Mario (film)

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Movie
Original title Mario
Mario (film) .svg
Country of production Switzerland
original language Swiss German / German
Publishing year 2018
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Marcel Gisler
script Marcel Gisler,
Thomas Hess
Frédéric Moriette
production Rudolf Santschi
music Martin Skalsky ,
Michael Duss ,
Christian Schlumpf
camera Sophie Maintigneux
cut Thomas Bachmann
occupation

Mario is a film drama by Marcel Gisler that premiered on January 27, 2018 at the Solothurn Film Festival. The film was released in Swiss cinemas on February 22, 2018 and in German cinemas on October 18, 2018.

action

Supported by his ambitious father, Mario dreams of a career as a professional footballer. He plays as a striker for the U21s of the BSC Young Boys and hopes to get promoted to the first team of the Bernese club. One day he receives unexpected competition from Leon, who moved to Switzerland from Hanover . The two rivals on the football field soon have feelings for each other. The offensive Leon and Mario approach each other awkwardly after they have moved into a player's apartment together.

When rumors about Mario and Leon began to circulate, both of them were bullied by their teammates. Mario struggles with himself, but sticks to the line of his advisor and the club manager in order not to endanger his career. He denies the love affair and gets an alibi friend. Leon, on the other hand, cannot withstand the pressure and his sporting performance begins to stagnate, eventually he leaves the club and moves back to Germany. Mario tries to stop him, but Leon does not allow himself to be softened and leaves Mario.

Despite the self-denial, Mario managed to assert himself as a professional footballer, and he finally switched to FC St. Pauli in Hamburg, near Leon's home country. His best friend, Jenny, moves to Hamburg with him and plays his girlfriend there. After several months, however, she can no longer stand the lies and breaks up with Mario. Mario also has problems denying his homosexuality and is taking sleeping pills more and more so that he can come to rest at all.

After his alibi relationship has broken down, Mario makes his way to Leon. He informs him that he has now completed his training as a sound engineer and only plays amateur football. He is cool, even when Mario tells him that he thinks of him every day. A short time later, Leon's new boyfriend appears and Mario leaves the apartment. He no longer sees Leon wiping the tears from his cheeks.

At the end the audience sees Mario and his teammates step onto the football field. After scoring a goal, you can see Mario staring blankly into the crowd.

production

Idea and script

“You can express a lot of emotions and touch practically anywhere, but football cannot be gay - this limit must not be exceeded. After all, you want to be perceived as a "whole man" and homosexuality has no place there. "

- The director Marcel Gisler in an interview with Jan Gross from SRF

The director was Marcel Gisler , who also wrote the script together with Thomas Hess . To his motivation to establish a gay love drama in the football scene, Gisler said in a television interview that there is the technical term “ unique selling point ” in the film industry ; this is based on what makes a film project unique. He was personally surprised that a movie about homosexuality in football had never been made. On the football field, young men are required to have a fighting spirit, a will to win and assertiveness, qualities that many exclusively straight men trust. He wanted to do away with this prejudice. During the preparation, Gisler also got in touch with Marcus Urban , the first soccer player in Germany to be outed as gay. Urban was a promising young talent in the GDR and ended his career at the age of 22 because he no longer felt up to the social pressure. Urban read an early version of the script and commented that the language of the men in the cabin was presented far too friendly, in reality it was much more vulgar.

Gisler primarily blames economic factors for the fact that professional footballers do not come out and said before the premiere of the film in Solothurn: "Football is a testosterone business, a traditional image of masculinity is marketed." As long as this image sells so well a gay footballer is a taboo that ultimately resembles a modern prohibition of love. The director went on to explain: “You can express a lot of emotions and touch practically anywhere, but football cannot be gay - this limit must not be exceeded. After all, you want to be perceived as a "whole man" and homosexuality has no place there. "

Filming

Seven years passed before filming began in 2017. Previously, problems with the development of the material and financing had led to delays. Co-authors Thomas Hess and Gisler had initially wanted to set the film project in the German Bundesliga , but when they were looking for a producer they were told that there were already projects on the topic of script development. They then decided to move Mario's venue to Switzerland. Triluna Film producer Rudolf Santschi had been rejected three times with his funding request from the Federal Office of Culture before he brought Theres Scherer-Kollbrunner from Berner Carac Film on board and obtained double funding through the Zurich Film Foundation and the cantonal Bern Film Fund. The production budget ultimately came to 3.5 million Swiss francs .

For the title role, Gisler was able to engage actor Max Hubacher , who convinced the director with "his charisma". On Aaron Altaras Gisler came Agency Casting a German after the script had specifically requested by a German player. Above all, Gisler named the contrast between the two actors as a casting decision. The shooting took place from April 2017 in Bern , Solothurn and Hamburg . The first five weeks of filming took place in Switzerland, where scenes were shot in the old town of Bern and in the Stade de Suisse in the Wankdorf district. The production was significantly supported by the BSC Young Boys and FC Bern , who helped with both jerseys and infrastructure. Gisler described the shooting inside the football club's stadium as a “logistical challenge”, which had to be subordinate to the training authority of the first team. The shooting came to an end in Hamburg, where two weeks of filming took place in the Millerntor Stadium of FC St. Pauli . Gisler described the final scene staged there with around 30,000 viewers as "the most expensive scene" of the film.

publication

Gisler film premiered on January 27, 2018 in the Solothurn Film Festival 's premiere . In German-speaking Switzerland, the drama was released for public screening on February 22nd. In August of the same year the film was shown at the Locarno Festival , in September at the Queer Screen Film Festival in Australia and then at the Hamburg Film Festival , where players and officials from FC St. Pauli were present alongside the director and the two main actors . The film is partly set in Hamburg. The cinema premiere followed on October 15 at Kino International in Berlin in the presence of Gisler, Hubacher, Altaras and Moravec. The film was released in Germany on October 18, 2018. On October 30, 2018, the film was released in the USA on Blu-ray and DVD.

reception

Reviews

In a criticism of the SDA in the Aargauer Zeitung it is said that the film focuses on self-denial, on the inner dilemma of the protagonist Mario, who wrestles with himself, gives himself to Leon, withdraws and even gets an alibi friend. This conflict plays Max Hubacher convincing: " Mario is aiming seditious neither loud nor or major political impact. Rather, Gisler tells the quiet, but all the more touching story of a great love that could ultimately also take place in a different context of a 'love ban'. "

Leading actor Max Hubacher received positive reviews for his play in the film without exception.

Jürg Zbinden wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung that the film makes a “more than just sporting contribution” on the subject of homosexuality in professional football and that it is “an indictment of denial and silence, against lies and deceit, which gives both itself and the audience time”. He praised Sophie Maintigneux's camera work as well as the play of the two main actors: “Aaron Altaras looks like the appearance of a young Sicilian man from Taormina by photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden , Max Hubacher convincingly plays the Swiss who privately strive for inconspicuousness [...] likes one would find out how things go with Mario ”.

Christoph Petersen from filmstarts.de described the film as "a drama that was essentially precisely observed, but at times clichéd at the edges" with "two very strong main actors". Mario “by no means follows a typical RomCom dramaturgy with a fairytale happy ending. Instead, Gisler remains true to his characters and his subject matter right through to the end. He consistently and without judgment recognizes what it means to want to achieve something as a homosexual athlete in the football business ”. For “the really big hit” the film is “not enough, because in many places the authors prefer to take the obvious rather than the more subtle path, which also costs the drama some of its emotional impact”.

Manfred Riepe from epd Film found that Gisler Mario had staged “the elusive, but all the more lasting homophobia of the sports business [...] in a calm and differentiated way”. Despite two hours of playing time, the production was “not a minute too long. A quiet but powerful film with convincing football scenes. The view of the next Bundesliga matchday “changes after you've seen the film. Cath Clarke of the Guardian says that although the film feels a little long at two hours, Mario is a sensitive human drama. However, the strict age rating from 18 years feels too hard

Visitor numbers

In German-speaking Switzerland, the production counted 2,958 visitors after the first weekend of demonstration, with an average of only twelve copies. The film climbed behind Die Verlegerin (2017), I, Tonya (2017) and Wendy 2 - Friendship Forever (2018) as the fourth-highest newcomer at number 15 in the German-Swiss cinema charts. Mario stayed in the top 25 for another week and had around 5,110 visitors in Switzerland by the end of the year.

Awards

Chicago International Film Festival 2018

FilmOut San Diego 2018

  • Award for best international feature film (Marcel Gisler)

Hamburg Film Festival 2018

  • Nomination for the Art Cinema Award of the international association of art film theaters

Swiss Film Award 2018

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Mario . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 183763 / V). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ a b c Jan Gross: Marcel Gisler: "In football you can do anything - except be gay". In: srf.ch, February 21, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b c https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/kultur/film/wenn-die-liebe-einen-ins-abseits-kickt-mario-132137961
  4. ↑ a b c d e The Stade de Suisse becomes a film set . Bern newspaper . Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b c d Interview with director Marcel Gisler about his new film “Mario” . nahaufnahme.ch/. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  6. ↑ a b Swiss film brings the taboo subject to the cinema . 20min.ch. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  7. ↑ When love kicks you offside . blick.ch . Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ https://www.presseportal.ch/de/pm/100014224/100817821
  9. ↑ http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/national-news/new-south-wales-news/queer-screen-film-festival-announces-first-teaser-films-2018/170677
  10. ↑ https://queerscreen.org.au/queer-screen-film-fest-2018/
  11. ↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article215473719/Fussballfilm-Mario-beim-Filmfest-Hamburg.html
  12. ^ A b DPA-RegiolineGeo: Film: Football and Homophobia: Premiere for “Mario” at the film festival. In: Focus Online . July 24, 2018, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Press release: Premiere and venues . Frankfurter Allgemeine . Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  14. ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
  15. ↑ a b Gays in the penalty area. In: nzz.ch . Retrieved November 25, 2019 .
  16. ^ Criticism from the FILMSTARTS editorial team. In: filmstarts.de . Retrieved November 25, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Anke Sterneborg: Review of Mario . In: epd film . Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  18. ↑ Mario review - when gay footballers fall in love . In: The Guardian . Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  19. ↑ a b c MARIO . hitparade.ch . Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  20. ↑ thesis LGBTQ + -themed films addressing sexuality and identity compete for the Hugo Award Q .. In: chicagofilmfestival.com. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  21. ↑ https://www.filmfesthamburg.de/de/information/awards/28774/05_Art_Cinema_Award