Nobody Wants the Night

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Movie
German title Nobody Wants the Night
Original title Nadie quiere la noche
Country of production Spain , France , Bulgaria
original language English , Inuktitut
Publishing year 2015
length 118 minutes
Rod
Director Isabel Coixet
script Miguel Barros
production Andrés Santana
Jaume Roures
music Lucas Vidal
camera Jean-Claude Larrieu
cut Elena Ruiz
occupation
Isabel Coixet , Gabriel Byrne , Rinko Kikuchi and Juliette Binoche together with Dieter Kosslick at the premiere of the film

Nobody Wants the Night (original title: Nadie quiere la noche ; German translation "Nobody wants the night") is a Spanish - French - Bulgarian biopic by Isabel Coixet from 2015 . The film is inspired by Josephine Peary , whose husband Robert Peary , the discovery of the North Pole is attributed. Juliette Binoche plays the role of Josephine Peary . Rinko Kikuchi and Gabriel Byrne can also be seen in other roles .

Nobody Wants the Night was the opening film of the 65th Berlinale and celebrated its world premiere on February 5, 2015.

action

1908 on Ellesmere Island , Canada - approx. 1000 km from the North Pole. Josephine Peary is determined to travel towards the North Pole in order to be as close as possible to her husband Robert Peary on what she suspects is his last expedition. The experienced polar traveler Bram urgently warns Josephine of the dangers of the upcoming winter, as does the Inuit inhabitants of the island. Josephine, however, is driven by the belief that her husband will never come back, so she is willing to risk her life to see him again. She speaks to Bram's conscience, who has sworn allegiance to her and her husband, and ultimately gets him to start the journey with her.

Your destination is the base camp, where Peary and his companions are known to have made their last stop. With dogsled , accompanied by two Inuit , the younger Odaq and older Ninq, off they go. In their luggage they have, among other things, Mrs. Peary's classy cloakroom as well as her gramophone and a picnic case with porcelain plates and silver cutlery. After a short, arduous journey, one of their sleds gets into a snow avalanche and at least one dog dies. Soon after, Odaq turns back because he wants to go back to his family. A little later Bram urges them to turn back - in front of them lies an area of ​​drift ice that one can cross with canoes, but not with their sledges. Josephine and Bram get into another argument about the sense and nonsense of this trip. In tears, Josephine begs Bram to go on with her and threatens to continue the journey alone. Bram gives in and they move over the ice first with sledges, later on foot in snowshoes . When trying to guide Josephine safely over a place where she suddenly gets scared and doesn't want to go any further, Bram breaks in and submerges in the ice-cold water. Ninq and Josephine manage to pull him out. However, he is so hypothermic that he dies a short time later. After burying him, Ninq and Josephine move on and eventually arrive at base camp. Instead of her husband, Josephine meets his former companion in a miserable condition and sends him back to Ellesmere Island with the others while she wants to wait in the hut for her husband to return.

Contrary to what was thought, however, she is not alone - Allaka, a young Inuit woman who lives in an igloo near the hut, is apparently also waiting for “Peary Mann” to return. Josephine soon understands the young woman's motives - she has a child from Peary. Josephine is consumed with jealousy and despair.

The increasingly extreme weather conditions nonetheless bring the two women together. Day after day goes by, the polar night sets in and, as is well known, will last for several months. Hunting is no longer an option, their food supplies are gradually being used up. Without Allaka's knowledge and experience, Josephine could only survive for a short time. In the middle of a snowstorm that destroys the hut and forces both women into the igloo, Allaka gives birth to her child. She calls it "son of two women".

Some time after the birth, Josephine and Allaka fell into a state of twilight that lasted for days. They are eventually woken up by Henson , who has come to take Josephine back to Ellesmere Island. Her husband finally reached the North Pole and is now safely back in Ellesmere Island. On the way back there is only space and food for two people. Josephine fights desperately against Henson because she doesn't want to leave Allaka behind under any circumstances. However, Henson assures her that she would be fine on her own. With a heavy heart, Josephine finally agrees and they start the return journey together, while Allaka stays behind.

As you can see from the credits, Josephine Peary lived until 1955, her husband died in Washington, DC in 1920. That he actually reached the geographic North Pole is still controversial today.

reception

Nobody Wants the Night was largely critically discussed during its presentation at the 2015 Berlinale . "The Berlinale did not deserve this kitsch" headlines Elmar Krekeler in Die Welt . The film is a "patchwork quilt made of biographical material". Isabel Coixet “cut up Josephine Peary's résumé, threw the scraps into a blizzard and then patched it up into such a kitschy developmental novel that anyone with some knowledge of Peary's life will experience a stomach ache from the moral and symbolic sugar that Coixet is doing gets [...] so much fuss for so little knowledge. Everything remains an assertion, everything demonstrates a corrupt Western endeavor ”.

Andreas Borcholte from Spiegel Online counts Nobody Wants the Night in his Berlinale conclusion as a "flagging historical drama" among the festival's disappointments.

For Christiane Peitz from the Tagesspiegel, on the other hand, the opening film was a “starting shot with an eye-catching value”, although it still has “a little bit of mysticism”. Binoche honors her as a “great leading actress”, Coixet as a “resolute director”.

From the point of view of Harald Jähner, head of the features section of the Berliner Zeitung , Nobody Wants the Night could have been “a film about understanding between cultures if he had only taken the Inuit half as seriously as ours. But the Inuit's attention does not go beyond an Eskimo vocal interlude, which, by the way, contrasts very nicely with the bel canto arias from Josephine's gramophone. Allaka was not even allowed to be played by an Inuit. To show them only in the medium of a broken foreign language is pretty backwoodsmen. ”The film is therefore“ optically a pleasure ”, but not enough for good cinema.

Awards and nominations

Prices category Nominated result
30th Goya Award Ceremony Best movie Nominated
Best director Isabel Coixet Nominated
Best Actress Juliette Binoche Nominated
Best camera Jean Claude Larrieu Nominated
Best production design Alain Bainée Nominated
Best production Andrés Santana and Marta Miró Won
Best costumes Clara Bilbao Won
Best makeup and hairstyle Pablo Perona, Paco Rodríguez H. and Sylvie Imbert Won
Best film score Lucas Vidal Won

Web links

Commons : Nobody Wants the Night  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Elmar Krekeler: The Berlinale did not deserve this kitsch , Die Welt on February 5, 2015, accessed on February 16, 2015
  2. Andreas Borcholte: Berlinale balance sheet: More courage, more women, more “Victoria” , Spiegel Online on February 15, 2015, accessed on February 16, 2015
  3. ^ Christiane Peitz: The opening film: “Nobody Wants the Night” , Der Tagesspiegel on February 5, 2015, accessed on February 16, 2015
  4. Harald Jähner: No film about cultural understanding , Berliner Zeitung on February 5, 2015, accessed on February 16, 2015
  5. 'The Bride' Leads Spain's Goya Award Nominations . In: The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 28, 2015.