Momo (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Momo |
| Country of production | Germany , Italy |
| original language | German , English |
| Publishing year | 1986 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Johannes Schaaf |
| script |
Michael Ende (also a novel) Johannes Schaaf Rosemarie Fendel Marcello Coscia |
| production | Horst Wendlandt |
| music | Angelo Branduardi |
| camera | Xaver Schwarzenberger |
| cut | Amedeo Salfa |
| occupation | |
| |
Momo is a literary film adaptation based on the novel of the same name by Michael Ende . The world premiere took place on July 17, 1986 in Germany.
action
The orphan girl Momo is found by the street sweeper Beppo in an old amphitheater . The neighbors in the area take care of Momo, who in turn devotes her time and attention to her fellow human beings. She listens to them and asks questions, and the frequently asked question “Why?” Often causes people to rethink their actions.
The situation changes when the gray gentlemen take over adulthood. They are representatives of the time savings bank and collect people's time in order to use it up themselves. Suddenly a dubious agent named BLW / 553 X appears in a Mercedes-Benz in the amphitheater , who is smoking a cigar incessantly and engaging Momo in a conversation. The agent, played by actor Sylvester Groth , throws a number of toy dolls out of the trunk of the luxury car and equips the round of the amphitheater with them. At this moment the agent inadvertently reveals the secret behind the Gray Men (quote from Agent BLW / 553 X: “ Nobody is allowed to know who we are and what we do, we have to remain anonymous […] We have to wrest time from people with great effort Siphon by the second. Minutes, seconds, hours, lifetime, all the time they save is lost for them, because we use them up, tear them up, suck you up to your bones, suck you up, tear them up us, save them, hunger for it, hunger for it, for your life […] And we are getting more and more […] hundreds, millions. And suck and suck and suck ”). Thereupon Momo tries to defend herself with her playmates against this conspiracy , whereby she is targeted by the Gray Men. Because in the opinion of the chairman of the gray men, portrayed by actor Armin Mueller-Stahl , children are the biggest enemies of his team from the time savings bank. The steward of time, Master Hora, also recognizes the danger and leads Momo through his helper, the turtle Cassiopeia, to his house in safety. He lets Momo in on the secrets of the time and wins the girl over for his plan to free people from the gray men.
Master Hora stops time, while Momo returns from the timeless sphere of Horas with a flower of the hour to the normal but stopped time. The gray gentlemen, who cannot get any more new time by stopping time, fear for their existence and try to take the flower of the hour from Momo. At the same time, they are reducing their number so that the few remaining masters can live longer with the time left over. But they do not succeed in overpowering Momo, and so in the end the last gray men dissolve in the fight against Momo and against themselves.
background
The film, shot in the Cinecittà studios in Rome, adheres closely to the novel. Author Michael Ende, in contrast to the filming of " The Neverending Story ", expressly approved the film and also took on a small role in the film (the passenger on the train who tells the story to Master Hora). The epilogue of the story has been moved to the beginning of the film. With over 2.1 million admissions it is one of the most successful German films of 1986. For the American actor John Huston , who can be seen in the role of the philosophically wise master Hora, Momo was one of his last films, a year after the premiere Huston died at the age of 81.
Reviews
"A fairy-tale film that relies less on rough effects than on believable characters and atmospheric density - even if Ende's pseudo-mythological profundity sometimes seems threadbare and the staging gets close to kitsch."
literature
- Michael Ende : Momo or the strange story of the time thieves and of the child who brought people back the stolen time. A fairy tale novel . With pictures of the author. (47th edition.) Thienemann, Stuttgart and Vienna 2005, 301 pages, ISBN 3-522-17750-9
- Margarete von Schwarzkopf (adaptation): The film book Momo . Thienemann, Stuttgart and Vienna 1986, 93 pages, ISBN 3-522-16310-9
- Momo. The paperback for the film based on Michael Ende's novel . (5th edition.) Heyne, Munich 1990, 189 pages, ISBN 3-453-02459-1
Web links
- Momo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Momo at filmportal.de
- Momo in the online film database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Flap information on the DVD
- ↑ http://www.insidekino.com/Djahr/D1986.htm
- ↑ Momo. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .