Malpertuis (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Malpertuis |
| Original title | Malpertuis |
| Country of production | Belgium , France , Germany |
| original language | Dutch |
| Publishing year | 1971 |
| length | 125 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harry Kümel |
| script |
Jean Ferry Jean Ray (novel) |
| production |
Paul Laffargue Pierre Levie |
| music | Georges Delerue |
| camera | Gerry Fisher |
| cut | Richard Marden |
| occupation | |
| |
Malpertuis is a Belgian novel adaptation by Harry Kümel from 1971. The novel is based on Jean Ray . The title refers to Malepartus , the burrow in the fable Reineke Fuchs .
action
The young sailor Jan returns to shore. In search of his childhood home, he is kidnapped after a bar fight. He wakes up in an isolated old mansion in the middle of an impenetrably overgrown park called “Malpertuis”, his parents' house. His bedridden uncle Cassavius is dying and calls the whole family and relatives together to tell them his last wishes. Among them are several of his relatives, including his sister Nancy, as well as a taxidermist who is unknown to him and a resident madman named Lampernisse. He wants to divide the property among his heirs, but on the condition that they undertake not to leave the property. He instructs Jan to continue his business for him after his death.
After the uncle's death, the mansion turns out to be a labyrinth of hallways, stairwells and secret rooms of his family. Caught in it, Jan becomes more and more entangled in mysterious events that also have their origins in Greek mythology . Mathias Crook is murdered and nailed to the wall, evil goblins appear and little by little the situation in the house gets out of hand. Anyone who tries to escape is horribly murdered.
The conspiracy remains opaque until the end, when Jan tries to decipher the secret and drifts into a dreamlike state of madness. Malpertuis serves as the secret asylum of the last Greek gods, doomed by a kind of black magic to live in human conditions and share the fears of mortals while only vaguely remembering their former selves as gods.
criticism
“Harry Kümel does an excellent job of conjuring up fantastic in-between worlds on the screen. He manages almost entirely without shock effects, needs neither annoying music nor creepy effects to increase the tension. "
- The lexicon of international films describes the film as "A stylistically very closed fantastic journey into the world of dreams."
Awards
- Nomination for the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes International Film Festival
- CEC Medal at the Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya 1973
Web links
- Malpertuis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Still photos with a link to the review and a synopsis in French ( memento from August 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Malpertuis: Life as a Fantastic Dream - Hamburger Abendblatt from March 26, 1984 ( Memento from July 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Malpertuis. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .