O - trust, seduction, betrayal
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | O - trust, seduction, betrayal |
| Original title | O |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2001 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 16 JMK 14 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tim Blake Nelson |
| script | Brad Kaaya based on the play by William Shakespeare |
| production |
Daniel Fried , Eric Grid |
| music | Jeff Danna |
| camera | Russell Lee Fine |
| cut | Kate Sanford |
| occupation | |
| |
O - Trust, Seduction, Treason (Original title: O ) is an American feature film from 2001 directed by Tim Blake Nelson . The drama is a modern adaptation of the Shakespeare classic Othello .
action
The film O is set at Palmetto Grove private boarding high school in the southern United States in 2000. The only black student Odin, known as O, is known as the star of the basketball team and the favorite of coach Duke Goulding, known as "The Duke" his son Hugo hatred and envy. After Odin prefers another teammate, Michael Cassio, as the most valuable player to the coach's son, he begins to intrigue against Odin.
Under the pretense that he wants to bring him together with Odin's friend Desi, Hugo instigates Roger, who comes from a well-to-do family, to help him with his scheming plans, whereby he mainly exhausts his financial means.
Desi's father, the Dean Brable, is informed by Roger that Odin had violated his daughter. In the following, the dean confronts his daughter's boyfriend and is informed by Odin and Desi about their love, which the father displeases.
Hugo, who uses drugs for better athletic performance, neglects his own friend Emily, and tries to stir up jealousy in Odin by making him believe Michael has a relationship with Desi. The growing distrust in O makes him rude to Desi. In the course of the film, Hugo, with the careless help of Emily, who is Desi's roommate and girlfriend at the same time, succeeds in making Odin more and more convinced of his girlfriend's infidelity. After O, troubled by his jealousy, took drugs again and allowed himself to be seduced into further drug use by Hugo, he presented the jealous man in a staged spying on Michael with the last evidence that left Odin without a doubt that Desi was cheating on him. Driven by revenge, Odin confides in Hugo, who develops a plan to kill both Michael and Desi without arousing suspicion. Initially following this plan, Hugo, Michael and Roger meet on a country road, but out of fear, Roger only injures Michael instead of killing him, whereupon Hugo unceremoniously shoots Roger.
At the same time, O strangles Desi, who is already dead, when Emily returns to their shared room.
When Hugo also arrives in Desis and Emily's room, Emily breaks up his intrigues, whereupon she is shot by him. Odin, realizing his misjudgment of the situation, shoots himself in front of other dorm residents. In the end, Hugo is led away by the police.
Reviews
The reviews were mixed. Filmstarts.de particularly criticizes the unbelievability:
“Many of the action steps also seem overly constructed and lose any reference to the inner logic of the story, the behavior of the characters can hardly be understood. In the case of Hugo and Odin, they are even characterized very carefully, but none of the characters can win the sympathy of the viewer. A teen drama without a figure to identify with is of course even more difficult. [...] O is an ambitious attempt to transfer the Shakespeare drama 'Othello' into today's teenage milieu. However, the film fails with its plan due to a weak script as well as formal and representational deficiencies. "
Filmmirror overlooks such shortcomings, but O cannot attest much more than mediocrity and summarizes the film as “ Shakespeare adaptation, the 374th - everything as usual. "
“Reality should never have been a concern of Shakespeare, but rather the entertainment, the feeling, the dramatic. Actors are not a bad choice within the confines of a high school movie. Julia Stiles now has a lot of experience, Josh Hartnett has also been seen in similar roles [...], and Mekhi Phifer as Odin (Othello) in particular can please. The rest is unfortunately not more than routine, and so O can stand out by little, except for a certain plagiarism . "
Awards
- In 2001 Tim Blake Nelson won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director .
background
- O came u. a. Due to the difficult subject of 'violence in schools' in connection with the Columbine massacre, only two years after the production in the cinemas.
literature
- William Shakespeare : Othello, der Mohr von Venezia (Original title: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moore of Venice ), in ders .: Shakespeare's dramatic works, Volume 1 . German by August Wilhelm von Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck . Edited and revised by Hans Matter . With illustrations by Johann Heinrich Füssli . Diogenes, Zurich 1979, 334 (XXI) S., ISBN 3-257-20631-3 .
Web links
- O - Confidence, seduction, betrayal in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- O - Confidence, seduction, betrayal atRotten Tomatoes(English)