A fateful affair

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Movie
German title A fateful affair
Original title Fatal Attraction
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Adrian Lyne
script James Dearden
production Stanley R. Jaffe ,
Sherry Lansing
music Maurice Jarre
camera Howard Atherton
cut Peter E. Berger ,
Michael Kahn
occupation

A Fateful Affair is an American erotic thriller directed by Adrian Lyne from 1987 and starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close .

action

Dan Gallagher is a successful, happily married lawyer who lives in Manhattan with his wife Beth and daughter Ellen. While doing business, he met Alex Forrest, a publishing editor. When his wife and daughter leave town for the weekend, Dan sleeps with Alex. While he thinks this is just a fleeting affair, Alex sees it very differently and begins to cling to him. While Dan is about to say goodbye, Alex cuts his wrists. He takes care of her injury and leaves afterwards.

Alex starts stalking Dan and shows up in several places to meet him. So she waits for him in his office and meets Beth in his apartment, which is for sale, who she pretends to be interested in buying the apartment. She also called him repeatedly at the office and at home, eventually confronting him, claiming she was pregnant and planning to keep the baby. Dan later appears in her apartment to hold her accountable, which leads to a violent scuffle. Alex makes it clear that she does not intend to be ignored.

Dan moves his family out of town to Bedford, but that doesn't stop Alex. She sends Dan a tape on which she insults him, lies in wait for him in a parking garage and pours acid over his car. She also follows him home one evening to spy on him. Your obsession continues to escalate. Dan goes to the police to obtain an injunction against her (he claims it is for one of his clients), but is instructed that Alex cannot be prosecuted without solid evidence and that the alleged client must admit to his adultery .

One day when the Gallaghers aren't home, Alex kills Dan's daughter's dwarf rabbit and cooks it on the stove. Dan then confesses to Beth the affair and also that Alex is supposedly pregnant. Beth angrily demands that Dan leave the apartment. Before he leaves, Dan calls Alex and tells her that Beth knows about the affair. Beth picks up the phone and threatens Alex that she will kill her if Alex continues to harass the Gallaghers. Without Dan and Beth's knowledge, Alex picks Ellen up from school and spends some time with her in an amusement park before she brings the little one home. Beth panics when she tries to pick up Ellen and can't find her. In search of her daughter, she drives around desperately and gets into a rear-end collision in which she is injured and admitted to a hospital. After her release, she forgives Dan for the affair and they return home together.

Angry Dan breaks into Alex's apartment, attacks her and almost strangles her in an affect. Alex then attacks Dan with a kitchen knife, but the latter manages to overwhelm her. He puts the knife down and leaves the apartment in silence while Alex leans against the kitchen counter, smiling. Dan goes to the police to have Alex arrested, and the police start the manhunt.

Beth is running a bath for herself at home when Alex suddenly appears with the kitchen knife. She begins to explain her dislike for Beth, nervously waving the knife, cutting her leg, and then attacks Beth. Dan hears the screams from the bathroom, storms in and pushes Alex into the bathtub, seemingly drowning her. Suddenly she emerges from the water again and wants to attack Dan with the knife, but is shot by Beth with Dan's weapon.

The last scene shows police cars in front of the Gallagher house. After Dan has discussed everything with the police, he goes back to the apartment where Beth is waiting for him. They hug and go upstairs while the camera pauses on a picture of them and Ellen.

synchronization

The German dubbing was commissioned by Berliner Synchron , and Lutz Riedel was responsible for the dialogue direction and the German dialogue book .

role actor speaker
Dan Gallagher Michael Douglas Volker Brandt
Alex Forrest Glenn Close Hallgard Bruckhaus
Beth Gallagher Anne Archer Karin Buchholz
Arthur Fred Gwynne Arnold Marquis

Reviews

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

Adrian Lyne's film was a box office success, especially in the US. However, it was received very differently by film critics. On the one hand, A Fateful Affair was praised for the exciting narrative. Critical voices, on the other hand, were heard primarily because a reactionary family image had been propagated that defamed the emancipatory aspirations of women. The film critics largely agreed on one point: the never-ending showdown, which in places reminds of The Devilish by Henri-Georges Clouzot (1954), should have been shorter.

“What begins as a psychologically differentiated study on responsibility and guilt turns into a densely constructed thriller that overstrains its tension effects at some points and runs the risk of resolving the serious topic too superficially. Still a gripping entertainment film. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Scandal director Adrian Lyne (" 9 1/2 weeks "," An Immoral Offer ") cleverly plays with the hidden fears of cheating and softened the end. Conclusion: Cleverly constructed relationship nightmare. "

- Cinema

Trivia

The original ending was with Alex committing suicide and making it look like Dan killed her. However, test demonstrations showed that the audience was not satisfied with this outcome, so the ultimately known ending was re-shot. In the Japanese theatrical version, the originally filmed ending was shown.

In the movie Sleepless in Seattle , the father urges his son to be careful when setting up blind dates with the words "I saw 'A Fateful Affair." It gave me a huge scare. Who has been chasing a huge scare in the United States all men. "In 2009, turned director Steve Shill titled Obsessed a remake of the film with Idris Elba and Ali Larter in the lead roles.

Awards

A fateful affair was nominated for numerous film awards, but received only a few.

  • 1988 - Nominated for an Oscar in the categories of Best Film , Best Director , Best Adapted Screenplay , Best Actress (Close), Best Supporting Actress (Archer) and Best Editing
  • 1988 - Nominated for a Golden Globe in the categories of Best Film - Drama , Best Director , Best Actress - Drama (Close) and Best Supporting Actress (Archer)
  • 1988 - golden canvas
  • 1988 - Nominated for the Saturn Award in the Best Screenplay category
  • 1989 - BAFTA Award in the Best Editing category . Also nominated in the categories of Best Actor (Douglas) and Best Supporting Actress (Archer)
  • 1989 - Nominated for a Grammy in the Best Instrumental Film Music category
  • 1998 American Film Institute : List of 100 Best American Thrillers of All Time (# 28), Top 50 Villains (# 7 for Alex Forrest )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Synchronkartei.de
  2. ↑ a b [1] at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on November 8, 2014
  3. ↑ a b [2] at Metacritic , accessed on November 8, 2014
  4. ↑ Fatal Attraction in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  5. ↑ A fateful affair. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ↑ A fateful affair on cinema.de