Mandy (2018)

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Movie
German title Mandy
Original title Mandy
Country of production United States ,
Belgium
original language English
Publishing year 2018
length 121 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Panos Cosmatos
script Panos Cosmatos,
Aaron Stewart-Ahn
production Nate Bolotin ,
Martin Metz ,
Daniel Noah ,
Adrian Politowski,
Elijah Wood
music Jóhann Jóhannsson
camera Benjamin Loeb
cut Brett W. Bachman
occupation

Mandy is an American - Belgian fantasy - horror film released in 2018 . It is the second feature film by the director Panos Cosmatos .

action

1983: Lumberjack Red Miller and his friend Mandy Bloom, an artist, live in a remote wooden house in the Shadow Mountains of the Mojave Desert , California . On the way to work at a gas station, Mandy is discovered by Jeremiah Sand, the charismatic leader of the Christian end-time sect Children of the New Dawn, who lives in a house in the region. Sand wants Bloom to himself. With the help of a group of demonic-looking, degenerate motorcyclists doing work against drugs for the sect, Sand and six of his followers break into Miller and Bloom's house, tie up Miller and drug Bloom. Sect leader Sand turns out to be a megalomaniac and egocentric failed musician who considers himself chosen by God. He presents himself naked to Bloom, whereupon he is laughed at by Bloom. Sand then burns them alive in front of Miller's eyes and leaves the latter tied up on his property.

Miller can free himself and starts a campaign of revenge. He can shoot a member of the motorcycle gang, but has an accident while trying to run over the injured man and is captured by the motorcycle gang. He can break free and kill all gang members. With a captured motorcycle, he visits "The Chemist", who operates in a remote hangar and produces the potent drugs that the gang members regularly take. The "chemist" can show Miller the way to a remote quarry where the Children of the New Dawn have built a wooden church. On the way to church, Miller can kill all sect members one by one; only a young woman is spared from him. Finally he places the sect leader Sand in a tunnel under the church and kills him too.

History of origin

Mandy is a co-production of the horror film-based production company SpectreVision, founded by Elijah Wood , with Umedia, registered in Belgium, and the US company XYZ Films . The budget was about 6 million US dollars . The film was shot in summer 2017 in the Belgian towns of Chaudfontaine and Landelies .

Director Cosmatos described his original concept for Mandy as: “a bit more primitive than [my previous film Beyond the Black Rainbow ] , which was very distant. While [Beyond the Black Rainbow] was mainly about [self- and other-] domination, suppression and regret, [Mandy] is much more about aggression and spontaneous emotions. "" When [Beyond the Black Rainbow] a Pink Floyd Album, then [Mandy] will be more of a Slayer album. "" [Beyond the Black Rainbow] was like my album with experimental electronic music, and [Mandy] will be more of my somewhat brisk Black Sabbath album. "

Cosmatos initially offered Nicolas Cage the role of Jeremiah Sand, but Cage declined. Talks between the director and the actor broke out again later, and in June 2017 Cage was hired to play Red Miller.

In order to meet the visual requirements of Cosmatos, the film was shot using the anamorphic method . The theme song is a song by King Crimson from 1974. A central song of the film, composed by Dan Boeckner ( Wolf Parade ), which represents Jeremiah Sand's failed career as a musician, was sung by Sand actor Linus Roache himself.

Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson died in February 2018 of a cocaine overdose . The soundtrack for Mandy was his last work.

publication

Premiere had Mandy on January 19, 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival . The film was shown at other festivals until it was released in theaters on September 14, 2018, for example at the European premiere on May 12, 2018 at the Cannes International Film Festival , then at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea, at the Melbourne International Film Festival and at the German Fantasy Film Festival where it ran as the opening film.

Immediately after the premiere in Cannes, the showing and publishing rights for Mandy were sold in twenty countries, with the film being released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by Koch Media . Although Koch Media originally planned only a German DVD and BD release, increased inquiries meant that Mandy, on the basis of a cooperation between Koch Media and the distributor Drop-Out Cinema, which specializes in independent horror and avant-garde films, as part of its Cinema program Obscure, received a limited German theatrical release on November 1, 2018, even before the home theater release on November 22, 2018.

reception

Mandy received extremely positive reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes review database aggregates 188 reviews to a rating of 92%. Filmstarts.de reviewer Christoph Petersen described Mandy as a “psychedelic horror homage” and a “fucked up nostalgic LSD trip straight to (video store) hell”, which was “one of the aesthetically and acoustically ambitious horror experiences for many years”. Petersen saw the movie's plot as a generic reference to horror films of the 1980s. The director also takes up the aesthetics of this era visually, but complements it with plenty of film fog, red light and color filters to create an “incomparable audiovisual tour de force”. Petersen also highlighted the film music positively. The New York Times characterized the film as "a fantasy spectacle flooded with physical and emotional violence" that touches numerous film genres and in which an absurd humor flashes. Reviewer Glenn Kenny praised the performance of the leading actors and pointed out that director Cosmatos dealt with the “unsavory” subject of “kidnapping and abuse of a woman” seriously and without sensational curiosity. The Newsweek was, Mandy is "sensual, kinky and wild" and full of "exuberant spirituality," and all its fairy-tale, a "dark and strong core of humanity" hide. Reviewer Andrew Whalen analyzed that the content of the film was divided into two parts, a part full of epic fantasy reminiscent of the film The Dark Crystal and a second part full of "barbarian fantasy" reminiscent of Kull the Conqueror .

Web links

Commons : Mandy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of release for Mandy . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 182857 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ a b Deadline.com: Nicolas Cage To Star In Action Thriller 'Mandy' From SpectreVision, XYZ Films & Umedia. Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Lodderhose, Diana (2017): Nicolas Cage To Star In Action Thriller 'Mandy' From SpectreVision, XYZ Films & Umedia , Deadline.com , June 7, 2017
  4. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin (2017): Nicolas Cage To Star In Action Thriller 'Mandy' From 'Beyond The Black Rainbow' Director Panos Cosmatos , The Playlist, June 7, 2017
  5. ↑ Evangelista, Chris (2017): 'Beyond the Black Rainbow' Director Returns with Nicolas Cage-Led 'Mandy' , The Filmstage, June 7, 2017
  6. ↑ "Ever since I finished, I've been working on one screenplay that hopefully will be my next movie and it's something I'd describe as a little bit more primal than this film, which is very reserved. If this movie is about containment and repression and regrets, the next thing I'm writing is more about aggression and primal emotions. " Douglas, Edward (2012): Interview: Beyond the Black Rainbow Director Panos Cosmatos , comingsoon.net, May 15, 2015
  7. ↑ "If this movie is a Pink Floyd album, the next one will probably be a Slayer record." Wilkinson, Amber (2011): Retro Rainbow , Eye For Film, May 11, 2011
  8. ↑ "This [movie] was my experimental electronic album [...] The next one I want to do will be more like a Black Sabbath record. It will be a bit more propulsive." Macaulay, Scott (2011): 25 New Faces of Independent Film: Panos Cosmatos , Filmmaker Magazine, 2011
  9. ↑ Slashfilm.com: 'Mandy' Director Panos Cosmatos on Pitting Nicolas Cage Against Evil. Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Indiewire.com: Sundance 2018: Here Are the Cameras Used to Shoot This Year's Narrative Films. Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
  11. ↑ a b Filmstarts.de: Mandy. Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
  12. ↑ McNary, Dave (2018): Nicolas Cage's horror thriller 'Mandy' Sells Out Internationally (EXCLUSIVE) , Variety , May 7, 2018
  13. ↑ Karr, Maike (2018): All clear: Mandy with Nicolas Cage has (limited) cinema release in Germany , Moviepilot, September 28, 2018
  14. ↑ Kurz, Joachim: (2018): Mandy (2018) , Kino-Zeit,
  15. ^ RottenTomatoes.com: Mandy. Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
  16. ↑ NYTimes.com: Review: Cults, Demons and Nicolas Cage in 'Mandy'. Retrieved November 5, 2018 .