Ransom (2012)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | ransom |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stephan Wagner |
| script | Stephan Wagner |
| production | Andreas Born, Stephan Wagner |
| music | Irmin Schmidt |
| camera | Thomas Benesch |
| cut | Friederike von Normann |
| occupation | |
| |
Ransom is a German television thriller from 2012. The main characters are Mišel Matičević and Ulrike C. Tscharre , directed by Stephan Wagner . The film produced by WDR was first broadcast on April 11, 2012 in the ARD program.
action
The action taking place in Düsseldorf begins where a crime has almost been solved - in this specific case, child abduction . A kidnapped boy is released from his hiding place. The investigating detectives around the duo Diethard Lysewski and Lutz Weber only need to capture the perpetrator and secure the loot - a set of rough diamonds worth several million euros. By chance these are now owned by the escort agency manager Nina Hausen. Nina Hausen was unintentionally near the handover location with her dog, was attacked by the escaping perpetrator, but was able to free herself from the dangerous situation and flee with the diamonds.
The further course of the action develops from this initial situation. Nina Hausen is financially in a tight spot because of a failed guarantee . The commissioners are also under pressure to succeed. The perpetrator, in turn, has knowledge of Nina Hausen through the purse stolen during the nightly collision, suspects that she is now in possession of the diamonds and sets off on her trail. As the story progresses, Lysewski and Nina Hausen get closer personally. Lysewski suspects that his new lover has withheld the diamonds. When the manhunt, driven by Lysewski's partner Weber and her success-addicted boss Lahn, concentrated more and more on the escort service boss who was preparing to flee abroad, Lysewski made a momentous decision: he kept his colleague in his apartment overnight, so that Nina Hausen can escape to Mexico unhindered.
particularities
In contrast to common crime productions, the focus is not on solving a case, but rather on the behavior and conflicts of loyalty of the main characters. Director Wagner himself described his film as a mixture of crime and love story: “'Ransom' is a psychological thriller-crime melodrama, a journey through the different genres. I wanted to pick up the audience with a crime story and discover the love story with them. I was interested in tackling this story, which has a French tinge to its narrative and where the dividing line of law runs through the relationship, in the 21st century. Works by directors like Sautet , Chabrol or Pialat touched me deeply from an early age. That did not leave 'Ransom' untouched. "
Identifiable localities - here especially downtown Düsseldorf on the Rhine - are another distinguishing feature of the film. In September 2011, streets in Düsseldorf's old town, including Ratinger Strasse , were closed at intervals for the shooting . According to the realistic claim of the story, a short section of the plot, which deals with the resale of the diamonds, takes place in the old town of Antwerp .
The style of the French Nouvelle Vague cinema of the 1960s is also reflected in the film music. The composer and musician Irmin Schmidt , a member of the Krautrock formation Can in the 1970s , added a strong cool jazz soundtrack to the film , which also arouses musically strong associations with genre classics such as the elevator to the scaffold . The trumpet solo was recorded by Markus Stockhausen .
Reviews
Due to the strongly defining love story, some media compared the film with Claude Sautet's noir classic Das Mädchen und der Kommissar from 1971. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote: “A thriller, a film noir, an amour fou: Stephan Wagner has a ransom 'A TV piece written and staged that goes beyond the scope. ”The actors' play praised them as“ beyond any doubt ”.
The Berliner Tagesspiegel drew the parallel with Sautet's genre classics in the headline. Above all, the contribution highlighted the intensity of the story. In addition, he compared ransom with Dominik Graf's TV ten-part series In the face of crime , in which the two leading actors Mišel Matičević and Ulrike C. Tscharre had played two years earlier. “Drastik - this is a style moment that most German primetime crime novels have said goodbye to. Too often this overly softened ' crime scene ' touch is annoying. Intensity, sharpness, urgency, these elements can mostly only be found in Dominik Graf's unconventional television crime novels. It is probably no coincidence that Misel Maticevic and Ulrike C. Tscharre, two protagonists from Graf's most recent award-winning multi-part series, are featured in 'ransom'. A suitable reference, a promise that is largely kept in Stephan Wagner's psychological thriller. "
The lifestyle online portal viva.de positively emphasized the details of the staging: “ You can't think of many German filmmakers who have mastered the neo-noir genre so skillfully. The lights of Düsseldorf at night. A large disco, an Altbier pub, the banks of the Rhine, an apartment block. An exquisite jazz score floats above it. A mowed meadow for the two main actors, who are allowed to represent in these wonderful backdrops what hardly anyone can do as well as them. Ulrike C. Tscharre as a sexy, wicked beauty. Misel Maticevic as a lonely city wolf. They are clichés. But they look damn fantastic. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ “'Ransom' is a psychological thriller-crime melodrama, a journey through the different genres.” Interview with Stephan Wagner. Press booklet for the film. Online version as PDF
- ↑ TV thriller in the old town ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Düsseldorf-based local online magazine, September 20, 2011
- ↑ Love throws the inspector off track , Heike Hupertz, FAZ, April 10, 2012
- ^ The girl and the commissioner , Tagesspiegel, April 11, 2012
- ^ Düsseldorf Noir , Jens Szameit, viva.de, April 11, 2012
Web links
- Ransom in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Press booklet for the film (PDF; 4.8 MB)