
Director Albert Lewin
script Albert Lewin
production David L. Loew
for United Artists
music Dmitri Tiomkin
camera John F. Seitz
cut Richard L. Van Enger
George Hively
occupation

The obsessed from Tahiti (original title The Moon and Sixpence ) is an American film drama by Albert Lewin from the year 1942. The screenplay is based on the novel Silbermond und Kupfermünze (originally The Moon and Sixpence ) by the English playwright William Somerset Maugham . Following the life of Paul Gauguin, George Sanders embodies the stockbroker Charles Strickland, who leaves his bourgeois life behind to devote himself to his passion, painting. The other leading roles are cast with Herbert Marshall , Doris Dudley , Elena Verdugo and Albert Bassermann .

action

Geoffrey Wolfes thoughts recede. The British writer remembers what it was like when he first met the infamous painter Charles Strickland. At first glance, there seemed nothing unusual about Strickland, apart from the fact that the married stockbroker had decided overnight to leave his wife and children to pursue his lifelong dream in Paris and work as a freelance artist Life.

Wolfe has received an assignment from Strickland's wife Any to persuade her husband to return home to London. He lives in a rundown apartment in Paris, but is still selfish and flatly refuses.

A few years have passed and Strickland and his wife have long since divorced when Wolfe visits his Dutch friend Dirk Stroeve, who lives and works successfully as an artist in Paris. On this occasion he also meets Stroeve's new wife Blanche. Dirk, a good-natured man, admits to Wolfe enviously that Strickland is a genius, while he himself works rather uninspired, even though he is repeatedly insulted by Strickland. Although Strickland is as good as penniless, he shows no interest in selling his brilliant work or making it available to people in an exhibition.

When Strickland fell ill with pneumonia at Christmas time, Stroeve took him into his house, where he was supposed to recover, although Blanche was against it, as she was troubled by the painter's arrogance. Soon, however, she devotedly takes care of Strickland, who leaves the Stroeves after his recovery, and does not prevent Blanche from leaving her husband for him. The liaison did not last long, however, because Strickland was primarily interested in Blanche as a model and she rejected her after a short time. Blanche then chooses suicide. All of this is terrible for Dirk Stroeve, but that doesn't prevent him from inviting Strickland to travel with him to his home country, Holland. His awe of Strickland's talent is too great. Strickland refuses this offer in his usual unfriendly way, but at least gives Stroeve a painting that he painted of Blanche.

Many years have passed again when Geoffrey Wolfe went to Tahiti, where Strickland now lives. He intends to continue his book on Strickland, which he has written over the years. He's lucky and gets a glimpse of Strickland's past few years through the tales of a talkative British native. The artist married the young local Ata on the island through the mediation of the jovial matchmaker and hotel owner Tiara Johnson and seems to have found in her the woman he can be happy with. But then he falls ill with leprosy , which is no reason for Ata to leave him alone; she stays by his side and takes care of her husband, even though she is attacked by angry locals, who fear that the disease could spread to the island.

Two more years have passed when Dr. Coutras, the doctor who gave Strickland the terrible diagnosis at the time, returns to the island as Strickland is dying. However, he does not arrive until Strickland is already dead. Ata shows him the last works of her husband, which the doctor later describes as beautiful and bitter at the same time and as masterpieces. All the more impressive since Strickland painted some of them when he was practically blind.

Production and Background

It is a production by David L. Loew and Albert Lewin on behalf of United Artists . The film had an estimated budget of $ 401,000. The film was shot from March 16 to the end of April 1942. The film begins with the prologue: “This is the story of Charles Strickland, the painter whose career has sparked so much discussion. It is not our intention to defend him. ”Although the film is shot in black and white, the final scenes graduated to sepia and then switched to technicolor the moment Coutras sees Strickland's painting.

Since the publication of Maugham's novel in 1919, various production companies have been interested in filming the subject, which is based freely on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin, an artist known for his colorful pictures from Tahiti. The film company Warner Bros. , which acquired the rights that same year and wanted to film the novel with Edward G. Robinson in the title role and director Harry Lachman, was interested . However, Lachman would have preferred Jean Gabin in the lead role. Even David O. Selznick was interested in during his time with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the film rights. The PCA declined to use the novel as a template for a script because of how it justified and condemned the subject of adultery and condemned the main character's attitudes toward marriage and society's conventions. In 1941, David L. Loew and Albert Lewin bought the rights to the novel from MGM and suggested adding a narrator who would simultaneously be the voice of morality and condemn the hero's various actions. A divorce was also built in and a marriage to the Tahitian Ata. The adulterous relationship with Mrs. Stroeve should be punished appropriately morally, here with the death of Mrs. Stroeve. In the end, the hero should also experience his punishment by falling ill and dying of leprosy, as the novel shows. The script was then approved by the PCA in January 1942, but not without some changes to be made. In February 1942 Somerset Maugham sent Albert Lewin a letter in which he exuberantly praised him for his interpretation and wrote that he could not imagine that a novel could be better adapted.

Despite attempts by the PCA and the filmmakers to make moral adjustments to the story, the PCA received a letter from the Roman Catholic Legion of Anciency, offending the attempts to justify the main character's immoral acts, but with yet another reason to Concern was cited for an explanation. It was offended by the paintings shown in the film, which depicted naked and half-naked figures. The PCA defended the film against the Legion of Anciency and disagreed with their opinion.

In the Hollywood Reporter it was stated that Loew and Lewin initially had Paul Muni in mind for the title role and Talbot Jennings for the adaptation of the script, which was prevented by an illness Jennings. Life magazine said that Gauguin's son, Emile United Artists, threatened to file a lawsuit if his father's work was shown in the film. Dolya Goutman was then commissioned to create paintings that will be shown in the film. The film marks Albert Lewin's directorial debut.

In 1951 and 1959, NBC-TV presented various versions of The Moon and Sixpence . In the 1959 production, Laurence Olivier led the cast list, making his television debut.

publication

The film premiered in the United States on September 5, 1942 on Martha's Vineyard , Massachusetts, and aired generally in the United States on October 27, 1942. It was shown for the first time in Portugal in January 1943, in Mexico in June 1943 and in Sweden in November 1943. It was published in Denmark in March 1947, in the Federal Republic of Germany it came to the cinema in 1955, as well as in Austria.

It has also been shown in Brazil, Spain, Greece, Italy, Poland and Turkey. The full US film title is W. Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence .

criticism

Several later critics described the role of Strickland by George Sanders as his best performance in a film.

Cinema praised: "George Sanders plays the genius, one of the best achievements of his career."

The lexicon of international films spoke of a "sophisticated film adaptation of a Somerset Maugham novel based on motifs from the biography of Paul Gauguin".

Bosley Crowther reviewed the film for The New York Times as saying that the popular notion of a genius as a creature with lewd manners and passionate mood swings, working toward something that neither herself nor anyone else understands, becomes in Albert Lewin's rather dark version of the film generously supported by Somerset Maugham's novel. An idea of ​​an ingenious artistic genius is shown, which is widespread. But even with the caustic George Sanders in the lead role and most of the subordinate characters who follow him in respectful awe, that's still a poor concept to justify a film. It is a difficult, loveless story whose solemn pace and dependence on dialogue justify the fact that there is too much language and too little action. Crowther spoke of a bourgeois execution. Although Sanders did an interesting job as a painter with a great disdain for everything self-satisfied and conventional, but apparently especially for women, the subject has a rather dubious meaning in today's world.

Dennis Schwartz from Ozu's Welt Filmkritiken said it was dark stuff , but Lewin implemented it true to the literary model. Schwartz complained that Strickland did not apologize for his selfishness even at the end of his life, but otherwise it was a solid drama.

Glenn Erickson certified that Albert Lewin had a sensitive adaptation of Somerset Maugham's book about the story of a difficult artist, which only superficially recalled the life of the famous painter Paul Gauguin, who traveled to the South Seas. He praised Lewin's interpretation of the relationship between artist and society, in which it becomes clear that Strickland does not want to prove anything to anyone, but paint because he is looking for inner truth. Lewin does many things right, also by presenting Strickland's pictures to the viewer mostly only through the reactions of others. George Sanders is excellent in his role.

Michael Atkinson believed that sexual abuse and exploitation were so close to the surface that some of the actors would feel uncomfortable in the film. He went on to say that these types of films not only presented open warfare against human kindness and decency, they also generously supported this warfare. One can see Lewin's perverse love for Strickland's carefree, selfish art, for which the character literally throws away everything he has and will ever have. Like visitors to the zoo, you watch a satisfied and unscrupulous gorilla act without thinking about the consequences.

Awards

Dimitri Tiomkin was nominated for an Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1944 in the category “Best Film Music” (drama / comedy) , but had to admit defeat to Alfred Newman and his music for the film drama The Song of Bernadette .

On the National Board of Review in 1942, the film was among the ten best films of the year, George Sanders received the NBR Award in the category "Best Actor" and Florence Bates in the category "Best Supporting Actress" .

At the Critics Circle Awards in 1942 , Tahiti's Obsessed was nominated for a NYFCC Award in the Best Picture category.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f The Moon and Sixpence Notes adS Turner Classic Movies - TCM (English)
  2. ↑ Doyla Goudman adS gratzgallery.com (English)
  3. ↑ The Obsessive from Tahiti adS cinema.de (including 20 pictures). Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  4. ↑ The Tahitian Man. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 6, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Bosley Crowther : The Screen In: The New York Times . October 28, 1942 (English). Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  6. ^ "The Moon and Sixpence" - It's rather somber stuff, but faithfully executed by Lewin's literary direction. adS homepages.sover.net (English). Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  7. ↑ Glenn Erickson: The Moon and Sixpence adS Home Video Reviews (English). Accessed January 6, 2018.
  8. ↑ The Moon and Sixpence Articles adS TCM (English). Retrieved January 6, 2018.