Lenny (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Lenny |
| Original title | Lenny |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | 111 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bob Fosse |
| script | Julian Barry |
| production | Mervin Worth |
| music | Ralph Burns |
| camera | Bruce Surtees |
| cut | Alan Heim |
| occupation | |
| |
Lenny is a black and white American biopic from director Bob Fosse from 1974 about the stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce , who was very successful in the 1950s and 1960s.
action
Lenny Bruce travels from club to club as a comedian without success. The audience cannot laugh at his jokes and sayings. Lenny knows he has to change his stage concept to be successful. With his wife Honey, an ex-stripper, he travels through the United States and shocks the audience with profanity and taboo subjects. The rigid, rehearsed stage show gives way to improvisation. Despite the moderate audience approval, Lenny declines the chance to appear on television. During an appearance, Lenny makes an obscene remark for which he is asked to apologize publicly. The apology ends in scandal.
Honey is seriously injured in an accident. While she is in the hospital, Lenny cheats on her with a nurse. Later Lenny and Honey come into contact with drugs. Honey is jailed for two years for drug abuse, Lenny manages to break free from drugs. Now it also works professionally. He performs in a strip club every evening. Again he is proposed to appear on television, this time with full freedom of speech. Lenny accepts the proposal and talks about politics, religion, sex and other scandals. Lenny is often arrested after a show. He can be found more in the courtroom than on the stage. And also in court he opens his mouth and fights against paragraph riders and conservative judges. But the processes and also the previous drug use wear him down. Lenny's rise is over and a descent begins.
background
Singer Neil Diamond was previously scheduled for the title role , but he canceled. Raquel Welch was to play the role of Honey first . However, she also declined because she did not believe she would be suitable for the role.
Reviews
The film-dienst described the film as an “eminently honest film, which in a brilliant design shows the discrepancy between a rigid moral code and socio-political development” and “also impresses with the performance of the main actor”. According to Cinema , director Bob Fosse “set an impressive cinematic monument” to Lenny Bruce, who died in 1966. The conclusion was: “A clever portrait of a forgotten legend”.
Christian Lenchtieler of filmstarts.de called Lenny "a remarkable film [...], which was denied wrongly the great success and name recognition", which in turn to "the overwhelming competition" of 1974 with films like The Godfather II and Chinatown could have lain . “However, it cannot be due to poor quality. This work is warmly recommended to every film friend who can even remotely relate to the subject or who would like to admire Dustin Hoffman in one of his best and most complex roles. "
Awards
- 1974: NYFCC Award for Best Actress for Valerie Perrine
- 1975: Best Actress Award for Valerie Perrine at the Cannes International Film Festival
- 1975 : Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Film , Best Director , Best Actor , Best Actress , Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography
- 1976: BAFTA Award for Valerie Perrine for best young actress
Web links
- Lenny in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Lenny at rotten tomatoes (English)
- Photos of the film on moviescreenshots.blogspot.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lenny. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 22, 2017 .
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ↑ See filmstarts.de