Lost Heaven

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Movie
German title Lost Heaven
Original title The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2002
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Peter Care
script Jeff Stockwell
production Jodie Foster ,
Meg LeFauve ,
Jay Shapiro
music Marco Beltrami ,
Joshua Homme
camera Lance Acord
cut Chris Peppe
occupation

Lost Heaven (Original title: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys ) is an American feature film from 2002, the plot of which is based on the novel of the same name by Chris Fuhrman.

action

The film depicts the efforts of 14-year-old Francis, a student at a Catholic school, in the early 1970s with his best friend Tim to assert himself against the boredom in the small town, the hormones and the repressive and incomprehensible teacher.

She and two friends use this nun as opponents for their own superhero comic, and they keep developing new ideas to create space for themselves through hidden resistance. When Francis falls in love with a mentally unstable girl, the playful revolts escalate.

background

The two 14-year-old boys are close friends and they are looking for new challenges that will lead them out of their dreary everyday life. In a test of courage, for example, they stand in the fall area of ​​a telegraph pole that they have previously prepared after they have previously calculated the exact position of the impact. In fact, it hits just a few inches from them. They are constantly looking for more ways to express their feelings. They dream of a sensual relationship with the opposite sex, something that is absolutely taboo in their environment , because Sister Assumpta regards all sensual desire as a sin. She only sees learning and prayer as desirable for the students and believes that this is how she can prepare them for life.

The conflict

In their self-drawn comic, the boys portray Sister Assumpta as a bogeyman. They see Father Casey, the head of the school, as more tolerant, but he cannot win the students' trust either. The conflicts between Tim, Francis and Assumpta come to a head when the boys provoke their teacher with suggestive remarks. They then decide to scare them with a living puma. Because in Tim's opinion, even the greatest anger is far easier to bear than the constant boredom in her life. At first they continue their pranks on the sister in a different way. For example, they steal the donor figures from the roof of the school. Francis falls in love with his classmate Margie and exchanges first tender touches with her, which evokes feelings of happiness in him. However, when Margie tells him that she has slept with her own brother before, Francis seeks advice from Father Casey. But the topic is too sensitive for him and he advises Francis to recollect the prayer of the “Our Father” if he should be tempted again. He doesn't find a contact in Tim either and so he is left to his own devices with his questions. Meanwhile, Tim continues to seek revenge against Sister Assumpta. When Tim tells Margie's brother Donny that he knew about the relationship with his sister, Francis sees this as a serious breach of trust and a serious rift develops between the two.

The tragic end

William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Assumpta has meanwhile discovered the comic drawings and takes them. The two boys are threatened with expulsion from school. Francis has to team up with Tim again to prevent this from happening. His relationship with Margie also seems to have broken, because she takes her brother into protection and defends him. In the meantime, Tim has developed a concrete plan with regard to the puma in order to persuade Assumpta to publish the comic through the threat of the big cat from the zoo and thus to remove the evidence for her offense. But when trying to stun the puma, a misfortune happens. There is another animal in the cage that attacks Tim and fatally injures him. As a result of this incident, the remaining participants began to rethink, so Assumpta allowed Francis to recite some verses by William Blake at the service . Tim had adored this author, while Assumpta had banned his writings as blasphemy. Margie and Francis then put Blake's book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell down at their former secret meeting place.

description

The plot of the film is based on the novel The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys by Chris Fuhrman. Fuhrman takes up the feelings of adolescents and contrasts them with the common values ​​and norms of society. The youth's rebellion against these norms is seen as a painful but necessary process. It is only through this discussion that the possibility of tolerant coexistence between the generations appears to arise. The film reflects the emotional development of the main character through character sequences of the superheroes. They were drawn by Todd McFarlane , the creator of Spawn . The young performers can impressively bring the complex and complex network of people to life. All the characters all have their weaknesses and wounds and try desperately to do the right thing, which in the end they do not always succeed. Even the teacher is ultimately just a person who cannot access the modern life of young people. You can see her physical handicap, and you can sense her mental disability. Young people, on the other hand, know about the world outside the monastery walls and are therefore torn between the values ​​that are taught to them and yet seem so old-fashioned and, on the other hand, a life that places psychological demands on them for which the monastery school does not prepare them.

criticism

“A stroke of luck as a youth film that tells stories about inner experiences. Excellent cast throughout, Jodie Foster manages a surprise as a nun with a prosthetic leg. The sensitive storytelling, the excellent camera work and the coherent book that avoids clichés round off the story. "

- Lexicon of international film

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lost Heaven. In: moviepilot.de . Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  2. ↑ Lost Heaven. In: filmstarts.de . Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b c d Klaus-Dieter Felsmann: Lost Heaven. In: materialserver.filmwerk.de . Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  4. ↑ Lost Heaven. In: cinema.de . Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  5. ↑ Lost Heaven. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 1, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used