A hidden life (film)

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Movie
German title A hidden life
Original title A hidden life
Country of production Germany , USA
original language English , German
Publishing year 2019
length 174 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 14
Rod
Director Terrence Malick
script Terrence Malick
production Elisabeth Bentley ,
Grant Hill ,
Josh Jeter ,
Marcus Loges
music James Newton Howard
camera Jörg Widmer
cut Rehman Nizar Ali
occupation

A Hidden Life (working title Radegund , international title A Hidden Life ) is a German - American , biographically colored drama by Terrence Malick . The film tells the life story of the Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter , who refused military service in the Wehrmacht for reasons of conscience and was executed by the National Socialists in Brandenburg in 1943. Jägerstätter is portrayed in the film by the German actor August Diehl .

The film premiered on May 19, 2019 in the competition at the Cannes International Film Festival , where it competed for the Palme d'Or . On November 21, 2019, it celebrated its German premiere as the opening film of the Around the World in 14 Films film festival in Berlin, before it was released in German cinemas on January 30, 2020.

action

The farmer Franz Jägerstätter and his wife Franziska ("Fani") run their farm high up on the slopes of St. Radegund, a small, idyllic village in western Austria. They have many children together, all of whom are girls. They are supported in their work by some helpers who have found a place to stay with them.

When Franz and Waldlan were called to the nearby military base in 1940, they had to undergo training. The aim of these exercises is to prepare the young men for battle, although Franz, who looks like a classic Aryan, refuses to swear allegiance to Hitler or to support the war effort in any way. When Franz is called up, he visits Pastor Ferdinand Fürthauer, but he quickly realizes that the church has already made itself complicit in the death of innocent people. Fürthauer himself had been given the position after a former priest had been dismissed after a sermon against the National Socialists. Fürthauer warns Franz that if he were shot because of his refusal to serve the Nazis, his victim would not be of use to anyone. Franz also appeals to Bishop Joseph Fließen that he wants to refuse military service in the Wehrmacht for reasons of conscience, but here too he is unsuccessful.

When Franz openly announces his negative attitude towards the new regime, those whom he once called his friends also turn against him and his family. Dirt is thrown at his daughters and later, when Franz is taken to Berlin's Tegel prison, the neighbors spit on Fani on the street.

Biographical background

A memorial plaque at the Franz Jägerstätter Museum in St. Radegund commemorates the Austrian resistance fighter

Franz Jägerstätter was born in St. Radegund in 1907 as the son of the farmer's maid Rosalia Huber and Franz Bachmeier. Because of his concerns about active participation in the war as a soldier, he sought advice from Bishop Fließer , but Jägerstätter had the impression that the bishop did not dare to speak openly because he did not know him. The farmer and miner later refused military service in the Wehrmacht for reasons of conscience , was arrested by the National Socialists and after a short time in prison in 1943 at the age of 36 in Brandenburg, he was guillotined. On October 26, 2007 Jägerstätter was in the Linz Mariendom by Pope Benedict XVI. beatified.

A number of films have already dealt with the life story of Jägerstätter.

production

Staff and funding

The direction was taken over by the American Terrence Malick , who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg funded the film with 400,000 euros. Around 960,000 euros came from the German Film Fund.

Cast and filming

Dietenheim SLV 2.JPG
The shooting took place among others in and around the Folklore Museum in Dietenheim place
Town hall Zittau.jpg
The market in Zittau was closed for further filming in August 2016

The role of resistance fighter Franz Jägerstätter was played by German actor August Diehl , his father-in-law Lorenz Schwaninger is played by Ulrich Matthes . The Austrian actor Tobias Moretti plays Ferdinand Fürthauer, who was pastor in Klam from 1958 to 1996 . Valerie Pachner portrays Jägerstätter's wife Franziska. One of his last roles is the late Swedish mime Mikael Nyqvist , who took over the role of Bishop Joseph Fließen , whom Jägerstätter seeks advice in the film.

More than 300 men and women from Bressanone and the surrounding area were wanted as extras for the film for the filming, some of which took place in South Tyrol.

Filming began on July 21, 2016. The shooting locations in Italy included the Venetian community of Sappada , the town of Bressanone in South Tyrol and the village of Dietenheim , where recordings were made in and at the Folklore Museum . The old prison in Zittau was used as a film location. On August 18, 2016, the market and Johannisplatz were closed for filming in Zittau. Further recordings took place in the Babelsberg studio in Brandenburg's capital Potsdam . Shooting ended on August 27, 2016.

Film music and publication

The film music was composed by the multiple Oscar nominee James Newton Howard . He also used classical pieces of music from Ludwig van Beethoven to Georg Friedrich Händel to Henryk Mikołaj Górecki , Arvo Pärt , Alfred Schnittke and Johann Sebastian Bach , for example Bach's choral St. Matthew Passion at the beginning of the film . The soundtrack, which comprises a total of 14 pieces of music, was released by Sony Classical on December 6, 2019.

According to actor Matthias Schoenaerts , the film should celebrate its premiere in autumn 2018 as part of a film festival. In April 2019 the film was still not released. At the beginning of April 2019 the title A Hidden Life was announced. The final release date was announced shortly afterwards. The film premiered on May 19, 2019 in the competition at the Cannes International Film Festival . In September 2019 the film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Masters section. Also in September 2019, it was presented at the American Film Festival in Deauville . At the beginning of October 2019 it was screened at the London Film Festival . In November 2019 it was presented at the AFI Film Festival in the World Cinema Section and at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata . In German-speaking countries, the film will be released in cinemas by Pandora Film. On November 21, 2019, it celebrated its German premiere as the opening film of the Around the World in 14 Films film festival in Berlin and was released in German cinemas on January 30, 2020.

reception

Age rating

In the US, the film was rated PG-13 by the MPA . In Germany, the film was approved by the FSK from the age of 12. The statement of reasons for the release states that there are depressing situations and scenes of violence, especially towards the end, when Jägerstätter is mistreated in prison. However, these are not overplayed and are logically embedded in the dramaturgy.

Reviews

So far, the film has received the approval of 80 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 7.4 out of a possible 10 points, making it one of the middle places among the films presented in Cannes. In the critics' mirror of critic.de he received mostly positive reviews. In the critics survey published by Screen on the festival entries in Cannes, he received 2.5 out of 4 possible points.

Peter Debruge from Variety writes that there are no battlefields in Terrence Malick's film, only wheat fields, also no horror battles in the concentration camp and no dramatic midnight raids. Nevertheless, A Hidden Life is a war film, it is just that the struggle shown here is an internal one between a Christian and his conscience. Without detracting from the millions of lives who perished during World War II, Malick depicts the fate and mental life of a single man here, and a run time of nearly three hours doesn't seem the slightest excess when it comes to that Capturing victims of Franz Jägerstätter, who was ostracized and imprisoned, and ultimately executed for his convictions. Malick shows how his parish of St. Radegund allowed fear to poison their judgment and stimulated groupthink that made Franz an outcast among his own people. Malick makes a critical distinction between belief and religion in this film by challenging the failure of the latter, a human institution that is as fallible and corruptible as any individual.

Michael Meyns remarks in his film review on programmkino.de , the website of the Kino Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kino , even if A Hidden Life is set in the distant past, it is also a film about today: “Malick may always have been a director who used filmic means was looking for transcendence , but he was also always a political director. If you consider the period in which this film was made, the state in which America and many other countries in the world are, it makes sense to relate it to the present as well. "Malick tells about it in a stylistically and intellectually overwhelming film that it is much more difficult to remain true to one's conscience than to join in mass resistance.

Use in school lessons

The online portal kinofenster.de recommends the film from the 11th grade for the subjects German , history, social studies, ethics , religion and philosophy and offers materials for the film for the classroom. There Jan-Philipp Kohlman writes that in the advanced course Art and Religion the term transcendence can be defined and applied to film. In addition, it could be discussed whether Jägerstätter's ethics are understandable and transferable to today's political conditions.

Awards

Independent Spirit Awards 2020

Cannes International Film Festival 2019

National Board of Review Awards 2019

  • Inclusion in the top 10 independent films

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for A Hidden Life . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 196461 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Age designation for a hidden life . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Biography of Franz Jägerstätter 1907 - 1943 Martyrs In: dioezese-linz.at. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ Scott Roxborough: Terrence Malick to Tackle WWII Biopic 'Radegund' In: The Hollywood Reporter, June 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Jan Lange: Hollywood legend shoots in Zittau. In the prison on Lessingstrasse, scenes are again created for a film. The Mandaustadt is not itself In: Sächsische Zeitung, August 16, 2016.
  6. ↑ Master director Malick makes a film about Franz Jägerstätter In: kathisch.at, October 20, 2017.
  7. ↑ Looking for over 300 extras for cinema films in South Tyrol. In: unsertirol24.com, June 7, 2016.
  8. ↑ Hollywood director Malick is shooting for a new film in Zittau. In: lvz.de, August 16, 2016.
  9. ↑ https://www.medienboard.de/infothek/aktuelle-meldung/aktuelles/News/detail/News/brandenburg-drehen-durch-dreharbeiten-hochsaison-mit-til-schweiger-detlev-buck-und-babylon-berlin /
  10. ↑ James Newton Howard Scoring Terrence Malick's 'A Hidden Life'. In: filmmusicreporter.com, April 18, 2019.
  11. ↑ a b Peter Debruge: Cannes Film Review: 'A Hidden Life'. In: Variety, May 19, 2019.
  12. ↑ Steve Pond: 'A Hidden Life' Film Review: Is This Where Terrence Malick Gets His Mojo Back ?. In: thewrap.com, May 19, 2019.
  13. ↑ 'A Hidden Life' soundtrack details. In: filmmusicreporter.com, November 26, 2019.
  14. ↑ Charles Barfield: Terrence Malick's Latest Film 'Radegund' Might Get A Fall Premiere. In: theplaylist.net, July 18, 2018.
  15. ↑ Zack Sharf: Terrence Malick's WWII drama 'Radegund' Retitled 'A Hidden Life' Ahead of Potential Cannes Debut. In: indiewire.com, April 2, 2019.
  16. ↑ Maximilien Pierrette: Deauville 2019: Kristen Stewart, Orelsan, Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones, Pierce Brosnan ... Tout sur la sélection. In: allocine.fr, 22 August 2019. (French)
  17. ↑ 63rd BFI London Film Festival program announced. In: bfi.org.uk, August 29, 2019.
  18. ↑ https://awardswatch.com/afi-fest-announces-world-cinema-and-documentary-sections/
  19. ↑ https://www.lanacion.com.ar/espectaculos/cine/festival-mar-del-plata-peliculas-tenes-ver-nid2304314
  20. ↑ 'A Hidden Life' at the 72nd Festival de Cannes. In: tabularasamagazin.de, May 2, 2019.
  21. ↑ A hidden life. In: pandorafilm.de. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  22. ↑ Terrence Malick's "A Hidden Life" opens the festival. In: 14films.de. Accessed January 31, 2020.
  23. ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
  24. ↑ https://www.spio-fsk.de/?seitid=2737&tid=469&Vers=1&FGID=5448
  25. ↑ A Hidden Life In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  26. ↑ Cannes 2019 Movie Scorecard. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  27. ↑ Cannes critic's jury - Critic Mirror 2019. In: critic.de. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  28. ↑ Ben Dalton: Screen reveals Cannes 2019 jury grid critics. In: screendaily.com. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  29. ↑ https://www.programmkino.de/content/Filmkritiken/ein-verborgenes-leben/
  30. ↑ Jan-Philipp Kohlman: A hidden life. In: kinofenster.de, January 29, 2020.
  31. ↑ Joey Nolfi: Uncut Gems, Lighthouse lead 2020 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. In: Entertainment Weekly, November 21, 2019.
  32. ↑ Marianne Garvey: National Board of Review names 'The Irishman' best film of 2019. In: cnn.com, December 4, 2019.