Duddy aims high
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Duddy aims high |
| Original title | The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ted Kotcheff |
| script |
Lionel Chetwynd Mordecai Richler |
| production | John Kemeny |
| music |
Stanley Myers Andrew Powell |
| camera | Brian West |
| cut | Thom Noble |
| occupation | |
| |
Duddy aims high is a 1974 Canadian film directed by Ted Kotcheff . “The story of a Montreal Jew is told in atmospheric pictures - excellent: Richard Dreyfuss - who tries to realize his dream of owning a piece of land with all conceivable means and on the way cheats on a good friend who respects his role model Grandfather loses his girlfriend's love. ”The film is based on the novel“ The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz ”(1959) by Mordecai Richler , who also participated in the script.
action
Duddy Kravitz is a young, extroverted Montréal Jew who has a lot of phantasy in his head and who, as his family thinks, does not find the right attitude to life and has therefore not yet made anything of himself. His older brother Lenny, of whom both taxi-driving father Max and his wealthy brother Benjy are very proud, is completely different. He studied medicine with Benjamin's support and is at the beginning of a career as a doctor. Only Duddy's old grandfather shows something like warmth of the heart and affection for Duddy. Duddy, however, muddles through life. As the title suggests, he wants to aim high, but he can neither find the right entry point nor the right attitude towards this goal. He often gets in his own way with his grandiose plans. When he got a summer job as a waiter in a kosher holiday hotel in the Laurentian Mountains, his hectic pace and frenzy promptly irritated his waiter colleague Irwin, a somewhat smug college student. Irwin gets his friend Linda, the daughter of the hotel owner, to persuade Duddy to start a secret roulette game. Duddy doesn't know that Irwin has manipulated the roulette and as a result loses all of his $ 300 income to his lousy colleague as well as to some hotel guests. The other waiters find out and urge Irwin to reimburse him. Since the other hotel guests are unaware of this arrangement, they pay Duddy another $ 500 out of their own pocket.
Duddy begins a love affair with a hotel employee, the French-Canadian Yvette. One day they both go on a romantic picnic on the lake shore. Duddy is overwhelmed by the beauty of the surroundings and immediately comes up with a new idea. He remembers his grandfather's motto, who once said: "A man without a country is a nobody". Duddy now wants to buy the entire property around the lake and make something out of it. Since he is not yet 21 years old, i.e. still a minor, and the current owners may not want to sell to a Jew, he pushes Yvette as a potential buyer. Duddy sets out to raise the money he needs to buy the property. He hires the film director Friar, who is notorious as a drunkard and who has been banned from shooting since he was on the Hollywood blacklist. Friar is to record weddings and bar mitzvahs for wealthy Jewish families on Duddy's behalf. His first client is Mr. Farber, who forces Duddy to make a tough deal: if he doesn't like the cinematic result, he won't pay. Despite Friar's artistic standards, the first film was a success, and more orders soon followed.
But the income from Duddy's company is not enough to buy land, so he asks his father to make an appointment with his friend Dingleman. Dingleman is a half-silly but commercially successful guy who started out just as humbly as Duddy is now. Dingleman refuses Duddy's request for a loan, but later invites him to take him on a train trip to New York, where he can calmly present his ideas again. It turns out that Dingleman only needs Duddy as a useful idiot, as a possible scapegoat in the context of drug smuggling if Dingleman is checked on the way. On the train, Duddy meets the good-natured Virgil and offers him the opportunity to buy his pinball machines, which are not allowed in the United States. When Virgil later visits Duddy, he does not have enough money to pay him. Duddy hires Virgil as a truck driver even though he has epilepsy . Virgil promptly had a seizure while driving and caused a serious accident. Virgil is now paralyzed from the waist down. Duddy feels guilty, but does nothing for the helpless and incomeless Virgil, whereupon Yvette leaves Duddy to take care of Virgil from now on.
Duddy looks extremely worried when Dingleman learns of his plans to use the lake property commercially. The last section is offered for sale, and Duddy immediately gets stiff competition in Dingleman, because he is bidding. To get the competitor out of the way, Duddy forges Virgil's signature on a check that seals the purchase of the property and has now finally shit with Yvette and Virgil. Duddy proudly wants to present his newly acquired property to his father Max, Uncle Lenny and his grandfather. When Dingleman shows up to offer funding for Duddy's development plans, Duddy makes fun of him. Duddy's grandfather refuses to help his grandson any more after learning of Yvette's behavior towards her and Virgil. Now Duddy is definitely through with everyone downstairs. He tries to reconcile with Yvette, but gets a bitter rebuff. The French-Canadian makes it clear to him that she never wants to see him again. The final scene shows that Duddy has achieved his modest social rise in Montreal society, and for the first time his father seems to be really proud of him.
Production notes
The film, which was shot in Montréal from September 10, 1973 to mid-February 1974 , was considered the most successful Canadian production of its time and is seen as the spark for an independent Canadian cinema. It premiered on April 11, 1974. The cost of production was a modest $ 911,000 Canadian dollars, and box office profits were $ 1.7 million. In Germany, the film ran on June 30, 1975 on television ( ZDF ).
Gerald Schneider took over the production management, Don Duprey the production management. Anne Pritchard designed the film structures, the costumes are by Louise Jobin, François Laplante and Luc Le Flaguais.
Awards and nominations
- The film received the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in June 1974 .
- At the 1974 Canadian Film Awards, Duddy Aiming High was named "Film of the Year".
- Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay in 1975
- Golden Globe nomination 1975
- WGA Award for Best Screenplay in 1975
- Richard Dreyfuss was nominated for Best Actor at the 1975 New York Film Critics Circle Awards
- Best Screenplay at the ACTRA Montreal Award 1975
Reviews
In Kay Weniger's Das Großes Personenlexikon des Films , Richard Dreyfuss' biography states: “Dreyfuss achieved an early artistic climax in 1973 with the title role in the original Canadian production Duddy wants to go high, which was quickly and wittily staged by Ted Kotcheff ”, while in The entry on director Kotcheff can read that with “Duddy wants to go high” he shot “his most beautiful, personal and most milieu-authentic film to date”.
The Movie & Video Guide decreed: "Pretentious Bar Mitzvah film, made by Daddy's" client "Elliott, an art-loving director, is just one of the comical highlights."
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: “Amusing adventures of an anti-hero; good scenes but rather uneven method. "
The Lexicon of International Films also praised the film and its leading actor: “A very lively, thought-provoking study with precisely drawn types, with a feeling for the milieu and atmosphere, understanding and gentle irony. Well played: the rousing, vital main character. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of films , Volume 4, p. 465. Berlin 2001
- ↑ George Melnyk: One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema , p. 118. University of Toronto Press, 2004
- ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 2, p. 457. Berlin 2001
- ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 4, p. 465. Berlin 2001
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 53
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 48
- ↑ Duddy aims high. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 24, 2020 .
Web links
- Duddy is aiming high in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz in the American Film Institute catalog