Imaginaerum by Nightwish

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Imaginaerum by Nightwish
Original title Imaginaerum by Nightwish
Country of production Finland , Canada
original language English
Publishing year 2012
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Stobe Harju
script Stobe Harju,
Tuomas Holopainen
production Neil Dunn,
Jukka Helle,
André Rouleau,
Markus Selin
music Nightwish ,
Petri Alanko
camera Benoît Beaulieu
cut Mathieu Bélanger

Imaginaerum by Nightwish is a Finnish-Canadian fantasy film that was released in 2012 . It was developed together with the symphonic metal band Nightwish in addition to their album of the same name Imaginaerum . The film was funded with $ 575,000 in funding from the Finnish Film Foundation, with a total budget of $ 3.7 million. Imaginaerum premiered on November 10, 2012 in Helsinki. The German premiere took place on February 11, 2013 in Berlin.

action

The 75-year-old musician Thomas Whitman suffers from dementia and falls into a coma after a long illness, at the end of which he no longer even recognizes his own daughter Gem , and enters a fantasy world in which he relives his life. His memories begin when, as a ten-year-old orphan boy , he meets a girl named Ann in the orphanage and receives a snow globe with a figure, the arabesque . A snowman named Mr. White persuades him to go on an adventure trip with him. They fly together and meet Thomas' father, a pilot. During the flight, Thomas loses his footing and ends up in a disturbing, surreal world. There he first meets the now 72-year-old Ann, who introduces herself as "his voice of reason" and warns him about Mr. White. At the next stop on his journey, a circus, he meets 30-year-old versions of Ann and himself as members of a band. Old Ann appears again and explains to him that the snowman is responsible for his progressive dementia. At other stations, Thomas relived the loss of his wife and his father's suicide .

In reality, Gem first arrives at her father's bed in the hospital. After the attending physician explained to her that there was no hope of recovery due to the multi-infarct dementia and that her father had already been resuscitated several times , Gem signed an order, according to which further resuscitation measures were dispensed with.

Initially prevented from returning home by a storm, Gem stayed at her parents' house and met Ann there. It turns out that while on tour with Thomas and her band, her mother was killed in a car accident and Gem was getting further and further away from him due to her father's absence. Ann opens a safe in Thomas' study that contains incomprehensible scripts until Gem discovers that they only make sense when put together as a puzzle. Gem reads the texts and realizes that her father distanced himself from her in order to protect her from him, as he feared that he would influence her as badly as his own father did with him. That radically changes her view of her father. Since the phone no longer works due to a power failure, Ann and Gem drive back to Thomas at the hospital.

In his dream world, Thomas regains memories of his daughter and realizes that the snowman Mr. White is a manifestation of his father. Thomas manages to free himself from Mr. White's grip. He wakes up from a coma and recognizes Ann and Gem next to his sickbed. With the last of his strength, Thomas reconciles with his daughter and dies.

Back at home, Gem sits down at her father's wing on which the snow globe stands. Her father had repeatedly pressured her to claim that if she played right, the character would dance. She realizes that a note is not sounding cleanly and finds a small plaque between the strings on which her name is engraved in the spelling GEm - her name consists of the chord symbols for G major and E minor . She places the plaque on the snow globe and strikes a G major chord, whereupon the figure begins to dance in the snow globe.

publication

The world premiere took place on November 10, 2012 in the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki. In addition to the film premiere, viewers also saw a full-time Nightwish concert. The German premiere took place on February 11, 2013 in the Kulturbrauerei Berlin in the presence of Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala . The film was originally supposed to be shown once in a total of 98 cinemas in Germany and Austria on March 18, 2013, but the rush in Germany was so great that further screenings were scheduled for March and April. According to information from the film distributor Capelight Pictures , Imaginaerum landed at number 1 in the German cinema charts on the first day of its performance.

Imaginaerum was released on DVD , Blu-ray Disc and download on May 31, 2013 .

reception

Overall, Imaginaerum received little attention in the general press. The musical staging was particularly praised in reviews, while the confused plot and the third-class actors were particularly criticized. In its British edition, the music magazine Metal Hammer described the film as a “must-see for Nightwish fans”, praising the breathtaking images and the perfect integration of Nightwish's album. The premiere of the film in Finland met with negative press reports.

“The 'Nightwish film' would like to be a Tim Burton meets Neil Gaiman masterpiece. (...) The fact that Tuomas Holopainen & Co. does not have the money for this is no break in the end. That could have been balanced out with creativity and passion. Unfortunately, 'Imaginaerum' annoys with B-class actors (..) who tell an outrageously dull fantasy story in wooden dialogues, when not exactly unexciting special effects tear you out of your microsleep or Holopainen as a composer lets the Hollywood epic hang out. "

- RockHard.de

"[...] the phenomenal soundtrack may make a fan of the band forget the weaknesses in plot and screenplay, but the average viewer is likely to be rather dissatisfied with the overall work, especially since the plot and atmosphere will only appeal to a very small audience anyway."

- Mindbreed.de

“So if you just want to see the film because of the band involved, you should pause for a moment and ask yourself whether you can make friends with the rest of the (...) film. However, if you like fantastic films with a great soundtrack and excellent visual scenery, you should take a look. "

- Subkultur.de

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released on November 9, 2012. The pieces, interpretations of songs from the album Imaginaerum , were written and realized by Petri Alanko.

No. title Length (in min.)
1 Find your story 2:30
2 Orphanage Airlines 4:34
3 Undertow 5:17
4th Spying in the doorway 3:03
5 A crackling sphere 3:59
6th Sundown 5:33
7th Wonderfields 5:31
No. title Length (in min.)
8th Hey buddy 3:03
9 Deeper Down 3:28
10 Dare to Enter 1:50
11 I have to let you go 8:16
12 Heart lying still 4:00
13 From G to E Minor 2:32

occupation

role actor German speaker
Thomas Whitman (34 and 47 years old) Tuomas Holopainen
Thomas Whitman (10 Years) Quinn Lord
Thomas Whitman (75 Years) Francis-Xavier McCarthy Friedrich Georg Beckhaus
Gem Whitman (35 Years) Marianne Farley Sonja Spuhl
Gem Whitman (7 Years) Keyanna Fielding
Theodore Whitman and Mr. White Ilkka Villi
Ann (32 years) Anette Olzon
Ann (73 years) Joanna Noyes
Ann (10 years) Victoria Ann Young
Marcus Marco Hietala
Emil Emppu Vuorinen
Jack Jukka Nevalainen
Arabesque Hélène Robitaille
Dr. Jansson Ron Lea
Thomas Whitman's nurse Glenda Braganza Nadine Heidenreich

Trivia

Originally the film was just supposed to be called "Imaginaerum". In order to avoid confusion with the album of the same name and other productions, it was decided to add the appendix "by Nightwish" to the title.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Release certificate for Imaginaerum by Nightwish . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2013 (PDF; test number: 137 632 K).
  2. Variety.com: Finn org disburses film funds (accessed May 9, 2013)
  3. Nuclearblast.de: NIGHTWISH: World premiere of "Imaginaerum - The Movie" and concert announced at "Hartwall Arena", Helsinki, Finland on November 10, 2012! (English, accessed May 9, 2013)
  4. Metal Hammer .de: Nightwish's 'Imaginaerum': Film premiere in Berlin (accessed on May 9, 2013)
  5. Blabbermouth.net: NIGHTWISH's 'Imaginaerum' Film To Premiere At Helsinki's Hartwall Arena (accessed May 9, 2013)
  6. Metal-hammer.de: Nightwish-Film lands at number 1 in the German cinema charts (accessed on May 9, 2013)
  7. Bild .de: "Imaginaerum by Nightwish" on the road to success (accessed on May 9, 2013)
  8. Mediabiz.de: "Imaginaerum by Nightwish" conquers number one in the German cinema charts (accessed on May 24, 2013)
  9. Metalhammer.co.uk: Live Evil: Nightwish Helsinki Review / 'Imaginaerum' Film Review (Yeah, It's A Double-Header) ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English, accessed on May 10, 2013) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metalhammer.co.uk
  10. Loudmag.com.au: NIGHTWISH bassist Marco Hietala On Poor Reviews For Imaginaerum Movie In Finland - "If You Present A Big Enough Target People Will Want To Throw Darts" ( Memento of the original from August 14, 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. (English, accessed on May 10, 2013) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.loudmag.com.au
  11. RockHard.de: Nightwish - Imaginaerum by Nightwish (accessed on May 24, 2013)
  12. Mindbreed.de: Film review: Imaginaerum by Nightwish (accessed on May 24, 2013)
  13. Subkultur.de: Nightwish: “Imaginaerum” (film review) (accessed on May 24, 2013)
  14. a b c Imaginaerum. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on May 9, 2013 .
  15. Filmstarts.de: Imaginaerum by Nightwish (accessed on May 9, 2013)
  16. IMDb.com: Imaginaerum (2012) Trivia (English, accessed on May 10, 2013)