Grifters
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Grifters |
| Original title | The Grifters |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1990 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stephen Frears |
| script | Donald E. Westlake |
| production |
Robert A. Harris , Jim Painter , Martin Scorsese |
| music | Elmer Bernstein |
| camera | Oliver Stapleton |
| cut | Mick Audsley |
| occupation | |
| |
Grifters (Original title: The Grifters ) is an American drama film directed by Stephen Frears from 1990 . Donald E. Westlake's screenplay is based on a novel by Jim Thompson .
The American slang expression "Grifter" describes a con artist who uses psychological finesse to gain the trust of his victims. The term expresses both a rejection of the criminal act and a certain admiration for the special talent that is required for this particular form of fraud.
action
Roy Dillon, like his mother Lilly, lives from fraud. He fled home at the age of 17, an older man taught him cheating tricks.
Roy is caught attempting fraud and beaten up. He then becomes seriously ill and his mother sees to it that he is taken to a hospital where she meets Roy's friend Myra Langtry. Lilly, who Myra doesn't like, tries to find another friend for her son. Lilly and Roy get into an argument about it.
Lilly works for the bookmaker Bobo Justus, but misses a job at the racecourse in La Jolla because she takes care of Roy and gets into a traffic jam, which means that the quota could not be reduced to one horse. Since Bobo now has to pay out the high odds, he brings Lilly into his house, where he tells her to wrap several oranges in a towel. At the same time, she has to tell about a scam trick in which a person is hit with a towel prepared in this way as part of an insurance fraud. She says that sometimes the trick goes wrong because internal organs can tear. She stares in fear at the towel Jupiter takes in his hand. He eventually punishes her by burning her hand with a cigar.
When Roy is released, he and Myra take a train trip. She reveals to him that she is also engaged in cheating and tries to persuade him to make a coup. She tells of a scam that is shown in a flashback.
Roy refuses to participate in a joint coup. Myra suspects Lilly's influence and mocks Roy for having a relationship with his own mother. She takes revenge by telling Justus that Lilly is hiding a large sum of money in her car, which she cheated on him out of. Lilly is warned by one of her friends and flees. Shortly thereafter, Roy comes into the house; he wants to end the previous quarrels and talk to his mother as if he were adults.
An FBI agent asks Roy to identify a body with a disfigured face found in a hotel that is believed to be his mother. Roy notes that the dead woman's hands are not burned. It later emerges that the dead woman is Myra, who was shot by Lilly when she tried to strangle Lilly.
Lilly wants to take his money away from Roy and go into hiding with it. Roy declines the request and tells his mother to find a normal job. Lilly repeats her request several times; suddenly she tells him to forget that she is his mother. She kisses him seductively, he breaks free from the embrace. Lilly hits her son, breaking the glass he is holding in his hand. The glass splinters cut open his neck, Roy dies. Lilly cries, takes the money and drives away.
Reviews
Roger Ebert praised the " powerful " representations in the Chicago Sun-Times of January 25, 1991 . He wrote that the characters of the cheaters - unlike those of the other villains who would appear strong or dangerous - would fascinate the audience.
The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was an " exquisitely staged existentialist drama " that followed the modernized model of film noir of the 1940s. It was " polished down to the last detail " and " interspersed with bitter irony "; The " excellent actors " are primarily responsible for the effect .
Awards
Anjelica Huston , Annette Bening , Stephen Frears and Donald E. Westlake were nominated for an Oscar and Huston for a Golden Globe in 1991 . The film producers and Anjelica Huston won the 1991 Independent Spirit Award .
Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening won the National Society of Film Critics Award in 1991 . Huston also won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award in 1990 and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award in 1991 . Bening won the London Critics' Circle Film Award in 1992 and was nominated for a BAFTA Award that same year . Donald E. Westlake won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1991 and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award. Juliet Taylor was nominated for the 1991 Artios Prize of the Casting Society of America .
background
The film was shot in California (including Los Angeles and San Diego ) and Phoenix ( Arizona ). The film, which celebrated its world premiere on September 14, 1990 at the Toronto Film Festival , grossed approximately 13.4 million US dollars in American cinemas .
Web links
- Grifters in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Grifters in the Lexicon of International Films
- Grifters at rotten tomatoes (English)