Liquid Sky
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Liquid Sky |
| Original title | Liquid Sky |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1982 |
| length | 112 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Slava Tsukerman |
| script |
Anne Carlisle Nina V. Kerova Slava Tsukerman |
| production | Slava Tsukerman |
| music |
Brenda I. Hutchinson Slava Tsukerman |
| camera | Yuri Neyman |
| cut | Sharyn L. Ross |
| occupation | |
| |
Liquid Sky is an American science fiction film directed by Russian-born director Slava Tsukerman from 1982 . He combines elements of SF film with the visual aesthetics and music of the New Wave era.
action
A miniature UFO lands on an attic in New York's Greenwich Village . The apartment belongs to drug trafficking musician Adrian and her friend, androgynous model Margaret, who are both part of the New York New Wave scene. Promiscuous Margaret's sexual partners suddenly die from crystalline arrows piercing the victims' heads, starting with her former drama teacher, Owen. The events are observed by the scientist Johann, who has traveled from West Berlin and is on the trail of the aliens and who has put forward the theory that they feed on endorphins released during sex and drug use . Margaret's paths cross with those of the heroin-addicted writer Paul, who dies while having sex with her, as does the gay male model Jimmy and Adrian. After Adrian's death, she realizes that she was always only willingly fulfilling the roles that others gave her, whether as a young woman in her middle-class home in Connecticut or as an acting student and model in New York. She climbs into the idea that the invisible force responsible for violent death will free her from her existence. Johann, who believes Margaret is in danger, breaks into her apartment to warn her about the aliens on the apartment roof. Margaret stabs him to death because she sees him as an obstacle between herself and her “Savior”. As the UFO prepares to fly away, Margaret takes a dose of heroin. A beam sent by the aliens "sucks" in the ecstatically dancing Margaret, then the spaceship disappears into the night sky.
background
The film title Liquid Sky refers to the American slang term for heroin.
Tsukerman met the then art student Anne Carlisle during the casting for the film project "Sweet 16". Since the promised funds were a long time coming, Tsukerman's wife Nina V. Kerova and Carlisle worked on a new script. "Sweet 16" failed because of funding, and Tsukerman decided to develop Kerova's and Carlisle's script into a script that would form the basis for Liquid Sky . Liquid Sky was created with a budget of 500,000 US dollars , and some scenes were filmed in Carlisle's then apartment.
Liquid Sky first ran in August 1982 at the Montréal World Film Festival . The film opened in US cinemas on April 15, 1983, and in Germany on October 14 of the same year.
An essential design element of the film is its New Wave era aesthetic, especially in the costumes and the film music, which consists of minimalist synthesizer sounds . In addition to original compositions, this includes interpretations by Marin Maraises Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont-de-Paris , Carl Orff's Trionfo di Afrodite and Anthony Philip Heinrichs Laurel Waltz .
Co-author Anne Carlisle published a novel of the same name based on the film on Doubleday Dolphin Books in 1987 .
criticism
The majority of the critics in the USA were positive, with particular emphasis on the will to style. "The plot is not the biggest plus point of the film," wrote the New York Times at the start of the film, but praised it: "Visually garish and captivating, including a varied and allusive electronic soundtrack, the film is full of eye-catching images."
The lexicon of international films judged more cautiously: "Crude but largely entertaining mixture of science fiction parody, fairy tale and musical description of the New York New Wave milieu, which is of particular interest as a contemporary document."
Views were also divided between the English-language and German science fiction press. While Phil Hardy's encyclopedia described the film as “wonderfully perverse” and “sensational”, Ronald M. Hahn and Volker Jansen gave it the seal of “fashionable knickknacks”.
literature
- Alexander Batchan: The 'Alienation' of Slava Tsukerman. In: Graham Petrie, Ruth Dwyer: Before the Wall Came Down: Soviet and East European Film Makers Working in the West. University Press of America, 1991
- Marc Degens: I KILL WITH MY CUNT. "Liquid Sky - A Post-Gender Film Apocalypse". In: Martin Büsser (among others): Testcard 8: Gender. Ventil Verlag, 2000. pp. 160-165.
Web links
- Liquid Sky in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website
- Liquid Sky at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Review on Satt.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with Slava Tsukerman in The Village Voice , quoted from: Danny Peary: Cult Movies 2. Vermilion, 1984, pp. 122–125.
- ↑ 'Liquid Sky' director defies odds. The Spokesman Review, Spokane, Washington, September 3, 1983.
- ↑ Article in Variety of August 30, 1983, quoted in: Danny Peary: Cult Movies 2. Vermilion, 1984, pp. 122-125.
- ^ Liquid Sky in the Internet Movie Database .
- ↑ a b Liquid Sky in the Lexicon of International Films .
- ↑ Courtenay Glenn Gallon: Liquid Sky: Cult Cinema, Film Scoring, and the Fairlight CMI ( 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. . 2007 Dissertation from Florida State University's website, accessed November 27, 2012.
- ↑ "The plot isn't the film's greatest asset [...] Visually bright and arresting, with a varied and insinuating electronic score, the film is full of eye-catching images." - Review by Janet Maslin in the New York Times from 22 July 1983, accessed November 28, 2012.
- ↑ "awesomely perverse [...] startling" - Phil Hardy (Ed.): The Aurum Film Encyclopedia - Science Fiction. Aurum Press, London 1991, pp. 375-376.
- ^ Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 5th edition, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1992, pp. 496-498.
