The Beginners (1995)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The beginners |
| Original title | Les apprentis |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1995 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Pierre Salvadori |
| script |
Philippe Harel , Pierre Salvadori |
| production | Philippe Martin |
| music | Philippe Eidel |
| camera | Gilles Henry |
| cut | Hélène Viard |
| occupation | |
| |
The novice is a French comedy film directed by Pierre Salvadori from the year 1995 .
action
Author Antoine is left by his girlfriend Valérie. He temporarily moves in with his friend Benoit, who is abroad most of the time. The young Fredéric, known as Fred, already lives with Benoit, who does not have any work and lives right through the day. The planned few days of coexistence become over four years. Antoine is always trying to finish his first play and earns a little money as a freelance journalist. Fred contributes the food that he usually steals for living together. Antoine suffers from the bad diet, the lack of fruit and vegetables and the constant instability of his life. He wants a regular job, some luxury, and good food. Money is missing and when Benoit's grandmother, who owns Benoit's apartment, wants to sell it, the situation worsens.
Antoine and Fred go looking for an apartment, but they don't have the money. So you break into the editorial office of a karate magazine that Antoine works for and steal the money from the safe. However, since Antoine loses his house key during the amateurish action, both have to return the money. They only escape a complaint because the safe deposit is used as payment for the cleaning lady who works illegally. Antoine later finds a connection with his ex-girlfriend Sylvie, who gives him the option of staying with her. Fred hopes for a relationship with the beautiful Agnès, in front of whom he pretended to be a photographer and whom he now sees regularly for commissions. She tells him to live in a relationship, but her husband Patrick has no problem watching her have sex with another man. When Antoine and Fred are thrown from their apartment and are forced to stay with their friend Nicolas, Fred accepts Agnès' offer and now spends some of his nights with and with her and her boyfriend.
Antoine begins to work for a taxi company, but his health is getting worse and worse. He complains of dizziness and eventually collapses. He was treated as severely depressed in a psychiatric hospital, then broke off contact with Fred and moved in with his mother. Fred is desperate because he had already planned his future with Antoine. Fred eventually writes to Valérie and arranges a meeting between her and Antoine. However, it does not appear Valérie, who has long since married and moved away, but her friend Lorette. Just as Antoine had told his boyfriend a lot about Valérie, Valérie had also told her friend a lot about Antoine, so Lorette really wanted to get to know him. Antoine, still not recovered from his depression, shows interest in Lorette; both agree to meet again. He doesn't explain to Fred that it wasn't Valérie he brought to the meeting. However, he reveals to him that he always dreamed of Fred making contact with Valérie for him. Shortly afterwards, the two of them throw themselves into a high-spirited soccer game with children in the park - Antoine can laugh freely again for the first time.
production
The Beginners was the second feature film directed by Pierre Salvadori after The Killer and the Girl . The film was shot in Paris and Val-de-Marne, among others. Valérie Pozzo di Borgo created the costumes, and François Emmanuelli designed the film . Various songs can be heard in the film, including Qu'est-ce que t'es belle by Marc Lavoigne and Catherine Ringer, Ancora by Edouardo De Crescenzo and Ah che terra by Lucilla Galeazzi . Galeazzi's Notte scura also runs during the closing scene and the credits.
The Beginners came to French cinemas on December 20, 1995, where it was seen by around 587,000 viewers. In Germany the film opened in cinemas on February 13, 1997. The broadcaster arte first showed The Beginners on February 23, 1998 on German television.
Reviews
For the lexicon of international film , The Beginners was “a sensitively staged and nuanced buddy movie that takes account of both the tragic and comic moments in life, but does not play them off against one another and ultimately builds on the principle of hope.” “The fast-paced and yet quiet comedy works through the economical use of resources and the precise observation of reality, ”wrote the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . For Focus , the film was a "cinematic chanson about friendship as a medicine against cynicism and callousness." The Leipziger Volkszeitung described the beginners as an "amusing, slightly melancholy everyday odyssey that warms the heart."
Cinema criticized the “rather flat humor of comedy. Compassion for the men shaken by fate does not really want to arise from the audience. The life of the lethargic failure is just a long, babbling river. Just like the movie. "
Awards
Guillaume Depardieu was awarded a César in the category of best young actor for his portrayal of Fred in 1996 . François Cluzet received a César nomination for Best Actor .
The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.
Web links
- The beginners in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Les apprentis - Box Office France on allocine.fr
- ↑ The beginners. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 3, 2016 .
- ↑ Cinema start February 13th: Two friends are "The Beginners" . In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , February 5, 1997.
- ↑ New in the cinema: The beginners . In: Focus , No. 7, 1997, p. 99.
- ↑ Norbert Wehrstedt: Only friendship counts . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , February 13, 1997, p. 9.
- ↑ The beginners on cinema.de