House made of sand and fog

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title House made of sand and fog
Original title House of Sand and Fog
Country of production United States
original language English , Persian
Publishing year 2003
length 126 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Vadim Perelman
script Vadim Perelman , Shawn Lawrence Otto and Andre Dubus III (novel)
production Michael London and Vadim Perelman
music James Horner
camera Roger Deakins
cut Lisa Zeno Churgin
occupation

House of Sand and Fog is the feature film debut of the Ukrainian - Canadian director Vadim Perelman from the year 2003 . Production costs were $ 16 million. The film is based on the novel of the same name by the American writer Andre Dubus III . The drama has often been reviewed in the German press under the title Das Haus aus Sand und Nebel .

action

The film tells the story of two people who, out of desperation, commit acts in order to claim ownership of a house. It's just a small bungalow on the foggy Northern California Pacific coast , but for Kathy Nicolo it represents a sign of hope that she can regain a life that her addiction to alcohol almost destroyed. When a bureaucratic mistake forces Kathy's eviction from the house, she becomes homeless and sees her home sold for a fraction of its value.

The new owner, Massoud Amir Behrani, sees the house as the completion of the American dream that he has pursued since his escape from Iran with his family . As a former Colonel (Colonel) in the Iranian Air Force , Behrani is forced to take cheap jobs as a construction worker or kiosk seller in the USA in order to guarantee his family a certain standard of living. Now the last of his savings are flowing into the purchase of a house that is supposed to bring back the prosperity that his family once knew in Iran. As the battle for the house between Kathy and Behrani escalates, Kathy finds unexpected support from police officer Lester Burdon, who leaves his wife and two children to have an affair with the attractive, self-destructive alcoholic. Behrani's wife Nadi and his son Esmail are trapped in the maelstrom , who is shot at the end, whereupon his father takes his own life, but first kills his wife with poisoned tea so that she does not find out about the death of her son. That way, Kathy could move back into the house in the end, but the film leaves this open because she refuses the house in the end.

History of origin

The novel of the same name, on which the film is based, came from the pen of the American author Andre Dubus III and was published in 1999. The book was a sensational success and the book critics praised the force and emotion with which Dubus approached the subject of immigration . House of Sand and Fog made it to the finals of the prestigious National Book Award . These advance praise made the novel a bestseller. When well-known TV presenter Oprah Winfrey added the book to her Book Club and invited Andre Dubus III to her TV show, sales of the book spiked and it topped the bestseller lists.

Vadim Perelman, a successful commercial director, was far from Hollywood when he the book in a store on the first airport of Rome , Italy saw. He read it on his flight across the Atlantic, and when his plane landed in Vancouver , Canada , he knew that his career would take a new direction. "I knew I had to tell this story," Perelman recalled in interviews . “It's a story about loneliness and exclusion… about being an immigrant in a new country and, from Kathy's point of view, about the feelings of being an immigrant in your own home country. These are issues that are primary and universal. Who cannot identify with one of these two aspects? "

Perelman was able to draw on his own experience as an immigrant in his work. At a young age he and his mother left their homeland, the former Soviet Union . They lived hand to mouth temporarily in Vienna and Rome before emigrating to Canada, where they built a new life for themselves. Perelman subsequently acquired the film rights to the book and adapted it for the screen together with Shawn Lawrence Otto . The first choice for the role of Behrani was for Perelman the English actor Ben Kingsley, who had received the Oscar in 1982 for his portrait of Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's drama Gandhi . “Ben is the center, the rock of the film. He's as a great man as he is a brilliant actor ... Intuitive and generous. I didn't have to give him stage directions because he didn't need any; he just internalized the character . "Ben Kingsley on the role of Behrani:" There are enormous forces at work that a person can bring in to endure, realize, accommodate and cope with loss. We are unusual animals in our capacity to endure loss after loss after loss. In short, Behrani is a man who lost his king and then his kingdom , his son, his wife, his home and finally himself. "

Jennifer Connelly was hired for the female lead. Connelly on the role of Kathy: “She's really lonely at the beginning of the film. She was abandoned by her husband and had to overcome her alcohol addiction and now she is in her house, hibernating as she is mistakenly forcibly evicted from her home for not paying a tax that she did not deserve. I think you're starting to understand why the house means so much to her and why she's so stubbornly clinging to it. ”Connelly said she was very interested in portraying Kathy after reading the script. “I liked the fact that there is no such thing as a 'good guy' or a 'bad guy'. I found it really imperative that both sides do things that are morally questionable because life is often like that. "

Perelman then went to work to find the right actor for the role of Lester Burdon. But when Perelman saw Ron Eldard, he knew he would be perfect for the role. “I wanted someone who could convey this incredible feeling of vulnerability and some kind of magnetism too; and Ron was good for both, ”Perelman said. Eldard was particularly enthusiastic about the unexpected twists and turns of the film: “I remember reading it and wondering what was going to happen and every time I thought I knew what was going to happen it went in a completely different direction . "

The role of Behrani's loyal wife is played by the Iranian film and theater actress Shohreh Aghdashloo. Vadim Perelman attested that the film character resembles that of the actress, not only because of the same nationality , but above all because of their heart. “Shohreh has an incredible amount of heart and passion. She is so serious about all things that are really lovable. I gave her a lot of stage directions, not that she needed some, but because I enjoyed working with her. She was the mother of everyone on the set, ”says Perelman. Shohreh Aghdashloo on the role of Nadi: “Even as an Iranian immigrant, I gave a lot to the film - my culture , my social beliefs. But I also think the film isn't just about Iranian culture, it's about every different culture that comes to the United States. "

The Iranian-American Jonathan Ahdout was selected as the film son of Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Since he had no experience as an actor, he had to develop his own method to slip into the character of Esmail: “I isolated myself from the rest of the world and just thought about the boy, his friends, his mother and his father where he lives, his hobbies, his interests ... I created the character myself and as I did that I was able to understand him more and more. Learning to be someone else has been a huge growing experience for me as an actor and, I feel like the luckiest boy in the world to have gotten that role, ”said Ahdout.

After the actors were selected, Vadim Perelman put the film crew behind the camera for his first feature film . a. consisted of his teacher and closest confidante, the experienced cameraman Roger Deakins and the film decorator Maia Javan , who also has Iranian ancestors. The search for the house that determines the film title and serves as a catalyst for the plot of the drama took five to six weeks to search in Northern California. Maia Javan drove through the Pacifica and Half Moon Bay area to find the right house. Although the mandate was to track down a beautiful old bungalow that would seduce anyone into its possession, Perelman worked against the idea. He gave the whole thing a more ironic aftertaste by solving it more inconspicuously. They tried to create a sad looking house where time has left its mark. With wallpaper peeling from the walls, numerous indentations that should evoke a depressed mood. Although the story is set in Northern California, House of Sand and Fog was filmed in and around Los Angeles . The search for the house led the film crew to a small property on the cliffs above Malibu , which was similar in style to the houses in Northern California. The set designers equipped it with lots of telephone and power cables, as well as several houses in the area with prominent television antennas to make the area look petty bourgeois.

reception

Vadim Perelman's chamber-play drama, peppered with numerous twists and turns, premiered in the US on December 19, 2003. The film was received consistently positively by critics and was named one of the best films of the 2003 cinema year . The acting performances of Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly and Shohreh Aghdashloo were especially popular with the critics. Even so, the film only attracted a few moviegoers. In the USA alone House of Sand and Fog was only able to recoup about three quarters of its production costs and was generally considered a financial flop. In Germany suffered a similar fate the independent film, the only fourteen months after the US theatrical release in German on 17 February 2005 movie theaters started off.

Reviews

  • "One of the best films of 2003." (Leonard Maltin - Hot Ticket )
  • "Stunningly Powerful." (Paul Clinton - CNN )
  • "[Perelman's] actors are ... magnificent." (Joe Morgenstern - Wall Street Journal )
  • "... Vadim Perelman's film is an astonishingly self-assured directing debut ..." ("... Vadim Perelman's film, an impressively self-assured directing debut ...") (A. O. Scott - New York Times )
  • "It is especially the gift of House of Sand and Fog , to show us antagonists which simultaneously have ... right and wrong." ( "It is the Particular gift of 'House of Sand and Fog' to present us with antagonists who ... are simultaneously right and wrong. ”) (Kenneth Turan - Los Angeles Times )
  • "Bottom Line: A" (Marshall Fine - Journal News )
  • "... an undeniable treasure." ("... an undeniable treasure.") (Bob Strauss - Los Angeles Daily News )
  • "... shocking ..." ("... harrowing ...") (David Ansen - Newsweek )
  • "... haunting ..." ("... haunting ...") (Thelma Adams - US Weekly )
  • "Gripping, intense and profoundly unsettling, 'House of Sand and Fog" deserves a prime spot at the top of everybody's must. "Moving, intense and deeply grueling, the' House of Sand and Fog 'deserves a leading place in everyone's film planning -see list. ”) (Rex Reed - The New York Observer )
  • “The 'House of Sand and Fog' is a faithful, powerful and excellently played adaptation of the international bestseller by Andre Dubus III.” (“'House of Sand and Fog' is a faithful, powerful and superbly acted adaptation of Andre Dubus III's international bestseller. ”) (Todd McCarthy - Daily Variety)
  • "This is a film you can talk about with your friends for hours." (Jeffrey Wells - Movie Poop Shoot.Com )
  • "A fascinating parable about cultural (trenches) trenches!" ( Prinz )
  • "A deeply moving, metaphorical film that is staged with the inevitable consequence of an ancient tragedy." ( Film-dienst )
  • "A gripping, disturbing psychodrama about prejudices, misunderstandings and false hopes, in which Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley deliver the best performances of their careers - an acting event of the extra class!" ( Brigitte )
  • “In Vadim Perelman's debut as a writer, director and producer, Oscar winners Sir Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly shine as adversaries in the fight for a house on which the future depends for both for various reasons. The drama, based on the bestseller of the same name by Andre Dubus III, relentlessly tells of a tragically failed American dream and of the darker side of being an immigrant in America. "( Blickpunkt: Film )
  • “Advertising director Vadim Perelman dedicates his Oscar-nominated debut in the categories of screenplay, direction and production to the fruitless hunt for the fulfillment of the much-vaunted American Dream. Oscar winners Ben Kingsley ('Gandhi') and Jennifer Connelly ('A Beautiful Mind') as well as Oscar-nominated Shohreh Aghdashloo as Ms. Behrani and Ron Eldard ('Ghost Ship') impress with outstanding performances in the dark drama . For film fans with a sense for sophisticated materials. "( VideoWoche )
  • “Aside from the strange premise that a house will be expropriated because of $ 500 tax debt, Vadim Perelman staged this drama - his debut as a writer, director and producer - a brilliant chamber play. Thanks to the great leading actors, Perelman creates impressive psychological profiles, dissects the dark side of the American dream and demonstrates how important the subject of the dispute is for the future of both adversaries. "( Prisma )

Remarks

  • Supporting actor Jonathan Ahdout's mother Jackie Ahdout, who accompanied her son to the film set every day, helped Ben Kingsley, the only non-Iranian actor in the Behrani family, to properly empathize with the Iranian language and culture. Kingsley also got to know with the help of dialect coach Dr. G. R. Bassiry the Persian language .
  • The author of the novel, Andre Dubus III, received more than a hundred offers from film studios who wanted to film his book.
  • Andre Dubus III's wife sent a copy of the novel House of Sand and Mist to Ben Kingsley long before he was offered the male lead in the book adaptation.
  • The fictional address of the house used in the film is 34 Bisgrove Street, Pacific County, California .
  • Several scenes filmed in Northern California suggest to the viewer that the house is in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, the house was over 400 miles away, in Malibu.
  • The house that served as the setting for the action was put up for sale on the official home page for the film. The property, built in 1977, was available for purchase for $ 174,000.

Awards

House of Sand and Fog won several film awards and was nominated for three Oscars in 2004. However, the film could not win any of the coveted trophies. There were nominations in the categories of Best Actor (Ben Kingsley), Best Supporting Actress (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and for the film music by James Horner . Aghdashloo, who had to admit defeat to the American Renée Zellweger ( On the way to Cold Mountain ), was also awarded the Acting Awards of the Film Critics Associations of Los Angeles , New York , the Independent Spirit Award and the Online Film Critics Society Award . Leading Actress Jennifer Connelly was named Best Actress by the Kansas City Critics' Association. Vadim Perelman was a. a. Honored by the National Board of Review for Best Directing Debut.

Oscar 2004

Nominated in the categories

  • Best Actor (Ben Kingsley)
  • Best Supporting Actress (Shohreh Aghdashloo)
  • Best Score (James Horner)

Golden Globe 2004

  • nominated for Best Actor - Drama (Ben Kingsley)

Further

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2004

Nominated in the categories

  • Best Actor (Ben Kingsley)
  • Best Actress (Jennifer Connelly)

Golden Satellite Awards 2004

Nominated in the categories

  • Best cut
  • Best Actress - Drama (Jennifer Connelly)

Independent Spirit Awards 2004

  • Best Supporting Actress (Shohreh Aghdashloo)

Nominated in the categories

  • Best first work
  • Best Actor (Ben Kingsley)

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 2004

  • Best Actress (Jennifer Connelly)

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2004

  • Best Supporting Actress (Shohreh Aghdashloo)

National Board of Review 2003

  • Best directorial debut

New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2004

  • Best Supporting Actress (Shohreh Aghdashloo)

Online Film Critics Society Awards 2004

  • Best Supporting Actress (Shohreh Aghdashloo)
  • nominated for Best Actor (Ben Kingsley)

Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards 2004

  • Best Actor (Ben Kingsley)
  • nominated in the category of best directorial debut

Screen Actors Guild Awards 2004

  • nominated for Best Actor (Ben Kingsley)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for the house made of sand and fog . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2005 (PDF; test number: 101 444 K).