The Devil of Milan (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The devil of Milan |
| Country of production | Switzerland , Germany |
| original language | Swiss German , German |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Markus Welter |
| script | Markus Welter, Thomas Berger , Jan Poldervaart |
| production |
Peter Nadermann , Anne Walser |
| music | Michael Sauter |
| camera | Pascal Rémond |
| cut | Cécile Welter |
| occupation | |
| |
The Devil of Milan is a Swiss - German film adaptation of the eponymous novel by Martin Suter from the year 2012. Directed by Markus Welter are regulators Grauwiller , Max Simonischek and Ina Weisse seen in the lead roles.
action
Ever since her wealthy ex-husband Frédéric tried to kill her, Sonia has been haunted by nightmares. Her mother-in-law won't leave her alone either. She wants Sonia to finally drop the case against her son and sign the necessary papers so that Frédéric can be released from a psychiatric institution. When even her best friend Malu advises that they sign the papers, Sonia decides to leave Zurich . She fled with her budgie Pavarotti to a remote mountain village in the Engadine , where she accepted a job as a physiotherapist in a newly opened wellness hotel . The hotel was recently bought and remodeled by the German Barbara Peters. The suspicious villagers are hostile towards the beautiful but aloof blonde from the start, especially since no one knows the source of her wealth. As her employee, Sonia is also shunned in the village from now on.
One evening in her room Sonia found the book The Devil of Milan , which tells the legend of the young Ursina, who sold her soul to the devil for beauty and wealth. The devil can only get hold of the soul, "when the tree loses its leaves at inopportune times, when the embers burn in the water, when the bird becomes a fish, when the cross points south, when the animal becomes a human". A short time later, Sonia begins to recognize the signs described in the book in reality. The ficus in the hotel lobby loses its leaves overnight . As it turns out, the tree was poisoned with sulfuric acid . When Sonia finds the hotel pool colored blood red by glowing glow sticks one night, she begins to believe that her ex-husband is behind it. Barbara Peters, who also knows the legend of Ursina, considers the mysterious incidents to be macabre jokes by the villagers directed against her and not against Sonia. Sonia finally confides in her colleague Manuel and the reserved bar pianist Bob. However, both believe that the parallels to the legend are only imagined.
After Sonia found her beloved budgie dead in an aquarium, while the cross of a grave is upside down in the ground in the church cemetery, Sonia's mother-in-law suddenly turns up at the hotel. However, Sonia refuses to sign the papers presented to her and runs away. Suddenly Bango, the dog of the hotel manager, disappeared. Together with Bob, Sonia searches the hotel for the animal. She finally finds a joint, whereupon Barbara Peters thinks she knows who kidnapped her dog: Reto Bazzell. His father recently carried out carpentry work in the hotel and a key has been missing since then. Barbara and Sonia Reto follow on a winding road. Barbara tries to overtake him with her convertible, but has to brake hard. Reto falls his joint out of his mouth laughing. He loses control of his car and falls down a ravine in a curve. When Barbara and Sonia leave the police station, Barbara is insulted as a murderer and spat at by the villagers. Back at the hotel, Bango is suddenly back. He is wearing a hat and a sweater.
To get other thoughts, Sonia goes on a trip with Manuel. You drive into the mountains and want to hike a bit. When a thunderstorm began, they met Mr. Casutt, the hotel's former night porter. He asks Manuel where the dog is he hid in the trunk of his car. Angry, Manuel attacks the older Casutt and falls down a rock. While Casutt calls for help, the injured Manuel confesses to Sonia that he is responsible for all the mysterious incidents in the hotel. Her ex-husband, whom he knows from psychiatry, hired him to drive Sonia insane. He apologizes to Sonia and then succumbs to his injuries. The following evening Sonia receives a message that Barbara is inviting her to her tower suite for a glass of champagne. When Sonia wants to accept the invitation, Bob appears in her room. They kiss and sleep together. Later Sonia remembered the invitation and went to the tower suite. The door is open and she goes in. Suddenly Frédéric appears behind her. He has distributed explosives in the suite and wants to blow up Sonia. When he attacks her, Sonia stabs him in the leg with a letter opener and flees to the roof of the hotel. There she succeeds in deceiving Frédéric and locking him out. She runs back into the tower suite and reaches for the bomb's switch. When Frédéric unlocks the door to the roof and returns to the tower suite, Sonia blows him up by remote ignition. Barbara, who had been on the way, has the hotel evacuated. Sonia wants to continue working for her and, with Bob by her side, is optimistic about the future.
background
The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Martin Suter with the classic motif of the person who sells his soul to the devil was made as a co-production by SRF , C-Films AG , ZDF and Network Movie . Director Markus Welter endeavored to stay true to the novel, but had to cut back on the cinematic implementation. For example, Sonia's synaesthetic perceptions were not integrated into the film plot. “Instead, we tried to capture the violence of the Engadine nature, to show the viewer their colors and even to retrieve their smells from them,” says Welter.
The shooting took place with a budget of 2.5 million francs from October 24th to November 29th, 2011 in Zurich and in the Engadin , where the Hotel Castell in Zuoz served as the main location.
On November 7th, 2011, while filming a car chase between Ardez and Ftan , an accident occurred .
While Pascal Rémond was filming the stunt recordings & location scout Arnold Bucher was instructing two stunt vehicles over the radio from a helicopter, the helicopter's rotor grazed a ledge in a curve. The machine crashed 11 meters deep on a road not far from a 150 meter deep ravine. All inmates survived.
The film premiered on September 25, 2012 at the Zurich Film Festival . On September 30, 2012, it was broadcast by SF 1 for the first time on German-speaking television. On October 3, 2012, The Devil of Milan was also shown at the Cologne Conference in Cologne. When it was first broadcast in Germany on ZDF on December 22, 2012, 3.14 million viewers saw the film; the market share was 11.2 percent.
Reviews
According to Claudia Schwartz of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , the film "Martin Suter's recurring theme of the change of consciousness [...] sent to [coin]". Because of the play of the “outstanding” actors, “everyone will soon appear suspicious”. Although the story "by renouncing the psychological introspection, which the literary original already suffers from", gradually arouses the impression of being "something arbitrary", nevertheless the result is "[un] entertaining". As a horror fairy tale, the television adaptation is “far too good; as a crime thriller, it wouldn't even be that bad ”. Urs Arnold from the Aargauer Zeitung called the film a “successful version”, but advised against comparing it “meticulously with the original”.
“Unconventionally threatening, expressively illustrated,” said TV Spielfilm . Prisma said that the theatrical presentations were "quite neat", but that they could "not hide the shortcomings of the story to be constructed".
Web links
The Devil of Milan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The devil of Milan in the dictionary of international films
- Pictures of the film on tvspielfilm.de
- Making-of on sf.tv
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Urs Arnold: The devil of Milan is painted on the canvas . In: Aargauer Zeitung , September 25, 2012.
- ^ Ruedi Baumann: The hunt for cozy Alps and gloomy parking garages , March 25, 2012.
- ↑ cf. cologne-conference.de
- ↑ cf. quotenmeter.de
- ^ Claudia Schwartz: Emancipation and other devil stuff . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 24, 2012.
- ↑ cf. tvspielfilm.de
- ↑ cf. prisma.de