The foreign son

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Movie
German title The foreign son
Original title Changeling
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 140 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 14
Rod
Director Clint Eastwood
script J. Michael Straczynski
production Brian Grazer ,
Ron Howard ,
Robert Lorenz
music Clint Eastwood
camera Tom Stern
cut Joel Cox ,
Gary D. Roach
occupation

The Strange Son (original title Changeling ; English for "changeling", "cuckoo child" ) is an American thriller from 2008 . Directed by Clint Eastwood ; J. Michael Straczynski wrote the script, based on the true case of the Wineville Chicken Coop murders .

action

Los Angeles in 1928. Christine Collins leaves the house one Saturday morning and goes to work at a switchboard. When she returned, her son Walter disappeared.

Five months later, a nine-year-old boy who claims to be Christine's son is found. But while the police celebrate their success, Christine is certain that this boy is not her son. With her efforts to prove the mix-up, she comes up against resistance from the corrupt police. Neither the mismatched dental findings nor the fact that the new Walter is circumcised and four inches shorter are recognized; the police consider the case closed. Christine's vehement demand to continue the search for Walter gets her into great trouble. Labeled by the police captain as hysterical and dangerous, she is admitted to a psychiatric clinic, where other people who are not liked by the police are also accommodated. The workforce always acts in the interests of the police. The inmates are immobilized with medication or - in the case of resistance - with electric shocks.

Only Pastor Briegleb is at her side. He succeeds in making the case public and getting Christine out of the psychiatric clinic. In the meantime, a gruesome mass murder of 20 boys is uncovered in Wineville, and the perpetrator is soon found and arrested in Canada. However, an exact identification of the corpses is no longer possible, so that it cannot be proven whether Walter is among them. There are two trials in which Christine participates as a witness. The Los Angeles Police Chief who had Christine admitted to psychiatry is suspended, and his boss and the mayor are forced to resign. The murderer is sentenced to death and transferred to San Quentin . The false son's true family is found. Shortly before the execution, the murderer sent Christine a telegram with the prospect of finding out about her son's whereabouts. When visiting the prison, however, the murderer does not provide any information.

Five years later, a boy is found who was among the killer's prisoners. He says that he was able to escape with the help of Walter Collins, but does not know whether he also managed to escape and whether he is still alive. Christine draws hope from this and continues to believe in the return of her son.

background

Angelina Jolie on the set of the film

The project had been in preparation since the summer of 2006, and after the initial planning, Ron Howard would direct it. Later Clint Eastwood was hired, whose company Malpaso and the manager Robert Lorenz employed there co-produced the film.

The film was shot in Los Angeles , Pasadena and several other California locations. The historic station building Santa Fe Depot in San Bernardino was decorated for the shoot in the style of the 1920s.

Its world premiere took place at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2008 . In Germany, the film was shown for the first time on November 4, 2008 at the 22nd international film festival in Braunschweig. It was widely released in the United States on October 31, 2008 and in Germany on January 22, 2009.

subjects

"With shameless audacity, the police here make reality submissive, as if it were just the material of a script," said epd Film . The Süddeutsche Zeitung judged similarly that an unauthorized state bureaucracy creates its own reality here, and it made a reference to the understanding of reality of the Bush administration and Guantánamo.

criticism

“The film, based on an actual case from the late 1920s, largely avoids any additional dramatization and successfully undermines sentimental expectations. The second half of the long film suffers from some clichés, which threatens to throw him off his staging balance. "

- Lexicon of international film

The German-language film review paid special attention to Jolie's acting. Some critics noticed that she played withdrawn, fortunately Eastwood had put her on a leash. Some of the criticism found her "touchingly vulnerable", she threw herself into her role with trembling energy, and the character change played was a breathtaking experience. You bring the best performance of your career here, or play Oscar-worthy. On the other hand, one assessment was that she could not add any new facets to her previous grandiose achievements, and was even not able to cope with the absurd conclusion. It is said of Malkovich that he plays brilliantly or "exalted as always". Another judgment was that both Jolie's and Malkovich's star characters were too big and distracting for these roles.

The Frankfurter Rundschau commented on Eastwood's music that its essence corresponded to a litany , and the Tagesspiegel that it boomed terribly. Opinions on his direction were similar; The film is solid, but without surprises, it is straightforward, economical, and highly concentrated with a focused view of the most important things. He also made people shiver emotionally, telling them “unadorned and brutal”, oppressive and sublime. The viewer experiences the exclusion of the heroine firsthand. For Spiegel Online, however, the viewer's sympathy for the main character falls by the wayside; the main character is characterized unilaterally by her suffering. Still, that review called the film multilayered; According to the taz , it is multi-faceted and growing into an epic format. As the length of the game increases, according to the Tagesspiegel , the story becomes more and more lengthy and implausible. The Standard found the middle section most convincing, then fringe the story.

The Tagesspiegel was not convinced by the dramaturgy, because it went too hastily from one genre to another. The many volts through the genres, for example radical from nostalgic mother drama to madhouse horror, caught the attention of other critics, but they benevolently assessed this as a permanent undermining of expectations, whereby the changes appeared completely natural and the styles were harmoniously brought together. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung criticized the too clear separation into good and bad. Several reviews saw similarities with Chinatown , LA Confidential, and the Black Dahlia , and Spiegel Online declared the Strange Son to be on par with these films.

Awards

The film competed unsuccessfully for the Palme d' Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival . Director Clint Eastwood and the French actress Catherine Deneuve ( Un conte de Noël ) were honored with a special prize from the competition jury.

The film received three Academy Awards nominations in 2009 , including Angelina Jolie for Best Actress .

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Web links

Commons : Changeling (2008 film)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

conversations

  • With Angelina Jolie in Der Spiegel, No. 3/2009 of January 12, 2009, p. 132: "Family is more important to us than film"

Review mirror

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Stranger Son . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2008 (PDF; test number: 116 004 K).
  2. ↑ Age designation for The Stranger Son . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Report ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Variety on March 8, 2007, accessed May 16, 2008  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  4. ^ IMDb: Filming locations for Changeling , accessed on May 16, 2008
  5. ↑ https://www.ci.san-bernardino.ca.us/about/history/changeling_movie.asp
  6. ^ Report in Variety of April 22, 2008, accessed on May 16, 2008
  7. ^ IMDb: Release dates for Changeling , accessed January 26, 2009
  8. ↑ a b c d epd Film No. 1/2009, pp. 44–45, by Anke Sterneborg
  9. ↑ a b Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 21, 2009, p. 11, by Tobias Kniebe
  10. ↑ The strange son. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 4, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  11. ↑ a b c Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 200, from, p .:
  12. ↑ a b c d e Die Welt, January 20, 2009, p. 25, by Hanns-Georg Rodek: This is not my child
  13. ↑ a b c d Der Tagesspiegel, January 22, 2009, p. 27, by Christina Tilmann: Alone with truth
  14. ↑ a b c d Frankfurter Rundschau, January 22, 2009, p. 33, by Daniel Kothenschulte : A silent sermon
  15. ↑ a b c Cinema No. 1/2009, pp. 36–38, by Jochen Schütze
  16. ↑ a b Brigitte, No. 3 of January 14, 2009, p. 92, by Andrea Benda
  17. ↑ a b c d e Spiegel Online, May 20, 2008, by Andreas Borcholte: Übermama Jolie against Paltrow
  18. ↑ a b Der Standard, January 21, 2009, p. 24, by Isabella Reicher: A woman who rebels against a city
  19. ↑ taz, January 22, 2009, p. 15, by Bert Rebhandl: Unhappy family reunification
  20. ↑ Cinema No. 1/2009, pp. 36-38; epd film no. 1/2009, pp. 44-45; Spiegel Online, May 20, 2008; Der Standard, January 21, 2009, p. 24; Die Welt, January 20, 2009, p. 25