Question of faith
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Question of faith |
| Original title | Doubt |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 JMK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Patrick Shanley |
| script | John Patrick Shanley |
| production | Scott Rudin |
| music | Howard Shore |
| camera | Roger Deakins |
| cut | Dylan Tichenor |
| occupation | |
| |
Faith Question (Original Title: Doubt ) is a feature film by the American director and playwright John Patrick Shanley from 2008. The drama is based on Shanley's award-winning play Doubt: A Parable and focuses on the director of a convent and head of a Catholic school, who indirectly accuses a priest popular at the school of sexual abuse . The word "doubt", which forms the English title of the film, runs through the plot of the whole film and keeps coming back. Doubt was produced by Scott Rudin and opened in German cinemas on February 5, 2009.
action
New York in the fall of 1964: the St. Nicholas Catholic School, located in the Bronx , is directed with the strict hand of Sister Aloysius Beauvier. The headmistress is intimidating to both students and fellow sisters. Sister Aloysius is sympathetic only to one aging sister who is slowly going blind and whom she wants to save from the old people's home . In their view, community can only function in an atmosphere of rigid discipline and constant surveillance. But Sister Aloysius' views are not shared by everyone. The idealistic priest Flynn takes on, among other things, the young Donald Miller, who is the only colored student in St. Nicholas. This is beaten by his father and is also exposed to the harassment of his classmates. The priest encourages the boy and lets him serve as minister .
When Donald is called to Pastor Flynn's office during one of her school lessons, the young history teacher, Sister James, reports to Sister Aloysius that the boy was upset and smelled of alcohol. At the urging of Sister Aloysius, she confronts the priest in the presence of Sister James. Out of indignation, the latter gave no explanation at first, then a reluctant explanation for the meeting with the boy, who was subsequently excluded from the mess service.
Although she has no evidence at all, but only relies on a strong feeling, Sister Aloysius henceforth repeatedly accuses the priest indirectly of sexual abuse of the boy whom he made submissive to himself in the sacristy with mass wine. Pastor Flynn explains, however, that Donald drank the altar wine himself. He wanted to keep this secret in order to save the boy from being excluded from the ministerial. While Sister James doubts Flynn's guilt in any way, Sister Aloysius remains firm in her version of things. She then turns to the boy's mother. In order to take this against Flynn, she threatens to expel Donald from the school. Despite the rather blatant accusation, the boy's mother argues in her desperation that her son will only have to hold out about nine months before he can transfer to a good high school. Mrs. Miller says that she is happy about the priest's affection because both his father and his classmates hate him.
Flynn, who saw Mrs. Miller sitting in the headmistress’s office, seeks a confrontation. Sister Aloysius now claims to have telephoned a nun in his old parish who told her about Pastor Flynn's "past". Flynn, who was supposed to see to Sister Aloysius' transfer, left school not long afterwards and was appointed senior pastor and minister of a denominational school in another ward. Sometime later, Sister Aloysius tells Sister James that the story of the call to the ward was a fabricated one. When she presented her concerns about Flynn to a senior monsignor of the diocese, the latter ignored her. Since then, she has also continually doubted the way she acted.
History of origin
Success of the play
Doubt is a film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's four-person play Doubt: A Parable , which he wrote in 2003 under the influence of the abuse scandal in the United States. Shanley, son of an Irish family, grew up in the Bronx himself and was expelled from several Catholic schools for his rebellious behavior. The role of Sister James was Shanley's own first-grade teacher who taught him at St. Anthony School.
Doubt was first performed off-Broadway from November 2004 to January 2005 by the Manhattan Theater Club. The production by Doug Hughes was Shanley's first major theatrical success and earned him the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2005 . In 2005 Doubt was successfully relocated to Broadway with the original line-up and performed over 500 times between March 2005 and July 2006. The piece, praised by critic David Rooney as "tight, sore contemplation on moral certainty", has an open ending. Shanley abstains from answering the question of Pastor Flynn's guilt or innocence and leaves it for the public to interpret. The Broadway production won the most important American theater award, the Tony Award , in the categories of Best Play, Best Actress (Jones), Best Supporting Actress (Lenox) and Best Director (Hughes). Doubt also enjoyed financial success. The two million US dollar production was able to recoup the costs just three months after the first Broadway performance at the Walter Kerr Theater. Further productions of the play followed on the US West Coast, Australia and the United Kingdom; also a Paris production by Roman Polański .
Casting and shooting for the film version
Reports of a film version first came to light in December 2006. Scott Rudin , who was also involved in the Broadway theater production of Doubt , could be won as a producer . The production company Miramax Films is responsible for the US distribution . Rudin and Miramax had worked together several times in the past. Rudin immediately selected writer John Patrick Shanley for the script and direction. He said it was the hardest script he had ever written. In April 2007 it announced the engagement of Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the leading roles, then Amy Adams in the role of Sister James. Natalie Portman had previously turned down the part.
Filming with Viola Davis in the role of Mrs. Miller began in early December 2007 on location in the Bronx. Much of the film was shot at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale. The main actress Meryl Streep was supported by a sister who belonged to the Sisters of Charity and lived in one of their convents. Filming of the $ 25 million production ended after three months in early February 2008.
reception
On October 30, 2008, Doubt premiered at the American Film Institute's film festival. A day later, USA Today listed him as one of this year's favorites for a possible Oscar win . The limited theatrical release in the United States took place on December 12, 2008. The American trade press was largely impressed by the performance of the theater company. Streep received an Oscar nomination for her role as Sister Aloysius, her fifteenth overall. Since she had been nominated three times for supporting roles in the past, she was able to set the previous record of Katharine Hepburn with the twelfth nomination in the category Best Actress .
Film critic Roger Ebert , who had attended a Catholic school himself, praised Doubt in the Chicago Sun-Times as a film with an exact and “ruthless script, tremendous performance and timeless relevance.” The conflict shown is one “between old and new, state and alternation, between infallibility and uncertainty. ”Ebert particularly emphasized the over ten-minute sequence with Meryl Streep and Viola Davis, which Sister Aloysius asks for leniency. This scene is "the emotional heart and soul" of the film.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praised the game by Streep and Hoffman as the "two particularly matching antagonists", with Streep as "holy terror" in the truest sense of the word would play the more conspicuous part. A role that, thanks to the skillful actress, will never become a caricature, says Turan. Although Amy Adams would be convincing as the innocent sister of James, the excellent Viola Davis comes close to Streep and Hoffman. With her acting performance, Davis demonstrates with a "sense of propriety, urgency and even fear" the concern of the real world that finds its way into the monastic demarcation. Turan was somewhat more critical of the performance of John Patrick Shanley, who filmed the four-person play with more characters and a large number of extras: “As a director, in the end he drives the drama harder than he needs to. He hasn't done anything serious, but he's working on it and hindering it, ”said Turan.
Manohla Dargis compared Meryl Streep's December 12, 2008 appearance in the New York Times with a storm: "Your oversized portrayal has a touch of burlesque , but it just works on a completely different level than the other actors" would act. Shanley's main theme, the doubt, is paradoxically much easier to tackle on stage and the film seems to be caught between the two media of theater and cinema.
“In chamber play-like dialogue sequences, the cat-and-mouse game between nun and priest develops subliminally a confrontation with the ecclesiastical gender hierarchy, which suffers from exaggerated clichés of nuns and monastery education and sometimes all too transparent symbolism. Despite attractive approaches, the bottom line is little more than a conventional flirtation with the subject. "( Film-dienst 3/09)
“The director turns the outstanding film adaptation of his award-winning play into an acting summit of two again Oscar-nominated screen titans, and he focuses on the explosive interplay of suspicion and belief, certainty and impotent doubt, while also plunging the inclined viewer into a crisis of faith . "(Christina Krisch in the Kronen-Zeitung of February 5, 2009)
"Without the two stars, the verbal exchange of blows would probably be mere rustling of paper, but it is a pleasure to listen to Domina Streep and the skilfully ambiguous Hoffman." Epd-film
Awards
At the start of the US film awards season, John Patrick Shanley's film was awarded the National Board of Review awards for young actress Viola Davis and the entire acting company. When the nominations for the Golden Globe Awards 2009 were announced on January 11, 2009, Faith Question led the ranks of the favorite films due to the numerous actor nominations together with David Fincher's The Strange Case of Benjamin Button and Ron Howard's theater adaptation Frost / Nixon , each of which also received five nominations, but remained unrewarded. When the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards were announced , Shanley's screenplay and actors Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis were nominated.
Academy Awards 2009
- nominated in the categories:
- Best adapted script
- Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
- Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)
- Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
Golden Globe Awards 2009
- nominated in the categories:
- Best script
- Best Actress - Drama (Meryl Streep)
- Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)
- Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
British Academy Film Awards 2009
- nominated in the categories:
- Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
- Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)
Screen Actors Guild Awards 2009
- Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
- nominated in the categories:
- Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)
- Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
- Best acting ensemble
- nominated in the categories:
Further
Black Reel Award 2008
- Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
Broadcast Film Critics Association 2009
- Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
- nominated in the categories:
- Best movie
- Best script
- Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
- Best acting ensemble
- nominated in the categories:
Chicago Film Critics Association Award 2008
- nominated in the categories:
- Best adapted script
- Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
- Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams)
- Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 2009
- Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
London Critics Circle Film Awards 2009
- nominated in the category Best Actress of the Year (Meryl Streep)
National Board of Review Awards 2008
- Best Young Actress (Viola Davis)
- Best acting ensemble
Satellite Awards 2008
- nominated in the categories:
- Best adapted script
- Best Actress - Drama (Meryl Streep)
- Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards
- Best Actress (Meryl Streep)
- Best acting ensemble
literature
- Shanley, John Patrick: Doubt: a parable . New York: Theater Communications Group; St. Paul, MN: Distributed to the Book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, 2005. - ISBN 978-1-55936-276-4
Web links
- Official website for the film (English)
- Doubt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Faith question at Metacritic (English)
- Faith question atrotten tomatoes(English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for Faith Question . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2009 (PDF; test number: 116 613 K).
- ↑ Age identification for question of faith . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Hong Xinyi: He's a success, no doubt about it . In: The Straits Time s, March 21, 2006, Life News
- ↑ a b Susan Wloszczyna: 'Doubt' cut from cloth of nun's habit . In: USA Today , December 12, 2008, Life, p. 9D
- ↑ David Rooney: Doubt . In: Daily Variety , February 16, 2006, p. 11
- ↑ Michael Kuchware: 'Doubt' a big winner at the box office; recoups its $ 2 million investment. in: Entertainment News , Associated Press , July 5, 2005
- ↑ see Tobias Gray: Lifetime Achievement: Polanski predicts new Euro film biz growth . In: Variety , November 27, 2006 - December 3, 2006, Special Reports 2, p. A2
- ↑ 'Producers' pair will 'Couple' on B'way . In: Daily Variety , February 11, 2005, Vol. 286, No. 33, p. 4
- ^ A b Robert Hofler: Screenwriter & Breakthrough Director: John Patrick Shanley . In: Daily Variety , October 28, 2008, p. A8
- ↑ cf. Michael Fleming, Dave McNary: 'Doubt' Adds Acting Clut . In: Daily Variety , April 20, 2007, News, p. 1
- ↑ cf. Gregg Goldstein, Tatiana Siegel: Adams eyes divine role in 'Doubt' . In: The Hollywood Reporter , June 22, 2007
- ↑ cf. Mt. Oscar . In: Los Angeles Times, Dec 10, 2008, The Envelope, Part S, p. 34
- ↑ Carly Mayberry: 'Doubt' casts Davis as mom . In: The Hollywood Reporter , December 12, 2007
- ↑ Michael Shnayerson: Some Ench anted Amy : In: Vanity Fair 50 (November 2008), No. 11, p. 186.
- ↑ cf. Box office / business for Doubt in the Internet Movie Database (English; accessed on December 13, 2008)
- ^ Anthony Breznican: Cinema gets serious, hoping to earn Oscar . In: USA Today , October 31, 2008, p. 2D
- ^ Roger Ebert: A parable of blind faith & fear . In: Chicago Sun-Times , December 12, 2008, Movies, p. B1
- ↑ Kenneth Turan: 'Doubt' has a crisis of faith . In: Los Angeles Times , December 12, 2008, Calendar Des, Part E, p. 1
- ↑ Manohla Dargis: Between Heaven and Earth, Room for Ambiguity . In: The New York Times , December 12, 2008, Section C, Movies, Performing Arts / Weekend Desk, p. 1
- ↑ Birgit Roschy: Critique of Faith. epd-film, February 1, 2009, accessed on February 9, 2020 .