The Eternal Gardener (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The eternal gardener |
| Original title | The Constant Gardener |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English , Swahili , German |
| Publishing year | 2005 |
| length | 129 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Fernando Meirelles |
| script | Jeffrey Caine |
| production | Simon Channing-Williams |
| music | Alberto Iglesias |
| camera | César Charlone |
| cut | Claire Simpson |
| occupation | |
| |
The Eternal Gardener is a fiction film by the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles from 2005 . The drama is based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré and was produced by the film studios Potboiler Productions, Epsilon Motion Pictures, Scion Films Limited and the UK Film Council.
action
The bodies of activist Tessa Quayle, who is active in the region, and her local driver are found on remote Lake Turkana in northern Kenya . Tessa's travel companion Arnold Bluhm, a black Belgian doctor, cannot be found. All traces point to a crime of passion. Sandy Woodrow, Sir Bernard Pellegrin and other members of the UK High Commission quickly close the file, assuming that Tessa's widower, the impeccable diplomat Justin Quayle, would have no objection to the affair of his wife being wrapped in a cloak of silence.
Justin had met the beautiful and young Tessa Abbott at a lecture in London . Although both had different political attitudes, they quickly fell in love. The adventure between two strangers had turned into a quick marriage and relocation to Kenya together. While Tessa and the doctor Arnold Bluhm took care of the social problems of Africa there, the diplomat employed at the British embassy in Nairobi never let the misery of the population get close and preferred to take care of his meticulously tended garden. Slowly the spouses became strangers to each other. Intercepted scraps of conversation and an ambiguously worded e-mail finally led Justin to suspect that his wife was cheating on him.
The stillbirth of their child and then Tessa's violent death throw Justin out of his habits. Driven by remorse and set in motion by rumors about his wife's infidelity, he throws himself into dangerous inquiries to find out the truth. He discovers that Tessa tried to publicize a report on drug industry crimes in Africa before she died . However, she had kept the contents of her work from Justin in order to protect him and not to endanger his political career.
In Africa and Europe, Justin soon uncovered the wide-ranging conspiracy that had got in Tessa's way: A large pharmaceutical company that supports free HIV tests in Africa is apparently also having Dypraxa tested on patients without their knowledge , a new one remedy against an expected tuberculosis - pandemic from which the manufacturer enormous revenues hoped. The unfinished drug cost the lives of many of the involuntary test subjects, but this enabled Dypraxa to be optimized quickly and cheaply. The dead were secretly buried and all documents destroyed so that they never officially existed. Even relatives of the deceased whom Justin questioned are arrested as a result.
Justin first travels to London, where his passport is withheld on the pretext to prevent an onward journey. With false papers and under a different name, but always persecuted, he travels to Berlin and there contacts the activists of the pharmacritical group Hippo , who, as he now knows, had supported Tessa and Bluhm. Bluhm's body has meanwhile been found in Kenya; he had been brutally tortured to death. Justin is under massive pressure: he will suffer the same fate if he does not stop his research. Nevertheless, in search of the last remaining questions, he finally returns to the place where Tessa died. From there he sends Tessa's cousin a report on his own investigation as well as a copy of Tessa's withheld report that still exists. The film ends when Justin at Lake Turkana, lost in thought of Tessa, is tracked down by a killer squad.
At Tessa and Justin's funeral, Arthur Hammond, Tessa's cousin and Justin's friend, reads from the letter that Bernard Pellegrin wrote to Sandy Woodrow. Pelligrin ordered the surveillance of Tessa and ordered that Tessa's reports about the dead Africans be intercepted and suppressed. Pellegrin then leaves the funeral and is followed by journalists.
History of origin
The film is based on John le Carré's eighteenth novel The Eternal Gardener (original title: The Constant Gardener ), which was first published in 2001. The work is dedicated to Yvette Pierpaoli . The 60-year-old Africa activist and laborer served Le Carré as a model for the figure of Tessa . Pierpaoli, who left France at the age of 19 to do relief work in Phnom Penh, Cambodia , worked for the non-governmental organization Refugees International . Le Carré met Pierpaoli in the mid-1970s. She was killed in a car accident in Albania in 1999 with two employees and their driver . The model for the critical base group Hippo is the Bielefeld BUKO Pharma campaign, which Le Carré visited in April 2000.
Even before The Eternal Gardener was published , British independent film producer Simon Channing Williams got hold of an edition of the political thriller at the end of 2000, read it and, enthusiastic about the work, wrote a letter to Le Carré's lawyer Michael Rudell, in which he wrote about it tried to convince to agree to a film version. When Rudell replied and wanted to arrange a meeting with the writer, Channing Williams agreed to fly from New York to London that evening to show Le Carré how important to him the substance of the greed of pharmaceutical companies, the abuse of African population, government corruption and the love story between the two protagonists Tessa and Justin Quayle.
In fact, Le Carré consented to his novel being screened, and screenwriter Jeffrey Caine , who u. a. had provided the script for the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995), took on the adaptation of The Eternal Gardener . The preproduction , in which John Le Carré was involved, lasted over two years. While in the novel the death of Tessa is announced to the reader on the first page, it was decided in the film version to depict the relationship between Justin and Tessa in flashbacks so that the two characters could also take the viewer emotionally. The Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, who celebrated his international breakthrough in 2002 with his third feature film City of God, was hired to direct . Originally, the British Mike Newell was intended to direct, but dropped out of the project after the offer to film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . The two British actors Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz were cast in the leading roles .
After the casting of the actors and the pre-production was completed in winter 2003 and spring 2004, filming began in May 2004. The first stop was Berlin, where u. a. at the new main train station , the offices in the Academy of Arts , the Residenz Hotel and the Babelsberg film studio . After two weeks in Germany, production moved to London, where u. a. the Tate Modern Gallery on the south bank of the Thames (this is where Tessa and Justin meet for the first time in the film), St. Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington (where the wedding scene was filmed) and the Liberal Club served as backdrops. For the filming in Africa it was decided, true to the novel, to shoot in Kenya and not in South Africa , where the African film industry is based. Was shot u. a. in the slums of Nairobi , at the weekly vegetable market in Kiambu and at Lake Magada in the East African Trench , which in some scenes served as a backdrop for Lake Turkana , located further north in the same rift valley . The Camp Seven scenes that take place in South Sudan in the film were shot in the Kenyan village of Loyangalani, on the southeastern shore of Lake Turkana, the largest inland body of water in Kenya. The last scenes were shot in July 2004 with Ralph Fiennes and a small crew in Lokichoggio , on the border with South Sudan.
The situation the actors and the film crew encountered while filming in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani led them to set up a non-profit organization called the Constant Gardener Trust . This institution is committed to educating the people who live there. The patronage is u. a. Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes and John le Carré. During a break in filming declared himself ready Rachel Weisz, in a TV commercial for the World Food Program of the United Nations to act. In the of Diego Quemade-Diez realized commercials Weisz acts on the banks of Magadisees with a group of school children whose parents work in the local Magadi Soda Company.
Ralph Fiennes himself operated the home video camera that Quayle uses to record himself in the film to express his views.
reception
Commercial win
The eternal gardener premiered in North American cinemas on August 31, 2005. The film brought in grossing US $ 8.7 million on the opening weekend and immediately placed third on the US box office. By 2007, the 25 million US dollar film had grossed 82.5 million US dollars worldwide, of which 33.6 million dollars came from the USA. The German theatrical release took place on January 12, 2006.
Reviews
The eighth directorial work and at the same time the fourth feature film by Fernando Meirelles was able to build on his previous world success City of God and was critically acclaimed. The focus was primarily on the authentic and exciting staging and the work of the Brazilian director was described as one of the most provocative and best productions of the 2005 cinema year. The two main actors Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz also received good reviews. Critical voices attested the literary film adaptation lacking speed.
“An impressive mixture of melodrama, thriller and political drama, which in a controversial story addresses the failures of globalization policy to the detriment of the Third World. A committed as well as demanding film, excellently played and staged. "
“In a just world, whose existence Meirelles' film so shockingly refutes, Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes would be undisputed stars after this performance at the latest. They move you to sincerely wept tears, which do not dilute the view of the essentials, but sharpen them. That is why it remains clear to us in every memorable moment why 'The Eternal Gardener' reaches the heart without delusion and at the same time appeals to the critical mind without preaching. "
“Director Fernando Meirelles narrates the exciting political and espionage thriller based on a John Le Carré bestseller almost en passant, with the focus on the odyssey of the doomed and longing for death hero. In illuminated, colorful pictures, Meirelles stages just as cool and at the same time purposeful as his protagonist acts. The camera is mobile, in constant motion, picks up speed and speed without ever degenerating into a mere technical accessory. "
“Caine and Meirelles cleverly interweave different dramaturgical coloraturas across the time levels. Romantic love story, captivating thriller and disturbing political drama come together as a matter of course. "The Eternal Gardener" is convincing in all three areas. The unusual attraction that the contradicting but coherent main characters exert on one another is easily taken away from the actors Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. "
Awards and nominations
The eternal gardener was long considered one of the favorites for the 78th Academy Awards, but was not nominated for the important categories of “Best Film” and “Best Director”. At the Academy Awards ceremony on March 5, 2006, the film was nominated in four categories, but only Rachel Weisz was able to beat the competition for Best Supporting Actress. She was the favorite for the trophy after winning the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award . At the presentation of the British Academy Film Awards on February 19, 2006, the film was considered the favorite for the most important British film award with ten nominations ahead of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (nine nominations), but ultimately only the film editor Claire Simpson was able to prevail against the competition .
- Best Supporting Actress (Rachel Weisz)
- nominated in the categories
- Best adapted script
- Best film score
- Best cut
- nominated in the categories
- Best Supporting Actress (Rachel Weisz)
- nominated in the categories
- Best film - drama
- Best director
- nominated in the categories
- Best cut
- nominated in the categories
- Best movie
- Best British Film
- Best director
- Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes)
- Best Actress (Rachel Weisz)
- Best adapted script
- Best film score
- Best camera
- Best tone
- nominated in the categories
- Best British Independent Film
- Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes)
- Best Actress (Rachel Weisz)
Nominated in the categories
- Best director
- Best Supporting Actor (Bill Nighy)
- Best script
- Best technical performance (best camera)
- nominated for the Prix Screen International as best non-European film
- nominated as best European film
- Best Supporting Actor (Danny Huston)
- Best camera
- nominated in the category Best Film Music
- Best Supporting Actress (Rachel Weisz)
- nominated for the Golden Lion for best film
- nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category
literature
- John Le Carré: The Constant Gardener . London: Scepter 2002. ISBN 0-340-73353-5 .
- German edition: The Eternal Gardener . Translated from the English by Werner Schmitz with the assistance of Karsten Singelmann. Munich: List 2002. ISBN 3-548-60229-0 .
Web links
- The Constant Gardener in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Constant Gardener at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- The eternal gardener in the online film database
- Collected film reviews of The Eternal Gardener on filmz.de
- The Temporality of the Real: The Path to Politics in The Constant Gardener (Filmanalyse) (English; PDF file; 435 kB)
- The Constant Gardener Trust (aid project in Kenya )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Eternal Gardener . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2006 (PDF; test number: 104 764 K).
- ↑ Age designation for The Eternal Gardener . Youth Media Commission .
- ^ "One of the year's best and most provocative movies". Quoted from: Peter Travers: The Constant Gardener . In: Rolling Stone, August 31, 2005.
- ↑ The Eternal Gardener. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ SPIEGEL Online - "Anger, sadness and love"
- ↑ critic.de - film criticism
- ↑ film-dienst - film review by Stefan Volk