Robinson Crusoe (2003)

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Movie
German title Robinson Crusoe
Original title Robinson Crusoë
Country of production France , Canada , Great Britain
original language French
Publishing year 2003
length 205 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Thierry Chabert
script Frédéric Vitoux
production Jean-Pierre Guérin ,
Michael Cowan ,
Claude Léger
music Angélique and Jean-Claude Nachon
camera Carlo Varini
occupation

Robinson Crusoe is a 2003 two-part television film starring Pierre Richard and Nicolas Cazalé .

Changes to the novel and current references

The film presents an adapted version of the famous novel by Daniel Defoe in the year 1719 before. Unlike the book is the TV two-parter (16: 9) (Original title: L'île de Robinson and Robinson et Vendredi , German title: The island of Robinson and Robinson and Friday ) in South America or on an island of the Caribbean in the Located in the middle of the 18th century and designed to be very socially critical. So Robinson sees Friday primarily as a servant who has to teach civilized behavior. But the civilized Europeans in particular often turn out to be cowards, liars and murderers in this film adaptation, whereas Freitag as a supposedly “savage” shows virtues like courage, strength of character, loyalty and honesty. The film shows strong contemporary references, using the example of the relationship between Robinson and Friday to show how two individuals of completely different origins, cultures and religions must learn to live together. Parallels to current problems between people with and without a migration background in Europe, to globalization in general and the clash of different cultures in particular are obvious.

action

Part 1: The island of Robinson

1744: Robinson Crusoe inherited a sugar cane plantation in San Luis , Venezuela and has just been entrusted with the guardianship of his granddaughter Isabella by a dying friend. As a local contact, he is asked to accompany the slave ship Santa Lucia to the Gulf of Guinea . There slaves are to be bought for the plantations in South America . In order to satisfy his creditors , he agrees and says goodbye to his ward Isabella and his colored housekeeper Mélanie in the hope of being home again after a few months.

On board the ship, he and the captain quarrel when he first heads for Santo Domingo on Hispaniola instead of the direct route East Africa to sell slaves there. Robinson, as the ship owner's representative, refuses to agree and is unceremoniously abandoned by the captain in a boat near a small island. With great effort, he manages to reach the island on the same day. Exhausted, he collapses on the beach and is woken up by a violent storm during the night. The next morning he carefully begins to explore the island and is horrified to discover that he is the only person on the island. On the beach he discovers the figurehead of the Santa Lucia and shortly afterwards the wreck of the ship that fell victim to the night storm. Except for the ship's dog Venus, however, nobody on board survived the accident. Robinson brings essential items of equipment such as gunpowder , muskets , pistols , food , candles , furniture and his beloved square piano ashore. With the few things saved from the ship - the wreck is torn away by the tide the following night - he begins to make himself comfortable on the beach. In the captain's logbook , he reads his entry, according to which he, Robinson, died of quartan fever on March 18, 1744 and that his body was handed over to the sea.

Robinson's first attempts at hunting usually end quite unexpectedly: If he goes out with his musket to hunt wild goats, he only brings down a crab instead. If he wants to go fishing, however, he actually kills a goat with his spear. When he was eating the roast goat together with the dog Venus, he suddenly discovered a bullet in the meat. He wonders who shot the goat and decides to look for the shooter who, in his opinion, must be a shipwrecked man.

During his search, Robinson falls into a number of traps, which the stranger has apparently laid out to protect against intruders. Finally he discovers a cave and in it the name “Thomas Selkyrk” (Daniel Defoe's novel is based to a large extent on the true story of the Scottish navigator and adventurer Alexander Selkirk from the beginning of the 18th century). When Robinson is suddenly stared by a pair of eyes in the dark, he initially believes that he has found Thomas Selkyrk. In the light of his torch, however, it becomes clear that it is only a billy goat that scared him so much. All he can find of Thomas Selkyrk himself, however, is the skeleton, his pistol and glasses, and finally his parrot, whose "My name is Thomas" screeching had scared him before. Robinson buries the remains of his unfortunate predecessor on the island. This setback hits him very hard, because he had already hoped that he would no longer have to be alone. He decides to build a raft to get off the island.

While he has little success with a pitfall when hunting goats, all the more with pork traps made from piano strings, the construction of his raft from palm wood and bamboo is progressing. After he has finished it and, with some difficulties, also lowered it into the water, the raft drifts away on the river flowing to the sea with the dog Venus as a passenger in a careless moment. Robinson can just save Venus from the raft before it is caught by the current and drifts out into the open sea. Now Robinson resigns himself to having to live on the island for a long time and for this purpose he is looking for a new home together with Venus. Finally they find a safe and spacious cave close to the river with a view of the sea, which Robinson immediately makes comfortable. In front of it he creates a little garden and soon keeps a goat.

One day at the entrance to his cave he sees a ship at sea. Excited, he rushes towards the beach, accidentally falling into his own pitfall, but climbing out again and reaching the sea just in time to call out the ship's crew with shouts and rifle shots. Unfortunately, however, a thunderstorm with thunder and rain is approaching at the same time, and so he can neither burn down the beacons he has prepared for this purpose, nor does anyone on the ship hear him. Dejected, he returns to his den. Suddenly the river, swollen by the rain, breaks in and floods the whole cave with a giant surge. When Robinson comes to, his home is a mess. But what hits him even more: his beloved dog Venus did not survive the catastrophe. Robinson can only bury them anymore. Back in the cave he collapses and decides to kill himself that same evening. He doesn't manage to do that after all, but the following period of his life, as he himself says, is one of the darkest of his existence. He hadn't had the courage to kill himself, but he hadn't found the strength to live either, and had forgotten everything that made him a civilized being.

After an unspecified long period of time during which he lived like a wild animal in the forest, one day he discovered a human footprint in the sand by the river that was too small to be his own. That makes him wake up from his lethargy. Since it is only a single print, he believes there must be a second shipwrecked man like himself on the island. He draws new courage, returns to his cave and makes it homely and himself human again in order to prepare for a meeting with the unknown. Suddenly he actually sees smoke rising from the beach and walks confidently towards the sea to welcome the visitor. But in the forest he meets a group of Indians and, being pursued by them, can hide in the river just in time. After the Indians left the island in their pirogues , Robinson discovered, to his horror, the human remains of a cannibal meal on the beach. After this unfriendly experience, he built a palisade with an improvised drawbridge around his cave to protect himself from a possible attack by the cannibals .

Six months after meeting the Indian cannibals for the first time, Robinson spotted six canoes on the sea again heading for his island. He armed himself with muskets and pistols and went to the beach to face the intruders. The Indians have again chosen one of their own to be killed and eaten. But this time the chosen victim breaks free and flees towards the forest. At this very moment, Robinson, who was watching the scene, rushes out of his hiding place. He shoots one of the pursuers and wounds another in the hand. An additional warning shot in the air is enough to drive all the Indians to their pirogues and out to sea.

Back on the beach remains that terrified young Indian who should have been eaten. From a safe distance, he watches in amazement as Robinson buries the cannibal he has shot and puts a cross on the grave. With a look at the Indian mixed with pity and contempt, Robinson then leaves the beach and goes back to his cave. There he initially quarrels with God: “Is that the companion you are sending me to my island? A cannibal, a savage ?! ”Finally, however, he overcomes himself and goes back to the beach that night, where the young Indian sits singing by a fire. Robinson cautiously approaches the frightened native and offers him a fruit. The Indian takes it shyly and in turn hands him a roasted piece of meat. However, when Robinson realizes that the Indian has dug up the body of his slain tribal member and that the meat comes from him, he initially backs away in horror. As the young Indian turns away, disappointed that his gift is not accepted, Robinson calls him back and manages to bite into the roasted piece of human flesh - horrified at his own deed, he collapses.

Part 2: Robinson and Friday

The next morning Robinson leads the young “savage” - not without communication problems - to his den. Once there, the first thing the Indian proves to him is the uselessness of his palisade by effortlessly jumping over it. In the den, Robinson tries in vain to explain to his astonished guest how he came to the island and what he has experienced since then. When the Indian babbled on in his own language, Robinson had to admit: "It won't be easy." During the first lunch together, different table cultures collide, and when the Indian did his "business" right in front of the cave, Robinson bursts the collar: “Not even my dog ​​Venus would have done that!” Frightened, the native then jumps over the palisade and disappears into the forest. Robinson decides to name him "Friday" because the October 23rd he saved his life was a Friday . That same night, while Robinson is sleeping, the Indian returns, steals a large knife from the cave and disappears with it. The next morning, Robinson was astonished to discover that the native had built a hut out of bamboo and palm fronds right in front of his palisade and was sleeping in a hammock in it. Robinson is waiting for him in his cave. The Indian doesn't come to him until hours later, but to Robinson's delight he has brought a few mangoes with him. Robinson, however, still has to show him the soulful touch on the square piano ... During the first goat hunt together, Freitag proves to be a skilled hunter - while Robinson just caught one goat with his slingshot , Friday catches two in the bushes.

In any case, Robinson sees in Freitag, whose real name is actually Itáua, above all a servant and a worker, a loyal and courageous “savage” who needs to be evangelized - with which Robinson has little success. On Friday he also lets him wear knee breeches and a wide white shirt, which, however, turns out to be extremely cumbersome the first time they try to catch a billy goat. Friday / Itáua then throws it away angrily, never to put it on again. While Friday is still sulking in a corner, Robinson is over the moon because of a grain of wheat accidentally found in the folds of Friday's shirt, in which he sees the foundation stone for a large wheat field. After planting the wheat grain, Robinson starts another missionary attempt by explaining the sacrament of the Last Supper on Friday using the Bible - with dubious success, because Friday understands everything a little too literally at first: "Ah, friends eat Jesus - like my tribe too." When on Friday night in front of his hut a god dance performed, Robinson explained to him full of religious zeal that both of you heaven and the god in it were the same - Friday's reaction, however, is not exactly convinced.

To keep the birds away from the sprouting wheat , Robinson makes a scarecrow . Friday immediately builds his own, which resembles Robinson, whereupon Robinson, to the great amusement of the two, emulates his own scarecrow Friday. One evening, Freitag tells Robinson that, according to his belief, the soul of a deceased man passes into a jaguar , while that of a woman or child rises into the air and is inhaled by the jaguar. Robinson thinks that is very nice, but, as he thoughtfully says, "It's not the word of God."

Meanwhile, Friday does all the work for Robinson - he washes his laundry, fetched water, etc. When Robinson sent him again to fetch water, when he was just coming back from the forest laden with fruit, he had enough: Angry and cursing, he jumped over them Palisade and complains loudly to his - Robinson-like scarecrow - about his bad treatment. When the perplexed Robinson asks him what's going on, Friday only replies: "You ask the scarecrow!" Only now does Robinson understand that he has treated his companion like a workhorse, and he begins - knowing full well that Friday will see him from a distance observed a silent discussion with the scarecrow. Remorseful after he brings the visibly relieved Friday and himself a water gourd , and so they come to their reconciliation.

Robinson builds a door in his palisade so that the two can meet and talk more easily. They smoke cigars together and Robinson accompanies the drawing and singing Friday on his piano in the evening. Together they romp around in the river in which Robinson had to hide from the Indian cannibals many months before.

One day Robinson says on Friday what a good life they could have if they had slaves. On Friday's question, Robinson explains to him that these are life prisoners who have to work for them. Friday doesn't like this idea at all, and Robinson has to agree with him that the forest and the sea give you enough to live on even without slaves. At that moment, Freitag notices that six small boats are approaching the island. The two are hiding on the beach, and Robinson asks Friday if they would leave him if they were his people. When it turns out that it is indeed his tribe, Itáua answers the question in the affirmative - his people will always remain his people. However, Robinson follows him and asks him to stay. Although Itáua explains to him that he must restore the honor of his people, Robinson finally shoots the Indians, who lead to one of the pirogues on Friday. He kills three of the natives and Friday is left on the beach for the second time. When Robinson approaches him, Itáua is enraged that Robinson has killed three of his people. There is a vigorous and passionate fundamental discussion about the opposites of their two cultures and ultimately about the question of which is the more civilized of the two. Finally, Itáua leaves the European with the words that they can only live together when Robinson understands that killing and eating someone is also a sign of love, for example by incorporating the personality and strength of the dead.

Robinson’s upper arm was injured in the fight with the Indian cannibals and the wound is starting to get burned. While both spend their lives separately from each other, both hope that the other will come back to him. However, Robinson is too sick to look for Friday, and he is already building a pirogue on the beach to leave the island. Weakened by gangrene , Robinson finally plays the same theme on his piano with which he accompanied Friday's singing - and this actually answers on a self-made flute . For the first time Robinson greets him with his real name "Itáua" and apologizes for the words that hurt him. Immediately afterwards he falls into his arms on Friday exhausted and has to lie down on the bed. He explains that his only chance of survival is to take his arm off. Itáua takes a quick look at the book with anatomical instructions for an amputation that is available and immediately sets off to look for medicinal herbs and plants in the area. He treated the gangrene with a homemade paste and explained to Robinson, who was already on the verge of death, that his people would not be amputated, but cured. Robinson doesn't really believe in his friend's medical abilities, but lets him have his own way and also use his magical incantations on him. Indeed, his condition will soon begin to improve and he will be cured. After thanking Freitag and his gods, he asks him if he would have eaten it if he had died. Friday says yes, to which Robinson replies with a smile: "I understand."

Delighted by Robinson's recovery, the two friends fly a kite on the beach , and Friday makes a schnapps as a thank-you drink for the gods. The brew is drunk together some time later in the evening. In a conversation about the origins of the world, Robinson discovers many parallels between Indian mythology and the biblical creation myth . Then Itáua thanks his gods again in the form of a dance, which Robinson soon joins and at the end confesses: "Apparently I have spoken to your gods."

The next morning, Freitag discovers strangers' footprints on the beach to their shock. Back at the den they see that someone destroyed the little wheat patch and stole a goat. After all, in the forest they do not come across an evil demon , as Friday initially feared, but an at least as horrible-looking, ragged and filthy European who has apparently been speechless. Friday mistrusts the stranger from the start and denies him any soul, whereas Robinson recognizes in him a person who has probably gone through something similar to himself. Even after a while, the stranger finds the language again and pretends to be a shipwrecked man named Miguel Gilberto. However, he stubbornly refuses to cut his beard and matted long hair. In return for his new home and food, he is also assigned to work.

One day soon afterwards, Miguel excitedly comes to the cave and reports of a strange ship that is about to anchor off the island. Hidden on the beach, they recognize it as an English ship - but, Miguel warned, without a flag . The assumption that these could be pirates turns out to be wrong, but it turns out that the crew mutinies and the officers are about to land. Robinson and Friday set out to keep two mutineers exploring the interior of the island from their hidden homes and kill both of them. Back on the coast they discover that Miguel is with the officers on the beach, but that, strangely, they are still trapped. Robinson sets out alone and orders Friday to give him cover. When Miguel sees him coming on the beach, he waves him over and assures him that everything is okay. Robinson found this very suspicious and his suspicion was confirmed when suddenly two of the "prisoners" jump up and disarm him. To Robinson's great surprise, Miguel reveals himself to be the first officer of the "Santa Lucia" from which he was once abandoned. Before he can kill Robinson, however, Friday emerges from the water armed with a bow and arrow and kills one of the other two mutineers. The Santa Lucia officer is hit by an arrow before Friday can aim his pistol. The last mutineer then surrenders and Robinson and Freitag can free the bound and gagged real prisoners. They identify themselves as the captain and officers of the " Black Prince " and thank them profusely for their rescue. When asked how he could thank Robinson, Robinson replied that he would ask to be taken back to his home country - and that, mind you, together with his companion. After a moment's hesitation, the captain gives him his word. During the night, the British officers set out in their boat to retake their ship in a surprise attack. Two cannon shots are agreed with Robinson as a sign of victory.

On that last evening in the cave house on the island, Friday doubts whether the captain of the Black Prince will actually take him away because he doesn't even talk to him. Robinson assures him that the captain's word is valid and that he himself would never leave the friend, brother, son he now sees in him. And in his home country he will teach people to respect and love “Mr. Friday”. The two agreed cannon shots sounded at daybreak, and on the morning of April 18, 1759 , exactly 15 years and a month after his landing on the island, Robinson, accompanied by Friday, left the island on board the "Black Prince".

Back home, it turns out to Friday and Robinson's dismay that slavery has already spread to all plantations. After Robinson found his house with the faithful housekeeper Melanie and his beloved ward Isabella, an incident occurred on Friday when one of the guards attacked one of the guards for whipping a slave. During the first dinner together, all the plantation owners in the area suddenly stand in front of the door with torches and call on Robinson, the "Indian and slave friend", to disappear from their land. Robinson, Freitag, Isabella and Melanie managed to escape from the house just in time, which was set on fire by the angry plantation owners and went up in flames.

Soon after this terrible night, Robinson, together with Freitag and Isabella, board a ship to Europe, where modern and progressive ideas about freedom and equality for all people are in circulation. When asked on Friday what they are going to do in Europe, Robinson replies: "We are planting the grains of disorder!"

Reviews

Thierry Chabert's two-part film adaptation of the world-famous novel "Robinson Crusoe" takes you on an exotic sea voyage into the unexplored vastness of the Caribbean Ocean. The famous French actor Pierre Richard plays the great hero with curious charm. As the inventive adventurer Robinson Crusoe, he makes the hearts of explorers beat faster and vividly witness the transformation of a firmly crafted, Christian and colonist image of man. This film was made a good 300 years after the model for Daniel Defoe's classic from 1719, the legendary pirate Alexander Selkirk, involuntarily set foot on his island in October 1704. (ARTE TV program from December 2009).

General

The film started in Switzerland on December 13, 2003 and in France on December 22, 2003. On January 7, 2004 a French-language version was released on DVD and on February 7, 2014 the German-language DVD.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Robinson Crusoe - Part 1 . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, April 2015 (PDF; test number: 151 079 V).
  2. ^ Certificate of Release for Robinson Crusoe - Part 2 . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, April 2015 (PDF; test number: 151 434 V).