The hard and the delicate

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The hard and the delicate
Original title The Boys in the Band
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1970
length 120 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director William Friedkin
script Mart Crowley
production Mart Crowley,
Kenneth Utt ,
Dominick Dunne ,
Robert Jiras
camera Arthur J. Ornitz
cut Gerald B. Greenberg ,
Carl Lerner
occupation
synchronization

Die Harten und die Zarten (Original title: The Boys in the Band ) is an American feature film by William Friedkin from 1970, which is considered a cult film in the gay scene. William Friedkin filmed Mart Crowley's play of a strange birthday party for seven homosexual friends.

action

An apartment on the Upper East Side , at the end of the 1960s: the unsuccessful author Michael and his lover Donald are preparing a birthday party for the 32nd birthday of his also homosexual friend Harold. During the conversation between the couple, it becomes clear that Michael cannot pay his bills and that until recently he had a drinking problem. Michael receives a call from married lawyer Alan McCarthy, his former roommate at Georgetown University , asking him to meet. At first Michael wants to refuse, but when Alan starts to cry desperately on the phone, he invites him to his apartment despite the party going on.

Little by little, the homosexual guests appear for Harold's party: the effeminate interior designer Emory; Bernard, an African American bookseller; Hank, a masculine and slightly conservative-looking teacher; and the fashion photographer Larry. The latter are a couple, but Hank - who recently gave up his "heterosexual" identity as husband and father of two for Larry - wants to live monogamous , while Larry wants to continue having affairs on the side, which causes conflict between them. When Alan appears in Michael's apartment, the initially exuberant mood slowly changes. Alan watches the homosexual group with surprise and aloof, he announces several times that he is leaving, but at the same time shows interest and ultimately stays. After some pointed remarks, Alan clashes with Emory and knocks him down.

Finally, Tex appears - a handsome but simple-minded prostitute in a cowboy outfit, whom Emory got as a "birthday present" for Harold - and at the end the birthday boy himself. Harold and Michael are equal in their intellectual cynicism and share hurtful arguments with each other. When a thunderstorm begins, the group retreats from the terrace in Michael's living room. The conflicts are heated up by the alcohol, especially since Michael started drinking again after the fight between Alan and Emory. Michael suggests a game where each party guest should call someone they really loved. His secret goal with the game is to prove his longstanding suspicion that Alan is secretly homosexual himself.

Bernard calls his mother's employers, whose son he had a brief sexual experience with in his youth, while Emory reaches out to a heterosexual dentist he loved and what he outed him for as a teenager . Hank and Larry call each other, assuring each other of their love. Eventually Michael - who seems more and more dogged and begins to insult the other guests - gets Alan to make his phone call. A former college friend had told Michael that they had an affair with Alan at the time. But Alan doesn't call this friend, but his wife and confesses his love to her. The party ends in a gloomy mood, as Michael and Donald are left alone in the living room. Michael collapses crying in Donald's arms and for a moment his dissatisfaction and self-loathing become clear before he pulls himself back together and announces that he wants to attend the night service in church.

background

Mart Crowley (2002)

Mart Crowley (1935-2020) worked in the 1960s as Natalie Wood's personal assistant , but his own attempts at screenwriting in Hollywood were unsuccessful and he was in financial distress. During this time he wrote the play The Boys in the Band within five weeks , in which the homosexual author also processed personal experiences. So he took character traits and characteristics of himself and gay friends as role models for the characters, for example Crowley shared with the main character Michael the origin of a Catholic southern family and the failure as an author. After it was Crowley initially because of the current time as a taboo subject contents almost impossible to win a theater for the performance of his play, it was on 14 April 1968 at the Off-Broadway -Theater Theater Four premiere. With a total of 1001 performances by September 1970, The Boys in the Band developed into a surprise success there.

Because of the stage success, a film version of the play was planned. The production took over the production company Cinema Center Films belonging to CBS . The Hays Code was only abolished in 1967, which, after decades of censorship, made homosexuality an open topic in mainstream American cinema again. At Friedkin's request, all nine theater actors from the original production were also engaged for the film adaptation, although only a few of them had film experience. Laurence Luckinbill had originally taken on the role of Hank as a favor for his old classmate Crowley, despite a warning from his lesbian agent that portraying a homosexual could damage his career. In fact, for some of the actors, their role in Boys in the Band turned out to be career-inhibiting, despite good reviews. The five actors, who were also homosexual in real life, would later all die of AIDS : Robert La Tourneaux (1941–1986), Leonard Frey (1938–1988), Frederick Combs (1935–1992), Keith Prentice (1940–1992) and Kenneth Nelson (1930-1993). In the opening scenes, the later Bond girl Maud Adams can be seen as one of Larry's photo models.

In contrast to the actors, the director was changed during the filming because Robert Moore , who had staged the play at the theater in New York, had no experience with the cinema and the associated film technology. Crowley saw the low-budget film The Birthday Party , a film adaptation of Harold Pinter's play , and was impressed by it. He then contacted William Friedkin , the young and at the time still largely unknown director of The Birthday Party , and offered him to direct the film. Although the subject was controversial, Friedkin did not hesitate in accepting the offer as he found Crowley's play brilliant. Actress Tammy Grimes' apartment in Greenwich Village served as a model for Michael's apartment, and most of the terrace scenes were filmed here. Because the inside of Grimes' apartment was too small to shoot a movie , their apartment was recreated and shot at Chelsea Studios .

Crowley wrote a sequel to the play under the title The Men from the Boys , which more than 30 years later reassembles a large part of the characters. The piece premiered in San Francisco in 2002, but did not match the success of the original work. After the piece had never run there before, The Boys in the Band celebrated its Broadway premiere in April 2018 , with Jim Parsons , Matthew Bomer and Zachary Quinto in the cast. In 2019 this performance was awarded the Tony Award in the category Best Revival of a Play . A remake of Ryan Murphy was produced with the Broadway cast and will be released on Netflix in 2020 .

Soundtrack

The Boys in the Band does not have a classic soundtrack, but it does contain several songs.

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created for the cinema premiere in 1970 at Berlin's Ultra Film Synchron . The dubbing was done by Josef Wolf , the dialogue book was written by Michael Günther , who also spoke Donald .

role actor German Dubbing voice
Michael Kenneth Nelson Jürgen Thormann
Harold Leonard Frey Harry Wüstenhagen
Emory Cliff Gorman Horst Gentzen
Alan McCarthy Peter White Claus Biederstaedt
Donald Frederick Combs Michael Günther
Hank Laurence Luckinbill Hansjörg Felmy
Larry Keith Prentice Gert Günther Hoffmann
Bernard Reuben Greene Joachim Kemmer
Cowboy tex Robert La Tourneaux Thomas Danneberg

Awards

Kenneth Nelson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Young Actor.

criticism

At the end of the 1960s, The Boys in the Band received criticism not only from conservative voices, but also from the homosexual movement, with Stonewall activists criticizing the characters as self-hating and unsympathetic. Crowley recalled in a 2018 interview that activists often asked him why he hadn't described positive gay experiences. The author defended himself by pointing out that many gays in the 1960s were self-hating due to the discrimination and he did not want to romanticize the situation: "Well, there was nothing positive when I wrote the piece."

At Rotten Tomatoes , Boys in the Band has a positive rating of 100% based on 15 reviews. Marcus Stiglegger wrote that the original stage ensemble gave the "brittle work an experimental character."

“Films about homosexuals are not uncommon or a sensation in international film production. This is the first film that, with one exception, is set exclusively among homosexuals. The unity of space and time - an evening birthday party in an apartment - point to the origin of the film from the theater. It contributes to the nagging boredom that spreads over more than half of the film [...]. Formally, apart from the whole way of staging that is stuck on the stage, the great intensity of the presentation should also be mentioned. "

- Munzinger Online / Film reviews from the film service

literature

  • Marcus Stiglegger: [Article] William Friedkin. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 [1. Ed. 1999], ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 266-268 [with references].

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mart Crowley on Natalie Wood . November 23, 2011 ( advocate.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  2. ^ Playwright Mart Crowley on the revolutionary "The Boys in the Band" . ( cbsnews.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  3. ↑ 'Boys' to 'Men' / Mart Crowley's latest play takes 'Boys in the Band' through the past 30 years . In: SFGate . ( sfgate.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Harry Haun: Laurence Luckinbill, Original Boy in the Band. July 24, 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2018 (American English).
  5. ↑ 'THE BOYS IN THE BAND'; For Many, The Party's Over . ( nytimes.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  6. ^ Original star Laurence Luckinbill on the Risk and Reward of The Boys in the Band. Retrieved December 27, 2018 .
  7. ↑ The Boys In The Band | Le Cinema Paradiso Blu-Ray reviews and DVD reviews. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ William Friedkin dishes on the original 'Boys in the Band' . In: New York Post . May 4, 2018 ( nypost.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  9. ↑ William Friedkin dishes on the original 'Boys in the Band' . In: New York Post . May 4, 2018 ( nypost.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  10. ^ Dennis Harvey: The Men From the Boys . In: Variety . November 22, 2002 ( variety.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  11. ↑ The Broadway League: The Boys in the Band - Broadway Play - 2018 Revival | IBDB. Retrieved July 1, 2018 .
  12. ↑ When is The Boys in the Band on Netflix? Retrieved March 10, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Film title Casts Film Cast list Movie Cast Characters - synchrondatenbank.de. Retrieved January 14, 2019 .
  14. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | The hard and the delicate. Retrieved July 1, 2018 .
  15. ^ Playwright Mart Crowley on the revolutionary "The Boys in the Band" . ( cbsnews.com [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  16. ^ The Boys in the Band (Rotten Tomatoes). Retrieved July 1, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Marcus Stiglegger: [Article] William Friedkin. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 [1. Ed. 1999], ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , pp. 266-268, here 266.
  18. ^ Munzinger Online / Film Reviews Villingen-Schwenningen City Library. Accessed December 11, 2013 (fee required).