Liam (film)

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Movie
German title Liam
Original title Liam
Country of production Great Britain , France , Germany
original language English
Publishing year 2000
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK without
Rod
Director Stephen Frears
script Jimmy McGovern
production Colin McKeown
Martin Tempia
music John Murphy
camera Andrew Dunn
cut Kristina Hetherington
occupation

Liam is a British - French - German drama directed by Stephen Frears from 2000 . Jimmy McGovern wrote the script based on his own novel The Back Crack Boys .

action

The action takes place in Liverpool in the 1930s . Little Liam's family is Catholic and Liam is about to have first communion . He is afraid of the hell the priest threatens him with. In Catholic schools he is often punished physically. The family is in financial difficulties; the money for the right clothing for Liam's first communion is missing.

Liam's father loses a job in a shipyard he was proud of before. He joins the British fascists led by Oswald Mosley . Liam's sister Teresa works as a domestic help for a family of Jewish descent. The daughter of these people wants to be kind to Teresa; she gives her some clothes. Teresa's mother wants Teresa to choose one of the dresses so that the family can pawn the others.

During communion, Liam's father gets up in the church and competes against the Jews . The pawnshop owned by a Jew, where Teresa's clothes were pawned, is burned. Teresa herself is forced to quit her job with the Jewish family. When she announces it to her employers, Liam's father and his comrades attack the house with a Molotov cocktail . Teresa is burned; her face is disfigured as a result.

Reviews

Foreign language reviews

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on October 5, 2001 that the changes that Liam and his father would experience were essential for the film: Liam's first communion and his father's loss of job and political activity. The film shows the events “ sharply ” and “ relentlessly ”. He lives from the " strong representations ", of which those by Anthony Borrows and Ian Hart are particularly outstanding. Hart embodied a man who could not bear the pain caused by his inadequacies and had to blame someone else. His anti-Semitism frees him from self-reproach.

Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times on September 21, 2001 that the film was " complex, heartbreaking and beautifully made ". He tells " eloquently " and " painfully " about the problems with which the contemporary viewer seems to be confronted. The film was produced for the BBC , whose tradition of uncompromising the director respected and he was only committed to the truth.

German-language reviews

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was " tightly staged, brilliantly played and characterized by an aesthetically appealing color scheme ". He is " consistently told from the child's point of view of the seven-year-old son " and describes " unsentimentally and sensitively the horrors of social hardship and an excessively strict religious upbringing ". The “ precisely described human turmoil ” would “ impressively reflect the image of a British society marked by unemployment, racism and religious disputes ”.

The magazine Cinema wrote that the social drama captivates " with rough humanity ". It is " primarily thanks to the incorruptible, naive look of the young Anthony Borrows that - despite the bottomless tragedy - one turns one's dreams of a better future into one's own ".

The magazine prisma wrote that the director had “ once again discovered his heart for socially explosive subjects ” and described “ an unadorned glimpse into the everyday life of the working class in the 1930s ”. This is done “ skillfully from the perspective of a child ”. However, the story " never really got going ". The performances by Ian Hart and Anthony Borrows were particularly praised.

Awards

Megan Burns won the Marcello Mastroianni Prize at the Venice International Film Festival in 2000 . Stephen Frears won the OCIC Award and was nominated for the Golden Lion .

Stephen Frears was nominated for the Golden Spike of the Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid in 2000. Ian Hart was nominated for a British Independent Film Award in 2001. Anthony Borrows was nominated for the Young Artist Award in 2002.

background

The film was shot in Wigan near Manchester . Its production amounted to an estimated 3 million US dollars .

The film had its world premiere on September 4, 2000 at the Venice International Film Festival . On September 8, 2000, it was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival . The film grossed about $ 1 million in US cinemas and about $ 2 million worldwide.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by Roger Ebert, accessed on August 23, 2007
  2. ^ Critique by Kenneth Turan ( Memento of December 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Liam in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on August 23, 2007
  4. ^ Cinema, accessed August 23, 2007
  5. ^ Prisma, accessed August 23, 2007
  6. ^ Filming locations for Liam, accessed August 23, 2007
  7. ^ Liam premiere dates, accessed August 23, 2007
  8. ^ Box office / business for Liam, accessed August 23, 2007
  9. ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=liam.htm