My Cousin Rachel (2017)

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Movie
German title My cousin Rachel
Original title My cousin Rachel
Country of production USA , UK
original language English
Publishing year 2017
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Roger Michell
script Roger Michell
production Kevin Loader
music Rael Jones
camera Mike Eley
cut Kristina Hetherington
occupation

My Cousin Rachel is a 2017 film by Roger Michell based on the novel of the same name (1951) by Daphne du Maurier .

Differences to the novel

The film basically sticks closely to the novel. However, there are deviations in the end. In the novel, Philip, with the help of Louise, searches Rachel's room for evidence that she poisoned his cousin and is about to poison him too. He had previously ignored references to the dangerousness of the bridge over which Rachel will take her morning ride. He finds no solid evidence, but Rachel falls to her death on the bridge.

In the film, too, he and Louise unsuccessfully search Rachel's room for evidence of attempted or committed poisoning. Meanwhile, Rachel takes her horse down the narrow coastal path and rushes over the cliffs, where Philip finds her dead. The film ends with a scene in which Philip is on the road at the side of his wife (Louise) and child, complaining of a severe headache that had also plagued his cousin Ashley, who - according to the doctors' opinion - died of a brain tumor.

production

Newington House near Oxford served as one of the filming locations for the film

Unlike the first film adaptation of the novel by Henry Koster , which was filmed in Cornwall, where the novel is also set, Roger Mitchell chose other filming locations in southern England ( Surrey , Sussex , Devon and others).

Ashley's residence is West Horsley Place in Surrey, a mansion built between the 16th and 18th centuries, which had not been altered for a long time and whose buildings were in a neglected state. With a recent change of ownership, the film team had a relatively free hand to gradually renovate and redesign the interior of the house. Newington House, south of Oxford, served as the home of the wealthy Kendall family, the village scenes were filmed in Old Amersham in Buckinghamshire , and the stables are part of Stocker's Farm in Rickmansworth .

The old village church where Philipp Ashley and Louise Kendall meet is St. Peter's Church in Hamsey, Sussex. The location was shot on the cliffs of the Devon coast. The scenes in Italy at the beginning of the film were shot in Florence and Anghiari .

Awards

Dinah Collin was nominated for the design of the costumes for the British Independent Film Award 2017.

Reviews

“Remake of a social novel by Daphne du Maurier with splendid equipment and excellent actors. Modern approaches remain largely limited to the ambivalent drawing of the title character, while some overly melodramatic moments are irritating. "

- filmdienst.de

The critic of the NZZ praises the acting performance of Rachel Weisz and especially the fantasy and historical accuracy of the costume designer Dinah Collins, but misses the depth and "suspense" that characterize Alfred Hitchcock's Du Maurier films. “Rachel Weisz certainly succeeds in playing with ambivalences, she reminds a little of Ingrid Bergman as Alicia in Hitchcock's“ Notorious ”. The meticulously researched Dinah Collins costumes support her with virtuosity: Rachel is sometimes devoted in a lace nightgown, sometimes cool and unapproachable with a long veil, sometimes sporty and elegant in a bright wine-red riding jacket. As a mysterious lady, Rachel is completely femme fatale, but the film does not allow us to feel the cryptic fantasies of a noir. The fateful breaks, the gloom of the earlier Du Maurier films remain hidden behind the polished surface of a classic costume film ”.

Daniel Benedict writes in the Osnabrücker Zeitung: “In the fatal repetition with which Philip copied his older cousin's love tragedy, Roger Michell's film is close to Hitchcock. Visually, “My Cousin Rachel” can no longer stand up to the comparison. Instead of using the effective imagery of the prototype, Michell gets lost in the decorative, lets the camera fly over Cornwall's green pastures and the pearls of torn chains hop painterly across the ground. So be it. That hardly detracts from the pleasure of the indissoluble riddle of this dark love. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for My Cousin Rachel . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; June 2017; test number: 169 172 K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Joanne O'Connor: On location: 'My Cousin Rachel' In: Financial Times , June 16, 2017, accessed February 27, 2018
  3. ↑ My cousin Rachel. In: filmdienst.de. Film service , accessed February 16, 2018 .
  4. ↑ My Cousin Rachel: Behind the Veil of Femme Fatale in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, September 6, 2017, accessed on February 23, 2018
  5. ^ Daniel Benedict: "My cousin Rachel" in the cinema: In Hitchcock's footsteps in: Osnabrücker Zeitung. September 8, 2017, accessed February 24, 2018