Diamond billiards
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Diamond billiards / diamond billiards |
| Original title | Diamond billiards / Diamond billiards Un billion in un billiard alarms in 5 banche |
| Country of production |
Germany France Italy Switzerland |
| original language |
German French Italian |
| Publishing year | 1965 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Nicolas Gessner |
| script | Nicolas Gessner Charles Spaak |
| production |
Hanns Eckelkamp Ernst Liesenhoff Peter Hellstern Martin Hellstern |
| music | Georges Garvarentz |
| camera | Claude Lecomte |
| cut | Jean-Michel Gautier |
| occupation | |
| |
Diamond Billiards , often under diamond pool is a German-French-Italian-Swiss caper comedy from 1965 by Nicolas Gessner . International actors such as Jean Seberg , Claude Rich , Elsa Martinelli , Elisabeth Flickenschildt and Günther Ungeheuer play the leading roles .
action
Geneva, in southwestern Switzerland. Bernard Noblet is a small bank clerk who is bored with his monotonous existence at the counter. His great passion is the game of billiards , his best friend Roger runs such a salon. Bernard dreams of one day landing the “really big coup”, turning a crooked thing that will make him rich in one fell swoop. He shares this wish with Roger. Bernard's friend Juliette, a little teacher, would also have no objection to stepping out of the daily routine and would like to join such a coup. When he met Bettina Ralton one day, whose mother heads a shrewd gang of gangsters like a gray eminence, his plan took shape for the first time. But you don't want to join the foreign crooks, they should only serve as a means to an end. During a tete-a-tete with Bettina, Noblet learns that the gang will soon be targeting the jewelery store, which is located just below the premises of Roger's billiards club.
He lets the specialists do their work and tinkers with his friend Roger, a cranky inventive talent, a few jumping devils - Punch and Judy figures, which, driven by a clockwork, snap out of their box precisely and at the same time. Using this technical sophistication, the alarm systems of five different Geneva banks should be triggered at the same time. And so it happens. The police are moving out with the greatest possible strength, and Madame Ralton's crooks can now go about their criminal work in complete safety. But since Bernard now wants to cash in without getting his hands dirty, he triggers the alarm system of the jewelry store as the last thing. The burglars around the two specialists Prof. Schmoll and Dr. Worms, who have no idea that the police have their hands full elsewhere, immediately drop everything and see that they can disappear undetected. Bernard and Roger can now collect the Sore in peace of mind.
A good hiding place, in case a house search is due, has already been found: Roger puts the valuable clunkers in the pool table. In view of this screwed up raid, Bettina suspects that Bernard could be behind it, as only he knew one detail of the raid that could lead to failure. So Bettina begins to ensnare Bernard violently, and the shy dreamer begins to wax in her hands. Time for Bettina's buddies to steal the crook from the brazen bank clerk. But in the end they are scared of Bernard's whistling to the police, and they leave the country in no time at all. Juliette, who had at times believed to have lost her Bernard to the blonde snake Bettina, is reconciled with her lover and negotiates a deal with the insurance company of the robbed jewelry store. In the future she will bump into her other clients by simply doubling the insurance premiums to be paid by her customers.
Production notes
Diamond billiards was shot mainly in April and May and then again until July 1965 in Paris (studio recordings) and in Switzerland (outdoor recordings in Geneva, Lausanne, Cointrin, Ouchy, Lutry) and premiered in two Paris cinemas on September 17, 1965. The German premiere took place on October 8, 1965 in Hamburg's Ufa-Palast. The Swiss premiere took place on December 29, 1965 in Lausanne.
The production costs of the film, which can not hide certain bonds in Jules Dassin's legendary burglar crime thriller Rififi , amounted to around 1.5 million Swiss francs.
The first German television broadcast took place late in the evening on July 12, 1970 on ARD .
The film constructions come from the hand of Paul-Louis Boutié . Raymond Danon was the production manager, Guy Lacourt and Ernst Steinlechner the production management.
For the German television presenter and comedian Werner Schwier this was the first role as an actor in front of the camera.
For Nicolas Gessner, diamond billiards meant the international breakthrough, especially since the film, thanks to the cooperation of the American Jean Seberg, could also be sold in the USA for a third of the production price and was awarded in English-speaking countries under the title Diamonds are Brittle .
criticism
In Films 1965-70 the following can be read: "Dozen thriller with cheerful accents and careful color photography, whose deliberate, ironic style of directing largely distances itself from the perverted moral of the story." The Protestant film observer , on the other hand, has a much better opinion of the work : “This directorial debut by a Hungarian-Swiss does not fulfill all hopes, but far surpasses any German comedy suit. For friends of carefree amusement. "
“Without being a major work, diamond billiards brings a breath of fresh air to the shallow production of the sixties. Its multinational packaging, its star set, the charming Claude Rich, the delightful Elsa Martinelli and the fragile-seductive Jean Seberg certainly contributed a lot to the success; Nevertheless, one shouldn't forget the head chef: Niklaus Gessner. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Films 1965/70. Handbook VIII of the Catholic film criticism. Volume 1. Cologne 1971, p. 56
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 400/1965
Web links
- Diamond Billiards in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Diamond billiards at filmportal.de