The snake pit
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The snake pit |
| Original title | The snake pit |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Anatole Litvak |
| script |
Frank Parto's Millen Brand |
| production |
Robert Bassler Anatole Litvak Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox |
| music | Alfred Newman |
| camera | Leo Tover |
| cut | Dorothy Spencer |
| occupation | |
| |
The Snake Pit (OT: The Snake Pit ) is an American movie from 1948 with Olivia de Havilland in the lead role. The film was based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Mary Jane Ward about her experiences in psychiatry .
action
Virginia is a completely normal young woman who is married to the nice Robert Cunningham. However, the happiness of her marriage is marred by the psychological changes in Virginia that eventually lead to her being admitted to a hospital for the mentally ill. Her husband Robert tells the story of their marriage in flashbacks. The attending physician, Doctor Kik, tries to track down the emotional problems of his patient. Stressful circumstances in childhood that had a traumatic effect on the patient can be gradually clarified. The resulting dissociative amnesia led the patient to previously inexplicable psychological symptoms and to admission to the psychiatric clinic. In retrospect, staying in the closed department of psychiatry - the so-called snake pit - and the use of electroshock therapy turn out to be contraindicated .
background
Olivia de Havilland sued her former employer Warner Brothers in a lawsuit that lasted from 1943 to early 1946. An appeals court in California finally found the actress right and rejected a contract practice that had been customary up until then: Actors in those years usually signed long-term contracts with a studio with a term of five to seven years. If a conflict arose during this period, then the actor was suspended from the studio without a salary. The question of whether the suspension times could be added to the regular contract period was a matter of dispute. Olivia de Havilland refused to comply with her studio's orders in 1943 and sued Warners. The studio then blacklisted the actress , leaving de Havilland unemployed until her victory in early 1946. Only then was she able to return to her previous career and establish herself as an actress in the dramatic fate of women. Olivia de Havilland won the Oscar for Best Actress of 1946 for her role in Mitchell Leisen's Mother Heart .
The film The Snake Pit is based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Mary Jane Ward, who described her experiences during a six-month stay in the state psychiatry of New York State. The director Anatole Litvak , who was friends with de Havilland, saw the script as a good opportunity for the actress and offered her the role. However, the 20th Century Fox studio preferred Gene Tierney or Joan Fontaine in the lead role, as their pull at the box office was much higher. Ingrid Bergman's name was also associated with the project. In the end, the studio decided on de Havilland and from mid-1946 the preparatory work on production began.
The Snake Pit was the first Hollywood film that seriously dealt with the sometimes dramatic conditions in psychiatric hospitals. The subject of psychoanalysis enjoyed great popularity in films , especially in the years after the Second World War , but the treatment methods and the conditions in the closed institutions have not yet been discussed. The scriptwriters therefore changed certain aspects of the novel in order to be able to give a scientifically sound insight into the then current state of the treatment of psychiatric diseases.
The scriptwriters Frank Partos and Millen Brand, the director Anatole Litvak and the actress Olivia de Havilland visited a number of treatment centers before filming began in order to obtain information on site. In addition, psychiatrists and psychologists were consulted:
- Carl A. Binger, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Cornell University
- M. Ralph Kaufman, Director of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital
- Sidney Loseef Tamarin.
A long period of filming and extensive research resulted in a budget of over two million dollars. At the box office, the film proved to be popular despite the rather bulky subject and became the most successful distributor of the year for the studio.
Problems with the English censorship regulations
The snake pit was initially not allowed to be performed commercially in Great Britain, as the local censorship regulations forbade the representation of madness and mental illness. In the end, the film company and the censorship authorities agreed on a number of cuts, which mainly concerned the brutal depictions in the closed institution towards the middle of the film.
Reviews
The contemporary critics praised the film as a milestone and paid their admiration for the portrayal of a socially critical subject.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote:
“A film so rousing, so dramatic and exciting and so open in its courage that there is no comparison. Nothing like it has ever been brought to the screen before. "
Bosley Crowther found in the New York Times :
"Although" The Snake Pit "is disturbing and not recommended for the faint of heart, it is a mature emotional drama about a rare and important topic."
With a gap of 60 years, the lexicon of international film judges less enthusiastically:
“Conventional conflicts, but a good description of people and psychological care in an honorable drama that tries - a little too melodramatically - to gain understanding for the mentally ill. The knowledge and methods of psychotherapy have, however, developed further since the time of its creation. "
Awards
The Snake Pit was nominated in the following categories at the 1949 Academy Awards:
- Best movie
- Best director
- Best script
- Best main actress
- Best music
- Best tone
Olivia de Havilland has also won numerous awards, including the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actress of 1948. At the Venice Film Festival, she was also named best actress.
The Committee of American Psychologists praised the film in an official tribute for raising public awareness of the conditions in psychiatric institutions for improvement . Similarly, the California Citizens Committee for Mental Hygiene, praising the strip for its bold display of grievances. Olivia de Havilland graced the December 20, 1948 issue of Time magazine, which dealt intensively with the problem of mental illness.
Web links
- The snake pit in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Snake Pit at Turner Classic Movies (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ A picture so compelling, dramatically exciting and frankly courageous as to defy comparison. Nothing like it has ever been done before in films.
- ↑ Bosley Crowther : 'Snake Pit,' Study of Mental Ills Based on Mary Jane Ward's Novel, Opens at Rivoli . In: The New York Times . November 5, 1948 ( online at nytimes.com [accessed on May 30, 2019]): "The Snake Pit", while frankly quite disturbing and not recommended for the weak, is a mature emotional drama on a rare and pregnant theme .
- ↑ The Snake Pit. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 2, 2017 .