I. May. Not. Sleep.
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | I. May. Not. Sleep. |
| Original title | Before I go to sleep |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2014 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 14 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rowan Joffe |
| script | Rowan Joffe |
| production |
Mark Gill , Avi Lerner , Liza Marshall , Matthew O'Toole |
| music | Ed Shearmur |
| camera | Ben Davis |
| cut | Melanie Oliver |
| occupation | |
| |
I. May. Not. Sleep. (Original title: Before I Go to Sleep ) is an American thriller from 2014 by Rowan Joffé , who also wrote the screenplay. The film adaptation is based on Steve Watson's novel under the same original title. The leading roles are starring Nicole Kidman , Colin Firth and Mark Strong .
The film opened in German cinemas on November 13, 2014.
action
The 40-year-old Londoner Christine Lucas wakes up in bed next to a man she doesn't know in a house she doesn't know. He tells her that he is her husband, Ben, and that she had a serious traffic accident ten years ago in which she sustained a head injury. Since then, she has woken up every morning with no memory of her life after she was 25. While she was awake, she was able to store memories, but they were lost in sleep.
Without her husband's knowledge, Christine is met by Dr. Nasch, a neuropsychologist, who gave her a camera on which she kept a video diary. He calls her every morning pointing out the existence of the camera in a hiding place in the closet after Ben leaves for work. A first disagreement emerges when Dr. Nasch Christine tells that she was injured not by an accident, but by a violent attack on her in an airport hotel, where she was left helpless by the perpetrator and only narrowly escaped death. Nasch explains the discrepancy by saying that it is possible that Ben does not want to stress her unnecessarily psychologically every day.
In the course of treatment, Christine faintly remembers a red-haired woman named Claire. Ben tells her that she was a friend who couldn't stand Christine's amnesia and therefore broke off contact with her. Christine later also remembers that she had a son. When she confronts Ben angrily about the memory, he tells her that the boy died of meningitis at the age of eight; Christine had already remembered Adam several times, but he had kept it quiet ever since, in order to spare both of them the recurring burden of Christine's repeated reaction to the tragedy.
Christine next remembers the name Mike; she thinks this is the attacker's name. From research by Dr. Christine quickly learns that Ben had admitted her to a nursing home and divorced her four years ago. Contact with Christine's friend Claire is re-established; she tells Christine that she tried to see her at the nursing home, but didn't know that Ben would have taken her back from there. At a meeting of the two, Claire confesses to Christine that she had slept with Ben once, as a result of their shared grief over Christine's amnesia. She then broke off contact out of shame. She hands Christine a letter from Ben, which he gave Claire on the occasion of the divorce, with the request that she give it to Christine if she is ever able to understand its contents again.
Deeply touched by Ben's words in the letter, Christine shows him the video diary out of gratitude that she has kept from him so far. Ben furiously accuses her of having an affair with Dr. Having something to eat, she suggests and leaves the house. When the confused Christine phoned Claire shortly afterwards, she told her that she had spoken to Ben and that Ben had assured her that he had not seen Christine for years. She asks her friend to describe the man who claims to be Ben, and then implores her that it is definitely not Ben. Christine manages to escape the locked house, but is intercepted and stunned by the wrong Ben outside.
The next morning Christine wakes up again with no memory. In the evening, “Ben” takes you to the hotel where the attack happened at the time. He makes it clear that he is Mike, the man who seriously injured her then and with whom she was having an affair at the time. He wanted her to admit the relationship with him to Ben, but she refused. This led to an argument between them, in the course of which he hit her with a bottle of wine, which ultimately resulted in her amnesia. He pretended to be Ben in the nursing home with false papers and took Christine over to him because no one else took care of her. He then shows Christine the camera recordings, then deletes them and asks her to live with him, precisely because she now knows his true identity. Christine feels uncomfortable in this situation, which is made worse when Mike admits with an inadvertent remark that her son Adam by no means died of meningitis, but is still alive. This further fundamental breach of trust leads to a dispute and after some back and forth to a bitter fight between Mike and Christine, which she decides for herself using all her strength by knocking Mike out with an iron and escaping.
Christine wakes up in a hospital bed; her first glance falls on Dr. Nibble. He informs her that Mike has been arrested and detained. Christine is then visited by her divorced husband Ben and their son Adam, who is now a teenager. The presence of her son and a short conversation make her memory come back piece by piece. Happy she whispers to Adam that she knows who he is.
production
On May 1, 2011, Ridley Scott acquired the film rights to the book I mustn't sleep from Steve Watson and hired director Rowan Joffé as director and screenwriter. In February 2012, Nicole Kidman was in discussion for the lead role. In May of that year, she finally joined the cast as Christine. On October 31, 2012, it was announced that Mark Strong would play the role of Dr. Would play nasch. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Kidman said she wanted to "work with Colin Firth " again. They were previously seen together in The Love of His Life - The Railway Man . On February 6, 2013, it was finally reported that Colin Firth would play the lead role alongside Nicole Kidman.
Filming took place in London and at Twickenham Studios .
Titling
Unlike the original English title, the German title suggests a situation in which Christine forces herself to stay awake so as not to lose the knowledge she has acquired every day. Such a situation does not occur in the film.
reception
The film was recorded mixed overall. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film 36% percent, which is a rather negative rating. Film review aggregator Metacritic awarded 41 out of 100 points based on 31 ratings.
"For a long time, exciting psychological thriller with a wonderfully unpretentious Nicole Kidman, who clearly falls off in the last third."
“Even if the behavior of the characters does not always seem psychologically comprehensible, the complicated search for the truth does provide a certain thrill. Conclusion: Routine psychological thriller with logic holes. "
In its film review, Der Spiegel praised the calm camera work by Ben Davis and the acting performances of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth. Nicole Kidman is particularly convincing "as a seeker, a confused person who has to channel all of her feelings into the few moments in front of the diary camera". In these moments she succeeds in depicting Christine's “emotions, fears, the letting go of an otherwise rather controlled facial expression” in a credible manner. In the “thoroughly bourgeois London cosmos of marriage, home ownership and doctors”, Firth created the role of Ben as a “stoic haven of calm”, as someone who appeared balanced or simply resigned and only let his own feelings become visible in acute moments, nevertheless, something seems to be boiling beneath the surface. However, the staging and directing by Rowan Joffé is criticized: The film does tell of philistineism, but has “a good deal of narrow-mindedness” in it. Joffé gets tangled somewhere in the middle in his attempt to do justice to the construct and the characters. The escalation of the plot is too "calm - and ultimately too forgiving" to turn the film into a "thriller that is open to its speculative elements". The “drawing of the inner world” by Christine also remains too “superficial” for a “main character who is more than just intimidated and frightened, but must be incurably shaken to the foundations of her personality”.
In the review of the film in the Berliner Zeitung , on the other hand, it says that “the set pieces of amnesia, dodgy husbands, technical memory aid” are “well known, but here combined into an effective and exciting thriller”, which in the end also leads to a “strong statement “Find“ about what makes individuality ”. Compared to David Fincher's adaptation of Gone Girl , Rowan Joffé's cinematic implementation of Watson's novel was "two numbers simpler". I. May. Not. Sleep. is "more constructed in its prerequisites than Gone Girl , but smoother and faster, less refined and subtle". While in the twists and turns of Gone Girl the "signs of a general social and political distrust" would be seen, I limit myself. May. Not. Sleep. on "the abysses that lurk between two people".
In its film criticism, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , as well as the Spiegel, praised the acting achievements of Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, but at the same time strongly criticized the staging and directing of Rowan Joffé, who did not take advantage of the opportunity offered by his actors. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes that Joffé looks at Colin Firth, “as if he were the grown-up Tom Cruise from Eyes Wide Shut , and for Nicole Kidman, as if she were never serious about the erotic promise she made at Kubrick made". Unfortunately show Joffé in Ich. May. Not. Sleep. all that he had n't learned from Hitchcock . For example, how to tell a story in such a way “that it doesn't become flatter towards the end, but steeper and more exciting”.
Web links
- I. May. Not. Sleep. in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- I. May. Not. Sleep. atRotten Tomatoes(English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for me. May. Not. Sleep. . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2014 (PDF; test number: 147 402 K).
- ↑ Age rating for me. May. Not. Sleep. . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ James Kidd: Before I Go to Sleep, By SJ Watson at independent.co.uk (English)
- ↑ Simon Dang: Nicole Kidman In Talks To Star In Rowan Joffe's Psychological Thriller 'Before I Go To Sleep' ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at blogs.indiewire.com (English).
- ↑ Bev Holder: SJ Watson excited as Nicole Kidman signs up for Before I Go To Sleep movie at stourbridgenews.co.uk (English).
- ↑ Jeff Sneider: Mark Strong set for 'Sleep' In: Variety, October 31, 2012 (English).
- ↑ Merle Ginsberg & Gary Baum: Nicole Kidman Wants Colin Firth for SJ Watson Thriller In: The Hollywood Reporter, November 16, 2012 (English).
- ↑ Sophia Savage: Colin Firth Joins Nicole Kidman's Amnesia Thriller 'Before I Go to Sleep' ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: IndieWire, February 6, 2013 (English).
- ↑ Before I Go to Sleep at rottentomatoes.com (English).
- ↑ Before I Go to Sleep at metacritic.com (with trailer) (English).
- ↑ I, may, not, sleep. at filmstarts.de
- ↑ I, may, not, sleep. For Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman), every day begins with a shock: she wakes up at the side of a stranger, in a house she does not know. In: TV feature film
- ↑ Amnesia thriller "I am not allowed to sleep": When the brain extinguishes its own life . In: Der Spiegel, November 13, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
- ↑ Good morning, who am I? . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 13, 2014. Accessed November 29, 2014.
- ↑ The strange shallows of a face . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 16, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
