The proof - love between genius and madness
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The proof - love between genius and madness |
| Original title | Proof |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2005 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 JMK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Madden |
| script |
Rebecca Miller , David Auburn (play) |
| production |
John Hart , Robert Kessel , Alison Owen , Jeff Sharp |
| music | Stephen Warbeck |
| camera | Alwin H. Kuchler |
| cut | Mick Audsley |
| occupation | |
| |
The proof - love between genius and madness is a feature film by British director John Madden from 2005. The drama is based on the 2000 play of the same name by David Auburn . a. produced by the Miramax film studio . The film opened on May 4, 2006 in German and Austrian cinemas. The original lettering of the film is {proof} in English and {der / beweis} in German .
action
The film begins with a conversation between the brilliant mathematician Robert, a professor at the University of Chicago , and his daughter Catherine. Robert, who has been suffering from a mysterious mental illness for several years , tries to convince his daughter that she did not inherit his illness - but his ingenuity when it comes to mathematics does . She had already tried to step out of the shadow of her famous father in the past and studied mathematics at Northwestern University in Evanston . When her father fell ill, she gave up studying and looked after him.
The plot takes a surprising turn when it becomes clear that Robert died just days earlier and Catherine is just imagining the conversation. She regains consciousness through Hal, her father's graduate student. In the deceased's study, he discovered 103 notebooks that Robert had filled with mostly senseless formulas due to an obsession with writing in the last few years and now hopes to find some of the geniuses of his former mentor in them. However, Catherine wants to prevent Hal from delving too much into what has been written because she believes Hal would publish what he found under his own name in order to make a profit. In fact, she finds one of the notebooks in Neck's jacket and sees her suspicion confirmed. However, Hal tries to make it clear to her that there is nothing useful in the book, but that her father expresses his thanks to Catherine for her devoted care and Hal wanted to give her this book because she is celebrating her 27th birthday on this very day.
The next morning - the day of the funeral - Catherine's sister Claire arrives from New York and immediately tries to take command of Catherine's life. The two sisters have become estranged over the years, and Claire quickly begins to reassure Catherine in her fear of having inherited her father's insanity. She even questions Hal's existence. She also plans to sell the late father's house on university campus where Catherine still lives, and to take her confused younger sister with her to New York.
At the funeral, Catherine caused a scandal by going to the microphone without being asked and asking all the people who had appeared where they had actually been in the last few years when Robert was so bad. Bitter about the fact that she had to take care of him alone, she closes with the words "Fortunately he is dead" - which she regrets shortly afterwards.
That same evening, Hal and Catherine get closer. After spending the night together, she hands him a key to a desk compartment, in which he stumbles upon another notebook. This contains a record of spectacular mathematical evidence that could astonish the scholarly world. Hal and Claire are surprised and doubt that Robert should actually have been able to produce this proof. Finally Catherine interjects that it was not her father who wrote the proof, but herself. But in addition to Claire, Hal also has doubts about it, whereupon Catherine angrily throws the remaining notebooks on the floor and leaves the room. Her self-doubts become so great that she can no longer distinguish between reality and imagination. She eventually recognizes Claire's opinion as her own.
Catherine wants to finish with the chapter and agrees to come to New York with Claire. Hal, on the other hand, has now checked the evidence with two independent groups of experts - and they have failed to find even the smallest error. Catherine doesn't want to hear about it, however. That Hal believe her now is all well and good, but he should have done so a few days earlier, now it is too late. The mistake he can no longer make good is that he did not trust her and thus did not provide any proof of his love. While waiting at the airport, Catherine finally broods, until she finally decides to leave the airport to return to Chicago - and thus to Hal.
The film tells the story of Catherine and her father in flashbacks throughout the course . In between it always seems that Robert could actually have written the proof, but in the end the viewer is painfully convinced that Robert’s illness was far too advanced for him to actually have managed to do something like that.
History of origin
The evidence is based on David Auburn's play Proof . The American playwright, who was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his work in 2001, worked with Rebecca Miller to adapt his complex screenplay for the screen. Lead actress Gwyneth Paltrow took on the lead role of Mary-Louise Parker , who won the Tony Award , the most important US theater award, for her role as Catherine in the Broadway production . Paltrow himself had played the protagonist in Proof on her debut on the London theater stage at Donmar Warehouse in 2002 , directed by John Madden, who also directed the film adaptation . For Paltrow it was the second film collaboration with the director who had helped her to win the Oscar with the film Shakespeare in Love ( 1999 ) .
Most of the filming of The Proof took place in the Hyde Park area of southern Chicago. Although many scenes were filmed on the University of Chicago campus, none took place in the math building called Eckhart . Instead, many scenes were filmed in the math building at Divinity School. The film begins with a pan of Gwyneth Paltrow cycling along Midway Plaisance , with many shots showing the square courtyard in front of the Harper Library.
Filming began on October 6, 2003, and the film, although completed in 2004, was not released until 2005. The production costs of the film were given as 20 million US dollars (approx. 16.6 million euros).
The technical advice was provided by the British mathematician and recipient of the Fields Medal , Timothy Gowers (* 1963 ).
reception
John Madden's drama premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2005 . Eleven days later, on September 16, 2005, The Proof officially opened in eight selected US cinemas and grossed 193,843 US dollars on the opening weekend. By mid-November of the same year, the film had sold around 7.5 million US dollars, not even half of its production costs.
The film, in which critics particularly emphasized the acting performance of Gwyneth Paltrow, was one of the extended favorites of the 78th Academy Awards , but received no nomination.
Reviews
"John Madden's 'Proof' is an extraordinary thriller about learning and heart, about the true authorship of a mathematical proof and the passion that surrounds it."
"The sparks don't fly in John Madden's version of the film, with a script by Auburn and Rebecca Miller and a pale Gwyneth Paltrow in the lead."
"Somewhere in the transition from the stage to the big screen, David Auburn's powerful, Pulitzer Prize-winning play was transformed into a dreary Gwyneth Paltrow film."
“Paltrow howls, shudders, sighs and suffers here again that you want to name her crybaby and honorary Maria-Schell of world cinema on the spot - and yet the atmosphere of the film is just as poignant as Paltrow's virtuoso play as a very long and rattling dryness Insane booty. "
"That may be grandiose in individual scenes, but overall nothing from a film and as credible as a Nobel Prize for Gerhard Schröder ."
"... Director John Madden has woven an elegant, intelligent drama together, the nature of which is increasingly rare in mainstream American cinema."
"... not a sweet comedy, but a touching, intensely played melodrama in which Gwyneth Paltrow - after 'Shakespeare in Love' again under Madden's direction - perhaps only once or twice too often breaks into tears."
“Mediocre adaptation of a stage play that claims emotionality and passion, but does not find adequate images for these sensations in addition to the acceptable performance. Dealing with the mental illness is also too naive to be convincing. "
Awards
The drama was nominated for the Golden Lion for best film when it premiered on September 5, 2005 at the Venice Film Festival. However, the film was defeated in the official Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain competition , in which The Proof actor Jake Gyllenhaal also played a role. On January 16, 2006, Gwyneth Paltrow was nominated for Best Actress in a Drama at the Golden Globe Awards , but Felicity Huffman ( Transamerica ) had to admit defeat. Gwyneth Paltrow was nominated for the 2006 Golden Globe Award in the category Best Actress - Drama .
literature
- David Auburn: Proof: A Play , 2001 Faber & Faber, ISBN 0-571-19997-6 (English edition)
Web links
- The proof - love between genius and madness in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Age rating for The Proof - Love Between Genius and Madness . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ The Proof - Love Between Genius and Madness in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed April 15, 2012