The thief of words

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Movie
German title The thief of words
Original title The Words
Country of production United States
original language English , French
Publishing year 2012
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Brian Klugman ,
Lee Sternthal
script Brian Klugman,
Lee Sternthal
production Michael Benaroya ,
Tatiana Kelly ,
Jim Young
music Marcelo Zarvos
camera Antonio Calvache
cut Leslie Jones
occupation
synchronization

The Thief of Words (Original title: The Words ) is an American drama film directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal from 2012 .

action

Clay Hammond is a successful writer who reads from his new book The Words in front of a large audience . It is the story of the young Rory Jansen, who moves in with his great love Dora and tries to gain a foothold as a writer in New York City .

After several years, Rory has written a book, but realizes that there is no market for his work. The work is rejected by numerous publishers. An agent shows interest and recognizes Rory's talent, but thinks his book won't sell. Rory now listens to his father, who has always helped him out financially over the last few years, and looks for a permanent job by starting to work in a publishing house.

He and Dora get married and spend their honeymoon in Paris . Here Dora buys him an old leather bag in an antiquarian bookshop, in which he is supposed to keep his manuscripts. Back in New York, Rory discovers an old manuscript of a novel hidden in his pocket. It's perfect and written in a way Rory always wanted to be able to. He begins to dream of the book and the plot, and eventually copies the manuscript word for word. At the urging of his wife, who thinks the book is his and thinks it is perfect, he gives it to a publisher who reads the manuscript months later, is enthusiastic and signs Rory. The novel becomes a huge hit, and Rory is hailed as a new talent. After all, Rory even receives an important literary award.

Clay pauses his reading for a break. During the break, he notices the young and attractive Daniella, who turns out to be an admirer of his work. She is a student at Columbia University and claims to know everything about him. She flirts with him, saying he is married, but Clay makes it clear to her that he recently separated from his wife. Clay is called to the second part of the reading. He continues the story:

Rory is approached by an old man shortly after receiving the award. He introduces himself to him as the original manuscript author and accuses Rory of stealing the story. He reports on the creation of the book. After the Second World War he stayed in Paris, where he met the young Célia. They both fell in love and so he returned to Paris after a short time in the USA. He married Célia and they both had a daughter, who died after a short time. The relationship almost broke up on the daughter's death, and Célia moved back to live with her parents. He in turn began to write and in just two weeks completed the novel, which Rory later published under the title Tears on the Window . The old man went to Célia and brought her the manuscript. When Célia returned to him in Paris, she forgot the bag with the manuscript on the train. The relationship finally broke up, and the old man left Célia and Paris and returned to the United States. He never wrote again. The old man ends his conversation with Rory and leaves.

Clay ends the reading and shortly afterwards leaves the building with Daniella. Both end up at his home. Daniella wants to know how the story ended. Clay says that Rory now admitted to Dora and his publisher that he had stolen the story. While Dora reacted in shock, the publisher pushed for Rory to come to an amicable settlement with the old man, since the public scandal would end up ruining Rory and the publisher's careers. Rory went to see the old man, who, however, wants to waive any charge. He just wanted to make it clear to Rory that it was his story, and therefore his past, and not the Rorys. The pain of doing wrong should never leave Rory. The old man tells Rory that he saw Célia once more with her partner and a child. Rory then leaves and the old man dies a short time later. Rory learns to pass the novel off as his. In turn, he places the old man's manuscript in his open grave.

Daniella accuses Clay of not telling her the truth about Rory. It implies indirectly that Rory's story is Clay's story, but Clay points out that reality and fiction are different things that would never touch. Daniella offers herself to him, but Clay refuses. When she asked what he really wanted, he thought of Rory, who made it up with Dora and told her that he was sorry.

production

The Thief of Words was the directorial debut of Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, who had the idea for the film back in 1999. Both have been friends with Bradley Cooper, who played one of the lead roles in the film, since childhood. Klugman and Sternthal presented their film idea at the Sundance Screen Writer's Lab in 2000. After the film was released in 2012, there were allegations that the plot was heavily based on Martin Suter's novel Lila, Lila . Even if Lila, Lila was published in 2004 and thus after the first drafts of the script, it cannot be ruled out that the directors have in the meantime been influenced by Suter's work or the film adaptation from 2009 based on it . Both directors again stated that Suter's work was unknown to them. Suter himself was again accused in 2004 of having based his work on the comic Ten Commandments: The Glasgow Killer . In fact, The Thief of Words has a parallel to the biography of Ernest Hemingway , who is featured in the film several times through his books. Hemingway's wife once forgot a bag containing manuscripts of his early works on a train, which was so lost.

The Thief of Words was filmed in Montréal within 25 days from June 2011 ; the budget was around six million dollars. Simonetta Mariano created the costumes and Michele Laliberte created the film .

The film premiered on January 27, 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival . The film was first shown in German-speaking countries on September 20, 2012 as part of the Zurich Film Festival . The German theatrical release was on May 23, 2013. In October 2013, the film was released on DVD in Germany.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Rory Jansen Bradley Cooper Tobias Kluckert
the old man Jeremy Irons Thomas Fritsch
Clay Hammond Dennis Quaid Thomas Danneberg
Daniella Olivia Wilde Maria Koschny
Dora Jansen Zoe Saldana Tanja Geke
the young man Ben Barnes Ozan Unal
Celia Nora Arnezeder Emily Behr
Nelson Wylie Michael McKean Frank-Otto Schenk
Richard Ford John Hannah Stefan Staudinger
Mr. Jansen JK Simmons Roland Hemmo
Timothy Epstein Ron Rifkin Michael Pan
Joseph Cutler Željko Ivanek Erich Rauker

criticism

The film-dienst described The Thief of Words as a “dignified, luxurious drama that leads in short, conventional flashbacks to Paris in the 1940s and whose subtle tragedy is relativized by a cumbersome narrative structure, both of which are declared as fictional characters by a third writer.” Roger Ebert praised the actors' play and the locations, but criticized the plot for being too complex and convoluted. The Thief of Words is clever and entertaining, but the plot cannot stand scrutiny and contains countless errors, wrote the New York Times .

For Cinema , the film was “a nested relationship drama that warms the heart in its best moments”. The Focus stated that the film had "a lot of bizarre charm, stylistic originality and wonderful actors"; especially the actors "give the sometimes badly constructed story a strong emotionality."

Awards

Bradley Cooper was nominated for a 2013 Teen Choice Award in the Choice Movie Actor: Drama category.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Thief of Words . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2013 (PDF; test number: 137 037 K).
  2. ^ A b Alex Ben Block: Zoe Saldana On Her Chemistry With Bradley Cooper in "The Words": "We Didn't Care Where The Camera Was" . hollywoodreporter.com, June 9, 2012.
  3. ↑ Philippe Doubt: Purple words . Tagesanzeiger.ch, September 27, 2012.
  4. ^ A b Roger Ebert: The Words . rogerebert.com, September 5, 2012.
  5. ^ "The Words" filming location in Montreal on June 7, 2011 . onlocationvacations.com, June 6, 2011.
  6. ↑ The Thief of Words. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
  7. ↑ The Thief of Words. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ Stephen Holden: A Few Hungry Writers, Playing Fast and Loose . nytimes.com, September 6, 2012.
  9. ↑ See The Thief of Words on cinema.de
  10. ↑ dpa: In the labyrinth of language: "The thief of words" . focus.de, May 19, 2013.