Knight Moves - A murderous game
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Knight Moves - A murderous game |
| Original title | Knight moves |
| Country of production | USA , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1992 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Carl Schenkel |
| script | Brad Mirman |
| production |
Jean-Luc Defait Ziad El Khoury |
| music | Anne Dudley |
| camera | Dietrich Lohmann |
| cut | Norbert Herzner |
| occupation | |
| |
Knight Moves is a German-American thriller from 1992 and was directed by Carl Schenkel . The leading roles are played by Christopher Lambert and Diane Lane , who were married at the time.
content
Chess grandmaster Peter Sanderson has been playing the strategy game since childhood. After a great night of love with a friend during a chess tournament , she was found dead in her bed in the morning. Her corpse was meticulously staged, for example her wrists were cut open without spilling a drop of blood. Suspicion quickly falls on Sanderson, so Captain Frank Sedman puts psychologist Sheppard on him, but she and Sanderson soon fall into a mutual affair. An unknown caller contacts Sanderson, confesses to this and a second murder and announces further bloody acts, all of which are part of a game against the chess grandmaster.
Sanderson is emotionally only slightly affected by the murders and prefers to concentrate on the tournament. Although there is no hard evidence against him, Sedman and his assistant are Dept. Wagner is convinced that Sanderson is the culprit. Sheppard, however, comes to a different conclusion after initial doubts. More murders happen until the chess professional realizes that the perpetrator is using the city as a chessboard and that he has to anticipate the next move in order to prevent further victims. But the mentally disturbed murderer turns out to be dangerously ingenious and, through false evidence, can even fake Sanderson's guilt to Sheppard, so that he is finally arrested.
It is only in prison that Sanderson can put together the clues that the perpetrator has scattered correctly. He realizes that the perpetrator is targeting his little daughter Erica. When he falls on deaf ears with Sedman, Sanderson goes crazy, takes the police by surprise and is able to flee to come to his daughter's aid. In the showdown there is an encounter with the perpetrator. This turns out to be a former chess opponent who wants to take revenge for a lost game when he was a child, as he sees this as the reason for his broken childhood, the breakdown of his family and thus his mental illness. While the police officers Wagner and Sedman fall victim to the murderer, Sanderson survives the difficult fight with the help of Sheppard and finally shoots the perpetrator.
criticism
“An exciting chess thriller by the Swiss director Carl Schenkel, who became known in Germany with the elevator thriller 'Downward' . 'Highlander' Christopher Lambert, who also acted as producer here, is convincing in the role of the chess genius who finds out about a creepy killer. "
“Rarely have you seen worse actors in a high-budget film lately. Knight Moves has no means of compensation or a thrill to compensate for it. "
"No frills staged, exciting thriller that you can see some inconsistencies."
Awards
The film won the Critics Award for director Schenkel at the Cognac Festival du Film Policier .
Trivia
- In the United States, the film was a flop , grossing $ 923,418. In Germany, the film had almost two million viewers and was Carl Schenkel's greatest financial success.
- Christopher Lambert was married to Diane Lane from 1988 to 1994.
Web links
- Knight Moves - A Killer Upstairs in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Knight Moves - A murderous game in the online movie database
- Knight Moves - A Killer Upstairs at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Knight Moves - A murderous game. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .