A man for every season

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Movie
German title A man for every season
Original title A Man for All Seasons
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Fred Zinnemann
script Robert Bolt
production Fred Zinnemann / Columbia
music Georges Delerue
camera Ted Moore
cut Ralph Kemplen
occupation

A man in every season is the film adaptation of the life story of Thomas More . The film, which was shot in 1966 under the direction of Fred Zinnemann , is based on the play Thomas More (original title: A Man For All Seasons) by Robert Bolt , who also wrote the film script . The Drama is about the conflict of conscience, fell into the Thomas More, as Henry VIII. Required him to swear allegiance to the Supremacy to swear at which King Henry as head of the Church in England (supreme head of the Church of England) explained .

action

Thomas More is considered one of the fairest and wisest judges in England. He is a member of parliament and a confidante of King Henry VIII. He intends to have his marriage with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon , declared null and void in order to be able to marry his lover Anna Boleyn . For this he needs the approval of the Pope. Lord Chancellor Thomas Cardinal Wolsey asks More in vain to help him put pressure on the Holy See . But More's conscience forbids him to oppose the Pope . When Wolsey dies, the king makes him his successor as Lord Chancellor. Ultimately, the king renounces the Roman Catholic Church and makes himself head of the Anglican Church . So he can finally enforce his marriage plans.

Because of this, More resigns from his position as Lord Chancellor . He is succeeded by Secretary of State Cromwell , one of the strongest opponents of the Catholic Church.

In the film, the conflict of conscience that More is in is made clear by the fact that he simply says nothing more. Since the new state laws contradict the divine ones, More sees his silence as the only solution. Cromwell regards the fact that More has refused to take the oath of allegiance to the king as disapproval. Friends of More try to get him to take the oath. But finally the young civil servant Richard Rich, who had always looked up to Thomas More, shows the weakness of character that More had always suspected in him, and betrays him to Cromwell. More is sentenced to death before the state court. Although he will lose his family, whom he loves dearly, he continues to refuse to act against his conscience. In 1535 More is beheaded in the Tower of London . His last words are: I die as a faithful servant of the king, but above all a faithful servant of God .

Reviews

“Within such fantastic scenes that England could only offer itself to convey the color and luster of the 16th-century staging of the play, and with Paul Scofield, who plays Sir Thomas as superbly as on stage, Mr. Zinnemann the essence of this drama crystallizes in such a painterly way, even its dynamic abstractions. "

- Bosley Crowther : New York Times

"Director Fred Zinnemann, who is to be thanked for such essential films as Menschen am Sonntag , 12:00 noon and Damned for all eternity , staged a great character image in the spirit of the author [...] The figure of his Thomas More (excellently cast with the English Shakespeare- Actor Paul Scofield) gains its contours not only through the exemplary underplaying of Scofield, but also through the credibility of his opponents ... "

- film service 1967

“A captivating film […] that makes the war of conscience and the brave and self-sacrificing decision of its hero credible […]. Excellent acting performance. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The power struggle of the two men and their principles is portrayed in this opulent epic by Zinnemann, which was honored with six 'Oscars', all too splendidly in love, but in a pointed dialogue and in the game it is impressive. (Rating: 2½ stars = above average) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV"

“The current topic comes in a historical context, without slipping into the equipment. This and the excellent design of Mores by Paul Scofield make the film worth seeing and considering. "

- Protestant film observer

The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the production the title “valuable”.

Awards

At the presentation of the Golden Globe Awards on February 15, 1967 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, A Man was able to prevail in four of five categories in every season : Best Motion Picture Drama , Direction , Screenplay and Paul Scofield as Best Actor in a Drama . As a favorite at the Academy Awards, the historical drama led the field with eight nominations, behind Mike Nichol's directorial debut Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (13 nominations). At the Academy Awards ceremony on April 10, 1967 (official count 1968) at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles, A Man was able to live up to his favorite role in every season and won an Oscar in six categories including Best Picture , Director , Leading Actor ( Scofield) and Best Adapted Screenplay . This made Zinnemann's work the most successful film of the evening before Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (5 prizes) and John Frankenheimer's racing driver drama Grand Prix (3 prizes), which triumphed in the technical categories. A year later, the historical drama continued its triumphant advance by winning the British Film Academy Award in seven categories.

In 1995 the film was included in the Vatican 's film list, which comprises a total of 45 films that are particularly recommended from the perspective of the Holy See. The British Film Institute listed A Man in Any Season 1999 number 43 among the best British films of the 20th century .

Academy Awards 1967

  • Best movie
  • Best director
  • Best Actor (Paul Scofield)
  • Best adapted script
  • Best camera - color
  • Best costumes - color
    • nominated in the categories
      • Best Supporting Actor (Robert Shaw)
      • Best Supporting Actress (Wendy Hiller)

British Film Academy Awards 1968

Golden Globe Awards 1967

  • Best motion picture drama
  • Best director
  • Best Actor - Drama
  • Best script
    • nominated in the category
      • Best Supporting Actor (Robert Shaw)

Further

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 1968

  • Best Actor (Paul Scofield)
  • Best Supporting Actor (Robert Shaw)

1967 Laurel Awards

  • Best entertainment film
  • 2nd place in the category Best Actor in a Drama (Paul Scofield)
  • 4th place in the category Best Supporting Actress (Wendy Hiller)

Moscow International Film Festival

  • Best Actor (Paul Scofield)
  • Honorable Mention (Fred Zinnemann)
  • nominated for the Grand Prix as best film

National Board of Review Awards 1967

  • Best film in English
  • Best director
  • Best Actor (Paul Scofield)
  • Best Supporting Actor (Robert Shaw)

New York Film Critics Circle Awards 1966

  • Best movie
  • Best director
  • Best Actor (Paul Scofield)
  • Best script

Writers' Guild of Great Britain 1968

  • Best British Screenplay

literature

  • Robert Bolt : Thomas More (original title: A Man For All Seasons), in: Theater by S. Fischer Verlag I . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1962, 675 pp.
  • Columbia Pictures presents Fred Zinnemann's film of A man for all seasons . [Sl]: Columbia Pictures, 1966 (English edition)
  • Pauline Kael : Kiss kiss bang bang . Boston: Little, Brown, 1968 (English edition)
  • Bob Smithhouser: Movie nights for teens: 25 more movies to spark spiritual discussions with your teen . Wheaton, Ill .: Tyndale House, 2005. - ISBN 1-58997-215-5 (English edition)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A film review by Bosley Crowther in the New York Times, December 13, 1966
  2. ↑ movie review from PFG in filmdienst 33/1967
  3. ^ "Lexicon of International Films" (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997
  4. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 544
  5. ↑ Evangelical Press Association, Munich, Review No. 369/1967

Web links

Vatican film list
religion

La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (1905) • The Passion of the Virgin of Orléans (1928) • Monsieur Vincent (1947) • Francis, the juggler of God (1950) • The Word (1955) • Ben Hur (1959) • Nazarin (1959) • The 1st Gospel - Matthew (1964) • A man in every season (1966) • Andrei Rublev (1969) • Mission (1986) • Sacrifice (1986) • Thérèse (1986) • Babette's Feast (1987) • Francis (1988)

values

Intolerance (1916) • Rome, Open City (1945) • Isn't life beautiful? (1946) • Bicycle thieves (1948) • The fist in the neck (1954) • Friends to the last (1956) • The seventh seal (1957) • Wild strawberries (1957) • Uzala der Kyrgyzstan (1975) • The wooden shoe tree (1978) • The hour of the victor (1981) • Gandhi (1982) • Goodbye, children (1987) • Decalogue (1988–1989) • Schindler's List (1993)

art

Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror (1922) • Metropolis (1927) • Napoleon (1927) • Four Sisters (1933) • Modern Times (1936) • The Great Illusion (1937) • The Wizard of Oz (1939) • Ringo (1939 ) • Fantasia (1940) • Citizen Kane (1941) • Luck came overnight (1951) • La Strada - The Song of the Road (1954) • Eight and a Half (1963) • The Leopard (1963) • 2001: A Space Odyssey ( 1968)