The policeman's wife

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Movie
Original title The policeman's wife
Country of production Germany
Publishing year 2013
length 175 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Philip Groening
script Philip Gröning, Carola Diekmann
production Philip Gröning, Matthias Esche, Philipp Kreuzer, Werner Wirsing
music Andreas Donauer ( Donikkl )
camera Philip Groening
cut Philip Gröning, Hannes Bruun, Karl Riedl (Co-Editor)
occupation

The Policeman's Wife is a German drama by Philip Gröning , which premiered in August 2013 in the competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival and won the special prize of the jury there.

content

Christine lives in a small town with her husband Uwe and four-year-old Clara. Uwe is a police officer, he drives patrols with changing colleagues, but the apartment also contains the equipment of a riot police, with whom little Clara plays. Christine is alone a lot with Clara. She plays with her very sensitively and lovingly, tells stories and invents childlike dialogues. There are also some familiar threesome scenes.

Christine's relationship with her husband is also playful and affectionate at first, arm wrestling, darts, an original darts variant with soap bubbles; the playful rivalry later turns into dominance behavior and violence. At first you can only see bruises on Christine's body.

After about 2/3 of the 59 chapters, the violent confrontation takes place visibly, also visible to little Clara. The father tries to explain to her and the viewer the bruises caused by a mysterious illness in the mother. Towards the end of the film there is a dramatic verbal and violent confrontation between the married couple, it seems as if Christine was killed by a blow and fall. Clara lies down next to her as if her mother were sleeping. In the following chapter 57, mother and child bathe in the tub at home, at first diving playfully, Clara seems to be drowning, remains without any help from her mother. It could also be a dream scene of Clara sleeping. This is also indicated in chapter 58: an immobile image from the perspective of a person lying on the floor (Clara?) In the last, 59th chapter, Clara lies on her back, sleeping or dead (?), But opens her eyes as the final frame of the film, frightened.

Structure of the film

The film is divided into 59 chapters, which are embedded in the opening and closing credits of the chapter number and separated by a long black screen. An unusual format that forces the viewer to abandon his media viewing habits and to let himself into the agonizing slowness of the story.

Production and Background

The shooting lasted from April 11th to June 19th 2010. The shooting took place in Stadtlohn in Münsterland , which is close to the Dutch border and in the surrounding area. The production company was Philip Gröning Filmproduktion (Düsseldorf) in co-production with Bavaria Pictures GmbH (Munich-Geiselgasteig) and 3L Filmproduktion GmbH (Dortmund) in cooperation with Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), ZDF and Arte . The film was funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW (Düsseldorf), the German Film Funding Fund (DFFF) (Berlin), the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media Film Funding (Berlin) and the Film Funding Agency (FFA) (Berlin).

Philip Gröning already has summer in his multiple award-winning films ! , Terrorists and stachoviak! worked without a script. The intensive and trusting work with the actors made something special. "A look at reality that touches in its immediacy."

Awards

The Policeman's Wife won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival .

criticism

“The policeman's wife is a biorhythmic experiment consisting of snapshots, atmospheric capsules, small self-contained stories. Mother Father Child. How they relate to one another, how they touch, live in the light of the other, are there for one another. How togetherness fails. How tenderness sets the tone. In the next chapter the infinite, indescribable pain. A watchful camera eye captures all movements and controls the view of the bruises. […] It is a strange decision that Philip Groening made to divide The Policeman's Wife into so many, carefully separated sections. But it works. "

- critic.de - the film site

“In 59 variations, Gröning tells of a pitiless world that just keeps turning, and for each of these variations he has found his own cinematic language. Sometimes he literally throws himself into a scene with the handheld camera, sometimes he remains a distanced observer. Sometimes he meets the characters at eye level, sometimes his gaze falls from above on their goings-on. But you can always feel an oppressive closeness, an infinite sympathy that leaves you speechless and deeply struck. "

- epd-film.de

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Policeman's Wife . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2013 (PDF; test number: 141 835 K).
  2. ↑ a b The policeman's wife at trailerseite.de. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  3. ^ The policeman's wife Project data at crew-united
  4. ↑ Official Awards of the 70th Venice Film Festival at labiennale.org, September 7, 2013 (accessed September 8, 2013).
  5. ↑ Jaeger: The Policeman's Wife. critic.de - the film page, accessed on September 9, 2013 .
  6. ^ Sascha Westphal : The policeman's wife. epd film, accessed April 16, 2015 .