The foam of the days (2013)
Movie | |
---|---|
German title | The foam of the days |
Original title | L'écume des jours |
Country of production |
France Belgium |
original language | French |
Publishing year | 2013 |
length | 98 minutes |
Age rating | FSK 12 |
Rod | |
Director | Michel Gondry |
script | Michel Gondry, Luc Bossi |
production | Luc Bossi |
music | Étienne Charry |
camera | Christophe Beaucarne |
cut | Marie-Charlotte Moreau |
occupation | |
|
The foam of the days (original title: L'écume des jours ) is a surrealist French - Belgian tragic comedy from 2013 . Directed by Michel Gondry , the film was based on the novel of the same name by Boris Vian from 1946.
action
Colin is a bon vivant and lives with his cook, chauffeur and confidante Nicolas in an apartment in Paris. Together with their friend Chick and his girlfriend Alise they enjoy their existence, which they deny from Colin's fortune. Colin has everything he wants, only he hasn't met great love yet. At a party he meets Chloé and falls in love with her. After a short time together, they get married and go on their honeymoon. One night during the trip, a snowflake flies into Chloé's mouth and lodges in his lungs. Chick, meanwhile, develops a manic obsession with the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre, which affects both Colin's finances and Chick's relationship with Alise.
After the honeymoon, Chloé falls ill and a doctor diagnoses her that a water lily is growing in her lungs, which without treatment will lead to death. He recommends treating the water lily with flowers. When that doesn't work, he prescribes an expensive drug for Chloé. The flowers and medicines gradually devour Colin's entire fortune, so that he is forced to work for the first time for his money and livelihood. Nevertheless, the means are not enough to maintain his standard of living. Chloé, for whom the treatment initially seems to work, suffers a setback as the water lily spreads throughout the lungs and the infestation becomes incurable. When she finally dies, Colin is so poor that he can no longer even afford a proper burial for Chloé.
background
Boris Vian's novel The Foam of Days , on which the film is based, was only moderately successful during the author's lifetime. Only after Vian's death did the book become a bestseller. The work has since become a cult book for the young French generation.
The novel has already been filmed several times. Charles Belmont shot L'écume des jours in 1968 , and Michael Groote's The Foam of the Days appeared in 1993 . Edisson Wassiljewitsch Denissow created the opera L'écume des jours in 1986 .
Jean-Sol Partre, who is falling for the protagonist Chick more and more, is an allusion to the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre , with whom the novelist Vian had a personal argument in the 1940s. In a cameo , director Michel Gondry plays the role of the doctor who examines Chloé and prescribes her medication.
production
The original French version of the film has a running time of over two hours; it has been shortened by half an hour for the international market. The budget of the film was around 19 million euros.
The German premiere of The Foam of the Days took place on September 17, 2013 at the Cinéma Paris on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin . Leading actress Audrey Tautou was present at the premiere event. The German translation was released in theaters on October 3, 2013.
reception
The foam of the days caused mixed reactions from the critics. Martin Schwickert called the film a "surreal love thunderstorm" at the time , praised Gondry's strong images and the sensual nature of the image design, which makes the work a "wild, sad film". For the editors of kino.de, The Foam of the Days is a "heartbreaking and sadly beautiful film adaptation of the surreal cult novel by Boris Vian" and draws the conclusion: "You enjoy it with all your heart". Andreas Platthaus' verdict certifies the film in the FAZ "a fantastic flood of images and ideas" and emphasizes the staging and the imaginative effects. He sums up: " The foam of the days is a novel adaptation that is congenial, especially in the exuberant joy of play." However, he sees weaknesses in the portrayal of the individual characters.
Martina Knoben complains in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that in the film adaptation of the novel, the "characters are finally degraded to secondary characters in his [Gondrys] equipment and trick technology wonderland", and that the film is too far removed from the novel. Harald Jähner from the Frankfurter Rundschau thinks the film is “terribly cute” and, above all, Audrey Tautou “annoyingly happy”, which is inappropriate for the laconic mood of Vian's novel, but sees director Gondry as a “kindred spirit” of the author. The editors of filmstarts.de only give The Foam of the Days two out of five stars and judge that the film may be a “thrilling, sensual cinema story” at the beginning, but as the action progresses it becomes more and more a “strangely bloodless love film” without it Flatten emotions.
Awards
At the 39th César Awards 2014 in Paris, The Foam of the Days was nominated in three categories: Best Film Music (Étienne Charry), Best Production Design (Stéphane Rozenbaum) and Best Costumes (Florence Fontaine). Stéphane Rozenbaum won the film award in the Best Production Design category . At the 41st Saturn Award ceremony in 2015 in Burbank ( California ), The Foam of the Days was nominated for the Saturn Award for the best international film .
Web links
- The foam of the days in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Foam of the Days . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2013 (PDF; test number: 140 873 K).
- ↑ a b Martin Schwickert: Surreal love storm. Die Zeit, October 2, 2013, accessed on April 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Jan Schulz-Ojala: L'amour, toujours! Der Tagesspiegel, October 1, 2013, accessed on April 20, 2016 .
- ↑ German premiere of the Vian film "The Foam of the Days". France in Germany / French Embassy, September 18, 2013, accessed on April 21, 2016 .
- ↑ The Foam of Days (2013). kino.de, accessed on April 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Andreas Platthaus: It has to be so exuberant. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 2, 2013, accessed on April 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Martina Knoben: Confectionery. Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 8, 2013, accessed on April 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Harald Jähner: Water lily in the lungs. October 6, 2013, accessed April 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Björn Becher: The foam of the days. filmstarts.de, accessed on April 20, 2016 .
- ^ César Awards 2014. Internet Movie Database, accessed April 20, 2016 .
- ^ Saturn Awards 2015. Internet Movie Database, accessed April 20, 2016 .