Eleanor & Colette
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Eleanor & Colette |
| Original title | 55 steps |
| Country of production | Germany , Belgium |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bille August |
| script | Mark Bruce Rosin |
| production |
Anita Elsani , Sara Risher , Mark Bruce Rosin |
| music | Annette Focks |
| camera | Filip Zumbrunn |
| cut | Hansjörg Weißbrich |
| occupation | |
| |
Eleanor & Colette (original title 55 Steps ) is a German-Belgian film biography by Bille August , which celebrated its world premiere in September 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in German cinemas on May 3, 2018.
In the film, Eleanor Riese, suffering from chronic paranoid schizophrenia, teams up with patient lawyer Colette Hughes to have a say in medication for patients with mental illness.
action
Eleanor Riese suffers from chronic paranoid schizophrenia and is placed in an isolation room of a psychiatric clinic after an attack in 1985. There she is immobilized with medication against her will, but suffers seizures when she is unsupervised. The next morning, Eleanor calls an advocacy group asking for an attorney to sue the San Francisco Hospital for ill-treatment because even though Eleanor knows she needs medication and treatment, she believes the doses she was given have made their symptoms worse or even just caused them. However, the law provides that patients in a psychiatric hospital do not have the right to be informed about medications and that they do not have to consent to their administration. It is ultimately always at the discretion of the attending physician to decide about such things.
Her case comes to the ears of both nurse and patient lawyer Colette Hughes, and constitutional lawyer Morton Cohen. This refuses to take over the case, Hughes, however, takes on the matter. When she meets her new client, she has no idea that a friendship with Eleanor is about to develop. Together, the psychiatric patient and Hughes advocate a say in the medication of patients undergoing psychiatric treatment.
Biographical background
In the 1980s, Eleanor Riese and Colette Hughes fought for the rights of psychiatric patients and against the pharmaceutical industry. As a late consequence of a child's meningitis, the American suffered from schizophrenia at the age of 25, and Riese used the neuroleptic thioridazine for years . As the harmful side effects became more and more severe, the medication had to be changed, but the preparations she took instead led to severe side effects or even remained ineffective, whereupon she voluntarily went to St. Mary's Hospital & in 1985 with acute symptoms. Medical Center in San Francisco. However, when Riese refused to take various substances that she could not tolerate, she was given forced intravenous medication in the hospital, and Riese was left unsupervised. She had no way of going to the bathroom. Desperate, she decided to take action against the hospital. Riese called a patient rights center and received a visit from patient rights attorney and former nurse Colette Hughes. After the initial distrust, Eleanor instructs her to work for her. First, Colette reaches Eleanor's release home and turns to her former law professor, constitutional lawyer Mort Cohen. In view of Colette's commitment, Colette declares his support. Colette denounces that patients are sedated out of comfort.
The two women become more and more friends. They lose at the court of first instance, but the appeals court agrees. The other side then files a complaint with the California Supreme Court . The Supreme Court of California decides after a long time not to hear the case and to leave the decision of the appellate court, where they have a say in the medication of patients with mental illnesses. In 1987 the State Court in California finally ruled that even patients who were forcibly delivered have the right to be informed about the use of psychotropic drugs and to have a say in their use. From then on, involuntary treatment in the USA could only be enforced with a judicial decision. This was a milestone in US medical history, and the situation of many patients has improved significantly since then, since involuntary psychiatric treatment in the US can only be carried out with a judicial decision.
production
Staff, cast and dubbing
Bastie Griese from MMC Movies acted as co-producer . He said that the focus of the film is on a story that does not correspond to the usual heroic clichés: “Especially in the demanding film sector, one is looking for characters and stories that do not correspond to the mainstream and stand out due to the specificity of their characters and deeds . ". The English original title of the film 55 Steps refers to Eleanor's compulsion to count steps . Directed by Bille August and written by Mark Bruce Rosin . The German Annette Focks composed the film music.
Helena Bonham Carter and Hilary Swank can be seen in the film in the eponymous roles of Eleanor Riese and Colette Hughes . The German synchronization was based on a dialogue book by Michael Schlimgen and the dialogue direction by Christoph Cierpka on behalf of TaunusFilm Synchron GmbH , Berlin. Melanie Pukaß lends her voice to Eleanor Riese in the German version.
Financing and filming
The film was funded by the German Film Funding Fund with around 784,000 euros and received funding of 650,000 euros from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW .
Filming began on April 16, 2016, and took place in San Francisco and North Rhine-Westphalia, where the filming took place in the Coloneum and in the MMC Studios in Cologne and in the city itself, for example on the outside stairs and in the entrance area of the Deutzer Eduardus Hospital. Recordings also took place at the Higher Regional Court and the Brauweiler Abbey . The Rheinaue in Bonn and the forensics department in Düren were also among the locations. The final scene of the film was shot at Schloss Bensberg . On June 15, 2016, the shooting ended after 37 days of shooting. Filip Zumbrunn from Switzerland acted as cameraman .
Marketing and Publishing
A first trailer for the film was presented in August 2017. The film celebrated its world premiere on September 7, 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival . The film celebrated its European premiere on April 19, 2018 in the presence of Helena Bonham Carter in the Lichtburg in Essen. The film was released in German cinemas on May 3, 2018.
reception
Age rating
In Germany, the film was approved for ages 12 and up . The statement of reasons for release states: “Individual scenes depicting the consequences of mental illness and psychiatric treatment can overwhelm and frighten children under the age of 12. Since these scenes are well embedded and explained in the context, 12-year-olds are able to deal with them. ”Anke Sterneborg from epd Film notes that the very first scenes show unbearable images from the psychiatry's horror cabinet , in which several men in white coats defeat a wildly flailing and kicking woman with tangled hair and a crazy look, whose resistance, however, is futile and who ultimately finds herself strapped to a bed and immobilized with strong sedatives by injection.
Reviews
Sterneborg goes on to say in her review that Hilary Swank is predestined for all forms of tough fighting spirit against resistance of all kinds. She has proven so often that the petite actress with the hard pull of the mouth can develop enormous strength in the fight for the right cause, that it wasn't particularly original now if she varied this role as a lawyer. For Helena Bonham Carter, too, Eleanor Riese, with all her illness-related mannerisms and tics, is just another variation of all the eccentric types that she has played over and over again, especially for her husband Tim Burton, according to Sterneborg. The film critic says of Bille August's work that he lacks the fire of passion that sparked the spark for such David versus Goliath fights in the cinema.
In a review by the APA it is said that Eleanor & Colette unfortunately use various clichés of the cinema, such as when sentimental scenes are underlaid with thoughtful, kitschy piano music. If you just get the feeling that things are going well for the women, of course there has to be bad news again to keep the tension going, the criticism continues: “But real tension doesn't want to arise with any of this. Dramaturgically, Bille August's film, in which the court hearings are neglected, is not convincing. It splashes too much and decreases significantly towards the end. "
Awards
- Nomination for the best makeup image (Birger Laube and Heike Merker)
Web links
- Eleanor & Colette in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Eleanor & Colette in the German dubbing file
- 55 Steps in the program of the Toronto International Film Festival (English)
- Information about the film 55 Steps by crew united
- Eleanor & Colette - Trailer from epd Film on Youtube (Video)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of release for Eleanor & Colette . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 177152 / K).
- ↑ a b c Silvia Meixne: Eleanor & Colette: Together against the pharmaceutical industry In: apotheke-adhoc.de, April 19, 2018.
- ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/1989-06-24/news/mn-1907_1_binding-on-trial-courts-judge-rules-mood-altering-drugs
- ↑ https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/209/1303.html
- ^ A b Wilfried Urbe: Patient rights in psychiatry: Psychiatry drama becomes cinema material . In: taz.de, June 5, 2016.
- ↑ Dennis Harvey: Toronto Film Review: '55 Steps' In: Variety, September 9, 2017.
- ↑ http://filmmusicreporter.com/2017/08/16/annette-focks-scoring-bille-augusts-55-steps/
- ↑ https://www.ksta.de/koeln/kinofilm--55-steps--wo-die-dreharbeiten-mit-hilary-swank-in-koeln-stattfinden-24242114
- ↑ http://www.ksta.de/koeln/kinofilm--55-steps--wo-die-dreharbeiten-mit-hilary-swank-in-koeln-stattfinden-24242114
- ↑ https://www.express.de/koeln/top-stars-drehten-am-rhein-hollywood-macht-koeln-zu-san-francisco-30018860
- ↑ https://theplaylist.net/first-look-clip-55-steps-20170816/
- ↑ Toronto International Film Festival 2017. Official Film Schedule In: tiff.net. Retrieved on August 23, 2017 (PDF; 852 kB)
- ↑ http://www.filmstiftung.de/news/55-steps-und-aus-dem-nichts-toronto/
- ↑ This Harry Potter star is coming to the European premiere of his new film in Essen's Lichtburg In: derwesten.de, April 17, 2018.
- ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
- ^ Reasons for approval for Eleanor & Colette In: Voluntary self-control of the film industry. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
- ↑ a b Anke Sterneborg: Critique of Eleanor & Colette. In: epd Film, 2018.
- ↑ http://www.vienna.at/eleanor-colette-kritik-und-trailer-zum-film/5769401
- ↑ German Film Award 2019. In: deutscher-filmpreis.de. Retrieved March 20, 2019.