Johnny West
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Johnny West |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1977 |
| length | 127 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Roald Koller |
| script | Roald Koller |
| production | Wolfgang Esterer |
| music |
The Manhattans , The Platters |
| camera | Bahram Manocherie |
| cut | Gerda Kühle |
| occupation | |
and the bands The Manhattans , The Platters and Missus Beastly | |
Johnny West is a 1977 German film and television co-production, a mixture of music film and road movie . Rio Reiser played his first film role here, directed by Roald Koller .
action
19-year-old Hans-Michael Westerfeld is a spindly, withdrawn, young man who has left his life at home behind and dreams of nothing else than to be able to make a big start as a rock musician one day. Since, in his opinion, an American-sounding name is needed for this, he is now called Johnny West. West joins the band “The Manhattans” as a roadie and tours Germany with them, always in the hope of one day being able to work as a rock musician himself. But touring life turns out to be far less glamorous than hoped, the job as a roadie is tough and associated with a lot of stress. And yet the feeling of being part of the rock music world now counts for him alone.
One day Johnny meets the skinny, tall doctor's daughter Monika and falls in love with her. As a result, he begins to neglect his job as a roadie and gets into trouble with the manager of his idols. With a heavy heart, Johnny separates from Monika, but is fired due to an argument with the tour manager. At the side of his friend Max, Johnny is now trying to get started as a musician himself in Frankfurt am Main. He begins his career as a guitarist in the combo "Missus Beastly" and makes his first appearance in a small US officers' club in Hanau. The “insignia” of a rock musician, sex with a groupie, here: a waitress, he immediately claims for himself. However, Johnny soon realizes that Monika is very important to him and remorsefully returns to her.
Production note
Johnny West was shot on 48 days (five of them in the studio) between February 24 and April 22, 1977 in Frankfurt am Main and the surrounding area, Munich, Bochum, Cologne, Heidelberg, Augsburg, Gießen and Hanau. The film premiered on September 22nd, 1977 at the Olympia-Kino in Frankfurt. Because of the bankruptcy of the film distributor Constantin Film, the film only ran in the cinema for a week and was shown again in 1999.
The later famous British cameraman Roger Pratt worked here as a camera assistant. Winfried Lovett intoned the theme song Movin ' . Peter Welz was production manager, Klaus Keil production manager.
Reviews
“A very disciplined auteur film that is somewhat lacking in temperament. Unfortunately too weak in terms of performance. "
Awards
- The film received the rating “valuable”.
- Rio Reiser was awarded the Gold Film Ribbon in 1978 for best leading actor.
Web links
- Johnny West in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Johnny West at filmportal.de