The Star Walker (film)

Movie
German title	The star wanderer
Original title	Stardust
Country of production	UK , USA
original language	English
Publishing year	2007
length	130 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12 ; JMK 6
Rod
Director	Matthew Vaughn
script	Jane Goldman , ; Matthew Vaughn, ; novel : Neil Gaiman
production	Lorenzo di Bonaventura , ; Michael Dryer , ; Neil Gaiman, ; Matthew Vaughn
music	Ilan Eshkeri
camera	Ben Davis
cut	Jon Harris
occupation
synchronization

Der Sternwanderer (Original title: Stardust ) is a fantasy film directed by Matthew Vaughn from 2007 with Claire Danes , Michelle Pfeiffer and Charlie Cox in the lead roles. The film is based on the novel Sternwanderer by the English author Neil Gaiman .

action

The action begins in the mid- 19th century in the tranquil English village of Wall. The village is located near a stone wall that, according to legend, is said to be a border with the magical kingdom of Stormhold. A breakthrough in the wall is constantly guarded by a man who prevents anyone from entering. One evening, however, the young Dunstan Thorn manages to deceive the guard and cross the border. Behind it he finds a village with a market and meets a girl who claims that she is being kept as a slave by a witch, but is in fact a princess. They sleep together and Dunstan returns to Wall. Nine months later, he receives a basket with a baby named Tristan, the result of his night with the princess.

18 years later: Tristan Thorn is now a young man who works in a shop and lives alone with his father Dunstan. He had never told him anything about his mother or his origins before. Tristan is madly in love with the beautiful Victoria, who is already in a relationship with Humphrey.

On the other side of the wall in the Kingdom of Stormhold, the king is on his deathbed and his sons await a decision on who will succeed the king. The king removes his necklace with a ruby , which then loses its red color. He throws it in the air and announces that whoever turns the pale stone back into a ruby will be the new king. The stone rises into the sky and collides with a star, both then race back to earth in the form of a shooting star. This is happening just as Tristan and Victoria are having a nightly picnic in Wall. Both see the shooting star, and Victoria promises to sever her connection with Humphrey and marry him if Tristan should cross the border wall to Stormhold and return within a week with the fallen star.

By lighting a magical “Babylonian candle” that was left for Tristan by his mother, he immediately arrives at the crash site of the star. The star has the human form of the beautiful Yvaine, and she wore the necklace with the stone next to her. Tristan and Yvaine are now on their way back to Wall together. Yvaine accompanies him after Tristan has promised to give her the rest of the Babylonian candle afterwards so that she can return to heaven. But not only Tristan is interested in Yvaine, the wicked witch siblings Lamia, Mormo and Empusa are also after her, as eating her heart promises eternal life. But the sons of the late King of Stormhold also want to find Yvaine, because she carries the chain with the stone with her that entitles the last male survivor of her bloodline to reign. Accordingly, the prince brothers are just as busy looking for Yvaine as they are with their mutual decimation.

On the run from their pursuers, Tristan and Yvaine meet Tristan’s mother Una, the princess of Stormhold, who was kidnapped as a child by the witch “Ditch Sal” (originally “Ditchwater Sal”) and has been imprisoned ever since. They manage to free them. Before that, however, after an unsuccessful attempt to use the Babylonian candle again, they meet the storm chaser pirates. Under the outwardly merciless, but actually lovable Captain Shakespeare, Tristan learns the skills of a gentleman, storm chaser and pirate.

While Yvaine slowly falls in love with Tristan, his mind is still attached to Victoria, but soon he too becomes aware of his feelings for Yvaine. One morning he decides to go the last bit to Wall on his own and to end his "relationship" with Victoria. When Yvaine wakes up alone, she wants to follow Tristan, but is captured by the witch Lamia and taken to her hiding place. Tristan follows them after his return from Wall and tries together with the last remaining Prince Septimus to free Yvaine from the power of the three witches. This succeeds after a tough fight in which, in addition to the witches, Septimus also has to die, making Tristan the last male survivor of the royal family. When he picks up the king's pale stone, it turns into a ruby again, which entitles him to become king of Stormhold. The new king Tristan and his Yvaine rule their kingdom for 80 years. At the end of his earthly life, Tristan lights the Babylonian candle to take Yvaine to the stars. Both will live there forever, because he has the heart of a star, which Yvaine had given him (figuratively) with her love.

background

Actually, in the years 1998 and 1999 the rights to a film adaptation of Sternwanderer were guaranteed to Miramax Films , but after what author Neil Gaiman says was an "unsatisfactory time of creation", the latter did not release the rights. Because of his friendship with Matthew Vaughn, he ultimately left the staging to him.

The film was shot from April to July 2006 in England ( Buckinghamshire , Hertfordshire , Norfolk , Oxfordshire , Yorkshire , Wiltshire ), Scotland ( Isle of Skye , Argyll and Bute ), Wales ( Carmarthenshire ) and Iceland ( Hafnarfjörður ).

Ilan Eshkeri , who wrote epic instrumental music, worked as a film composer for Der Sternwanderer . He used u. a. the passage Der Höllen- Cancan or galop infernal from Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in der Unterwelt . On September 11, 2007 the score was released on CD .

Take That composed and sang the song Rule the World with Gary Barlow as the lead singer; it serves as background music for the credits , but is not included on the soundtrack for the film. As single was Rule the World published on 22 October 2007 in the UK, and on October 29, 2007 in the United States. The song, which was previously highly regarded, was a favorite for an Oscar in 2008 , but was not even nominated. Even at the Golden Globe Awards 2008 , the song came out empty-handed.

Dimmu Borgir's song Eradication Instincts Defined can be heard in the trailers for the film .

The film was released in the United States on August 10, 2007, and the German theatrical release took place on October 18, 2007.

Cast and dubbing

role	actor	German speaker
Dunstan Thorne	Nathaniel Parker	Hans-Jürgen Wolf
Young Dunstan Thorne	Ben Barnes	Ozan Unal
Yvaine	Claire Danes	Nana Spier
Captain Shakespeare	Robert De Niro	Christian Brückner
Lamia	Michelle Pfeiffer	Katja Nottke
Bernard	Jake Curran	Julien Haggége
The skinny pirate	Dexter Fletcher	Andreas Fröhlich
The King of Stormhold	Peter O'Toole	Jürgen Thormann
The receptionist	Geoff Bell	Rainer Doering
The security guard	David Kelly	Hasso Zorn
The fortune teller	George Innes	Michael Narloch
The slave girl Una	Kate Magowan	Gundi Eberhard
Empusa	Sarah Alexander	Liane Rudolph
Humphrey	Henry Cavill	Nicolas Boell
Ferdy, the fence	Ricky Gervais	Lutz Schnell
Mormo	Joanna Scanlan	Astrid Bless
Primus	Jason Flemyng	Bernd Vollbrecht
Secundus	Rupert Everett	Tom Vogt
Tertius	Mark Heap	Stefan Gossler
Quartus	Julian Rhind-Tutt	Stefan Fredrich
Quintus	Adam Buxton	Uwe Büschken
Sextus	David Walliams	Uli Krohm
Septimus	Mark Strong	Erich Rauker
Ditch Sal	Melanie Hill	Marianne Gross
Tristan Thorne	Charlie Cox	Norman Matt
Victoria	Sienna Miller	Maria Koschny
The stars	-	Cathlen Gawlich
The narrator	( Ian McKellen )	Peter Fricke

Financial success

With a film budget of around 70 million US dollars (56.3 million euros ; 67.7 million Swiss francs ), Paramount Pictures took 9 million US dollars (7.2 million US dollars) with Der Sternwanderer on the opening weekend (11-12 August 2007) Million euros; 8.7 million Swiss francs). In total, the film grossed 38.6 million US dollars (31.1 million euros; 37.3 million Swiss francs) in the USA and 135.6 million US dollars (109.1 million euros; 131. 1 million Swiss francs).

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote in the film review on his website reelviews.net that after the big series The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter , Der Sternwanderer represents a “return to the original genre of fantasy films ” and is based on a “simpler” story. The film editing ensures that the film never comes to rest in its flow of plot; the characters are well cast. In a time of "overpriced and over-hyped sequels ", the film is "fresh and welcome entertainment".

Roger Ebert is of the opinion that Der Sternwanderer contains "many good things", but that it can only be enjoyed "in parts". He likes the film, even if not all of the discrepancies are resolved and it falls short overall behind other fantasy classics such as The Bride of the Prince (1987).

"More with wit and with illustrious actors than with effects triumphant fantasy fairy tale that skilfully translates the [sic] tone of the literary original, oscillating between poetry and black humor."

- Lexicon of international film