friendship for life
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | friendship for life |
| Original title | Longtime Companion |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Norman René |
| script | Craig Lucas |
| production |
Stan Wlodkowski Lydia Dean Pilcher |
| music |
Greg De Belles Zane Campbell |
| camera | Tony C. Jannelli |
| cut | Katherine Wenning |
| occupation | |
| |
Friendship for life (original title Longtime Companion , roughly equivalent to "longtime friend") is an American film from 1989 . The film drama was the first major feature film production that dealt with the topic of AIDS . The English title refers to a euphemism used by The New York Times in obituaries for the companions of deceased AIDS patients.
The film premiered on October 11, 1989 at the Mill Valley Film Festival and was released in US cinemas on May 11, 1990. In Germany it was released in cinemas on November 1, 1990.
action
The film is divided into several sections, each of which takes place on one day. The plot spans a total of eight years from 1981 to 1989, during which the everyday lives of several homosexual men between the beginning and the end of the AIDS epidemic are examined.
3rd July 1981
The personal trainer Willy and John, a friend, visit the couple David and Sean in their beach house on Fire Island to spend the upcoming holiday together. Sean is the scriptwriter for the hit soap opera Other People , while David is financially independent as heir to a family fortune. Meanwhile, in town, young actor Howard is preparing for an audition for Other People . He lives with Paul, who works as a manager. Her neighbor and good acquaintance is Lisa, an antique dealer who has been friends with Fuzzy, a lawyer , since childhood , whom she also passes on to Howard.
The next morning, The New York Times published an article about a novel type of cancer that appears to predominantly affect homosexual men. The news quickly spread among homosexuals, some immediately alerted while others responded with indifference to the news. In the afternoon Howard gets the role in the soap opera, while Willy meets Fuzzy over a tea dance , with whom he gets along well immediately, the two start a relationship a little later.
April 30, 1982
John learns from the doctor that he has contracted the new disease. He fell ill with pneumonia , was admitted to hospital and died a short time later. In the meantime, Willy and Fuzzy move into an apartment together, while Howard struggles with his new role, as he is supposed to play the first openly homosexual character in a television series. He therefore fears that he will become a victim of typecasting and that he will only receive homosexual role offers in the future.
June 17, 1983
Willy, Fuzzy, Lisa, David and Sean are on Fire Island with their friends Michael and Bob to watch the new episode of Other People in the Beach House , in which Howard's character is coming out . They then have a conversation about a neighbor who suffers from the new disease and is therefore shunned and marginalized by the islanders. In the evening there is an argument between Sean and David, as the former fears that he is also ill.
September 7, 1984
Sean and Paul are admitted to the hospital. Willy visited Sean, but has such a fear of contagion that he will be rooms with full-face protection enters and gown. When he is kissed on the neck by Sean in joke, he rushes to the toilet and frenetically cleans the affected area. Sean also receives a visit from Michael, who brings him homeopathic remedies and a book by motivational author Louise Hay . Howard pays a visit to Paul, who suffers from toxoplasmosis . He collapses in tears at the sight of his partner while he comforts him.
March 22, 1985
Sean's mental state has deteriorated significantly and he is now suffering from dementia . David deceives Sean's employer by continuing to write screenplays for Other People under his name . Howard is no longer part of the series because he was fired because of an alleged AIDS illness. He tries to get a role in a movie with Fuzzy's support, but is turned down on the same grounds. A little later, Paul, who was better for a short time, was brought back to the hospital with a seizure . David is walking in a park with Sean but has to take him home because Sean urinates in a fountain. That same night Willy learns that Fuzzy is feeling his lymph nodes for swelling . The two have a conversation about their fear of dying, when Fuzzy wonders what will happen after death, Willy replies that they could then have sex again .
4th January 1986
Sean suffers from severe, chronic pain and behaves largely catatonic . He is literally tied to the bed and has to wear adult diapers as he can no longer control his urine and bowel movements . David talks reassuringly to Sean and tells him that it will be okay if he let go now, whereupon Sean dies. Willy and Lisa visit David at home to support him. They choose a suit for the dead Sean to wear for the cremation. Meanwhile, Fuzzy calls the non-profit organization Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC for short) to organize the funeral. Lisa and Willy manage to comfort David at least briefly when they find a red dress in Sean's wardrobe and joke that they cannot give it to the undertaker because a hat in the style of Beatrice Lillie is still missing. Lisa, Willy, David and Fuzzy go to a Chinese restaurant soon after to write Sean's obituary. They refer to David as his long-term partner ( longtime companion ).
May 16, 1987
David, who died in his sleep, is buried, Bob and Willy hold the funeral speeches . At the funeral feast , the friends remember their time with David. The memory of an event in particular makes her laugh and lets her forget her grief for a while: As a young man, David tried on his sister's wedding dress, accidentally stumbled and fell down the stairs.
September 10, 1988
Fuzzy and Lisa volunteer to answer questions from GMHC callers. Willy calls Alberto, who has turned to GMHC for help, as a buddy, but seems to feel more for him than just friendly feelings. Howard has now also contracted AIDS, Paul has also succumbed to the disease, which is not directly said, but strongly suggested. Howard would like to use his remaining fame to raise money for AIDS charities. He organized for a charity concert, in which, among other things regarded as gay anthem YMCA of the Village People in the chamber music style is gecovert.
July 19, 1989
Willy, Fuzzy and Lisa take a walk on the beach. They talk about an upcoming Act Up demonstration and wonder if there will ever be a cure for AIDS. Suddenly their deceased friends and other people who have succumbed to the disease appear, but this only happens in their imagination. The film ends with the shot of Willy, Fuzzy and Lisa walking alone on the deserted beach.
reception
Criticism
In the Internet Movie Database, Friendship for Life was given a 7.5 out of ten star rating based on 4912 votes. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film received a critical rating of 94 percent based on 17 reviews and an audience rating of 83 percent based on 2,886 votes.
positive
Roger Ebert rated the film 3.5 out of four stars. He particularly praised the character drawing and the emotional moments, for example the scene in which Sean is visited by his friends in the hospital, as it illustrates "the virtue of visiting the sick" like few comparable film scenes. He also highlighted Sean's death scene, as this was one of the "most moving death scenes in a movie". Ebert was also positive about the fact that unlike many other films about homosexuals, the characters weren't just defined by their sexuality. Rather, friendship for life is about the "courage to help others and the modesty to be helped".
The Variety found that the film was "just excellent". This is due to the “graceful, often humorous” script, which manages to combine “informative with emotional material”. The portrayal of the actors is also "touching", especially the scenes with Sean and David are "penetrating".
Alan Jones wrote on RadioTimes that friendship for life was "compelling" and "heartbreaking" as the story of the increasing impact the AIDS epidemic had on the everyday lives of eight friends over the years. The film particularly shows how wealthy homosexuals are torn from their " Calvin Klein lifestyle" and have to defend themselves against bigotry and prejudice while they struggle with severe losses because of the disease. The film is semi-documentary and the "most accessible history lesson" on AIDS. Bruce Davison stands out particularly in the production, which is a "powerful and courageous testimony of survival" and ends with a "symbol of hope" and a "tribute to the deceased".
Jonathan Rosenbaum , the film critic for the Chicago Reader , was positive about the film because it did not use the "obscene Reagan - Bush approach". The protagonists are not pitiful children and thus the supposedly only AIDS patients worth mentioning, as is usual in productions about the disease. The film also contains some useful information about AIDS, but is not moralizing, but a "very human and compassionate film about a tragedy that concerns us all."
Rather negative
Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times that friendship is "more subtle and cheerful than necessary" for life . Except for a few scenes, the production is "bland", since the consequences of the AIDS epidemic are only portrayed from the perspective of wealthy white men, although drug addicts and minorities, for example, were also affected by it. In addition, the protagonists are “superficial and narrow-minded stereotypes”, all of which are interchangeable, and because of this trivialization it is difficult for the audience to identify with them. Only the sequences with the characters David and Sean are touching and therefore the exception. Ultimately, the film is because of its "egocentric view of the AIDS epidemic" and not because of the topic "difficult to digest".
Ralph Novak, an editor at People , said many of the innuendos in the movie were "inside jokes" among homosexuals, including a scene where a man imitates Diana Ross while dancing to a song by The Supremes . In addition, the sex scenes are not more explicit than in other films such as Sunday, Bloody Sunday , but their frequency would also alienate many heterosexual viewers. Novak speculated that this ethnocentrism stems from the intention to distance the heterosexual viewer from the emotional feelings of the protagonists. This is especially a shame because the actors are excellent. Bruce Davison and Mark Lamos in particular are remarkable in their roles, and Norman René's direction and Craig Lucas' script are sensitive. Novak marked the end of the film as "pitiful wishful thinking" and closed his criticism with the idea if anyone other than "extremely gay en chauvinists ", production would look to the end.
Awards
Bruce Davison received a Golden Globe Award , Independent Spirit Award , National Society of Film Critics Award , New York Film Critics Circle Award, and nominations for a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of David . The film itself also received a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Film - Wide Release category and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival .
Nominations
Norman René was nominated for directing at the Deauville Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival . Jason La Padura and Natalie Hart were nominated by the Casting Society of America in the category Best Casting for a Drama for the Artios Prize. The film also received a nomination for a Political Film Society Award for Peace .
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Willy | Campbell Scott | Torsten Sense |
| Howard | Patrick Cassidy | Nicolas Boell |
| Paul | John Dossett | Tobias Master |
| Fuzzy | Stephen Caffrey | Benjamin Völz |
| David | Bruce Davison | Lutz Mackensy |
| Sean | Mark Lamos | Lutz Riedel |
| John | Dermot Mulroney | Andreas Fröhlich |
Web links
- Friendship for life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Rita Reif: Auctions. In: The New York Times . July 14, 1989, accessed June 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Longtime Companion. In: Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved June 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Roger Ebert: Longtime Companion. In: Roger Ebert.com. May 25, 1990, accessed June 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Longtime Companion. In: Variety . December 31, 1989, accessed June 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Alan Jones: Longtime Companion. In: RadioTimes . Retrieved June 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum: Longtime Companion. In: Chicago Reader . Retrieved June 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Vincent Canby: Review / Film; Manhattan's Privileged and the Plague of AIDS. In: The New York Times . May 11, 1990, accessed June 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Ralph Novak: Picks and Pans Review: Longtime Companion. In: People . May 28, 1990, accessed June 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Kerrie Mitchell, 'Longtime Companion' Is 25: An Oral History of the Trailblazing, Heartbreaking First Major Movie About AIDS. In: Yahoo . August 25, 2015, accessed June 21, 2019 .
- ↑ 25 Movies That Defined The Sundance Film Festival. In: IndieWire. January 21, 2014, accessed June 21, 2019 .
- ↑ German synchronous index | Movies | Friendship for life. Retrieved June 18, 2019 .