The Nobel Laureate's Wife

Movie
German title	The Nobel Laureate's Wife
Original title	The Wife
Country of production	Sweden , USA
original language	English
Publishing year	2017
length	101 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6 ; JMK 6
Rod
Director	Bjorn Runge
script	Jane Anderson
production	Claudia Bluemhuber , ; Piodor Gustafsson , ; Rosalie Swedlin , ; Jo Bamford , ; Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen , ; Piers Tempest
music	Jocelyn Pook
camera	Ulf Brantås
cut	Lena Runge
occupation
	Glenn Close : Joan Castleman; Jonathan Pryce : Joe Castleman; Christian Slater : Nathaniel Bone; Max Irons : David Castleman; Alix Wilton Regan : Susannah Castleman; Elizabeth McGovern : Elaine Mozell; Harry Lloyd : young Joe Castleman; Annie Starke : young Joan Castleman;

The Nobel Laureate's Wife (Original Title: The Wife ) is a Swedish-American drama directed by Björn Runge , which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017 and was released in US cinemas on August 17, 2018. The film is based on the novel The Wife by Meg Wolitzer . In flashbacks, the viewer learns that Joan Castleman, who accompanied her husband to the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was a promising author herself at a young age, but that her own career has been subordinate to that of her husband. At the Golden Globe Awards in 2019 was Glenn Close as best actress award. At the 2019 Academy Awards , Close received a nomination for Best Actress .

action

Joan Castleman and her husband Joe travel to Stockholm , where he is to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature . There is son David, who is also planning a career as a writer, but his father's judgment on his attempts to write has so far been sobering. On their plane is Nathaniel Bone, who is writing a biography about Joe without his assistance. Joan recalls the beginning of their relationship in the 1950s. She was a hopeful young writer, and Joe was her mentor at university. However, since she did not believe that her stories would be published, she set her ambitions in favor of Joe's career. She implemented his ideas in novels that were published under his name and made him famous alone. He did not thank her, however, but had several affairs. After researching all of this, Bone confronts Joan over a drink in a café and later confronts her son David with his suspicions. After her husband had thanked her profusely in his award speech and at the same time introduced Joan everywhere as his wife who does not write, Joan gives up the facade and wants to leave her husband. After the argument in the hotel room, as a result of which she is already packing her bags, Joe suffers a heart attack and dies. On the flight home, Joan Bone threatens to sue him if he publishes his suspicions. David promises her that she will explain everything to him and his sister at home.

production

The Wife is based on the novel of the same name by the American writer Meg Wolitzer , which was also published in a German translation under the title Die Ehefrau . Previously was Wolitzers novel The interestings (dt. The Interesting ) filmed Service.

Directed by Björn Runge , who also adapted Wolitzer's novel for the film. The film music was composed by Jocelyn Pook . At the beginning of November 2018, Node Records released the soundtrack for the film as a download.

Glenn Close played the lead role from Joan Castleman. Closes daughter Annie Starke plays Joan Castleman at a young age. Jonathan Pryce plays her husband Joe, who in retrospect is played by Harry Lloyd at a young age . Max Irons plays son David, and Christian Slater took on the role of Joe's stalker Nathaniel Bone, who would like to write a biography about him.

The film premiered on September 12, 2017 as part of the Toronto International Film Festival and was screened as the closing film of the San Sebastián Festival on September 30, 2017 . The film was shown at the Zurich Film Festival at the beginning of October 2017 . In June 2018 the film was shown at the Nantucket Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival .

The Wife was released in select US cinemas on August 17, 2018 and in UK theaters on September 28, 2018. The cinema release in Germany took place on January 3, 2019.

reception

Age ratings and reviews

In the USA, the film received an R rating from the MPAA , which corresponds to a rating of 17 and over. In Germany it was approved by the FSK from the age of 6. The statement of reasons for the release states: “The film shows some disputes, but is overall calmly staged. Very occasionally there are emotionally more intense conflicts, but in the context of the unexcited overall atmosphere they do not have an excessive effect on children from the age of 6. ”In addition, the very adult story offers children of elementary school age hardly any points of contact, so that it is easy for them to maintain an emotional distance .

So far, the film has received rather positive ratings in 85 percent of Rotten Tomatoes ' reviews.

The film critic Antje Wessels writes that Björn Runge is an excellent observer and that the mood between the couple is slowly escalating: “Here a meaningful word comes out that pinpoints the inner condition of the ailing Joan, there it is a tense smile that recognizes it lets how much she has to control herself when her husband's only recognition is that he repeatedly calls her his muse in public speeches. ”The script does not degrade Joe Castleman to a despicable antagonist, nor does it force his wife into it the role of the pitiful victim, Wessels continued.

Glenn Close at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian says Glenn Close is probably the best actor in her role as the wife of a writer and Nobel laureate, who as a young woman had literary ambitions and fell into a life crisis after receiving her husband's award. In the role of the universally admired Joan, she plays a support, mother, soon-to-be grandmother and loving spouse who is only apparently happy with her life in the shadow of Titan. Also Jonathan Pryce was in the role of edgy and imagined aging writer who almost as a child is addicted to praise, excellent, so Bradshaw.

Martin Schwickert writes in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung that the film shows that Joan's commitment goes far beyond the family and emotional backing of the supposedly brilliant husband, and that the highlight of Joseph's career is also the moment of truth for the couple. Layer by layer, the film penetrates the frozen power structures of the relationship that has kept its own dark secret for decades. The Nobel Laureate's wife stands in a row with films like Colette , which was simultaneously showing in German cinemas, Schwickert continues: “You are concerned with the existence of those women who are often referred to as muses in historiography, despite their contribution to the creation the companion goes far beyond mere inspiration. Runge and screenwriter Jane Anderson also tell of literary exploitation processes, whereby they manage to credibly portray the intimacy of a decades-long marriage. The filmmakers play on the whole gamut of emotional contradictions without glossing over the essence of the relationship. "Above all, The Nobel Prize Winner's Wife is Glenn Close's magnum acting:" She masterfully brings the wrestling emotions of her character behind the facade of total self-control to expression. Their brilliance lies in their precise minimalism. "