Edvard Munch (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Edvard Munch |
| Country of production |
Norway Sweden |
| original language |
English Norwegian German French |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | 211 (174) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Peter Watkins |
| script | Peter Watkins |
| camera | Odd Geir Sæther |
| cut | Peter Watkins |
| occupation | |
| |
Edvard Munch is a Norwegian - Swedish television film from 1974 about the Norwegian artist of the same name . Peter Watkins directed the biopic , staged with documentary stylistic devices .
action
The film follows Munch's artistic career in Oslo , Paris and Berlin from the beginning of the 1880s to the turn of the century . His childhood, which was marked by a serious illness, the early death of his mother and several siblings, and the unhappy relationship with an older married woman are characterized as significant influences on his work. Another focus is on the reception history of Munch's work, which has long been rejected by critics and the bourgeois public.
background
The idea for a feature film about Edvard Munch came to Watkins in 1968 when he visited the Munch Museum during a retrospective of his films at the University of Oslo . Because of several years of negotiations with potential donors, he could not begin his research until 1971.
Watkins saw his film as a challenge to the "limited" view of art historians, who focused more on artistic influences than on the relationship between personal biography and work. Critic Robert Keser discovered parallels in the restlessness and the never-ending attacks on the work of Munch and director Watkins. Watkins became even clearer when he spoke of a "great commonality with Munch's experiences on a deeply personal level": "I knew I would make a film about myself too."
Edvard Munch was created as a joint production of the Norwegian broadcaster NRK and the Swedish broadcaster SVT . The scenes set in Norway were shot on 16mm film in Oslo and Åsgårdstrand between February and June 1973 . As usual with Watkins, the roles were filled exclusively with amateur actors. The stylistic devices that had already been tried out in his earlier films, such as interviews, voice-overs by the director or frequent eye contact between the actors and the camera or the viewer, were also used.
Despite positive reactions following the Europe-wide television broadcasts (starting with Norway and Sweden in 1974), NRK kept the film under lock and key after the initial exploitation and even destroyed the original tapes, including the final mix, which is why Watkins and a sound engineer were responsible for the creation of around 40 minutes Shorter theatrical version had to remove the sound from 16 mm magnetic sound - film copies . The film ran in May 1976 as part of the Cannes International Film Festival out of competition and on September 12, 1976 for the first time in New York . In Germany the film was not shown.
Reviews
Vincent Canby of the New York Times , who had been very harsh in some cases with Watkins' earlier films, gave an enthusiastic verdict after the New York premiere: “A moving, multi-layered, sensitive portrait […] one of the few that successfully interacts of sensitivity, emotional chaos and discipline that make up the special nature of a great artist. "
John Simon of New York Magazine ultimately rated the film as a failure, but respectfully stated: "If any filmmaker [Munch] can do justice, it is Peter Watkins, who answers [...] obsession with obsession." The film's "excesses" are said to be not the “masturbatory” of a Ken Russell , but the attempt to “pack in too many facts of any kind, whether significant, less significant or insignificant”, in order to reveal the “finest ramifications of his subject”. "A company of such boundless, manic proportions is doomed to failure [...] but [...] it's the brightest failure I've seen in years."
The Daily Telegraph wrote after it first aired in the UK : “I can't think of a more haunting film about an artist. [...] Watkins works calmly and restlessly, straightforward and disorderly, and that without contradiction. "
Awards
- 1976 British Academy Television Award for Best Foreign Language TV Production
Web links
- Edvard Munch in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Edvard Munch on the website of Peter Watkins.
- ^ A b Joseph A. Gomez: Peter Watkins, Twayne Publishers, Boston 1979, ISBN 978-0805792676 , p. 127.
- ↑ a b Review by Robert Keser on Sensesofcinema.com, accessed June 18, 2012.
- ↑ "[...] a very strong connection with Munch's experience, on the most personal level - sexual fear and inhibition, need, yearning, a remembrance of brief moments lost for ever, and half a life of aching ... I knew that I would make a film about this man, because, in that way, I knew that I would also be making a film about myself. "- Joseph A. Gomez: Peter Watkins, Twayne Publishers, Boston 1979, ISBN 978-0805792676 , p. 134
- ^ Edvard Munch on the Cannes International Film Festival website.
- ^ Edvard Munch in the Internet Movie Database .
- ↑ "[...] moving, complex, beautifully felt portrait [...] one of the few ever to dramatize successfully the sensitivity, the profound emotional chaos and the discipline that occasionally combine to produce the special molecular structure of a major artist." - Review New York Times on September 13, 1976, accessed June 17, 2012.
- ^ "If any filmmaker could do justice to [Munch] it is Peter Watkins, who [...] could match Munch obsession for obsession. […] Its excesses are not of the Ken Russell variety […] for irresponsible, indeed masturbatory, fabrications […] He tries to crowd in too many facts of every sort – relevant, barely relevant, irrelevant – in a compulsive need to give his subject the vastest possible ramifications. […] An undertaking of such boundless, such manic magnitude is clearly doomed to failure […] But […] it is the most magnificent failure I have seen in years […] ”- Review in New York Magazine on September 13, 1976 , Pp. 89ff., Accessed on June 17, 2012.
- ^ "I cannot remember a more haunting film about an artist. […] Watkins managed to be still and restless, clear-cut and disordered, without any contradiction. ”- Review in the Daily Telegraph, quoted from the website of Peter Watkins , accessed on June 17, 2012.
- ↑ 1976 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards , accessed July 24, 2012.