The heads of my loved ones (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The heads of my loved ones |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German , Italian |
| Publishing year | 1999 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK × |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hans-Günther Bücking |
| script | Kurt Boeser |
| production |
Markus Rudolf Reischl , Regina Ziegler |
| music |
Biber Gullatz , Eckes Malz |
| camera | Hans-Günther Bücking |
| cut | Barbara von Weitershausen |
| occupation | |
| |
The Heads of My Loved Ones is a black comedy film by Hans-Günther Bücking from 1999 . It is based on the novel of the same name by Ingrid Noll . The film is about several women who regulate their male stories in a macabre way that is typical for characters by Ingrid Noll.
action
Maja works as a tour guide in Tuscany . She is popular and seen as a favorite daughter by older men and a potential mistress by younger men. Only she herself knows who she really is. She reports from her past:
She grew up with her mother and brother Carlo. The father, who is an artist, left the family at an early age. The brother is primitive and the mother is crazy. During this time Maja is only supported by her friendship with Cora, who is of the same age, who paints like her father. One day Cora and Maja steal a valuable vase in an exhibition, while Carlos's friend Detlef is watching them. When he tries to force Maja to have sex with his knowledge, Cora mixes him a strong sleeping pill in a drink. Cora and Maja later photograph the sleeping Detlef in embarrassing poses and from then on have peace in front of him. Cora, on the other hand, is left alone with Carlo one evening and Maja surprises both of them when Carlo is trying to rape Cora. She kills Carlo and the murder appears to investigators as a tragic accident. Maja's mother falls silent and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Maja, who briefly visits her father and learns that he is not only an alcoholic, but that he was also imprisoned for the murder of his brother-in-law, is taken in by Cora's family. Together they travel several times on vacation to Tuscany. During a vacation with Cora, Maja meets Jonas, who becomes her first great love. Back in Germany, she notices that she is expecting a child from Jonas. Although she doesn't feel like it, she marries Jonas. Son Bela is the only pleasant thing about the relationship with the pharmaceutical salesman Jonas, who once dropped out of his medical degree. At some point Maja has had enough and flees to Italy with Bela. Cora lives here on the estate of her rich husband Henning.
After Maja's arrival, Henning and Cora have more and more arguments because Henning also wants a child, while Cora eagerly takes the pill. When Maja's father appears on the property, the two women have been written off. Both men form a deep friendship, which mainly leads to excessive alcohol consumption. While Maja and Cora are fleeing the house with Bela more and more often, the housekeeper Anna in particular suffers from the behavior of the men, as she cannot keep up with cleaning. One day Cora and Maja come back to the villa and find both men intoxicated and passed out in the run-down kitchen. Both women agree without many words and Maja kills Henning. The murder weapon is slipped under Maja's father. Henning dies shortly afterwards in the hospital and Maja's father later from his poor general condition. Cora in turn inherits 20 million marks from Henning and now lives a free life with Maja and Anna: Cora finds time to paint, Anna gets her driver's license and Maja studies art history in Siena .
However, over time Anna longs for a man. The women place an ad looking for a gardener. However, Jonas appears, which causes the women to flee again. On the way, the women meet the hitchhiker Don from New Zealand, with whom Cora falls in love. This leads to a bad relationship between the women and to jealousy for Maja. When Cora is out one day, Don sleeps with Maja and Cora surprises both of them in bed. The two women reconcile, but Cora announces that she will sleep with Don several times a day out of revenge. At first, it doesn't surprise anyone that Don seems more exhausted every day, until one day he collapses dead. Anna poisoned him because Don was planning to blackmail the women who, assuming Don did not understand German, had spoken openly about their murders. Don's corpse is left in a ruin in the country, and a candle lit next to him is supposed to burn Don after a while. The potential gardeners apply shortly afterwards and Anna takes a liking to the heavily stuttering and therefore usually rather mute Mario. Both become a couple and Anna puts him to the test: She tells him about the murders and leads him to Don's corpse, which unexpectedly did not go up in flames. He begins digging a pit for the corpse, and Anna considers her test passed. However, since he suggests at the same time that Maja and Cora be blackmailed with his knowledge, he failed in the end and is buried next to Don.
Maja ends her review and, as always, continues to travel lightly as a tour guide through Tuscany.
production
The Heads of My Loved Ones was filmed from September 15 to November 5, 1998 in Munich and Tuscany. The costumes created Natascha Curtius-Noss , the Filmbauten come from Didi Richter and Silke Buhr . The film opened in German cinemas on July 29, 1999 and was released on video in February 2000 and on DVD in February 2002. On November 7, 2001, the ARD showed the film for the first time on German television.
The film was the directorial debut of Hans-Günther Bücking, who had previously worked as a cameraman. "The most impressive thing about Bücking's directorial debut are a couple of indulgent landscape shots, his feeling for spaces and image compositions," said the critic.
Reviews
The film service called The Heads of My Loved Ones an “attractively photographed, musically light women's crime story that flirts with female strengths and male weaknesses”. Heike Makatsch, Christiane Paul and Andrea Eckert highlighted the game positively; Nevertheless, the film remains "too complacent on the very smooth surface of the subject, so that neither abysses open up nor psychological subtleties to be recognized." The TV movie also judged similarly, for example, director Bücking has the Tuscany idyll "wonderfully artistic" filmed. “Unfortunately, he forgets the dramaturgy of the plot, black humor only flashes through. In addition to the pictures, only the charming leading actresses will be remembered. That is not enough . ” Der Spiegel praised the camerawork of the film alone and wrote:“ Beautifully photographed and always nice to look at, the leading actresses stalk through the film. ”“ Killer ladies without bite and whistle ”, was also the opinion of Cinema during the TV Spielfilm described the film as a “failed crime comedy” and summarized it: “neither black nor exciting. Ashes on these heads! "
Web links
- The heads of my loved ones in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The heads of my loved ones at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Joachim Kronsbein: Nirvana in Tuscany . In: Der Spiegel , No. 30. 1999, p. 164.
- ↑ The heads of my loved ones. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The heads of my loved ones . In: TV-Movie , No. 16, 1999.
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ↑ The heads of my loved ones . In: TV Spielfilm , No. 16, 1999.