Hide your smiling faces

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Movie
German title Hide your smiling faces
Original title Hide your smiling faces
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2013
length 81 minutes
Rod
Director Daniel Patrick Carbone
script Daniel Patrick Carbone
production Jordan Bailey-Hoover
Daniel Patrick Carbone
Matthew Petock
Zachary Shedd
music Robert Donne
camera Nick Bentgen
cut Daniel Patrick Carbone
occupation

Hide Your Smiling Faces is an American drama that premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in 2013 . It was released in 2014 by Tribeca Film in the USA and came into theaters there. The film is about two teenage brothers who grapple with the death of a friend.

action

Nine-year-old Tommy and his fourteen-year-old brother Eric spend the holidays with friends in the New Jersey woods , the exact location of which remains undetermined. They cycle through the forest, break into abandoned buildings, swim in a lake and spend their time exploring all sorts of things, be it in the countryside or in adolescence when Tommy dares to kiss a friend (through a Plastic wrap). Wrestling competitions are also part of the holiday repertoire. Once, Tommy's friend Ian takes a pistol from his father's barn and proudly shows it to the others. The father notices it and becomes angry, whereupon Ian runs frightened into the forest.

Later, Eric and his friend Tristan steal a hamburger. They consume their stolen goods on a high-altitude, no longer operational railway bridge and notice the body of little Ian directly under the bridge. It does not become clear as the plot progresses whether it was an accident or suicide.

Further symbols of death appear in the following: the children discover a burial place of dead animals, they visit an old cemetery, they play with a dead crow in a house, and Eric's friend Tristan speaks of suicide, which he does not commit.

The adults around the brothers cannot comfort them; one preacher even speaks blatant nonsense: “No, the Lord didn't want him to die. But he died anyway. He guides and supports us all, and that's how he protected Ian. ”The two children acknowledge the inability of the adults with a smile that gives the film its name.

The brothers react differently to Ian's death. While Tommy withdraws and deals with this topic in a more meditative manner, Eric becomes aggressive, also when dealing with friends at their regular wrestling matches, where he threatens Tristan with a gun. During an argument with Ian's father, when he puts her dog Daisy on a chain and abandons him on the street, he breaks into his house and ravages the living room.

Only towards the end of the film are there some conciliatory scenes: In the forest, Eric meets a black bear who, however, does nothing to him, but lets him stroke him. And Tommy breaks into Ian's father's house, where he sits quietly, but - despite the previous devastation - does nothing to him. The film ends with a scene in the rain at the lake, which is reminiscent of the opening scene of the film.

The film's peculiarities are on the one hand very sparse, often meaningless dialogues, on the other hand an episodic narrative structure, whereby the individual scenes appear incoherent.

background

  • The film was shot in Sussex County in northwest New Jersey . Carbone spent his childhood there. The plot itself is based on a personal experience: a classmate was killed in a similar way. In his case, too, it remained unclear whether it was an accident or suicide.
  • The scene at the beginning of the film, in which a snake eats a fish very slowly and painfully, came about by chance and was not planned that way.
  • The black bear who appears at the end of the film was filmed in a private enclosure in Upstate New York and is called Adrien.
  • The film was funded in part by Kickstarter , a fundraising company , and in part from private donations.

Intentions

In various interviews, director Carbone emphasizes a more realistic view of young people than that offered in other youth films. He is interested in the boys' identity finding, and here dealing with death plays an outstanding role, especially if you grow up in a rural environment where the death of animals is part of everyday life. In addition to the motive of coming to terms with death, he was concerned with the relationship between the brothers, as he experienced it himself. In this respect, he wants the film to be understood as optimistic.

“The aftermath of an event speaks to me far more than the facts of the event itself, because this is about personal experience and interpretation. The facts are constant, but the meaning we make of them changes constantly. This tendency is even stronger among young people. Experiences that elude a concrete explanation become almost mythical, and this lack of understanding can lead to shame and feelings of guilt. "

- Filmmaker Magazine: Five Questions with Hide Your Smiling Faces Director Daniel Patrick Carbone :

"The relationship between the brothers is the backbone of the film, and Tommy often looks at - if not at - Eric."

- International film :

criticism

The film received mostly positive reviews. A total of 46 reviews that Rotten Tomatoes took into account resulted in a positive rating of 86%. Most of the reviews praise the calm, unexcited camera work, then the playfully convincing portrayals by Ryan Jones (Tommy) and Nathan Varnson (Eric) and the very convincing subject matter, which is unusual for a youth film.

“This poetic drama heralds a talented young director who has a keen eye for youth; someone who presents a true vision of how adolescents process death according to age. What "Hide your Smiling Faces" highlights is Carbone's gentle, poetic approach where other filmmakers would have turned the same subject into a melodrama. "

- Roger Ebert Reviews :

“Carbone made a film that highlights the real internal and external chaos that goes hand in hand with aging, just through the point of view of those exposed to it. It's an approach that is linked to Nick Bentgen's beautiful, yet haunting camera work and the outstanding acting performance of Varnson and Jones, and which makes "Hide your Smiling Faces" a captivating experience. "

- Jamie Neish, EmptyScreens.com, Review: Hide Your Smiling Faces (2013) :

“Light and shadow make up a lot of this film. Carbone is a gripping, young voice in the independent cinema world who understands that the visual can not only tell a story, but is also able to express something beyond language. A movie like this goes way beyond the coming of age, ending with kids with a lot to learn. ... Hide Your Smiling Faces is one of those exciting moments in the cinema that prove that pictures can actually be bigger than words. "

- Hans Morgenstern, Film Review: 'Hide Your Smiling Faces' presents resonant images of darkness and light of life and death :

“Tommy and Eric are both confronted with hard truths, but neither understand the full implications. It is this unsettling element of growing up that Carbone captures so well: Tommy's and Eric's gradual discovery that our inner lives are filled with as many hidden nooks and crannies as those in the New Jersey woods they were with early in the film had to do exclusively. "

- Tomas Hachard, For Two Brothers, Life Creeps Into The Paradise Of Summer Break :

Awards

  • BendFilm Festival 2013
    • Best camera work: Nick Bentgen
    • Best director: Daniel Patrick Carbone
    • Best idea
  • Champs-Élysées Film Festival 2013
    • Audience Award for Best American Film: Daniel Patrick Carbone
  • Chicago International Film Festival 2013
    • Audience Award: Daniel Patrick Carbone
  • Denver International Film Festival 2013
    • Best young director: Daniel Patrick Carbone
  • Heartland International Film Festival 2013
    • Grand Prize Best Narrative
    • Grand Prix Best Framaturgy: Daniel Patrick Carbone
  • Valladolid International Film Festival 2013
    • Youth Jury Prize: Daniel Patrick Carbone
  • National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA 2014
    • Best film before theatrical release: Daniel Patrick Carbone

Nominations

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/26/daniel-patrick-carbone-hide-your-smiling-faces_n_3163028.html?guccounter=1
  2. ↑ https://filmmakermagazine.com/68913-five-questions-with-hide-your-smiling-faces-director-daniel-patrick-carbone/#.XEG_jWdnGHQ
  3. ↑ https://www.tribecafilm.com/stories/hide-your-smiling-faces-daniel-patrick-carbone
  4. ↑ https://filmmakermagazine.com/68913-five-questions-with-hide-your-smiling-faces-director-daniel-patrick-carbone/#.XEG_jWdnGHQ
  5. ↑ http://filmint.nu/?p=7773
  6. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hide_your_smiling_faces_2013/
  7. ↑ https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hide-your-smiling-faces-2014
  8. ↑ https://emptyscreens.com/2014/08/01/review-hide-your-smiling-faces-2013/
  9. ↑ https://indieethos.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/film-review-hide-your-smiling-faces-presents-resonant-images-of-darkness-and-light-of-life-and-death /
  10. ↑ https://www.npr.org/2014/03/28/294220434/for-two-brothers-life-creeps-into-the-paradise-of-summer-break