My Salinger Year

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Movie
Original title My Salinger Year
Country of production Canada , Ireland
original language English
Publishing year 2020
length 101 minutes
Rod
Director Philippe Falardeau
script Philippe Falardeau
production Ruth Coady , Luc Déry ,
Kim McCraw , Susan Mullen
music Martin Léon
camera Sara Mishara
cut Mary Finlay
occupation

My Salinger Year is a film drama by Philippe Falardeau from the year 2020 . The coming-of-age film is based on the novel of the same name by Joanna Rakoff . The focus of the plot is a literary student and publishing assistant (played by Margaret Qualley ), who finds her own writing vocation by answering the fan mail of the famous writer JD Salinger .

Falardeau's directorial work celebrated its world premiere on February 20, 2020 as the opening film of the 70th Berlin Film Festival .

action

Young Joanna went to college in London, got a Masters degree in literature and has just come to New York . She actually wants to write novels and lead an extraordinary life. She is prepared to accept some inconvenience for this. She is staying with her friend and her boyfriend.

It is autumn 1994 when Joanna introduces herself to the oldest literary agency in New York, which besides Fitzgerald is best known for representing the cult author JD Salinger to the outside world. He, whom they all just call "Jerry", is the agency's figurehead. Many want the job she's applying for, but Joanna manages to convince agency owner Daniel and his literary agent Margaret of herself, even if she has never read either The Catcher in the Rye or any of Salinger's books. The author lives in seclusion in New Hampshire, and the agency is desperate to nurture his reputation as an inaccessible outsider and to shield him from the outside world. To do this, they get rid of anyone who wants to get in touch with him, not just fans, but also producers and publishers.

She started her work in January 1995. Equipped with a dictaphone and a mechanical typewriter , she answers stacks of mail that ends up at the agency. The letters are created from templates from the time when Salinger was still writing his correspondence himself. One young man from Winston-Salem in particular is a big fan of Salinger and writes regularly.

Joanna begins a relationship with Don, who works part-time in a bookstore but would like to become a writer herself. They share an apartment and Don tries to finish his first novel. Joanna begins to take home letters addressed to Salinger that catch her eye, and answers them in a very personal way under her name.

Joanna quickly realizes that she is actually no more than Margaret's secretary, but she does not want to entrust her with any higher tasks until she can handle the correspondence without errors. In addition, her boss does not want Joanna to have too much private contact with her clients such as Rachel Cursk or the leading forces of the agency. When the publisher Clifford writes directly to Salinger and asks him to be allowed to publish his work Hapworth as a book, Margaret is initially skeptical of the one-man publishing house, but Joanna knows its program and is committed to it. When Salinger tries to meet publisher Clifford in public at Georgetown University to talk about the publication of Hapworth , Margaret is not thrilled, as it actually goes against the agency's job of shielding key clients. Joanna offers herself to act as the agency's eyes and ears on site. Margaret agrees, and Joanna takes the bus to Washington with Don's recently completed novel. After Salinger has agreed to the contract with Clifford, Joanna visits her ex-boyfriend Karl, who is a musician and gives a concert in Washington, in the evening.

production

Margaret Qualley , here at the premiere of the film at the Berlinale , plays Joanna

The film is based on the novel My Salinger Year by US writer Joanna Rakoff, which was published in 2015 in a German translation by Sabine Schwenk with the title Dear Mr. Salinger .

Directed by Philippe Falardeau, who also adapted Rakoff's novel.

Sigourney Weaver took on the role of literary agent Margaret, Margaret Qualley played her new assistant Joanna and Colm Feore played agency owner Daniel. Douglas Booth took on the role of her new friend Don. Yanic Truesdale and Brían F. O'Byrne can be seen in the roles of Joanna's new colleagues Max and Hugh. Théodore Pellerin plays the young man from Winston-Salem, a great admirer of Salinger, whom you see in the film at home at his typewriter and in other inserted monologues. Other Salinger fans who turn to him in their letters can also be seen in such sequences. Hamza Haq took on the role of Joanna's ex-boyfriend Karl. Tim Post has the role of JD Salinger, whose face is never shown in close-up in the film.

The film was invited to the Berlinale Special section of the Berlinale 2020 . On February 20, 2020, it celebrated its world premiere as the festival's opening film. In 2009 , Falardeau had his film I swear it wasn't me! In the Generation Kplus section of the Berlinale . presented, which was awarded the Glass Bear and the Grand Prize of the German Children's Fund for the best feature film. On October 18, 2020, it will be shown as the closing film of the Festival du nouveau cinéma.

reception

The reviews were mixed.

literature

  • Joanna Rakoff: My Salinger Year , ISBN 9781408833971
  • Joanna Rakoff: Dear Mr. Salinger . Translated from the American by Sabine Schwenk. Albrecht Knaus Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 9783813505153 .

Web links

Commons : My Salinger Year  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b “My Salinger Year” opens Berlinale. In: filmecho.de, January 24, 2020.
  2. ↑ Philippe Falardeau was the big winner of the Generation Kplus award ceremony in 2009. In: berlinale.de, February 14, 2009.
  3. ↑ List of Films announced for # FNC2020. In: nouveaucinema.ca. Accessed September 1, 2020.
  4. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_salinger_year