Contract with my killer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Contract with my killer |
| Original title | I hired a contract killer |
| Country of production | Finland , United Kingdom , Germany , Sweden |
| original language | English , Finnish |
| Publishing year | 1990 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Aki Kaurismäki |
| script | Aki Kaurismäki |
| production | Aki Kaurismäki |
| music |
Billie Holiday Joe Strummer Roy Brown Little Willie John |
| camera | Timo Salminen |
| cut | Aki Kaurismäki |
| occupation | |
| |
Contract with My Killer is a London- based feature film by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki from 1990. The idea for the script is based on Jules Verne's novel The Sufferings of a Chinese in China .
action
The Frenchman Henri Boulanger, who lives in England, is laid off as an employee of the London waterworks after 15 years. He sees no other way out than to put an end to his life. However, his attempts in this direction fail miserably. Because he also considers himself too cowardly, he finally contacts a professional killer via a remote bar, who is supposed to kill him as soon as possible for 1000 pounds. He leaves his address.
But when he followed a spontaneous inspiration and drinks whiskey for the first time in his life, he fell in love with the flower seller Margaret. And since life has now got a meaning again, he wants to quickly communicate this to his "murderer" via the bar. But this one was torn down. The killer is nowhere to be found, so he and Margaret have to go into hiding. To make matters worse, he is also a witness to a robbery and, based on the images on the surveillance camera, is suspected of having committed the crime.
The killer succeeds several times in tracking down Boulanger. Eventually, he can corner him. When they are face to face, the seriously ill contract killer (lung cancer) who, according to his doctor, would have had about two months to live, finally shoots himself.
Margaret has meanwhile obtained train tickets to France. But it would also go with him to the end of the world, because: “The working class has no fatherland”.
background
Jules Verne's novel The Sorrows of a Chinese in China had already been filmed twice: in 1931 by Robert Siodmak as The Man Who Seeks His Murderer with Heinz Rühmann and in 1965 by Philippe de Broca under the title The great adventures of Monsieur L. with Jean- Paul Belmondo in the lead role.
The dialogue sentence “The working class has no fatherland” is a not quite literal quote (“The workers have no fatherland”) from the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels .
Reviews
Prisma described the contract with my killer as "Aki Kaurismäki's best film". The lexicon of international films rated the film as "impressive due to the scarcity of cinematic expression and the integration of colors into the dramaturgy".
Urs Jenny wrote in the Spiegel : “What Kaurismäki dares to do in terms of stylization through color and music has an effect because it does not create artificiality, but pure banality. Apart from the people and the skies, there is nothing beautiful to see in this film, and sometimes it is as if the camera itself closes its eyes for a moment. "
Awards
In 1991 Timo Salminen was awarded Finland's national film prize, the Jussi , for his camera work .
Web links
- I Hired a Contract Killer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Cine Tourist “a map of Kaurismäki's London c.1989” (a list of the locations identified; English; with numerous images).
Individual evidence
- ↑ ... as it casually quoted from the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx; For more information, see the Background section.
- ↑ marxists.org
- ↑ Film review for contract with my killer on prisma.de, accessed on February 7, 2008.
- ↑ Contract with my killer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Der Spiegel , March 18, 1991.