River Queen (film)

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Movie
German title River Queen
Original title River Queen
Country of production New Zealand
UK
original language English ,
Māori
Publishing year 2005
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Vincent Ward
script Vincent Ward
Toa Fraser
production Chris Auty
Don Reynolds
Richard Fletcher
Tainui Stephens
music Karl Jenkins
camera Alun Bollinger
cut Ewa J. Lind
occupation

River Queen is a historical film drama of the New Zealand director Vincent Ward from the year 2005 , the times of the New Zealand Wars plays with Samantha Morton in the lead role. Ward and Toa Fraser wrote the script. The film was made on the Whanganui River .

action

New Zealand 1868. Sarah O'Brien grew up in a frontier soldier settlement on the (fictional) Te Awa Nui , the great river. When she was 16, she had a child from a young Māori . Seven years later, her son Boy is kidnapped by his Māori grandfather in the waka , which tears her heart apart. Her father Francis had cleared places that were tapu . In her search in the interior of New Zealand, Sarah is predestined to “cross the border between cultures” (Ward).

Her Irish father Francis, an army surgeon, breaks up with Sarah, and all she has left is to fight for her son like a lioness. Her only friend remains a veteran Pte. Doyle, tired of war, very polite, as an Irishman in the army of the British Empire , and unable to help her. Doyle was the one who recommended that she write her life down.

Much later, she is invited to the sick rebel leader Te Kai Po, with the offer to see her son again. Sarah is blindfolded and driven up the river. There she suddenly falls in love with the boy's uncle, Wiremu, who is a soldier of the settlers. She gets to know the Maori way of life .

With her qualification as a doctor, she saves the life of Chief Te Kai Po, who has a high fever. She finds her pubescent son and gets to know him in a new and completely different way. The budding hope of an existence and some peace on the small island is dashed when Te Kai Po immediately after his healing declares war on the Pākehā (settlers) - their people. From the heart of darkness , Te Kai Po sends you a written declaration of war that is not lacking in clarity. Sarah cannot accept that Boy wants to prove himself in battle and refuses to come back downstream with her.

In the further course she finds herself at the center of the conflict, she stands between the love for Boy and Wiremu, plagued by the emotional ties to the enemies, which she cannot cut, and sick of the violence and slaughter of the settlers under Major Baine. Sarah has to choose which side to be on. In the thicket it is difficult to recognize the enemy. In the fray, Doyle falls by the shot of a musket fired by Wiremu. Sarah is wounded. In fact, a bullet leaves a small hole on entry, but a wound where it goes out.

After all, Sarah is committed to the Māori and the foreign culture. A moko on your chin seals your decision. She lives alone.

Others

View of the course of the Whanganui in the middle section between Pipiriki and Wanganui
Tāmati Wāka Nene , ca.1870

The film is dedicated to the Māori chief Riwha Titokowaru (* 1823), Caroline "Queenie" Perrett and Ann Evans, whose lives served as inspiration.

At a press conference on June 23, 2004, a declaration PRECIS - Iwi Accord with Silverscreen Films (RQ) Ltd was signed with the Iwi's Whanganui Awa Films Working Party, founded specifically for this purpose , in which the tribes and sub-tribes of the region support the filmmakers who have been in trusting consultations for almost three years, assuring their benevolence and pledging their support.

During the filming, there was a considerable disagreement between the visionary Ward and Samantha Morton. Ward was temporarily relieved of directing and his longtime cinematographer Alun Bollinger stepped in. Morton caught the flu and filming stopped. But the director can also be tricky , as Bollinger added to the NZ Herald . In 2006 Ward said, “I have no regrets working with her. In terms of the result, it is simply spectacular. ” In the end credits, he expresses his special thanks to Alun Bollinger.

The young Rawiri Pene appeared in front of the camera for the first time in this film.

Composer Karl Jenkins conducted himself. The London Symphony Orchestra played , along with The New London Childrens' Choir , Belinda Sykes and Mike Taylor. To Still my Mind was sung by Mac McKenna, Danny Boy by Samantha Morton, Nathan Passfield and David Rawiri Pene, Lady Leroy and Carrickfergus by Kiefer Sutherland. The song Danny Boy (after A Londonderry Air ) was strictly speaking only written in 1910.

River Queen was comparatively successful in New Zealand's cinemas .

The film was released directly on DVD in the Federal Republic of Germany on May 9, 2007.

Reviews

  • "Ambitious historical picture sheet, which sometimes comes up with breathtaking pictures and asks questions about civilization and belonging, whereby much remains fragmentary and production-related breaks in the staging are unmistakable." - Lexicon of international film
  • “With a group of worn-out characters, all of whom delineate and shift wobbly boundaries (both territorial and cultural) on the wild frontier , River Queen fits into a long meandering course that begins with John Ford's The Black Hawk , through Kevin Costner's The Wolf dances is enough, Terence Malicks [sic] The New World includes, as well as Ron Howard's The Missing , Roland Joffé's The Mission and Rolf de Heer's The Tracker, with Edward Zwick's Last Samurai (early drafts were made with Ward's help) Ward's own escape from the ice - dramatizing the restless descent of a new national identity. [...] everything seems half blinking as if perceived from sleep. Undoubtedly a hauntingly beautiful piece of cinema […] Unfortunately, the effect is largely undone by Sarah's omnipresent, annoying voice-over . " - Anton Bitel, Eye For Film
  • "Looks like pre-release panic, above all" - Philip Matthews, New Zealand listener
  • "I saw little evidence of the fact that Ward was failing something." - Kristin Thompson
  • “Kiefer Sutherland has a hideous Long John Silver accent in stock [...] In top form, Ward is a gorgeous stylist who [...] can create images of overwhelmingly sensual, almost metaphysical beauty. [...] The strangest thing about a film that Ward has wrested for years is how distant and impersonal the strip feels. As if he didn't care too much what happens to Sarah and Boy. ” - Scott Foundas, Variety
  • "Takes us into the wonderful heart of New Zealand, both geographically and spiritually [...] a section of New Zealand history that does not attract enough international attention [...] just far too much steadicam , which is far from steady enough for my taste " - Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile
  • "Beautiful landscape shots and fiery acting, not least by Samantha Morton [...] What is really interesting about Ward's story is that the demarcation lines are by no means as clear as one would think." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Individual critics compare with Das Piano (1993, D: Jane Campion ) or Der Smaragdwald (1985, D: John Boorman ).

Awards and nominations

Bangkok International Film Festival 2006
  • Nomination for the Golden Kinnaree Award in the category Best Film for Vincent Ward
New Zealand Screen Awards 2006
  • New Zealand Screen Award in the Best Achievement in Cinematography category for Alun Bollinger
  • New Zealand Screen Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design for Barbara Darragh
  • Nomination in the category Best Achievement in Production Design for Rick Kofoed
  • Nomination in the category Best Performance by Actor in a Supporting Role for Rawiri Pene
  • Nomination in the category Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Cliff Curtis
  • Nomination in the category Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Samantha Morton
  • Nomination in the Best Picture category for Don Reynolds and Chris Auty
Shanghai International Film Festival 2006
  • Golden Goblet in the Best Music category for Karl Jenkins

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Press Kit , see web links.
  2. ↑ a b c s. a .: The Writing Studio: The Art of World Cinema: River Queen ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on November 5, 2007/14. October 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.writingstudio.co.za
  3. ↑ Alexander Bisley: Editorial - A Mighty Totara Has Fallen; River Queen a fine tribute. (No longer available online.) In: The Lumiére Reader. March 1, 2006, archived from the original on October 16, 2008 ; accessed on October 14, 2008 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lumiere.net.nz
  4. ↑ cf. James Cowan: The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period: Volume II: The Hauhau Wars, 1864–72. In: New Zealand Electronic Text Center. Victoria University of Wellington, 1956, accessed October 14, 2008 .
  5. ↑ cf. Titokowaru and Thomas McDonnell in the English language Wikipedia.
  6. ↑ a b c trailer.
  7. ↑ dpa-infocom: Vincent Ward back at the wheel of the "River Queen". In: RZ-Online . January 5, 2005, accessed October 14, 2008 .
  8. ↑ NZPA: Fill-in director lambasts star as selfish and disturbed. In: NZ Herald . Retrieved October 14, 2008 .
  9. ^ River Queen Interview. In: At the Movies. ABC, July 5, 2006, accessed on October 14, 2008 : "But I don't regret working with her in terms of what we finished up with because I think she's just spectacular"
  10. ↑ cf. Sacha Molitorisz: drama queen. In: The Sydney Morning Herald. June 30, 2006, accessed October 14, 2008 .
  11. ↑ cf. NZPA: River Queen hits $ 1m at NZ box office. In: NZ Herald . October 15, 2008, accessed October 14, 2008 .
  12. ^ A b River Queen in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  13. ^ Anton Bitel: River Queen. In: Eye For Film. Retrieved October 14, 2008 : "With its host of conflicted characters all struggling to negotiate shifting boundaries (both territorial and cultural) on a wild historical frontier, River Queen is only the latest in a long snaking line of films - from John Ford's The Searchers to Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves, from Terence Malick's The New World to Ron Howard's The Missing, from Roland Joffé's The Mission to Rolf de Heer's The Tracker, and from Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai (early drafts of which Ward helped prepare ) to Ward's own Map Of The Human Heart - that dramatize the uneasy emergence of a new nation's identity. [...] always seeming to be only half-glimpsed on the threshold of sleep. It is without doubt a hauntingly beautiful piece of cinema […] Unfortunately the effect is undone to a degree by Sarah's ever-present, overwrought voice-over "
  14. ↑ Philip Matthews : Watery grave . New Zealand Listener January 28, 2006, archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; accessed on September 9, 2014 (English, original website no longer available).
  15. ^ Kristin Thompson: Kia ora from New Zealand. In: www.davidbordwell.net. May 17, 2007, accessed on October 16, 2008 (English): "I saw few signs of the fact that Ward had not been able to finish all the planned footage"
  16. ^ Scott Foundas: River Queen. (No longer available online.) In: Variety . September 28, 2005, archived from the original on June 18, 2008 ; Retrieved October 14, 2008 (English): “Kiefer Sutherland, doing an atrocious Long John Silver accent […] At his strongest, Ward can be a ravishing stylist who […] creates images of an overwhelmingly sensual, nearly metaphysical beauty. [...] Strangest of all, for a movie that Ward labored years to make, is how distant and impersonal the pic feels. It's as though Ward doesn't really care all that much about what comes of Sarah and Boy “ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  17. ↑ Andrew L. Urban: River Queen. In: Urban Cinefile. Retrieved October 14, 2008 : "takes us into the magnificent heart of New Zealand, both geographically and spiritually [...] It's a part of New Zealand history that doesn't often get much attention internationally [...] Too much of." it, however, Steadicam, which is not steady at all [...] "
  18. ^ Peter Bradshaw: River Queen. In: The Guardian . February 15, 2008, accessed on October 14, 2008 (English): “handsome location photography and fervent performances, not least from Samantha Morton. [...] What is interesting about Ward's story is that the dividing lines are not as clear as they seem "
  19. ^ Philip French: River Queen. In: guardian.co.uk . February 14, 2008, accessed October 14, 2008 .