So far from heaven
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | So far from heaven |
| Original title | Far from Heaven |
| Country of production | France and USA |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2002 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 JMK 10 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Todd Haynes |
| script | Todd Haynes |
| production | Jody Patton and Christine Vachon |
| music | Elmer Bernstein |
| camera | Edward Lachman |
| cut | James Lyons |
| occupation | |
| |
So Far From Heaven is an American feature film from 2002. The melodrama is based on a screenplay by Todd Haynes , who also directed .
action
Fall 1957 USA: Frank and Cathy Whitaker are the leading couple in Hartford , Connecticut society . Frank works as a sales manager at the international company Magnatech , a manufacturer of television sets . The attractive Whitaker couple are featured in the company's advertising campaign as the faces of the fictional couple Mr. and Mrs. Magnatech . The family idyll with two lovely children is framed by a luxurious home with black servants.
The perfect life of the Whitakers begins to crack when one day Frank does not arrive home on time after work to attend an evening party with Cathy. Cathy receives a call from the local police station where Frank is being held. On the way back from the station, Frank evades Cathy's questions and claims that the matter is based on a misunderstanding. The incident is forgotten the next morning when Cathy is visited by reporters from the local newspaper Weekly Gazette ; they want to publish a report about the woman at the side of the successful sales manager. An incident occurs during the interview; she notices an unknown black man in her garden. Confused and fearful, Cathy steps out of the house and confronts the man who introduces himself as Raymond Deagan, the son of the late Whitaker gardener. Cathy is embarrassed, apologizes for her behavior and gives her condolences . The incident is mentioned in the newspaper article, which states Mrs. Whitaker was particularly accommodating towards " negroes " (English. Negros ).
Not everything is running smoothly in Frank's company either. An important presentation is brought forward, which puts Frank under time pressure. Under the strain, he starts drinking alcohol early in the day and, after walking restlessly through town, attends a movie show. There he follows two men into a backyard bar , a meeting place for homosexual men. Meanwhile, Cathy befriends Raymond Deagan, who continues his father's work as a gardener for the Whitakers. The widowed father of a daughter runs a plant shop in the suburbs, Cathy learns during a conversation.
When Frank informs his wife by phone that he will be coming home later due to work, she wants to surprise him, packs dinner and drives to his company. As she crosses the empty corridors and enters his office, she catches Frank red-handed with a man. Cathy is in shock and immediately drives home, where Frank follows her a little later and confesses that he had "problems" a long time ago. Neither of them know what to do in this situation, but Frank agrees to go to a doctor with her. In a one-on-one conversation with an expert in Hartford, he told him that the “chances of recovery” were slim and that only five to thirty percent would return to heterosexuality (so-called reparative therapy ). Treatment would usually consist of two weekly psychiatric sessions, but some patients would have tried aversion therapy with electric shocks or hormone treatments. Frank agrees to the treatment and henceforth has therapy sessions twice a week. When Frank and Cathy make their way home, Frank bursts into anger, who can no longer bear his wife's questions.
He visits the doctor twice a week, but leaves Cathy in the dark about the success. She prepares for an important party at her home and visits an art exhibition hosted by her friend Eleanor. There she meets Raymond and his daughter Sarah. Both soon lose themselves in a conversation about a picture by the painter Joan Miró , much to the annoyance of Eleanor, who draws Cathy's attention to the fact that she is attracting the contempt and ridicule of the other visitors through the lively conversation with her black gardener. The evening party at the Whitakers turns out to be a complete success, but Cathy is snubbed by her drunken husband in the course of the evening in front of the guests. When she asks him about it at the end of the party, he tries to approach her sexually, which fails. Frank bursts into tears while his wife tries to calm him down. Cathy assures him how much she loves him, but Frank accidentally hits her in the face.
Cathy tries to hide the reddening on her forehead the next morning with a new hairstyle, but her friend Eleanor does not hide the injury. Cathy tries to talk her way out of it, while her friend suspects of the marital problems and agrees to support her. Cathy breaks down in a crying fit after this very emotional conversation and is discovered by Raymond Deagan, who tries to persuade her to go on a trip to a tree nursery in order to change her mind. After a moment's hesitation, Cathy agrees to join the excursion, during which Raymond learns that Cathy's husband is responsible for her injury. Raymond takes them out to a bar that is invariably blacks. With this he quenches Cathy's curiosity, who wanted to know what it is like to be "the only one [of a different skin color] in a room". Both get closer and Cathy asks Raymond for a dance, which he grants her.
A few days later, Cathy is told by her friend Eleanor that rumors are circulating in Hartford. Cathy was seen getting out of his van with Raymond, but she reassures Eleanor and dismisses the allegations as ridiculous. Frank also heard the rumors, and a heated argument ensues between the couple, in the course of which Cathy agrees to quit Raymond. At the same time, she learns that her husband has been given a month's leave of absence during the busiest time of the year. Both decide to go on vacation together. Before that, Cathy meets with Raymond in Hartford city center to personally inform him of the termination and the end of the friendship that is beginning. When Cathy turns away from Raymond at the end of the conversation, he tries to prevent her from leaving, which is immediately interpreted by (white) passers-by as an attack by a black woman on a white woman.
Frank and Cathy fly to Miami together on New Year's Eve 1957 to relax and give their marriage new impetus. But the trip has the opposite effect, and Frank makes the acquaintance of a man in the hotel who is attracted to him. At the same time, Cathy and Frank are made aware of the grievances in the USA between blacks and whites, which are not only the order of the day in Hartford. When a small black boy enters the hotel swimming pool (reserved for white guests), his father, a waiter, takes him out again while he is entertaining him; nevertheless, the swimming pool empties of all guests in a very short time. Meanwhile, a momentous incident occurs in Hartford. On the way home from school, Raymond's daughter is raised by three white children that her father is protecting and caring for her, but also that he has a white girlfriend. When she then runs away, they chase the three and throw stones at them, one of which injures her head.
Frank comes home earlier than usual one evening after missing an important meeting and breaks down in front of Cathy and his children with a crying fit. He confesses to his wife that he has fallen in love with a man who wants to live with him. Never in his life had he felt such a strong feeling for a person. Cathy sounds petrified and hurt and anticipates Frank's decision to file for divorce before he can voice it himself. Cathy breaks her silence towards her friend Eleanor and tells her about Frank's homosexuality and the difficult financial situation they are currently in. At the same time, she ponders the meeting with Raymond Deagan, which she also reports to her friend, who sees herself confirmed by the fact that the rumors about Cathy were not an invention. Eleanor, who had always referred to herself as “best friend”, then turns away from Cathy, like everyone else in town before.
When Cathy learns from her housekeeper that the girl who was attacked and injured by whites weeks ago is Raymond's daughter, she immediately drives to him to inquire about Sarah's condition. Life in Hartford has become unbearable for Raymond and his daughter. The boys who threw stones at his daughter got away with no punishment. Instead, the windows of Raymond's house are now regularly pelted with stones by other colored people who are aware of the rumors about him and Cathy. Since Raymond does not receive any more orders, he has decided to move to his brother in Baltimore . Cathy hopes to be able to “visit” Raymond one day in Baltimore, where no one knows her, because she will be single again now. But Raymond destroys their hopes. He had learned his “lesson” not to plunge into other worlds and now wanted to do what is right for his daughter Sarah. In the last scene, the newly divorced Cathy comes unsolicited to the train with which Raymond and his daughter leave. The two adults just look at each other without a word, while the distance between them keeps growing.
History of origin
Director Todd Haynes, who also provided the original script for his film Dem Himmel so Fern , allowed himself to be involved in the implementation of his idea. a. inspired by films by Hollywood veterans John M. Stahl and Douglas Sirk (see What Heaven Allows ). For example, the location of his film - as in the works of his role models - is a typically American suburb, in which a wealthy, middle-class family leads an apparently idyllic and carefree life.
Haynes shot the film in rich technicolor colors and gathered, among others, the production designer Mark Friedberg ( The Ice Storm ) , the cameraman Edward Lachman ( Erin Brockovich ) and the costume designer Sandy Powell ( Shakespeare in Love ) to revive the style of Hollywood of the 1950s . Mark Friedberg had to make sure to design a set that looked like a studio production from this period. So the Whitaker's house was completely rebuilt. Cinematographer Edward Lachman recreated the 1950s look using the same type of lighting equipment (incandescent bulbs), lighting technology, and lens filters that were common for a melodrama in the 1950s.
When choosing the leading actress, Haynes relied on the American character actress Julianne Moore , with whom he had worked in the 1995 drama Safe . Moore, who was pregnant while filming, wanted to represent the classic ideal of the 1950s and therefore chose a blonde wig, although Haynes originally did not want to do without her natural hair color (red). Dennis Haysbert was selected for the role of Raymond Deagan , who had already played a similar role alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field in 1992 . During the filming, Haysbert was also part of the cast of the television series 24 , which was filmed at the same time in Los Angeles , which required a permanent commute between the west and east coasts for the actor.
Far from Heaven , which went into production in mid-October 2001, is the fourth feature film that independent film producer Christine Vachon and director Todd Haynes jointly produced. As executive producer u. a. Steven Soderbergh involved in the project. The film was shot in and around New Jersey contrary to the location of the action . The studio scenes were created u. a. at Bayonne's Military Ocean Terminal. Further filming took place in Bloomfield, New Jersey and in Manhattan . The four streets that Hartford depicts in the film are in four different cities, so if an actor turned a street corner, he would appear in a different city. The Miami scenes took place in an old beach club called Rockaway . The works of art hanging in the so-called Hartford Cultural Center were reproduced as prints by the film crew, inspired by famous artists.
reception
Far from Heaven premiered on September 1, 2002 at the Venice Film Festival . The drama about social prejudice of the 1950s and about homosexuality and racism was critically acclaimed and viewed as a revival of American melodrama, a genre long forgotten at the time. It is also true Far from Heaven as a tribute to the work of Douglas Sirk and especially its two plants All That Heaven Allows (All That Heaven Allows , 1955) and Imitation of Life (Imitation of Life , 1959) that a similar plot have . Far from Heaven , which opened in select US theaters on November 8, 2002, grossed $ 15.8 million by April 16, 2003 at an estimated production cost of $ 13.5 million . This made it the most successful independent production of the 2002 cinema year. The film is consistently shot in a retro style and copies the films of the 50s both in terms of its visual language and the use of Technicolor and soft focus.
In Germany , the film was released almost five months after its US release on March 13, 2003 and, as in the US, received excellent reviews.
In 2016, Dem Himmel so fern came in 86th place in a BBC survey of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .
Reviews
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- Los Angeles Times : "... what Julianne Moore does with her role can hardly be measured by the standard that we apply to great acting ..."
- Blickpunkt: Film : "Magnificently cast, staged in a dream-like manner and flawlessly handled in all technical matters ..."
- film-dienst : “A masterful ambiguous melodrama that primarily questions the position of women in a society dominated by prejudice and repression. Outward visual beauty and a desire for confrontation in terms of content form an ideal symbiosis. At the same time, the film pays homage to the work of Douglas Sirk . Worth seeing!"
- epd Film : “He tells of a yesterday that was uninhabitable, and he does it with a lot of style and feeling. An elegant film, a careful film. But also a conservative film in which the emotions stay a few degrees too cold (...) It almost seems as if Haynes had the same doggedness to recreate the fifties (...), which ideologically shaped this decade. "
- Rhein-Zeitung : “As was once the case with Douglas Sirk, Haynes also focuses on women as the bearer of hope. Julianne Moore gives Cathy a multifaceted shape, shows her change from a naive housemother to a cautiously time-critical personality. "
- the daily newspaper : “There is no 'period piece' so far from heaven in the sense that a bygone time is reconstructed. Rather, the film reconstructs - similar to François Ozone's “ 8 Femmes ” - the films of that time, thus the fictions that this time made of itself. These are the melodramas of the 50s with their abundant colourfulness, their suburbia setting, their indirect camera positions and their conflicts, which are less those of the individual characters, but rather those that intertwine personal suffering and social condition into knots. The central character in these films is the woman who sacrifices her desire. In Heaven So Far, this woman is called Cathy Whitaker and is played by Julianne Moore. It is hard to believe that Moore played the porn queen in “ Boogie Nights ”, so convincingly has she transformed into the white middle-class housewife of the 50s - and also into actresses like Lana Turner or Jane Wyman , who embodied such characters 50 years ago . One can hardly believe how sure Haynes drives the sublime of melodrama into his film, how he adapts its perfect artificiality, its excess of staging and at the same time needs so little to show something. A change of glance, the pattern of a wallpaper or a silence at the crucial moment are enough. "
- Die Zeit : “While the viewer is amused by Julianne Moore's bold plaid swimsuits and the sleek hats of her husband, an entire era of American cinema looks back from the screen to discover with amazement that less has changed than the characters since the fifties the fashion and the equipment make believe. So far from heaven is a cinematic elegy about feelings that literally don't fit into the picture, about desires and longings that are nipped in the bud because there is no common place for those who feel them. "
- Neue Zürcher Zeitung : "Like Sirk back then, Haynes succeeds in translating a disturbing emotional experience into a timeless fable."
Remarks
- Originally the Whitaker's house should have been built in colonial style, but Todd Haynes abandoned the idea, as the architecture seemed too “cramped” to him, and gave the house a more modern flair.
- Patricia Clarkson, who dyed her hair for the role of Elinor in brunette, wore one or two original pieces from the 1950s, the rest was provided by costume designer Sandy Powell. Clarkson also wore fake eyelashes and eyebrows in the style of the fifties, as well as a lipstick called Cherrie in the Snow , which actually existed back then and which is still produced today by the Revlon company for make-up specialists.
- Julianne Moore said, referring to her role as the model housewife Cathy Whitaker, that at the end of a day of shooting, her face always hurt from smiling.
- Other original suggested titles for the film were This Splendid Life (engl .: This splendid life ; Raymond's last words to Cathy are: Have a proud life - a splendid life! Will you do that for me? ... Good-bye, Cathy. ), circles in the sun (circles in the sun) , the surface of things (the surface of things) , and fall From splendor (decline of grandeur) .
- Dennis Quaid said before shooting started that he was a bit uncomfortable at the idea of kissing another man. In fact, Quaid played the love scenes so aggressively that director Haynes had to intervene and stop shooting; Quaid attacked his film partner like a wild animal, while a romantic scene with a traditional Hollywood kiss was planned. The scene had to be shot several times until Dennis Quaid relaxed.
- In addition to Douglas Sirk's works All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life Haynes also felt by Max Ophuls ' film hush money for Love Letters (The Reckless Moment , 1949) inspired in which a mother (played by Joan Bennett ) the dead lover her daughter disappear and later has to deal with a blackmailer ( Martin Donnelly ) who falls in love with her in the course of the plot. The film is based on Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's novel The Blank Wall , which was also filmed as an independent production in 2001 under the title The Deep End - Trügerische Stille .
Awards
Far from Heaven was the most successful independent film of the cinema year 2002 and one of the most awarded films. Todd Haynes' drama has won over 70 film awards and has been nominated for thirty more. In addition to independent film prizes such as the Independent Spirit Award and the Chlotrudis Award , the film was recognized by the critics' associations of Chicago , Seattle and New York City as well as the Golden Satellite Award for best film of the year. The film was also nominated for four Oscars and Golden Globes in 2003 , including Julianne Moore, who won the Academy Awards for Best Actress for Far From Heaven and Best Supporting Actress for Stephen Daldry's The Hours , one of the rare doubles - Receive nominations. The role of the 1950s housewife Cathy Whitaker was the high point of her career so far and she was among other things. a. 2002 Venice Film Festival and awarded by the National Board of Review . Supporting actor Dennis Quaid received a nomination for the Golden Globe as a homosexual husband, Patricia Clarkson also received the National Board of Review award. Dennis Haysbert's performance was rewarded with the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Oscar 2003
Nominated in the categories
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best original script
- Best camera
- Best film score
Golden Globe 2003
Nominated in the categories
- Best Actress - Drama (Julianne Moore)
- Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid)
- Best script
- Best film score
Further
American Society of Cinematographers 2003
- nominated in the best camera category
- Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Haysbert)
- nominated in the Best American Film category
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2003
- Best camera
- 2nd place in the category Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Silver frog
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2003
- Best movie
- Best director
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid)
- Best film score
- Best camera
Nominated in the categories
- Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Clarkson)
- Best script
- Best movie
- Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Clarkson)
- Audience Award - Best Actress (Julianne More)
Dallas-Forth Worth Film Critics Association Awards 2003
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best camera
- nominated in the category Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- nominated for the Prix Screen International as best international film
Florida Film Critics Circle Awards 2003
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best camera
- Best film - drama
- Best director
- Best Supporting Actor - Drama (Dennis Haysbert)
Nominated in the categories
- Best Actress - Drama (Julianne Moore)
- Best Supporting Actor - Drama (Dennis Quaid)
- Best original script
- Best camera
Independent Spirit Awards 2003
- Best movie
- Best director
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid)
- Best camera
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 2003
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
London Critics Circle Film Awards 2004
- Best Actress of the Year (Julianne Moore)
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2002
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best film score
- Best camera
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
National Society of Film Critics Awards 2003
- Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Clarkson)
New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2002
- Best movie
- Best director
- Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid)
- Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Clarkson)
- Best camera
Online Film Critics Society Awards 2003
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid)
- Best original script
- Best equipment
- Best film score
- Best camera
- Best costumes
Nominated in the categories
- Best movie
- Best director
San Francisco Film Critics Circle 2002
- Best director
- Best Foreign Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best film - drama
- Best director
- Best Supporting Actor - Drama (Dennis Haysbert)
Nominated in the categories
- Best Actress - Drama (Julianne Moore)
- Best Supporting Actor - Drama (Dennis Quaid)
- Best original script
- Best camera
Screen Actors Guild Awards 2003
Nominated in the categories
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid)
Seattle Film Critics Awards 2002
- Best movie
- Best director
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best original script
- Best film score
- Best camera
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards 2002
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Best original script
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2002
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
Vancouver Film Critics Circle 2003
- Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- Coppa Volpi - Best Actress (Julianne Moore)
- nominated in the category Soundtrack Composer of the Year (Elmer Bernstein)
- nominated in the best original script category
literature
- Haynes, Todd: Far from Heaven; Safe; Superstar, the Karen Carpenter story: three screenplays. Grove Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-8021-4027-0 (English edition)
- Haynes, Todd: Todd Haynes: a magnificent obsession. Duke University Press, Durham, NC 2004, ISBN 0-8223-6629-0 (English edition)
Web links
- Far from Heaven in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Far from Heaven atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- arte.tv
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for Heaven So Far . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2003 (PDF; test number: 93 160 K).
- ↑ Age designation for So Far From Heaven . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ a b Far from Heaven at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed September 19, 2014
- ↑ a b Dem Himmel so far from Metacritic , accessed on September 19, 2014
- ↑ Far from Heaven in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ epd film No. 3/2003, joint work of Evangelical Journalism, Frankfurt a. M., pp. 35-36