For Elise (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | For Elise |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wolfgang Dinslage |
| script | Erzsébet Rácz |
| production | Marcel Lenz , Guido Schwab |
| camera | Kai Rostásy |
| cut | Andreas Baltschun |
| occupation | |
| |
Elise is a German TV film and the film debut of Wolfgang Dinslage from 2012 . He describes the challenge of an adolescent half-orphan to deal with her grief over the loss of her father and at the same time to support her alcoholic mother as much as possible.
action
After her father's accidental death, Elise lives with her mother Betty in a prefabricated building in Jena . Both are traumatized and try as best they can to get over the sudden loss of their father and husband. Elise takes refuge in music and is passionate about playing a piano that she inherited from her father. She plays classical pieces on it, but - to the chagrin of her not very musical mother - only rarely Ludwig van Beethoven's composition Für Elise , who she likes to hear so much and who gave her daughter its name. Betty, now the sole breadwinner as a nurse , takes refuge in the alcohol and nightlife of her city. She met many men with whom she had short-term relationships. Often she comes home drunk at night and Elise has to put her to bed time and time again. The next day, Betty regularly feels guilty and apologizes to Elise. She tries to suppress her mother's alcoholism as much as possible and hopes that other people will not notice the failures. For example, she denies her mother at parents' conference and tells her teacher that Betty has to work a lot. But even Elise cannot compensate for the increasing financial problems - Betty no longer pays her bills and the two of them are threatened with losing their apartment. The tension between mother and daughter builds further when Betty sells the piano to settle outstanding bills.
The situation seems to improve when Betty meets Ludwig on her nightly tours. He is divorced and lives with his two minor children in a pleasant old building until custody of his ex-wife , who lives in France, is cleared. Betty falls in love with the editor , but after an initial interest in her, Ludwig realizes that he is more interested in Elise. She, in turn, enjoys the attention of the many years older man, who values her concern and efforts for Betty. One day Ludwig calls Elise. Betty visited Ludwig on his birthday and got drunk there. Elise rushes to Ludwig's apartment with the intention of picking up her mother. Ludwig convinces Elise, however, that this is hopeless, and Betty sleeps on Ludwig's couch. Elise visits Ludwig in his editorial office on another day. He shows her the recording studio and lets her perform a piece on the studio wing. Later the two spend an evening at the opera . When Elise comes home late in the evening, Betty confronts her daughter. Elise makes it clear to her that Ludwig does not love his mother, but his daughter.
At Christmas it finally comes to a scandal: Ludwig's ex-wife brings the children to France over the holidays . Betty had invited Ludwig and his children to Christmas dinner, much to his apparent discomfort. However, he does not come, whereupon Betty gets drunk again and runs into his apartment. Elise secretly follows her and thus witnesses a quarrel between the two. Ludwig makes it clear to Betty that he doesn't love her and that he is disgusted with her alcohol problem. Betty arrives at her apartment later than Elise, wakes her up and accuses her of having manipulated Ludwig because she couldn't bear to be happy again. Elise is desperate because she is not aware of any guilt. The next day Elise visits her two aunts , who are critical of Betty. When she returns to the apartment, Betty is completely drunk with the balcony door open next to the overturned Christmas tree. Elise has to call the ambulance , who then takes her mother to the emergency room . Elise goes to one of the bars where Betty met Ludwig at the time. Ludwig is there as hoped and is looking for diversion after the argument from the previous day. Elise also denies here what happened to her mother. Only when Ludwig brings her home and sees the devastated apartment does she confess to him what happened to Betty. Ludwig invites Elise to spend the night in his apartment. However, she cannot fall asleep and comes to him in the living room. There the two get closer. Ludwig wants to sleep with Elise , but she realizes that she can't stand his approach and leaves the apartment. At a later point in time, Ludwig is at her door and wants to apologize. Elise won't let him in, however.
Ludwig breaks off contact with both women. Elise befriends a boy from her class who has been courting her for some time. Betty makes a rehab and vowed to improve. As a token of her goodwill, she buys the piano back. The film ends with a visit by Elise to the clinic. She steps out into the clinic's garden and sees her mother sitting there on a park bench. Elise smiles slightly.
music
A recurring element of the film is the Etude Opus 10 No. 3 in E major by Chopin , which Elise begins to play several times but can never finish, as she explains at her father's grave. When Ludwig asked to play something by Schumann , she reads “Remembrance (November 4, 1847)” (Op. 68 No. 28) from the Album for the Young .
Reception and locations
The film was shot in Jena, Altenburg and Weimar as well as in the Landesfunkhaus Thuringia in Erfurt. It started in the cinema on October 11, 2012 and was shown for the first time on arte on television on September 19, 2014 .
Criticism and award
In the weekly newspaper Die Zeit , Martin Schwickert praises the “differentiated drawing of the characters” in the “mother-daughter drama”, which contrasts well with a “soap opera”. In a report from the German Press Agency (dpa) it is pointed out that the film is “constantly looking for confrontation” and that there is no time for sentimentality. Similarly positive expresses Kino.de that a "subtle mother-daughter drama" sees in the movie, "The consistent increases problem-laden relationship with unequal open rivalry." Jens Hinrichsen by the newspaper Die Welt , however, bothered by the fact that The scriptwriter and director leave it with a harmless crush and let Ludwig with his action on the couch in the living room "cross a line from which there is no return to the audience's sympathy." For Sophie Charlotte Rieger in her film review on tittelbach.tv the central point is also Problem of the film in the defused and belittling staging: "With this Dinslage reaches a larger audience, but gives away a large part of the potential that the subject and the actors offer."
In 2012 the film received the Film Art Award and the Screenplay Award at the Festival of German Films in Ludwigshafen.
Web links
- For Elise in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- For Elise , website of the color film rental company, accessed on March 13, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stefanie Richter: In Thuringia, “Für Elise” will be filmed until next week. In: Thuringian General . November 11, 2010, accessed March 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Martin Schwickert: Mama, you party too much. In: The time. October 8, 2012, accessed March 13, 2019 .
- ↑ For Elise. In: Westfälische Nachrichten . September 14, 2014, accessed March 13, 2019 .
- ↑ For Elise. In: kino.de. Retrieved March 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Jens Hinrichsen: How can one hate Beethoven's “Für Elise”? In: The world. October 11, 2012, accessed March 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Sophie Charlotte Rieger: Great Jasna Fritzi Bauer in a drama that gives away its potential. In: tittelbach.tv . August 19, 2014, accessed March 13, 2019 .