Ricky - miracles happen

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Movie
German title Ricky - miracles happen
Original title Ricky
Country of production France , Italy
original language French
Publishing year 2009
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director François Ozon
script François Ozon,
Emmanuèle Bernheim
production Claudie Ossard ,
Chris Bolzli
music Philippe Rombi
camera Jeanne Lapoirie
cut Muriel Breton
occupation

Ricky - Miracles happen (Original title: Ricky ) is a film by François Ozon from the year 2009. Ozon wrote the screenplay based on the story Moth by Rose Tremain , which appeared in Tremain's short story collection The Darkness of Wallis Simpson in 2005 . The film premiered on February 6, 2009 at the Berlinale and was released in French cinemas on February 11. The German theatrical release was on May 14, 2009.

action

Katie works on the assembly line in a chemical plant, lives in a council estate near Paris and is the single mother of seven-year-old Lisa. In the factory, Katie meets the Spaniard Paco, the two have sex in the toilet; a chemical accident occurring at the same time is only hinted at. Later she goes out to dinner with Paco, takes him home, and the affair turns into love. Paco moves into the apartment with Katie and Lisa.

Katie becomes pregnant and the baby Ricky is born. The baby is crying a lot, and Katie and Paco's relationship is suffering from the strain. When Katie discovers bruises on Ricky's back one day, she accuses Paco of beating Ricky. Paco moves out of the apartment and breaks off contact with Katie.

Later, the reason for the two bruises on Ricky's back becomes clearer: the baby is growing wings. Katie studies bird wing physiology. Katie and Lisa upholster the edges of the furniture with foam; Ricky is given a crash helmet so that he doesn't get injured while trying to fly. Katie doesn't want to see a doctor; she fears that the child might be taken away from her. While shopping for Christmas in a supermarket, Katie and Lisa are briefly distracted, and the unattended Ricky flutters through the busy shop for minutes. The high-profile incident gets into the press, Ricky and his family are taken to the hospital by the police.

The examining doctor indicates to Katie that she cannot offer the unusual baby optimal conditions for development. Nevertheless, she takes Ricky home with her, where she is besieged by journalists and the curious from now on. Paco also reappears after following the incident in the media. Katie apologizes to him for the mistreatment and Paco moves back in with her. Paco also suggested showing Ricky to the journalists and using the money raised to buy a house with more space for Ricky and his needs. A press conference will be organized; In front of the numerous journalists, Ricky, secured by a string, flies free in front of the new building block for the first time. Katie is so happy to see it that she accidentally lets go of the cord. Ricky flies away, disappears behind the river and does not come back.

The search for Ricky remains unsuccessful. Paco comes to terms with the fact that the baby had no chance of survival in nature. Katie can't cope with the loss; one morning she goes to the river to kill herself. Ricky appears above her in the water, his wings are big, he looks happy. He flies away again, and Katie returns to her family. The last takes of the film show Katie, pregnant again, looking out the window.

reception

François Ozon sees the film as an attempt to combine hopeless social realism in the style of the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne with a fantastic element. He was not primarily concerned with the fantasy aspect of the story, but with "the way in which it deals with family, our place in it, and how a new member, be it a new partner or a child, can upset the whole balance ”.

Already at the Berlinale premiere, the film divided the audience: "One camp thought the whole thing was silly, banal and boring, the other one as brilliant, poetic and exciting". For the reaction of the critics, the question was also decisive whether the fantastic element surprisingly included after half an hour of social realism offends the viewer or whether it is precisely the combination of different genres that determines the quality of the film. Variety critic Boyd van Hoeij, for example, viewed the genre mix as a failure: “Since Ozon stopped developing his characters after Ricky revealed his true nature, the film's slightly exaggerated working class realism quickly turns into a grotesque [...] story about Mutant baby. [...] The two halves of the film seem to be almost completely mutually exclusive. "

Other critics saw Ozon's film as a successful experiment. Daniel Sander wrote on Spiegel Online : "Ozone exhausts the fantastic to the point of farce, always on the verge of silliness, and at the end turns his film into a melancholy, bitter fairy tale." Zeit critic Katja Nicodemus was also enthusiastic: " Perhaps this is where the real sensation of Ozone's film lies. He succeeds in a narrative tone in which the lines between the most improbable and the most normal are blurred. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.berlinale.de
  2. ^ A b Daniel Sander: Movie "Ricky": Drama, Baby! In: Spiegel Online . May 14, 2009, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Original: "Because Ozon doesn't develop his characters once Ricky shows his true nature, the movie's slightly overcooked working-class realism quickly morphs into a grotesque [...] story of a mutant baby. [...] The film's two halves feel almost mutually exclusive. ". See [1]
  4. ↑ Katja Nicodemus: Cinema: The angel chick . In: The time . No. 21/2009 ( online ).

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