Hallam Foe - This Is My Story

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Hallam Foe - This Is My Story
Original title Hallam Foe
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2007
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director David Mackenzie
script Ed Whitmore
production Gillian Bernie , Matthew Justice
camera Giles Nuttgens
cut Colin Monie
occupation

Hallam Foe - This Is My Story (German alternative title: Hallam Foe - From the life of an outsider ) is a British drama directed by David Mackenzie from 2007, based on the novel of the same name by Peter Jinks . It is Mackenzie's fourth feature film and already his second film (after “Stella's Temptation” 2005), which was shown as an official entry in the Berlinale competition . The world premiere took place there on February 16, 2007.

action

17-year-old Hallam Foe does not lead an easy life: he cannot believe that his mother took her own life and suspects his stepmother Verity, with whom his father had an affair before his mother died. So he developed an unusual hobby: from his tree house, he observed the everyday life of his fellow human beings, especially his stepmother, through binoculars. He hopes that this will provide evidence of her guilt for the death of her mother. But over time, Hallam also became physically attracted to her. After his parents want to send him to boarding school to dissuade him from his hobby and his stepmother seduces him, Hallam fled the Scottish Highlands to Edinburgh in panic . With only the bare essentials and hardly any money in his pocket, he is drawn to the rooftops to pursue his voyeuristic passion.

He soon discovers Kate, who looks like her mother. He is so fascinated by the HR manager of a luxury hotel that it doesn't stay with passive observation for long. Hallam wants to be closer to her; he approaches her and manages to get him a job as a dishwasher. This allows Hallam to get closer and closer to Kate's life. After work he hides in his observation post in the hotel tower; However, he only observes other people incidentally, rather he becomes the protector of Kate and imagines a life with her.

This condition is destroyed by the hotel manager Alasdair, who has a sexual relationship with Kate outside of his marriage. Alasdair catches Hallam watching Kate. When he breaks into Kate's apartment at the moment when Alasdair becomes violent, he wins her over, despite her initial defenses.

A close relationship develops between the two, and Kate even accompanies him on his rooftop discovery tour. After Hallam reports his stepmother to the police, his father and Verity come to Edinburgh and confront him, but Hallam doesn't believe them.

Hallam secretly returns home. After trying to drown his stepmother, but saving her at the last moment, he learns the whole truth: she had nothing to do with his mother's death, but the father had destroyed the boat to dissuade his suicidal wife from going up to drive out the lake. However, this couldn't stop her from killing herself, so she drove out and drowned on an overdose of sleeping pills. The father confesses to Hallam that he heard her rummage in her medicine cabinet in the bathroom and did nothing about it because he had given her up. Hallam wonders why his mother didn't love him enough to stay with him.

When he visits Kate again, she already has a new man in bed. She tells Hallam that she is not good at relationship matters and advises him to seek help elsewhere. Hallam is leaving.

Tracklist of the soundtrack

All of the artists on the soundtrack are signed to the London indie label Domino Records .

  1. Blue Boy ( Orange Juice )
  2. Here On My Own ( UNPOC )
  3. The Someone Else ( King Creosote )
  4. Broken Bones ( Sons and Daughters )
  5. Double Shadow ( Junior Boys )
  6. If You Could Read Your Mind ( Clinic )
  7. Battle At The Gates Of Dub ( Future Pilot )
  8. Lines Low To Frozen Ground (Hood)
  9. Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow ( Franz Ferdinand )
  10. Tricycle ( Psapp )
  11. Surf Song ( James Yorkston & The Athletes)
  12. Also In White ( Bill Wells Trio)
  13. Salvese Quien Pueda ( Juana Molina )
  14. They Nicknamed Me Evil (Cinema)
  15. I Hope That You Get What You Want (Woodbine)
  16. Ocean Song ( Movietone )

background

  • David Mackenzie moved to Edinburgh at the same age and found his first job in the same hotel as Hallam Foe. However, he emphasizes that nothing about this story is autobiographical.
  • In all four of Mackenzie's films, outsiders play a certain role.
  • The film is based on the novel by Peter Jinks, who is a friend of Mackenzie's. The story was changed only marginally as the novel takes place over a longer period of time than Mackenzie thought it would make sense for the intensity of the film.
  • The film opened in German cinemas on August 30, 2007.
  • The FSK changed the original release from 16 years of age to a release from 12 years after about five months. The DVD with the newly labeled version of the film has been available in stores since March 6, 2008.
  • The German title of the newly marked version is Hallam Foe - Decently durchgeknallt .

Awards

The film was represented in 2007 in the competition of the Berlin Film Festival , where it had to admit defeat in the race for the Golden Bear for the best film of the festival Wang Quan'an's drama Tuya's Wedding , but with the " Silver Bear for Best Film Music " and was awarded the " Prize of the Guild of German Film Art Theaters ".

Reviews

  • Der Tagesspiegel :
    “Top 'Hallam Foe' by David Mackenzie. Because nobody has dared to cross 'Das Fenster zum Hof' and 'Vertigo' with 'Hamlet' so brazenly, full of wit, seriousness and social accuracy. "
  • Filmstarts.de:
    “The film, the dark side of which is somewhat reminiscent of 'Das Auge' (1999), always manages to surprise, be it through the hardly predictable plot or through the pointed, sometimes very funny dialogues. The story, which Hitchcock uses every now and then, has one leg in the fantastic: The protagonist's quirks are exaggerations of known psychosocial disorders, coupled with some bizarre spectators, such as the badger's hat, the apartment behind the clock (etc.), what gives the whole thing a fairytale touch. "
  • Berliner Zeitung :
    “The soundtrack features a new song by Franz Ferdinand and also music by various other artists on the Domino label, for example Juana Molina, Sons & Daughters and Four Tet . The result is a beautiful record; which doesn’t change the fact that the film belonging to the record has neither interesting characters nor significant conflicts or a plot that deserves the name. One could also say that it does not give the slightest answer to the question of what it is doing in competition at an international film festival; which, on the other hand, makes it a good fit for the competition at this international film festival, which is ending today. "
  • Lexicon of the International Film :
    “The film, carried by an outstanding actor, loosely connects two stories of the search for motherhood, whereby it breaks all genre boundaries in the mixture of diverse elements, but in the convincing finale finds again the unity of inner and outer truths. Aesthetically a delight with slight dramatic carvings. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Hallam Foe - This Is My Story . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2007 (PDF; test number: 111 080-a K).
  2. ↑ Awards of the Berlinale 2007 , accessed on April 29, 2017.
  3. ↑ meeting. In: Der Tagesspiegel , February 18, 2007
  4. ^ Hallam Foe review ( Memento from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ When men suffer from themselves, we don't look away . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 17, 2007
  6. ^ Journal film-dienst and Catholic Film Commission for Germany (eds.), Horst Peter Koll and Hans Messias (ed.): Lexikon des Internationale Films - Filmjahr 2007 . Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89472-624-9 .