Made in Heaven (film)

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Movie
German title Made in Heaven
Original title Made in Heaven
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Alan Rudolph
script Bruce A. Evans ,
Raynold Gideon
production Stuart M. Besser ,
David Blacker ,
Bruce A. Evans,
Raynold Gideon
music Mark Isham
camera Jan Kiesser
cut Tom Walls
occupation

Made in Heaven is an American fantasy romance directed by Alan Rudolph in 1987 .

action

America in the early 1950s. While driving to California , Mike Shea witnesses how a woman and her two children are threatened with drowning in a river with their crashed car. He manages to save the family, but he dies in the process.

Mike finds himself naked and disoriented in an empty room. Suddenly his deceased aunt Lisa appears and tells him that he is in heaven and can live with her for the time being. While searching for his friend Larry, who was killed in the Normandy invasion, he accidentally ends up at the Packert's house. Here he makes the acquaintance of her pretty daughter Annie, who tells him about life in heaven. He learns that sooner or later all deceased will be reborn in a different body. This is handled by Emmett Humbird. Annie was born in heaven, so she is a "New Soul". Mike and Annie fall in love and plan to get married. In the middle of the wedding preparations, Emmett tells Annie that she will be sent to Earth. After their departure, Mike is heartbroken and storms Emmett to send him back as well. Finally Emmett agrees. He predicts Mike that he will have 20 years to find Annie again. If he does not find her in 25 years, they will marry other partners, but will be unhappy. If he didn't find her at the age of 30, he'll never find her again. He could not give him a guarantee that he would go back to heaven.

Annie is reborn as Ally Chandler. She lost her mother at an early age and grew up with her single father, a former professional soldier who successfully set up a toy factory. At college , Ally meets budding commercial filmmaker Tom Donelly, whom she will later marry. As predicted by Emmett, the unhappy marriage fails. Another relationship also fails due to Ally's unfulfilled longing for love. However, she is successful as an author of a book.

In contrast to Ally, who grew up in a sheltered environment, Mike was born out of wedlock Elmo Barnett, who grew up in poor conditions with his mother and her changing lovers. After the Vietnam War , in which he took part as a soldier, he can no longer find his feet in society. He wanders aimlessly, gets drunk and does not achieve his ultimate goal of finding Ally, even though their paths cross twice. At the age of 28, Emmett appears to him and urges him to hurry. Elmo has no idea what it is about and dismisses the whole thing as a hallucination.

Elmo's life only turns around when he hitchhikes to California. An elderly couple takes him away. They are the Shea couple, his parents from his previous life as Mike. When they say goodbye, they give him an old trumpet. Elmo learns to play the musical instrument over time and forms a band. His first record, produced by former sky dweller Brian Dutton, was a hit. Elmo becomes successful and celebrates his 30th birthday. After the party, he decides to walk home. He comes to a stop near Ally at a traffic light. Both are overwhelmed by confusing feelings of happiness that remind them of their heavenly togetherness in their subconscious. In the end, it is Ally who finds Elmo again: It wasn't he who found her, but rather: "She found you" (Emmet) is the final key phrase of the film.

criticism

“Technically perfect, deliberately naive love tale, which makes use of the clichés of melodramatic love smack in a variety of ways and with loving irony; The social function of cinematic trivial art is illuminated in a playful way. "

- Lexicon of international film

Locations

Filming took place in the Georgia and South Carolina cities of Atlanta , Charleston and Georgetown . The shooting at the college developed at the in Oglethorpe County located Oglethorpe University .

Trivia

  • The hit "We've never Danced" composed by Elmo in the film was actually written by Neil Young , who played a small supporting role in the film as a trucker.
  • Film music composer Mark Isham also plays a supporting role as keyboardist Zeus in Elmo's band.
  • Leading actor Timothy Hutton met Emmett actress Debra Winger while filming in 1986 and married her that same year. In 1990 the marriage was divorced.
  • After its theatrical release on November 6, 1987, the film was able to gross only 4.5 million US dollars at the box office with a production budget of about 9 million US dollars. After the film was released in Germany on January 14, 1988, it has been available on VHS since January 17, 1989 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Made in Heaven at boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed December 21, 2011