Trip to India

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Movie
German title Trip to India
Original title A Passage to India
Country of production UK , USA
original language English , Hindi
Publishing year 1984
length 163 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director David Lean
script David Lean
production John Brabourne
Richard B. Goodwin
music Maurice Jarre
camera Ernest Day
cut David Lean
occupation

Journey to India is a British feature film by David Lean from 1984. The film was based on the novel In Search of India (original title: A Passage to India ) by Edward Morgan Forster from 1924. For old master David Lean was Reise nach India his last feature film.

action

The film is set in the early 1920s. Adela Quested is traveling from England to India with Mrs. Moore, the mother of her fiancé Ronny Heaslop . Mrs. Moore's son by first marriage, Ronny, works as a justice of the peace in the British Indian provinces . Both women aim to get to know the "real India". However, after a long train journey through India, they soon discover upon arrival that this is going to be extremely difficult.

The British live like a ghetto among themselves in newly developed British settlements and meet in park-like clubs, to which Indians are not allowed if they are not working as servants. Ronny has also adapted completely to this life. Adela quickly doubts whether she should actually marry Ronny. Mrs. Moore also notices the changes in her son.

On the first evening, Mrs. Moore is learning while walking, which they in a mosque at the junction leading to the young Indian doctor Dr. Know Aziz. For her part, Adela goes on a bike ride, during which she comes across statues with erotic representations that obviously impress her a lot. At night, a strong thunderstorm does not allow her to rest, and the erotic representations enter her consciousness with great clarity. She now brushes aside her doubts about a connection with Ronny.

In the club she and Mrs. Moore meet the teacher and university director Richard Fielding, who, unlike the rest of the British, is very open to the Indian population. Both tell him about the desire to get to know the Indians better. Mrs. Moore indicates that she is Dr. Aziz also wants to see again. Fielding arranges a meeting to which the Indian scholar Professor Godbhole is invited. On this occasion, Dr. Aziz got the idea to take a trip to the nearby Marabar Caves . The two ladies enthusiastically agree.

The hospitable Dr. Aziz the trip to the caves. With the support of his friends, he organizes a large retinue so that the British guests lack for nothing. First they take the train, then they take an elephant to the mountains. Mrs. Moore has a claustrophobic fit while visiting the narrow, dark caves and leaves the cave. She sends Adela and Aziz alone to the higher caves to rest for themselves. In front of one of these caves, the two of them have a very confidential conversation about marital relationships and about Aziz's deceased wife. Your hands not only touch each other, they enclose each other. Aziz, too aware of this transgression of social boundaries, withdraws for a while to smoke a cigarette.

Adela, tired of waiting in the heat for a while, decides to explore one of the gloomy caves on her own. There she suffers a physical and mental crisis. Apparently, she feels more than mere affection for Aziz, whereby her memories of the erotic representations should also be important. When Aziz returns, he looks for Adela, but cannot find her at first. Adela, for her part, sees Aziz standing in the bright cave entrance, but does not reveal herself. Adela's inner struggle against her agitation becomes obvious. Finally, Aziz sees her running excitedly down the mountain and into an arriving car far down the street. It is Mrs. Callendar's car, which Richard Fielding had later brought to the travelers. When Aziz tells Mrs. Moore and Fielding of the strange event, they decide to return immediately.

Back at the train station, Dr. Aziz arrested for being charged with attempted rape by Adela. Fielding and Mrs. Moore are certain the sympathetic doctor is innocent, but the British judicial machinery has already started and is unstoppable. Adela, who has been admitted to Major Callendar and his wife, is placed under strong sedatives on their orders while she is recovering. In the meantime, the trial is being prepared. Aziz's friends, Ali and lawyer Hamidullah, hire the renowned lawyer Amrit Rao from Calcutta , who is a committed fighter for the Indian freedom movement. He has agreed to contest the process free of charge.

Fielding is disgusted with his British compatriots, who have already prejudiced Aziz. Mrs. Moore, who is at odds with her son Ronny, is also leaving to return to England. However, she dies after a heart attack during the cruise. The trial begins amid great turmoil and the British fear an uprising among the Indian people. However, the trial ends with a scandal when Adela retracts the statement she made to Mrs. Callendar at the time. Aziz is then acquitted and carried out of the courtroom on the shoulders of his compatriots.

Richard Fielding and Aziz break after the trial as Fielding lends his help and support to Adela after British society turns away from her. At Fielding's house, Adela also receives news of Mrs. Moore's death. Disappointed with the British, Dr. Aziz cut all contact with them. He follows Professor Godbhole to Kashmir , where he takes up the post of Minister of Education, and establishes a hospital there himself. Years later Richard Fielding visits him there with his wife Stella, the daughter of Mrs. Moore's second marriage. Fielding and Aziz make peace with each other. And after Aziz Fielding's wife, Mrs. Moore's daughter, met personally, he found himself able to write a reconciliation letter to Adela in England.

background

The producers Brabourne and Goodwin decided to film Forster's novel and were looking for a director for their project. The choice initially fell on Michael Apted . When he canceled, however, they spoke to David Lean, who had made his last film in 1969/1970. Ryan's daughter's failure had made him resigned, and he couldn't make up his mind about any further project. However, he then agreed to this project. He wrote the script, directed, and as a former film editor he was also able to finish editing the film.

The shooting took place from November 1983 to April 1984 for the most part in Bangalore . The houses of the British for the film were built on the property of the Maharajah of Bangalore, as well as the Indian village with the mosque. The producers tried to make the elaborate locations easily accessible for the then 75-year-old director without the film team having to travel long distances. However, a few locations were found further away from Bangalore. The landscape shots at the end of the film were made in Kashmir.

occupation

David Lean cast the film completely independently. There were major discussions about the casting of Alec Guinness in the role of Indian professor Godbhole. Lean, who was not convinced by Indian actors, absolutely wanted Guinness for this role - he knew him from previous joint projects and knew the talent with which he could also make characters from other ethnic races and cultures his own. As early as the 1960s, Lean Guinness had made an offer to play the role of Mahatma Gandhi in a film . The film project failed, but while preparing for his trip to India , Lean came back to the idea at the time to cast Alec Guinness as an Indian. However, after the film was completed, Guinness was extremely unhappy with his role. For dramaturgical reasons Lean had shortened the role of Professor Godbhole and cut numerous scenes. Guinness later spoke of this as the worst role he had ever played.

Peggy Ashcroft, the great old lady of English theater, had known EM Forster. He had already given her to understand when developing a theatrical version that he would like to see her in the role of Mrs. Moore. Initially, Celia Johnson was slated for the role in the film. When she died in 1982, Alec Guinness brought Peggy Ashcroft up for discussion.

For the role of Richard Fielding, Peter O'Toole was initially intended by Lean .

Reviews

  • Lexicon of international film : The last film by old master David Lean (1908–1991) is staged with brilliant routine, offers outstanding character portraits and fascinatingly exotic pictures. Unfortunately the time-critical substance of the novel by E. M. Forster - the gentlemanly racism of the British, the awakening self-confidence of the Indian people - takes a back seat to the show values.

Awards

The film was nominated for a total of eleven Academy Awards in 1985. At the 1985 Academy Awards , however, most of the awards went to Miloš Forman's film Amadeus , which had just as many nominations but won in eight categories. For Trip to India there were awards for Peggy Ashcroft for Best Supporting Actress and for Maurice Jarre for Best Score . Both artists were also awarded the Golden Globe Award in 1985. There was also a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film of the Year . At the BAFTA Awards 1986 it remained after originally ten nominations in the award for Peggy Ashcroft. The film was also able to win the coveted National Board of Review for Best Picture , while Victor Banerjee received the award for Best Actor .

DVD release

  • Trip to India. Arthaus Premium Edition . 2 DVD set. Kinowelt Home Entertainment 2006 (without English subtitles).

Soundtrack

  • Maurice Jarre : A Passage to India. Original motion picture soundtrack . EMI / DRG, New York and Hollywood 1984, sound carrier no. DRG-CD-19081 - digitally restored original recording (stereo) of the film music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the composer

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Trip to India. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 14, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used