My Blueberry Nights

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Movie
German title My Blueberry Nights
Original title My Blueberry Nights
Country of production Hong Kong , China , France
original language English
Publishing year 2007
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Wong Kar-Wai
script Lawrence Block ,
Wong Kar-Wai
production Jacky Pang Yee Wah ,
Wong Kar-Wai
music Ry Cooder
camera Darius Khondji
cut William Chang Suk Ping
occupation

My Blueberry Nights ( German : "Meine Blaubeernächte") is a Sino-French feature film by Wong Kar-Wai from 2007 . The director describes his film as "the story of a woman who takes the long journey instead of the short one to find the man she loves".

action

Elizabeth has had a failed relationship. She meets the owner Jeremy in a New York café, but one day she simply leaves town. Jeremy is looking for her. Elizabeth embarks on a journey through the United States to forget her ex-boyfriend and to subtly "melt vanilla ice cream on blueberry cake" with Jeremy.

Elizabeth meets different people. She has two temporary jobs in Memphis , where she meets the alcoholic cop Arnie, who has been abandoned by his wife Sue Lynne. Arnie threatens Sue Lynne with a gun, gets into the car and then drives himself to death drunk. Elizabeth comforts the widow. Then she meets Leslie, who borrows money from her for a game of poker. Leslie says she lost and gives Elizabeth her car for it. Together they travel to Las Vegas to visit Leslie's dying father. But he's already dead when Leslie appears in the hospital.

Leslie now confesses to having lied before - in truth, she had won the game of poker. She pays Elizabeth back the money she uses to buy a car. In the end, Elizabeth returns to New York to see Jeremy.

background

The film was shot in various locations in Nevada , California , New York and Memphis , Tennessee . Shooting began in June 2006. The film opened with its world premiere on May 16, 2007 at the 60th Cannes International Film Festival . In Germany, the film was shown for the first time on September 29, 2007 at the Hamburg Film Festival . It was shown for the first time in Switzerland on November 28, 2007. The start of the film in German and Swiss cinemas was January 24, 2008. In Austria, it opened on February 8, 2008. The film was shown in US cinemas on April 4, 2008. The budget of the film is approximately 10 million US dollars estimated. On the opening weekend in the United States, almost $ 75,000 was earned. Overall, US revenues came to just under $ 870,000. Over 51,000 visitors were counted at the German box office in the first three days.

The film was Wong's first full-length English-language production. Norah Jones was the first and only choice for the lead role despite a lack of acting experience. The name of the café "Kljutsch", which can be read in blue, Cyrillic letters on the entrance door, corresponds to the Russian word for key - an allusion to the fact that the café owner collects the keys given to him in a glass. Neither Wong Kar-Wai nor Norah Jones like blueberry pie.

Reviews

American criticism

Christopher Campbell wrote that the film could disappoint die-hard fans of Wong Kar-Wai's films. One of the attractions of the film is the presence of Rachel Weisz . Emanuel Levy described the film as an "intimate fable about love" with "colorful characters". Todd McCarthy wrote in the industry paper Variety that the film's claim was very different from what it was redeeming. The dialogues would of course, the "aphoristic-philosophical" interludes seem banal and "clunky".

German language criticism

The critics did not agree on whether Wong Kar-Wai had remained true to his unmistakable style with the first film outside his home country, or whether this excursion was a special case within his work. The Tagesspiegel was not entirely satisfied with the flick, because for the director it was unusually talkative and easy-going. According to Welt am Sonntag , Wong's typical visual style elements turned into empty mannerisms, saying it was his weakest film. The unforgettable attitude towards life that characterized Wong's earlier films cannot necessarily be discovered here, said epd Film . you don't feel anything, and the mirror misses that “unfathomable heartache” that characterizes his other films. On the occasion of the premiere in Cannes, Jan Schulz-Ojala wrote that it was “a worthy opening film”, a work that “shows the gentle weapons of cinema, a film that enchants and does not deceive, that seduces and does not crush [...] not just romantic, but ruthlessly sentimental film - it doesn't help that it knows its weaknesses and sometimes knows how to describe them subtly. … My Blueberry Nights is a wonderful, airy nothing built around the […] recurring kissing scene. ”The film-dienst defended the film against allegations and welcomed Wong's risk of a stylistic excursion. The work is less haunting than Wong's earlier films, but it is beautiful and has a loving gentleness towards the characters, which it observes tenderly and discreetly.

Norah Jones at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival

While part of the press described Norah Jones in her first film role as “magical” or just as “great” as the supporting actors, other voices found that she faded away from the other characters, was not a great actress, played without depth or sometimes seemed like an extra . Die Welt am Sonntag thought she and Jude Law as a couple were unbelievable. Epd Film found Rachel Weisz “more charismatic and glamorous than ever before”, and the reviews paid little attention to the acting performances of the other actors.

Regarding the visual side of the film, the critics spoke of breathtaking but fleeting beauty, "intoxicating" , "unrivaled beautiful" pictures and of the optical enjoyment of a film with "quiet melancholy and exquisite picture compositions." The fictional America shown was made from old pictures, especially from Wim Wenders ' films, derived and show "an America that one could have seen enough of" without losing its charm. But it was also felt that Wong showed no interest in the open spaces of the vast American landscape and had depicted them lovelessly and without intuition. The unnecessary, inconsequential commentary voice, a too thin plot arc, the stressful acting plot, platitudes and lack of ideas as well as the lack of mystery and enchantment were also criticized.

Film music

In addition to original compositions, 14 songs can be heard in the film. Norah Jones contributed the song The Story . The songs The Greatest and Living Proof are from Cat Power .

No. title Interpreter Duration
1. The story Norah Jones 4:10
2. Living proof Cat power 3:10
3. Ely Navada Ry Cooder 2:31
4th Try a Little Tenderness Otis Redding 3:19
5. Looking back Ruth Brown 4:16
6th Long ride Ry Cooder 3:13
7th Eyes on the Prize Mavis Staples 4:06
8th. Yumeji's Theme (Harmonica Version) Chikara Tsuzuki 2:22
9. Skipping stone Amos Lee 2:21
10. Bus ride Ry Cooder 2:58
11. Harvest Moon Cassandra Wilson 4:44
12. Devil's Highway Hello Stranger 5:34
13. Pajaros Gustavo Santaolalla 2:22
14th The Greatest Cat power 3:24

Awards

At the 2007 Cannes Film Festival , Wong Kar-Wai was nominated for a Palme d' Or. The film was nominated in Spain in 2009 at the Cinema Writers Circle Awards in the category “Best Foreign Film”.

literature

conversations

  • With Wong Kar-Wai in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 21, 2008: Is there no happiness in love?
  • With Wong Kar-Wai in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 24th, 2008: Finally non-lovers

Review mirror

positive

  • Film-dienst , No. 2/2008, fd 38537, by Felicitas Kleiner, p. 20: My Blueberry Nights

Mixed

Rather negative

negative

  • Welt am Sonntag , January 20, 2008, p. 62, by Sven von Reden: From the rest stop to the expressway: On the way with Norah Jones

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for My Blueberry Nights . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2008 (PDF; test number: 112 714 K).
  2. ↑ Quoted from an article in the International Herald Tribune ("A story of a woman who takes the long route instead of the short one to meet up with the man she loves"), accessed on July 12, 2007.
  3. ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ a b c d e budget and box office results according to the Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ a b c d Background information according to the Internet Movie Database
  7. ↑ Christopher Campbell, May 1, 2007: My Blueberry Nights at cinematical.com (English)
  8. ↑ Film review by Emanuel Levy ("an intimate tale of love")
  9. ↑ Todd McCarthy: My Blueberry Nights ( Memento of the original from December 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In Variety , May 16, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  10. ↑ a b c d Ulrike Schröder: My Blueberry Nights . In: Cinema , No. 2/2008, p. 58.
  11. ↑ a b c Felicitas Kleiner : My Blueberry Nights . In: film-dienst , No. 2/2008, fd 38537, p. 20.
  12. ↑ a b Daniel Kothenschulte: Pictures that already exist . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , January 24, 2008, p. 35
  13. ↑ a b c Kerstin Decker: The cake philosopher . In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 24, 2008, p. 27.
  14. ↑ a b c d e f Sven von Reden: From the rest stop to the expressway . In: Welt am Sonntag , January 20, 2008, p. 62.
  15. ↑ a b c d e Marli Feldvoss: My Blueberry Nights . In: epd Film , No. 1/2008, p. 37.
  16. ↑ a b c Peter Körte: Blueberry pie makes you melancholy . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , January 20, 2008.
  17. ↑ a b c Der Spiegel , January 21, 2008, p. 127, not drawn: My Blueberry Nights .
  18. ↑ Jan Schulz-Ojala: The dream of lying down. Fleeting passions: The 60th Cannes Film Festival begins with “My Blueberry Nights” by Wong Kar-Wai . In Der Tagesspiegel , May 18, 2007, accessed December 20, 2010.
  19. ↑ My Blueberry Nights at nemopolis.de, November 7, 2007.
  20. ↑ My Blueberry Nights Musical Serenade ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at IGN Music , November 9, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / uk.music.ign.com
  21. ↑ My Blueberry Nights soundtrack with audio samples, December 6, 2007.
  22. ↑ a b Awards according to the Internet Movie Database