Overlord (film)

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Movie
German title Overlord
Original title Overlord
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1975
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Stuart Cooper
script Stuart Cooper,
Christopher Hudson
production James Quinn
music Paul Glass
camera John Alcott
cut Jonathan Gili
occupation

Overlord , also known as Password: Overlord , is a black and white film directed by Stuart Cooper in 1975. The war film revolves around the Normandy Landing (Operation Overlord) and shows a young British soldier's reflections on his entry into the war machine and his own Premonitions. The film was shown at the 25th Berlinale , where it won the Grand Jury Prize ( Silver Bear ).

action

Beginning with a premonition of his death, the film follows a young man from his draft to the East Yorkshire Regiment, through his training and meeting a young girl, to his trip to France and his death on Sword Beach on D-Day . Cooper integrated original recordings of the attacks on London ( London Blitz ) and the bombings in Europe to illustrate the events that led to the invasion and the comparatively short distance between England and France.

production

Stuart Cooper originally intended to create a documentary on Overlord embroidery. During his research at the Imperial War Museum on the events surrounding the Normandy Landing, however, he decided to make a film about a young man's journey from conscription to coffin.

About two thirds of Overlord consists of new recordings produced for the film. The remainder is made up of archival material from British training missions and the actual invasion. Cooper and his cameraman John Alcott tried to create a uniform image impression with the new recordings by using old Kodak film stocks and original lenses from German military cameras from the Second World War.

Presenting a screening at the 2009 Sydney Film Festival , director Stuart Cooper reported that the Imperial War Museum had given him access to millions of feet of their footage, including original negatives on celluloid film , of which he had viewed approximately 3,000 hours over several years. Cooper also gained insight into unpublished diaries of soldiers who were involved in the landing, from which he and screenwriter Christopher Hudson incorporated motifs into the script. Parts of the film were shot in Aldershot .

Originally there was no distribution for the film in the USA and it was only shown sporadically in cinemas and on television. The film was only released for US cinemas by Janus Films in 2006, and in early 2008 a revised version for theatrical screening was presented at an opening ceremony at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. A DVD release in the UK followed on March 3rd. The Criterion Collection included the film in their film series back in 2007.

The German version of the original version of the film was entitled "Password: Overlord". The German dubbed version of the new edition has been distributed since 2010 under the original title "Overlord".

reception

At Metacritic , the film holds a rating of 88/100 based on 8 reviews. Roger Ebert rated the film with a full 4 stars when it was released in the US in 2006 and stated that it linked documentary and fictional film material so effectively that it achieved a greater impact than anything fictional or documentary alone could have. The lexicon of international films assesses the film as a "psychologically intensive character study, which contrasts the matter-of-fact, sober staging style, moving and thought-provoking, with documentary material from the war archives."

Awards

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Overlord . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2010 (PDF; test number: 122 624 V).
  2. ^ Berlinale 1975: Prize Winner. Retrieved December 9, 2017 .
  3. ^ A b Stuart Cooper: A camera instead of a rifle. The Guardian , January 18, 2008, accessed December 9, 2017 .
  4. ^ Stuart Cooper Interview - Sydney Film Festival. Special Broadcasting Service , August 6, 2009, accessed December 10, 2017 .
  5. ↑ The Criterion Collection: Overlord by Stuart Cooper
  6. ^ Overlord [re-release] Reviews. Metacritic , accessed December 10, 2017 .
  7. ^ Roger Ebert: Overlord Movie Review & Film Summary (2006). June 1, 2006, accessed December 10, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Overlord. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 12, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used