The homeowner (film)

Movie
German title	The homeowner
Original title	The Landlord
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1970
length	110 minutes
Rod
Director	Hal Ashby
script	Bill Gunn
production	Norman Jewison
music	Al Cooper
camera	Gordon Willis
cut	William A. Sawyer , Edward Warschilka
occupation
Beau Bridges : Elgar Winthrop Julius Enders Lee Grant : Joyce Enders Diana Sands : Francine Marie Johnson Pearl Bailey : Marge Tenant Walter Brooke : William Enders senior Louis Gossett junior : Copee Johnson Marki Bey : Lanie Mel Stewart : Professor Duboise Susan Anspach : Susan Enders Robert Klein : Peter Oliver Clark : Mr. Farcus Grover Dale : Oscar Trish Van Devere : Sally

The house owner (original title: The Landlord ) is an American comedy film from 1970. Directed by Hal Ashby , the screenplay was written by Bill Gunn based on the novel The House on Poplar Street ( The Landlord ) by Kristin Hunter .

action

The 29-year-old son of a wealthy entrepreneur, Elgar Winthrop Julius Enders, buys a house in Brooklyn, which is traditionally inhabited by African Americans . He wants to drive out the previous tenants and convert the house into his own residence. The tenants defend themselves against this.

Enders befriends the tenant Francine Marie Johnson. He falls in love with Lanie, who works as a dancer in a neighboring club. Enders abandons the plan to force the tenants to move out and renovates the apartments at his own expense.

Johnson becomes pregnant by Enders, whereupon her husband Copee, a political activist, attacks the homeowner with an ax. She later gives birth to the fair-skinned child and hands it to Enders, whose parents have meanwhile accepted his decisions. Enders moves into one of the apartments with Lanie.

background

The world premiere took place on May 20, 1970 in the United States. In Germany the film was released on November 24, 1975.

Reviews

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on October 21, 1970 that the film was initially a predictable situation comedy. Later he took an “interesting turn” and dealt with the “clumsiness and hypocrisy of widespread racist prejudice”. The numerous dialogues are just as simple as they are "very strong" - they offer a more honest, although less optimistic, picture of the racial problem than is usual in American films.

The magazine Variety wrote in 1970 that the cast was "uniformly distinguished". The film is best in those places that show interpersonal relationships.

Awards

Lee Grant was in 1971 in the category Best Supporting Actress for the Oscar and in the category Best Supporting Actress for the Golden Globe Award nomination. She and Diana Sands were nominated for the Laurel Award in 1971 . The film was nominated in 1972 for the British Film Prize ( United Nations Award ).

literature

• Kristin Hunter : The house on Poplar Street. Roman (original title: The Landlord ). German by Werner von Grünau . Bastei-Verlag Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1972, 300 pages, ISBN 3-404-00028-5 .

Web links

• The homeowner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The homeowner at Rotten Tomatoes (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See release dates on imdb.com , accessed on May 27, 2019.
2. ^ Roger Ebert : The Landlord . In: Chicago Sun-Times , October 21, 1970.
3. ↑ See The Landlord . In: Variety , 1970.