Downsizing (film)

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Movie
German title Downsizing
Original title Downsizing
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2017
length 135 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Alexander Payne
script Alexander Payne,
Jim Taylor
production Alexander Payne,
Mark Johnson ,
Jim Taylor
music Rolfe Kent
camera Phedon Papamichael
cut Kevin Tent
occupation

Downsizing (Eng .: "reduction" or " downsizing " ) is an American feature film directed by Alexander Payne in 2017 . Based on an original screenplay by director Payne and Jim Taylor, the science fiction tragic comedy centers on a simple American couple from the Midwest (played by Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig ). While the world is in an overpopulation crisis , it decides to use scientific means to reduce its height.

The film opened the 74th Venice International Film Festival on August 30, 2017 . The cinema release in the USA was on December 22, 2017. In Germany , Downsizing was released on January 18, 2018.

action

The film follows the lives of Paul Safranek and his wife Audrey. The simple and good-natured occupational therapist from Omaha dreams of a better life with his wife. When a crisis of overpopulation set in on earth, Norwegian scientists under Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen to develop a radical process ("cellular miniaturization") with which they can shrink humanity to a height of five  inches (12.7 cm). In this way, the cost of living can be reduced enormously. The scientists believe that they have found a long-term way to counter the increasing consumption of resources by the steadily growing world population. In Norway, a colony of artificially reduced people is emerging, who in turn can also give birth to correspondingly reduced offspring.

This controversial treatment method is also being aggressively marketed in the United States. The correspondingly reduced needs of people for miniaturization should therefore enable a luxurious and lavish lifestyle for the average citizen as well. Following these temptations, Paul and Audrey decide to undergo miniaturization. However, Audrey backs down just before treatment and Paul is shrunk on his own.

While the process is soon to be abused - African dictators are shrinking rival ethnic groups and the Department of Homeland Security is alarmed by miniaturized pocket- sized terrorists who are unhindered across the US borders - Paul moves into a luxurious home in the screened miniature community of Leisureland in New Mexico . A year later, everyday routine caught up with him again. He is now working as a telephone consultant in a call center because after an expensive divorce he is forced to earn money again and his diploma is not recognized in this state. At a party he befriends his neighbor Dušan and his business partner, Captain Konrad. The two Europeans enjoy their new life with lots of women, alcohol and other drugs . A decisive turning point in Paul's life occurs when, after a night of drinking, he accidentally makes the acquaintance of the Vietnamese cleaner Ngoc Lan. The woman was a dissident in her home country, was forcibly downsized by the local government and deported to the USA with other political prisoners in a television package. She was the only one to survive but lost one of her legs. He realizes that the leg prosthesis does not fit and offers to repair it, but is supposed to do this with the very decisive woman at home. Paul thus becomes aware of an unknown part of the seemingly perfect miniature world - huge apartment buildings with poor immigrants that are behind a high wall outside the protected Leisureland . These buildings are obviously simple normal-sized office containers. Rebuilt for people who have shrunk, they now have around 15 floors without a lift. The situation of the people there is extremely bleak. Paul learns that Ngoc Lan is caring for a woman who is suffering from cancer and steals painkillers from Dušan's apartment. Paul does his best to support them, but quickly reaches his limits. After he accidentally destroyed Ngoc's prosthesis while trying to repair it, he was forced to help her clean.

Dušan and Konrad want to go on a trip to the Norwegian colony of origin and take Paul with them to free him from his cleaning work, but Ngoc Lan can persuade the three to take them with him. Her fate was also Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen heard about it, so she had had an invitation from him for a long time. On the journey, Paul and Ngoc Lan develop a relationship. The inhabitants of the colony believe that the end of the earth's population has come due to the massive methane leaking in Antarctica . They therefore withdraw into an underground vault system created in the years before. While Konrad and Dušan consider this to be a fantasy of the Norwegians, who in their eyes live like sects , Paul decides to go with them. At the last moment, however, he changes his mind and returns with Ngoc Lan to Leisureland , where they are there for their needy roommates.

History of origin

Alexander Payne at the premiere for the film as part of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival

Downsizing is after Inside Out (1991), Baby Business (1996), Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002) and Sideways (2004) the sixth film script project by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. The original idea for the film came from Taylor and his brother, who made fun of how much more comfortable life would be for people if they shrunk their height. Payne and Taylor worked on the script for two and a half years during Payne's break from the big screen between Sideways and The Descendants (2011). It was originally supposed to be completed before 2006. Payne described it as "a great, painting-like science fiction social satire" and "an epic masterpiece," which originally featured Reese Witherspoon (Election) and Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as the main characters and Sacha Baron Cohen . He then preferred the film projects The Descendants and Nebraska (2013). In an interview with Charlie Rose in November 2011 , Payne said he finished the "very difficult" script on downsizing in May or June 2009 at the height of the financial crisis . But at that point he saw little hope of getting the film financed.

In addition to the script and direction, Payne also worked as a producer on downsizing and relied on the cameraman Phedon Papamichael , the film editor Kevin Tent and the film composer Rolfe Kent , with whom he had already worked on previous feature films. As Executive Producer was Megan Ellison involved. For further roles u. a. Joaquim de Almeida , Laura Dern , Patrick Gallagher , Neil Patrick Harris , Margo Martindale , Niecy Nash and Pepe Serna signed on .

The film was produced by Ad Hominem Production and Gran Via Productions and, like Payne's previous film Nebraska, is distributed by Paramount Pictures .

background

The idea of miniaturizing people in order to have the limited reserves that exist for human life on our globe available for a longer period of time has already been discussed several times, including by Helmut Routschek in 1976 in his novel Expedition Mikro and by Richard M. Weiner 2006 in his novel The Miniatom Project . In the latter, the shrinking process takes place by making the atoms smaller, with the help of the largest particle accelerator in the world at CERN .

reception

After its premiere, Downsizing received very mixed reviews in the Anglo-American region, while the German trade press was mostly impressed by Payne's film:

Andreas Borcholte ( Spiegel Online ) saw downsizing as “a perfect choice for the festival opening” in Venice. He described the film as a possible co-favorite for the 2018 Academy Awards and also predicted a box office success. The premise of Payne's directorial work is "stunning as it is funny". It forms “the basis for an epic that extends into both private and political matters, which is satire and science fiction, but at the same time also a great Hollywood narrative cinema and moral piece about the state of the human condition . It is a kind of Spielberg update for adults and for our time, an encounter of the third kind that does not look into space for aliens , but literally with a magnifying glass very deep into people. "It is a" radical change ”In the director's range of topics and about his“ most daring project to date ”.

Susan Vahabzadeh ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ) praised the film's “grandiose basic idea”. Downsizing is "at least two-thirds, funny and ingenious", the film plays "like all really good science fiction, in the future and means the present". Vahabzadeh criticized the not so original switch to romance, but Payne's film was "a masterpiece".

Dietmar Dath ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ) also noticed a change in mood in the film. "[...] the bizarre comedy in the tradition of ' Honey, I shrunk the kids ' (1989)" becomes "something different, more strenuous, much better [...], intelligently prepared, with details that on the one hand what to laugh about, on the other hand cause to be afraid ”. The “most successful” thing about downsizing is the “change between different perceptual temperatures, such as pathos on the one hand and comedy on the other, leaps from social realism into the wonderful”, Payne's satire also shows a “sarcastic blade polished to maximum sharpness”. Dath summed up the film as "not a monumental milestone in art [...], but [...] lively entertainment".

On the Rotten Tomatoes website , the film has a 51 percent rating based on 201 English-language reviews and an average rating of 5.7 / 10. On Metacritic , the film received a rating of 63 percent, based on 45 evaluated reviews.

Awards

Downsizing competed in the competition at the Venice Film Festival for the Golden Lion , the festival's main prize, but remained unprofitable. The American film critics Association National Board of Review picked downsizing on its list of the best movies of the year. At the 2018 Golden Globe Awards and the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards , there was one nomination for supporting actress Hong Chau.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for downsizing . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 174765 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ a b c d Downsizing by Alexander Payne is the opening film of the 74th Venice Film Festival . ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. La Biennale di Venezia; accessed on July 16, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.labiennale.org
  3. ↑ Downsizing (2017) - Release Info. IMDb; accessed on July 16, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b Downsizing review - Matt Damon thinks small in Alexander Payne's miniature masterpiece . The Guardian; accessed on August 30, 2017.
  5. ↑ a b Alexander Payne - Downsizing. La Biennale di Venezia; accessed on August 30, 2017.
  6. ↑ Downsizing, Venice Film Festival review: Matt Damon's shrinking comedy is big on ideas . telegraph.co.uk; accessed on August 30, 2017.
  7. ^ 'Downsizing' Review . Hollywood Reporter; accessed on August 30, 2017.
  8. ↑ a b Matt Damon downsizing with Alexander Payne . The Guardian; accessed on July 16, 2017.
  9. ↑ Oscars 2012: Alexander Payne on 'The Descendants' . Telegraph; accessed on August 30, 2017.
  10. ↑ Alexander Payne appeared on the Charlie Rose Show , Nov. 28, 2011 at 11:00 PM EST (interview transcript; accessed via Nexis ).
  11. ↑ Downsizing (2017) - Full Cast & Crew. IMDb; accessed on July 16, 2017.
  12. ↑ The Miniatom Project: A Science and Detective Novel. Verlag LiteraturWwissenschaft.de, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-936134-14-6 .
  13. ↑ Venice: Opening film 'Downsizing' at the 2017 Film Festival . Spiegel Online ; accessed on August 31, 2017.
  14. ^ Venice Film Festival - Dwarf Uprising . Süddeutsche.de; accessed on August 31, 2017.
  15. ↑ Alexander Payne's 'Downsizing' opens the Venice Film Festival . FAZ ; accessed on August 31, 2017.
  16. ↑ Downsizing (2017) . Rotten Tomatoes; accessed on January 7, 2018.
  17. ↑ Downsizing Reviews. Metacritic; accessed on January 7, 2018.