First cow

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Movie
German title First cow
Original title First cow
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2019
length 121 minutes
Rod
Director Kelly Reichardt
script Jonathan Raymond ,
Kelly Reichardt
production Neil Kopp ,
Vincent Savino ,
Anish Savjani
music William Tyler
camera Christopher Blauvelt
cut Kelly Reichardt
occupation

First Cow is a film drama by Kelly Reichardt that premiered on August 30, 2019 as part of the Telluride Film Festival and was shown in the main competition at the Berlin International Film Festival from February 22, 2020 . The film was released in US cinemas on March 6, 2020. The film is based on a novel by Jonathan Raymond .

action

When a young woman roams an Oregon forest with her dog, the animal digs up a human skull. As she slowly removes the surrounding dirt, she discovers two skeletons lying very close to each other.

More than a century and a half ago in the Oregon Territory . Otis Figowitz, known as Cookie, works as a cook for a group of fur trappers who, however, don't really appreciate his work. While collecting mushrooms, he discovers a naked, strange man in the bushes who is hiding there in the forest. At first, Cookie suspects this exotic-looking man is a Native American, but he is a Chinese named King-Lu who is on the run from a group of Russians, one of whom he killed after they murdered his friend . He brings clothes, food and water to the desperate and hungry stranger and lets him sleep in his tent.

The fur hunters want to go to Fort Tilliken, a two-day walk away, to sell the skins there. Otis uses his stake to buy a pair of new boots. In a pub, Cookie meets King-Lu again. He has known the fort for two years. He invites him to his hut for a whiskey, and Cookie stays. King-Lu would like to earn money with the beaver in China or would like to have his own farm. Cookie, on the other hand, would like to open a hotel or a bakery and sell biscuits and buttermilk rolls there, because for a while he was an apprentice at a baker in Boston. King-Lu wants to know what other ingredients he would need.

From then on, they regularly make nightly forays to milk a large brown cow in a pasture. This only cow in the whole area belongs to Chief Factor, an English landowner and commercial manager of the settlement, and he bought it for the milk in his tea. Cookie now begins to bake his "oil pastries" with the milk. They sell this on the market and it is a complete success because it reminds customers so much of "home". The very next day, people were lining up. They begin to freshly prepare the oil pastries in front of their customers and brush it with honey. The Chief Factor also comes by to try their wares and the pastries remind him of London.

Cookie prepares a clafoutis for the Chief Factor and brings it to his house, which the Bybee-Howell House on Sauvie Island served as a backdrop Cookie prepares a clafoutis for the Chief Factor and brings it to his house, which the Bybee-Howell House on Sauvie Island served as a backdrop
Cookie prepares a clafoutis for the Chief Factor and brings it to his
house, which the Bybee-Howell House on Sauvie Island served as a backdrop

The two earn well, but King-Lu is concerned that the dizziness could soon be exposed, because the chief factor is a man with a fine tongue. When Cookie is supposed to prepare a clafoutis for the chief factor , and they bring it over at tea time when a man is visiting, they also go to the cow, and they almost blow up. When they are discovered milking one night and King-Lu falls from the tree, the Chief Factor realizes he has been betrayed. His people hunt them down and they part ways for a short time.

When they meet again at the hut a few days later and want to leave the area together, a head injury that he sustained during their escape causes Cookie so much that he collapses, and King-Lu lies down next to him.

production

Original, staff and cast

The film is inspired by Jonathan Raymond 's novel The Half-Life: A Novel

The film is inspired by the novel The Half-Life: A Novel by Jonathan Raymond from 2004, who adapted it for the film together with director Kelly Reichardt . Raymond, who grew up in Lake Grove, also has his novel set in Oregon. This is divided into two parallel storylines, one in the 1820s, in which Cookie Figowitz and Henry Brown are on the run, and one 160 years later around 1980, which tells of two young women, Tina Plank and Trixie Volterra . When they excavate two skeletons near Portland, a connection is made between their lives and those of Cookie and Henry. The novel was named "Best Book 2004" by Publisher Weekly.

Director Kelly Reichardt , Raymond's long-time companion who, together with the author, adapted his novel for the film, focuses primarily on the story set in the 1820s. Only a short prologue remains of the later story, told in parallel in the novel, in which a young woman, played by Alia Shawkat , is wandering around in the forest when her dog digs up a human skull. Reichardt has the two male skeletons in the film, lying next to each other, holding hands. At this point, Wendy and Lucy disappear from the scene. From then on, First Cow unfolds in the past, making the film very different from Raymond's novel. In addition, in the novel they earn their money with castoreum , a fragrant substance with which beavers mark their territory, in the film it becomes “greasy bread”, which they make from the milk of the cow that they stole from a wealthy colonialist. Meek's Cutoff already explored the life of the pioneers along the Oregon Trail, which Reichardt and the Oregon-based author Raymond had started with Old Joy and continued in their collaboration at First Cow .

The title First Cow , modified by her for the film , refers to the first cow in the Oregon Territory that was acquired because the chief factor of the settlement wants to drink milk in his tea. According to Hittman, he had looked at a number of cows before choosing Evie as the title character: “We had to train her so that she could get used to so many people around her and, above all, so that we could shoot with her on a ferry . "

John Magaro plays Otis Figowitz, known as Cookie, who works as a cook for a group of fur trappers. Orion Lee plays the fugitive King-Lu. Raymond developed King-Lu as a combination of two characters from his novel. Toby Jones plays the English landowner and commercial manager of the settlement.

Filming and film music

one of the locations: the Oxbow Regional Park in Multnomah County

Filming began in November 2018 and took place entirely in Oregon. First they turned around Elkton, where the barn was, where Cookie and King Lu hide from the Russians. The scene in which the two of them meet for the first time, as well as many other scenes in the forest, were filmed in Oxbow Regional Park in Multnomah County . Some scenes were shot against the backdrop of the coast of San Salvador Beach in Marion County . The Bybee-Howell House on Sauvie Island, on the National Register of Historic Places, served as the backdrop for the Chief Factor's home. Further recordings were made in Portland. Christopher Blauvelt , who shot the film in 35 mm film format , acted as cameraman . The production design is by Anthony Gasparro .

The film music was composed by guitarist William Tyler , who was the first to work in this role for a film project. The soundtrack album, which includes eight pieces of music, was released on March 6, 2020 by Merge Records as a download and is due to be released on CD and vinyl in summer 2020.

publication

The film premiered on August 30, 2019 as part of the Telluride Film Festival . The film was shown at the New York Film Festival at the end of September and beginning of October 2019 . From February 22, 2020, the film was presented in the main competition at the Berlin International Film Festival . A24 released the film in selected US cinemas on March 6, 2020. Due to the short time later due to the coronavirus pandemic, the film was released as video-on-demand in the USA on July 10, 2020. From July 2020 it was offered for loan via the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox of the Toronto International Film Festival . It will open the Locarno Film Festival on August 5, 2020 and be presented at the American Film Festival in Deauville in September 2020 . At the end of September and beginning of October 2020 it will be shown at the Hamburg Film Festival in the format “Contemporary cinema in focus”.

reception

Reviews

The film has so far won over 96 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8.4 out of a possible 10 points.

Peter Debruge from Variety notes that there are noticeably few female characters in Kelly Reichardt's film and that these are only in supporting roles, due to the fact that the director wanted to draw attention to a kind of homophile connection that exists between the two men the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest developed over time.

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter writes that another filmmaker might have treated the biscuit business more like a comedy film or masked the impending tragedy, while Reichardt's film has elements of both genres. The framework is the realistically portrayed life of pioneers, whose improbable relationship is based on mutual trust, understanding and an unspoken affection. Her life is embedded in the encounters with hunters, traders, hikers, settlers and the Indians who live on the outskirts of the city. The heart of the film, however, is John Magaro and Orion Lee and the relationship between these completely opposing characters they play, who are so believable that you get excited when they are separated and you are happy when they find each other again. While in First Cow , compared to most two-hour narrative films, not much happens and one wishes for a less open ending, Rooney was fascinated by the lyrical narrative of the film and refers in his review to the quotation from William Blake mentioned at the beginning : “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship. "

Awards

American Film Festival 2020

  • Nomination in the competition

Berlin International Film Festival 2020

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Half-Life. In: bloomsbury.com. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c Patrick Heidmann: Director about a heroine with an udder: “I cast a lot of cows”. In: taz.de, March 1, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c d David Rooney: 'First Cow': Film Review. In: The Hollywood Reporter, August 30, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b c Peter Debruge: Telluride Film Review: Kelly Reichardt's 'First Cow'. In: Variety, August 30, 2019.
  5. ↑ Eric Lavallée: Her Old Joy: Kelly Reichardt Finds Oregon by Way of China in "First Cow". In: ioncinema.com, October 31, 2018.
  6. ↑ a b Sauvie Iceland, Bybee-Howell House part of filming for new movie. In: pamplinmedia.com, November 30, 2018.
  7. ↑ Prizmi Tripathi: 'First Cow' Filming Location Details. In: thecinemaholic.com, March 4, 2020.
  8. ↑ https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/first-cow-kelly-reichardt/Content?oid=78467759
  9. ↑ a b Allison Hussey: William Tyler Details Soundtrack for New A24 Movie First Cow. In: pitchfork.com, March 2, 2020.
  10. ↑ http://filmmusicreporter.com/2020/03/03/first-cow-soundtrack-album-announced/
  11. ↑ Gregory Ellwood: Telluride 2019: 'Ford v. Ferrari ',' Judy '&' Uncut Gems' Are Official World Premieres. In: theplaylist.net, August 29, 2019.
  12. ↑ Kate Erbland: NYFF Announces 2019 Main Slate, Including 'Parasite', 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire', and More. In: indiewire.com, August 6, 2019.
  13. ↑ First Cow. In: berlinale.de. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  14. ↑ https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2114684417/?ref_=bo_rs_table_12
  15. ↑ Eric Kohn: 'First Cow' Will Head to VOD, and Kelly Reichardt Reconsiders Her Film's Resonance. In: indiewire.com, June 29, 2020.
  16. ↑ Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox. In: tiff.net. Accessed July 30, 2020.
  17. ↑ https://www.locarnofestival.ch/LFF/locarno-2020/search.html?type=inlocarno
  18. ↑ https://www.locarnofestival.ch/en/LFF/locarno-2020/film/First-Cow?fid=1173188
  19. ^ Reichardt & Larraín. In: filmfesthamburg.de, August 4, 2020.
  20. ↑ First Cow. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  21. ↑ First Cow. In: festival-deauville.com. Retrieved July 29, 2020.