June beetle (film)

Movie
German title	June beetle
Original title	Junebug
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2005
length	107 minutes
Age rating	FSK 0
Rod
Director	Phil Morrison
script	Angus MacLachlan
production	Mindy Goldberg and Mike S. Ryan
music	Yo La Tengo
camera	Peter Donahue
cut	Joe Klotz
occupation
	Amy Adams : Ashley; Embeth Davidtz : Madeleine; Benjamin McKenzie : Johnny; Alessandro Nivola : George; Frank Hoyt Taylor : David Wark; Celia Weston : Peg; Scott Wilson : Eugene;

Junebug is the feature film debut of US director Phil Morrison from the year 2005 . The tragicomedy is based on an original screenplay by Angus MacLachlan and was produced by the production company Epoch Films, which actually specializes in commercials.

action

The British art dealer Madeleine meets the younger businessman George at an extravagant benefit event in Chicago . They both fall in love and get married a week later. When Madeleine, who specializes in so-called "outsider" art, travels to rural North Carolina six months later to win the eccentric artist David Wark as a client, she is accompanied by husband George. Madeleine's business trip is also aimed at getting to know her husband's family, who comes from the small town of Pfaffown, which he last visited three years ago.

The encounter between the cosmopolitan couple and George's conservative family, who live not far from David Wark, becomes a farce. George's hard-hearted mother Peg rejects the new sophisticated family member with the pronounced British accent, as does the grumpy and taciturn father Eugene and George's younger brother Johnny. Madeleine's brother-in-law, who still lives at home with his parents and is trying to get his high school diploma when he is over twenty , has always been overshadowed by his older brother and is jealous of George's professional success. Madeleine, on the other hand, receives unexpected support from Johnny's young and simple-minded wife Ashley, who is expecting a child. The two women, who couldn't be more different, become friends, and the talkative Ashley soon sees Madeleine as a kind of sister, who tells her about the plan to call the child “Junebug” (German: June beetle ) should it be Become a girl. As George withdraws more and more, Madeleine Ashley helps plan family dinners and church meetings while trying to get the deal wrapped up with David Wark, who also has a contract with a New York art gallery.

When Ashley went into labor, the family did not take Madeleine to the hospital at first. When George drives to the hospital, she visits David Wark instead. After a brief hesitation and taking advantage of his anti-Semitic resentment, she finally succeeds in getting him under contract. Ashley, meanwhile, loses her child in childbirth, and only George is able to comfort the young woman. For his part, Johnny promises Ashley to have a new baby with her. Madeleine succeeds in getting closer to her father-in-law Eugene by finding his lost screwdriver, but her relationship with her mother-in-law Peg does not improve. Likewise, the problems between George and Johnny find no solution. Madeleine and George then travel back to Chicago, happy to leave North Carolina and its peculiar relatives far behind.

History of origin

The film is based on a film script by screenwriter Angus MacLachlan, who grew up with director Phil Morrison in the small town of Winston-Salem , North Carolina. The film was shot from June 14th to July 11th, 2004 within twenty days in Winston-Salem, which served as a fictional small town "Pfaffown" . During this time, due to the small budget, Morrison worked individually with each individual actor, especially with Amy Adams , who plays one of the leading roles. Adams was supported by, among others, the American actress Embeth Davidtz , Alessandro Nivola , Celia Weston and the US series actor Benjamin McKenzie ( OC, California ). The American band Yo La Tengo was hired for the original film music , for which director Phil Morrison had staged several music videos, among other things.

reception

The tragicomedy premiered in January 2005 at the US Sundance Film Festival . After Junikäfer was shown at the Cannes Film Festival (May 19) and the International Seattle Film Festival (June 10), the film officially opened on August 5, 2005, initially in only seven US cinemas. The film grossed 74,739 US dollars on the opening weekend and had grossed approximately 2.7 million US dollars in a maximum of 143 cinemas by December 4, 2005. Director Phil Morrison's feature film debut was critically acclaimed and compared to works by Jim Jarmusch , Woody Allen and Gus Van Sant . Supporting actress Amy Adams received an even greater response than the director's production. Her portrayal of the pregnant Ashley , who tries to compensate for the emptiness in her life with talkativeness, was hailed as a "revelation" and compared to the role of Brenda , which Adams had played three years earlier in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002) . Furthermore, Adams was referred to as the new "Queen of Independent Film" ("Indie Queen") and not only because of the identical hair color occasionally compared with the renowned character actress Julianne Moore . The few negative voices noted weaknesses in Angus Maclachlan's film script, especially in the development of the individual film characters.

Reviews

“'Junebug' is a great movie because it's a real movie. He humiliates other films that claim to be about family secrets and eccentricities. ”(Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
"Surprisingly you can find gorgeous caught in the controversial nuances of love, mistrust, tradition and the secret roots of this story of lost innocence, deep, steeped, and what it means to come from the world of the South." ( Entertainment Weekly)
"A deceptively simple, deeply resonant story of the family's innate propensity for loneliness, the benefit of adjustment, and the vast distance that can separate two people." (Los Angeles Times)
"Phil Morrison's wise, bittersweet, wonderfully played comedy about a returning Southerner envelops us in the structure of a world that films seldom visit." (New York Times)
"It's a quiet, funny, moving triumph, the kind of film that makes the word 'interesting' sound good." (Washington Post)

Remarks

The role of the eccentric artist David Wark is loose to James Harold Jennings ( 1931 - 1999 ) ajar, in Winston-Salem lived and made a name as a self-taught artist.
The people in the opening sequence of Junikäfer are shown roaring. This was a very practical form of communication in hilly North Carolina. Roaring is still practiced in North Carolina today, it was elevated to an art form and became part of the so-called "folk tradition".
The David Warks paintings are by the professional painter Ann Wood from Brooklyn , New York. The style of the pictures is based on that of well-known autodidactic painters like Henry Darger or Howard Finster .
The song that can be heard in the opening sequence by Junikäfer is called Harmour Love and is by the artist Syreeta . The classical pieces of music used in the film are Schöne Ida and the Alsergrundler waltz by Alois Strohmayer ( 1822 - 1890 ), the piano quintet Op. 57 by Dmitri Shostakovich ( 1906 - 1975 ), the string Op.54 / 1 and # 66 Op.77 / first of Haydn ( 1732 - 1809 ), the Gratzer Galop of Schubert and the concert for mandolin and orchestra Antonio Vivaldi ( 1678 - 1741 ).

Awards

Actress Amy Adams was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2006 Academy Awards, but had to admit defeat to Britain's Rachel Weisz ( The Eternal Gardener ). Further, won Adams for her portrayal of Ashley , among others, the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival 2005 and the awards from the Film Critics Association of San Francisco , the Southeastern Film Critics Association , the National Society of Film Critics and the Independent Spirit Awards , each as The best supporting actress.