Saturday Night Fever (film)

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Movie
German title Saturday night only.
Since 2002 re-release :
Saturday Night Fever
Original title Saturday Night Fever
Saturday night only
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1977
length 1977: 118 minutes
1978: 113 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director John Badham
script Norman Wexler
production Robert Stigwood / Paramount
music Barry Gibb ,
Maurice Gibb ,
Robin Gibb ,
David Shire
camera Ralf D. Bode
cut David Rawlins
occupation
synchronization

Saturday Night Fever is an American dance film from the year 1977 , the young life of people in the New York nightclub scene and created there subculture is. The main role was played by John Travolta . Directed by John Badham . The plot of the film is based on an article by British music journalist Nik Cohn , which appeared in New York Magazine in 1976 under the title Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night . Norman Wexler developed the script from this.

The film shaped an entire generation at the end of the 1970s and triggered a wave of disco worldwide, which was reflected in the music , fashion and lifestyle of young people. The soundtrack of the Bee Gees with titles such as Stayin 'Alive , Night Fever and How Deep Is Your Love is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.

The producers' marketing strategy of releasing parts of the soundtrack before the start of the film created a win-win situation and was trend-setting. The principle of cross marketing was born. Stephen Holden wrote eight years later in the New York Times : " Saturday Night Fever proved that the marketing cooperation of a film and its soundtrack - album a double blockbuster can generate, and the film music since then plays a different role than before."

Leading actor John Travolta received an Oscar nomination for his cinematic performance and achieved world fame through the film. Travolta plays the simple clerk Tony Manero, who becomes king of the disco dance floor at the weekend. In the original version, which was released in 1977, elements of social criticism play a larger role; in the adult version published in 1978 these are largely missing - especially a rape scene.

In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was listed in the National Film Registry as an American film worth preserving .

action

Tony Manero is a young Italian American from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn . He lives in modest circumstances in a strictly Catholic family and works in a paint shop. His brother is a priest and the pride of the family. Tony's weekly highlight is a visit to the 2001 Odyssey nightclub in Manhattan . There he is no longer the little employee of everyday life, here he is the "king of the dance floor". Otherwise he spends time with his neighborhood friends. Occasionally the group gets involved in brawls with feuding youths.

One day in the disco, Tony meets the somewhat older Stephanie and decides to take part in a big dance competition with her instead of (as promised) with Annette. Although Tony would be interested in a relationship with her, Stephanie initially refuses, as she thinks she can pursue bigger goals and Tony does not meet her level. Stephanie is about to move to Manhattan and leave the poor part of Bay Ridge behind. Stephanie and Tony train together and win the dance competition, but unlike Stephanie, Tony cannot be happy about the victory, because a competing couple, who in Tony's opinion were clearly better, did not get the first prize only because of their Puerto Rican descent . The angry Tony gives the trophy to the Latinos and shortly afterwards tries to rape Stephanie, but she escapes and escapes.

Now Tony meets his friends. Two of them, Double Jay and Joey, rape Annette, who got drunk out of spurned love for Tony, while they were driving together. Tony's best friend Bobby then dies in a test of courage on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge , after he had previously complained bitterly about being neglected by Tony: Bobby had impregnated his girlfriend Pauline and was therefore harassed by his Catholic environment, to marry her against his will; instead of helping him through this life crisis, Tony had focused entirely on Stephanie and hadn't even called Bobby. Shaken and disgusted by himself, Tony rides the subway all night to clear his head and then rings Stephanie's doorbell. After a discussion, Tony and Stephanie decide to be friends.

background

Most of the film was shot in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn , New York. The estimated cost of production was $ 3 million. The film grossed approx. 11 million US dollars in the US cinemas in the first 11 days, the worldwide box office is given at approx. 235 million US dollars.

The marketing strategy used was received critically by the press. Michael Heim explained the key points of the discussion in Spiegel Online in 2007 and wrote: "The production company Paramount had the film defused linguistically and scenically in 1978 in order to get an age rating suitable for young people and to be able to cash in again uninhibited among the teens." The original one Version from 1977 is 118 minutes long and was grouped by the Motion Picture Association of America in the rating category R; the 1978 revision resulted in a 113 minute theatrical version, which led to a downgrade to the PG group. The 113-minute version of the film opened in German cinemas on April 13, 1978.

Years later, Nik Cohn stated in several interviews that Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night was not based on researched facts, but was an article that was created under deadline pressure and ignorance of the Brooklyn disco scene.

In 1983 Sylvester Stallone made the sequel Staying Alive . Travolta slipped back into the role of Tony Manero, the Bee Gees again contributed the music. With production costs of 22 million US dollars , the film played about a 65 million.

synchronization

There are two dubbed versions of this film. According to an interview with Thomas Danneberg that he gave for the Spencer / Hill bonus DVD, the new audio version from 2001 was necessary because the old audio track was not Dolby Digital 5.1 capable. However, both audio versions are included on the DVD released in 2002.

role actor Voice actor (1977) Voice actor (2001)
Tony Manero John Travolta Thomas Danneberg Thomas Danneberg
Stephanie Mangano Karen Lynn Gorney Alexandra Lange Sabine Arnhold
Bobby C. Barry Miller Michael Nowka Robin Kahnmeyer
Joey Joseph Cali Manfred Lehmann Matthias Hinze
Double-J Paul Pape Tommi Piper Tobias Kluckert
Gus Bruce Ornstein Hans-Jürgen Dittberner Dennis Schmidt-Foss
Mr. Manero Val Bisoglio Wolfgang Völz
Mrs. Manero Julie Bovasso Gudrun Genest Regine Albrecht
Frank jr. Martin Shakar Arne Elsholtz Thomas Nero Wolff
Dan Fusco Sam Coppola Friedrich Georg Beckhaus Friedrich Georg Beckhaus
Jay Langhart Donald Gantry Wolfgang Pampel Erich Rauker
Pete Bert Michaels Klaus Jepsen Klaus Jepsen

Soundtrack

The song Stayin 'Alive from the album Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track was voted number 9 by the American Film Institute in their list AFI's 100 Years… 100 Songs of the 100 Best American Movie Songs .

Reviews

“An atmospheric picture of the life of the youth in Brooklyn in the 1970s, but overall superficial. The film made John Travolta a star and set trends in fashion and music ("disco wave"). "

“The design of the film is that of a so-called B-Picture : bright, tough, with the rough charm and the rigorous approach of American entertainment. Rude dialogues in a slang that is difficult to understand even for Americans, hearty sex, bright but powerful glamor. […] Nothing is deepened, a lot is just hinted at. Tony's Italian Catholic home and brother who is leaving his priesthood, the ethnic struggles of Italians, Blacks and Puerto Ricans in Brooklyn, relationships within the gang and against other organized gangs, their brutal, contemptuous behavior towards girls and their “macho chauvinism “(Badham), their harsh, rather joyless living conditions [...] It is not a contradiction, but the special quality of such well-calculated American entertainment films and also the merit of the television-trained director that“ Saturday Night Fever ”was convincing despite all objections a piece of authentic reality conveys: dance and music as self-realization, disco delirium as a way of life. "

“In addition to endless, kitsch photographed disco glitter scenes and apart from the backstairs story that drags itself to a sackcloth happy ending with nonsensical melodrama, the film shows all kinds of reality when it drastically depicts the customs of a new American youth subculture. [...] The alternating vulgar and sentimental tone that prevails in "Only Saturday Night", the sarcasm towards one's own life, the country-style sexual jargon, all of which is of course authentic, is typical of a class of frustrated young men. "

Awards (selection)

  • Golden Globe Awards
    • 1978: Nomination in the category of best film - comedy or musical
    • 1978: John Travolta was nominated for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical
    • 1978: Nomination for Barry , Maurice and Robin Gibb and David Shire in the category Best Score
    • 1978: How Deep Is Your Love was nominated in the Best Movie Song category
  • British Academy Film Award
    • Nomination of Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb and Robin Gibb in the category Best Score
    • Nomination by Michael Colgan, Robert W. Glass Jr., Les Lazarowitz, John T. Reitz, John Wilkinson in the category Best Sound

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Saturday Night Fever . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. Nik Cohn : Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night. In: New York , June 7, 1976, accessed January 1, 2015.
  3. " Saturday Night Fever demonstrated that the crossmarketing of a movie and its pop-rock soundtrack album could create a double blockbuster, both film and record, and the role of movie music hasn't been the same since." Stephen Holden : MOVIE MUSIC SPICES A VARIETY OF SCENARIOS. In: New York Times , April 6, 1986. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  4. Hollywood Blockbusters, Independent Films and Shorts Selected for 2010 National Film Registry. In: Library of Congress , December 28, 2010, accessed January 1, 2011.
  5. Sam Kashner: Fever Pitch. The Making of "Saturday Night Fever": John Travolta and the Cast's Retelling. In: Vanity Fair , December 2007, accessed January 2, 2015.
  6. Michael Heim: Saturday Night Fever. The Messiah dances iron-free. In: Spiegel Online , November 4, 2007, accessed January 2, 2015.
  7. Saturday Night Fever. In: Movie-Censorship.com . Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  8. Richard Brody: DVD of the Week: Saturday Night Fever. ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: The New Yorker , September 1, 2010, accessed January 2, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.newyorker.com
  9. Office Mojo (English).
  10. Powergrid ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / powergrid.thewrap.com
  11. AFI's 100 Years… 100 songs. (PDF; 134 kB) In: afi.com. American Film Institute (AFI), June 22, 2005, accessed August 28, 2015 .
  12. Saturday night only . film service . Retrieved January 12, 2008.
  13. Wolf Donner : Romance made of plastic. John Travolta - Birth of a Mass Idol . The time . April 14, 1978. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  14. Film: Dance on the Plastic Volcano . The mirror . April 10, 1978. Retrieved January 1, 2015.