Gangster No. 1
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Gangster No. 1 |
| Original title | Gangster No. 1 |
| Country of production | Great Britain , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2000 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul McGuigan |
| script | Johnny Ferguson |
| production |
Norma Heyman , Jonathan Cavendish , Karsten Brünig , Nicky Kentish Barnes , Ulrich Felsberg |
| music | John Dankworth |
| camera |
Peter Sova , Amy Gilliam |
| cut | Andrew Hulme |
| occupation | |
| |
Gangster No. 1 is a British - German co-production thriller by Paul McGuigan from 2000 .
action
In the UK in the late 1960s, two warring gangsters share a small district of London. One is led by Freddy Mays, also known as "the butcher of Mayfair", a dazzling figure. When one of his men makes a mistake, Mays hires a young thug. He is immediately fascinated by Freddie's elegance and style. He goes into the service of the boss and does the "dirty work" from then on. Meanwhile, a kind of friendship develops between the two of them. But the boy's envy of his great idol is too great for that.
When Freddy meets the beautiful singer Karen, however, sheer anger and rampant jealousy awaken in the young gangster. He uses the disputes between Freddy and his adversary Lenny Taylor to play the two gangs off against each other. He kills his partner Roland and mutilates him to such an extent that all that remains is a headless torso. After Karen tells him about the engagement, the two get into a hateful argument.
He learns from Eddie Miller that Lenny Taylor is planning an assassination attempt on Freddy. He takes the opportunity to watch the robbery on the two of them from his car and sees Taylor's people shooting at Freddy. Karen tries to help Freddy but is held by Maxi. On the orders of Lenny Taylor, Maxi cuts her throat. After he has observed everything, he drives to Taylor's house, and armed with machete, axes, chisels and Beretta , storms into Lenny's apartment and shoots him immediately so that he cannot escape. After he has undressed down to his underwear, carefully folding his clothes, he rushes with the tools of the trade on Lenny, alternately maltreated and tortured him with bare hands and various objects and tools under constant abuse sadistically and ultimately kills him. The murder is blamed on Freddy, who barely survived the attack, and Freddy is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
This makes the war perfect and clears the way for the gangster. This proceeds with extreme and also sadistic brutality. He seizes power over Freddie's gang and works his way up. He boots out his opponents or mistreats and kills them like Maxi for example. Even those closest to him, like Tommy, call him a "cursed monster". By 1994, all members of the original Freddies gang had been cleared out of the way.
His gang later includes "up to 300 men" and they are involved in bank robberies, gambling and rigged horse races. The gang also gets into the cocaine drug business. However, he is plagued by self-doubt and the fear of not reaching Freddie's class. In 1999 Freddy Mays was released after 30 years. The gangster finds out about it and meets Eddie Miller in London's Chinatown. He tells him that Mays has been free for a few days and that he still wants to marry the singer Karen, who was believed to be dead. The aging gangster meets with Karen and wants to get rid of everything in a meeting with Freddy. The gangster rehearses his conversation with him in Freddie's apartment, which he still lives in. After Freddy arrives there, he explains that he would not value a share and that he had finished with his old life. The gangster gives Mays a gun and asks him to kill him. But this refuses. As a result, the gangster becomes more and more insane, angrily declares himself to be Lenny's killer, throws money around and screams "I am number one" and cannot accept Freddie's change and ultimately loses himself in his rampant psychopathic madness, which leads to that he falls half-naked from the roof of the apartment tower.
Locations
The film was shot in the Babelsberg film studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg , among others . Most of the shoots took place in Great Britain, including Elstree Studios in Borehamwood , Hertfordshire and Barbican , London. In Barbican, a London borough, an apartment in Lauderdale Tower was used as the backdrop for Freddy May's apartment.
Reviews
Thomas Schlömer described the film on the website "filmspiegel.de" as a tough, ruthless gangster film. In addition to some technical finesse, Gangster No.1 shows the impressively psychopathic Paul Bettany in a narrative far-reaching plot. It is not for the faint of heart, but definitely worth seeing.
Manuela Brunner wrote in the film magazine Schnitt , sometimes and more and more rarely, a film does not seem to be the pieced together work of countless hands, but a living something, a symbiotic fusion of actors and camera, sound and editing, of man and apparatus.
“Stylistically impressive film adaptation of a play in the tradition of American and British gangster films, which focuses on the relationship between the protagonist and his mentor. The violence shown is sometimes excessive, but dramatically staged in a meaningful way. The lack of identification for the viewer and the indecisive handling of the literary source nonetheless create a certain emptiness. "
Awards
The film was nominated at the British Independent Awards for Production, Best Actor ( Paul Bettany ) and Best Screenplay.
At European Film Award was Paul McGuigan nominated as best newcomer in Europe.
Cinematographer Peter Sova received the only prize at the AFI Fest for his camera work.
Web links
- Gangster No. 1 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Gangster No. 1 atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Gangster No. 1 in the OFDb
Individual evidence
- ^ Review on filmspiegel.de , accessed on January 20, 2009
- ↑ Review on schnitt.de , accessed on January 20, 2009