Liberal Arts (film)

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Movie
German title Liberal Arts
Original title Liberal Arts
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2012
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Josh Radnor
script Josh Radnor
production Brice Dal Farra ,
Claude Dal Farra ,
Jesse Hara ,
Lauren Munsch ,
Josh Radnor
music Ben Toth
camera Seamus Tierney
cut Michael R. Miller
occupation

Liberal Arts is a US tragicomedy from the year 2012 and after Happythankyoumoreplease  the second film (2010) Josh Radnor , who also wrote the screenplay, directed and played the lead role. The film tells the story of 35-year-old Jesse, who starts a relationship with 19-year-old student Zibby after visiting his former college.

action

Jesse Fischer, 35, lives in New York and works in the college admissions office there. He loves literature and languages, has been single for a short time and is dissatisfied with his life and career. He believes that while studying fine arts in Ohio, he had the happiest years of his life so far, because he was able to do poetry there continuously and was among like-minded people. Coincidentally, Peter Hoberg, his former English professor, invites Jesse to his college to attend his farewell party.

There Jesse meets 19-year-old Zibby, an acting student and daughter of Peter's friends. After the party, Jesse stumbles upon a party in the dormitory, where he meets Zibby again. The two spend the next afternoon together, walking around the campus and exchanging ideas about life, books and music. Meanwhile, Jesse meets his former professor Judith Fairfield, a woman he adored for a long time, and Dean, a highly intelligent but depressed student who, like Jesse, always carries a book with him.

Before Jesse leaves, Zibby asks him to keep in touch. The two become pen pals and get closer and closer. Soon, Zibby invites Jesse to a meeting on campus. Although Jesse has concerns about the large age difference, he accepts and visits her. However, the two are "caught" by Peter. Peter warns Jesse about living in the past and advises him to finally grow up. Zibby, who doesn't notice this, asks Jesse if he would like to sleep with her. Jesse first agrees, but declines when he learns that it would be Zibby's first time and leaves the room. Zibby tries to vent her disappointment and anger at a student party by kissing a fellow student there. Jesse runs into Professor Fairfield on the way; the two have a one-night stand, but their bitter, cynical attitude to life that shows up afterwards disillusion and frighten him.

Jesse eventually returns to New York, where he meets Ana, a bookseller his age with a similar love for literature. The two fall in love, and Jesse seems to be able to forget the past. After preventing Dean from attempting suicide, he decides to apologize to Zibby. She tells him that she hoped the relationship with Jesse would allow her to grow up faster and admits that she understands and accepts his behavior. At the end of the film, a happy-looking Jesse is shown who is looking forward to a life with Ana.

background

In the United States, the film was shown only extremely limited in theaters and grossed around 327,000 US dollars. In Germany it was released directly on DVD in December 2013.

reception

The film received mostly positive reviews. On the US film review website Rotten Tomatoes , 70% of the reviews are positive, out of a total of 104 reviews. The conclusion of the site is: "Although the film needed a little more bite, it functions as a good-natured and surprisingly clever look at the addicting attraction of our youth." The American film critic Roger Ebert called the film in the Chicago Sun-Times " an almost outrageous pleasure ”and gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars. On the ratings website Metacritic , the film received a rating of 55/100 based on 24 reviews.

The film-dienst thinks that "the directorial work of the sitcom star Josh Radnor is a sympathetic drama that easily and lovingly revolves around topics such as identity and the tension between dreams and reality". Not least because of her “carefully characterized figures as a coherent portrait of the soul full of life experience and freedom”. The film magazine Cinema criticized the lack of “nifty story elements or gags every minute”, but praised the film hero's “laconic search for meaning”, which left a “feeling of warmth and security”. In conclusion, it says: "Laconic mix of romance, identity search and homage to the power of poetry."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Liberal Arts . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2013 (PDF; test number: 141 447 V).
  2. ^ Liberal Arts. Box Office Mojo , accessed September 9, 2014 .
  3. ^ Liberal Arts. Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on September 9, 2014 (English): "While it's hard not to wish it had a little more bite, Liberal Arts ultimately succeeds as a good-natured - and surprisingly clever - look at the addictive pull of nostalgia for our youth. "
  4. ^ Roger Ebert : Liberal Arts. September 19, 2012, accessed September 9, 2014 .
  5. ^ Liberal Arts. Metacritic , accessed September 9, 2014 .
  6. ^ Liberal Arts. film-dienst , accessed on September 9, 2014 (short review).
  7. ^ Liberal Arts. Cinema , accessed September 9, 2014 .