Beyond Eden (film)

Movie
German title	Beyond Eden
Original title	East of Eden
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1955
length	115 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Elia Kazan
script	Paul Osborn
production	Elia Kazan for ; Warner Brothers
music	Leonard Rosenman
camera	Ted D. McCord
cut	Owen Marks
occupation
	James Dean : Caleb Trask; Julie Harris : Abra; Raymond Massey : Adam Trask; Richard Davalos : Aron Trask; Jo Van Fleet : Kate; Burl Ives : Sam, the sheriff; Albert Dekker : Will Hamilton; Lois Smith : Anne, waitress; Timothy Carey : Joe, bouncer; Harold Gordon : Gustav Albrecht; Barbara Baxley : Nurse; Lonny Chapman : auto instructor;
synchronization

Jenseits von Eden (Original title: East of Eden ) is an American film by the director Elia Kazan from 1955. It is based on the novel of the same name by the writer John Steinbeck , whereby the film only focuses on the last quarter of the book. The film shows James Dean in the first major film role.

action

The Californian city of Salinas in 1917 : The twin brothers Caleb ("Cal" for short) and Aron grow up with their single father Adam Trask. The father seems to like his well-bred son Aron better, while the stormy Cal has to constantly fight for his father's love and recognition. Adam, a farmer, told his sons that their mother, Kate, died shortly after they were born. In fact, however, she has left the family and runs a thriving brothel in the nearby town of Monterey . Cal found out about it - unnoticed by his father. He secretly observes his mother and tries several times to come into contact with her. However, she lets him beat up and refuses to speak to him.

Adam invests in the company to freeze vegetables to make them last longer. He is not interested in possible profit, but in progress in the service of humanity. He rejects Cal's advice to invest in beans that promise big returns. In a daring venture in which Adam tries to transport ice-cold salad to the east coast, Adam loses almost all of his fortune. Cal now develops the plan to get the money back for his father and finally to win his affection. He asks his mother Kate - a successful businesswoman who has made a lot of money from her brothel - to lend him an amount so that he can start his own business and earn the money for his father. After some hesitation, she finally agrees and loaned her son $ 5,000. He uses it to buy a bean crop cheaply, which he then sells on to the American army at a high price with the help of Will Hamilton - an acquaintance of his father's. This urgently needs supplies for entry into the First World War against the German Empire . Meanwhile, Cal and Abra, Aron's girlfriend, develop feelings for each other and get closer and closer. Abra tries to understand Cal and wants to help him. On a Ferris wheel, Cal and Abra kiss, but both of them have a guilty conscience. With increasing jealousy, Aron watches as his girlfriend and Cal grow closer.

Cal wants to surprise his father with the money he has earned for his birthday, but the latter refuses because he does not want to make a profit through the war and the suffering of others. Rather, Adam is happy about the gift from Aron, who informs his father of his engagement to Abra. Cal sees his father's behavior as just another proof of lovelessness towards him and runs away crying. Abra follows him. The jealous Aron tells his brother to stay away from her and blames Cal for always being bad. As a kind of act of revenge, Cal brings his brother to her mother, Kate - who Aron believes is dead and has always been an ideal woman in life. The realization that she is alive and the owner of a brothel robs him of his mind. He gets drunk and decides to join the volunteers for the war he had previously turned down. When Abra, Cal and his father arrive at the station to stop Aron, Aron just laughs hysterically and looks apathetically at his father from the train window while the train pulls away. Adam then suffers a stroke and collapses in Cal's arms.

Shortly afterwards, as a result of the stroke, Adam lies paralyzed in bed. Cal asks his forgiveness, but Adam doesn't respond. Then his son leaves the room crying. Abra, who has long seen Adam as a kind of father figure, now persuades Adam to finally show his love for his son, since he is caught by the idea of being indifferent to his father. Adam shows no reaction to this either, but Abra persuades Cal to speak to Adam again. Adam now reacts and asks his son to send the obnoxious nurse away and to take care of the care himself instead. Cal thanks Abra, with a beginning relationship between the two. Then he sits down in a chair next to his father's bed.

background

John Steinbeck's novel Jenseits von Eden ( East of Eden ) was published in 1952 and was a great success with the public. The title of the novel goes back to a quote from the Hebrew Bible ( Genesis 4.16 LUT ), and otherwise the book is peppered with borrowings from the Bible (e.g. the allusion to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden in the film title, the rivalry between Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.1-16 EU , the motif of the unequal fatherly love between Isaac and his two sons Esau and Jacob in Genesis 25.28 EU etc.). Elia Kazan , one of America's most respected directors at the time, was responsible for the film adaptation as director and producer . Steinbeck and Kazan had been friends since they worked on the script for Viva Zapata! In 1952 ! had worked together. Kazan identified with the material because the relationship between him and his father was always difficult. The content of the novel was too long and complex for a single strip, which is why the film focuses exclusively on the last quarter of the novel. Even with this, the film adaptation leaves so much freedom that Jenseits von Eden is considered a very loose film adaptation of Steinbeck's novel. In the end, despite the many changes, Steinbeck was positive about the film, stating that James Dean was the perfect embodiment of Caleb.

It is often assumed that Beyond Eden is James Dean's film debut - this assumption is wrong, however, as Dean had played a few very small film roles since the early 1950s. Beyond Eden was his first important film role and his breakthrough as a film actor. Elia Kazan later recalled, “James Dean looked and spoke like Cal Trask in Beyond Eden . As soon as he walked into the Warner Bros. New York office, I knew I had found the right man for the role. He was cautious, stubborn and suspicious and seemed full of repressed emotions. ”James Dean was reluctantly sent from Kazan to Palm Springs for a week to make him look like a real farm boy . Dean was supposed to stay there in the sun (so that his skin would be tanned like in the country) and eat a large portion of cream every day (so that he did not look so thin and put on weight). Another annoyance between the director and the leading actor was Dean's regular party visits in Hollywood. Elia Kazan wanted to reduce his star's night out and moved James Dean into a bungalow across the street from his own on the Warner Brothers' studio so that he could keep an eye on his leading actor, as Kazan admitted in his 1988 autobiography A Life .

Before casting Dean, Kazan had also considered other actors: Paul Newman was also in discussion for the role of Cal. At one point Kazan also wanted to cast Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift as unequal brothers, who, like Dean, also stood for the new method acting . However, Kazan eventually turned down the idea as both of them were over 30 years old for the teenage roles. Broadway star Julie Harris was hired for the role of Abra at the request of Kazan, despite her 29 years, although the Warner Brothers film studio had favored Joanne Woodward . For actors Richard Davalos as brother Aron, Jo Van Fleet as mother Kate, Lois Smith as brothel waitress Anne and Barbara Baxley as nurse, Jenseits von Eden marked the film debut.

The arguments between Raymond Massey and James Dean during the ten weeks of filming became almost legendary . Dean often came to the film set unprepared and kept varying his lines of text and saying things that weren't in the script. This was also part of Dean's unusual, often improvising acting style, but irritated or even angered many of his fellow actors, above all Raymond Massey. The experienced character actor saw that Dean could not memorize some of his text, a sign of unprofessionalism on the part of the young actor. Elia Kazan deliberately did not interfere in the differences between Massey and Dean, as the personal tensions of the two actors fit the roles of father and son perfectly. This made the father-son conflict all the more real. For James Dean, the role was in part autobiographical: his mother died early, and his relationship with his father was difficult and distant.

Beyond Eden formed the composer's first film work Leonard Rosenman . Ted McCord , who shot Beyond Eden in Cinemascope widescreen, acted as cameraman . The costumes were designed by Anna Hill Johnstone , Gordon Bau was the makeup artist, and Stanley Jones did the sound. James Basevi and Malcolm C. Bert were responsible for the production design, the additional equipment was done by George James Hopkins .

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created for the German cinema premiere in July 1955 at Deutsche Mondial Film GmbH. The film was shortened by a few places when the synchronization was created. For example, the scene in which the German-American Gustav Albrecht, who is a friend of the Trasks, is attacked at the fair because of the war between Germany and the USA, was not synchronized. The unsynchronized scenes are still omitted from television broadcasts, but they are included on the German DVD for Jenseits von Eden .

role	actor	Voice actor
Cal Trask	James Dean	Dietmar Schönherr
Abra	Julie Harris	Margot Leonard
Adam Trask	Raymond Massey	Curt Ackermann
Aron Trask	Richard Davalos	Harry Wüstenhagen
Kate, mother	Jo Van Fleet	Roma train
Sheriff Sam Cooper	Burl Ives	Eduard Wandrey
Will Hamilton	Albert Dekker	Bum Kruger
Joe, Kate's henchman	Timothy Carey	Harald Juhnke
Gustav Albrecht	Harold Gordon	Hans Hessling
Dr. Edwards	Richard Garrick	Knut Hartwig
Mr. Piscora	Mario Siletti	Erich Poremski

Reviews

Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz stated in the lexicon "Films on TV" that Jenseits von Eden was the "first of those three famous films" that "established the Dean myth". The "father-son conflict as an ideal vehicle for the rebellious, unadjusted, helps to develop his rebellious potential". The film is sometimes "maudlin to kitschy", but still "above average".

According to the lexicon of international films , director Kazan “condensed the original - a modern variation of the Cain and Abel theme - into a grandiose generational drama”, in which “main actor James Dean […] with his first film role immediately had the status of one Mass Idols ”. Reclam's film guide described Jenseits von Eden as "a remarkable example of an appropriate film adaptation that not only preserves the fable but also the spirit of the original".

Awards

In 1955, Beyond Eden received an award at the Cannes International Film Festival for Best Dramatic Film; the film also ran in the competition for the Golden Palm . In 1956, Jo Van Fleet won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress ; There were also nominations for Elia Kazan ( Best Director ), James Dean ( Best Actor ) and Paul Osborn ( Best Adapted Screenplay ).

Also in 1956, Jenseits von Eden was nominated for the British Film Academy Award in the categories of Best Picture, Best Foreign Actor (James Dean) and Best Newcomer (Jo Van Fleet). In the same year, the film won a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Drama .