The murder of a Chinese bookmaker

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Movie
German title The murder of a Chinese bookmaker
Original title The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1976
length 135 minutes / USA: 108 (Director's Cut) minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Cassavetes
script John Cassavetes
production Phil Burton , Al Ruban
music Bo Harwood
camera Mitch Breit , Al Ruban
cut Tom Cornwell
occupation

The Murder of a Chinese Bookmaker (also Murder of a Chinese Bookmaker ) is a gangster film by American independent filmmaker John Cassavetes , released in 1976 .

Cassavetes used the dynamic hand-held camera 20 years before the Danish dogma style : the viewer takes part in the brutal reality of a big city in the United States - without the usual glamor of Hollywood. In the USA, the film was badly received by critics and viewers, in Europe people admired the profound psychology of the characters, who managed without any psychologization, the outstanding actors with Ben Gazzara in one of his star roles and the dignity and love that Cassavetes also gave his protagonists in this film.

action

Nightclub owner Cosmo Vitelli gambled away $ 23,000 in a club in San Francisco . Because he cannot pay the gambling debts, the owners of the gambling den give him the choice of either dying himself or killing one of their competitors in Chinatown.

Actually kind-hearted, but familiar with the rules of the underworld, Cosmo Vitelli ultimately has no other option: the Korean veteran murdered the Chinese bookmaker, himself a high-ranking gang boss, almost emotionless and thoroughly professional. He can escape those mafiosi who forced him to murder and then want to get him out of the way.

Hit by a bullet ourselves, we see Vitelli standing in front of his club at the end of the film; as always - one might think - if it weren't for the blood-smeared jacket.

Dubbed version

The German dubbed version of the film transfigured the plot completely.

Reviews

“John Cassavetes [...] turned to gangster film for the first time , without, of course, accepting its rules. In contrast to his previous films, his very actor -oriented staging style met with utter rejection this time - in the United States, The Assassination was ... almost unanimously panned out . The European criticism, however, was enthusiastic. "

- Arne Laser : The great film lexicon. All top films from A – Z

"Atmospherically very dense and differentiated in the character drawing [...]"

- Lexicon of International Films

“Ben Gazzara's nightclub owner Cosmo Vittelli is a sad self-made man, driven by an obscure lifelong dream […] Cosmo makes a windy impression with his wide shirt collar, self-assured demeanor and the red orchid in the buttonhole, but it is his own morality that makes him feel Makes gangster milieu look like a foreign body. [...] A tragic story of self-assertion in the guise of a gangster film. "

- Andreas Busche : The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie - Gangster im Dunkel from the taz

“John Cassavetes is the most independent of the independent filmmakers, not because he would play with or work his way through the set pieces of the thriller. Cassavetes does not take his liberty, he simply has it. It is the freedom to use the camera, editing and music in a completely subjective and excessive way for one's subjects and obsessions. [...] Seldom has the cinema told more vividly about the forlornness of a person. "

- Anke Leweke : The loneliness in the strip bar in Die Zeit

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. In: Chicago Reader. Retrieved February 29, 2008 (English): "(Ben Gazzara at his very best) [...] fine performances by Timothy Agoglia Carey, Seymour Cassel, Azizi Johari, Meade Roberts, and Alice Friedland."
  2. ↑ Georg Seeßlen : Streams of Love, Images of Death: The films of John Cassavetes. In: epd Film 6/89. Retrieved on February 29, 2008 (from www.filmzentrale.com): "Everyone who appears in [... his films] has the comprehensive right to be taken seriously."
  3. ↑ Dirk Manthey, Jörg Altendorf, Willy Loderhose (eds.): The large film lexicon. All top films from A-Z . Second edition, revised and expanded new edition. Verlagsgruppe Milchstraße, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-89324-126-4 , p. 797 f .
  4. ↑ Catholic Institute for Media Information [KIM] and Catholic Film Commission for Germany (ed.): Lexicon of international films . Cinema, television, video, DVD. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-86150-455-3 , p. 2174 .
  5. ↑ Andreas Busche: The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie - Gangster im Dunkel. In: taz . Retrieved February 29, 2008 (from www.filmzentrale.com).
  6. ↑ Anke Leweke: The loneliness in the strip bar. In: The time. Retrieved on February 29, 2008 (No. 18 of April 26, 2007, p. 52).