Ship reports

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Movie
German title Ship reports
Original title The Shipping News
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2001
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 10
Rod
Director Let Hallström
script Robert Nelson Jacobs and Annie Proulx (novel)
production Rob Cowan , Linda Goldstein Knowlton , Leslie Holleran, and Irwin Winkler
music Christopher Young
camera Oliver Stapleton
cut Andrew Mondshein
occupation

Ship Messages is a feature film by the Swedish director Lasse Hallström from 2001. The drama is based on the novel of the same name by the American writer E. Annie Proulx and was produced by the Miramax film studio .

action

His father had always been a thorn in the side of the plump Quoyle, who could neither swim nor speak properly nor make friends with other children. After dropping out of his studies, he hired himself as a printer in Poughkeepsie ( New York ) and decided to separate his feelings from life. He lets everyday life go through lonely without any expectations until one day he meets the attractive Petal. The extroverted alarm system saleswoman deflowered him after a few hours, and the daughter Bunny was born. Year after year, the marriage turns into a farce for Quoyle as well as for the adolescent Bunny, but both quietly endure Petal's excessive lifestyle. Quoyle's wife is not often at home, and when she does, she is mostly with another man who spends the night with her. When Quoyle's sick father and his mother commit suicide, Petal leaves her husband.

When Quoyle returns from the funeral home with his parents urns , Petal has disappeared with her lover and Bunny, and his father's feisty half-sister , Aunt Agnis Hamm, is standing in front of his door . She is passing through to Newfoundland , the home of the Quoyles. Hours later, police report to Quoyle, who inform him of the fatal car accident involving Petal, who sold Bunny to an adoption agency for $ 6,000 shortly before she died . Agnis Hamm stays with Quoyle and Bunny for a few days and persuades them to come to Newfoundland with her.

In the inhospitable area, the three set up in Agnis' birthplace, a wooden house fastened with wire ropes on a cliff near the fishing village of Killick-Claw. In his old and new homeland, Quoyle is repeatedly plagued by nightmares about his late wife and his aunt introduces him to the idiosyncrasies of his family.

While Agnis returns to her old job as a boat upholsterer , Quoyle is hired as a journalist for the local newspaper The Gammy Bird . He has to take over the heading of ship reports and report on car accidents . He falls in love with the beautiful Wavey Prowse, the local kindergarten teacher . Wavey's husband drowned fishing offshore years ago; the shock gave birth to her son Herry mentally handicapped . Wavey's son and Quoyle's daughter quickly become friends, and after initial difficulties, their parents grow closer too.

Bunny changes in the new environment, which makes Quoyle insecure. His daughter soon develops a second face , keeps a room in the house free for her late mother and tells of a thin man with a dog who sneaks around the house at night. Quoyle seeks advice on an outing with Wavey and the children, and soon exchanges fleeting intimacies with her. The widow is not yet ready for a relationship.

During a trip to Gay's Island, Quoyle learns more about his ancestral history from his work colleague Billy Pretty. His ancestors were pirates who one day cut off a man's nose and crucified him . Because of this crime, Quoyle's ancestors and their house were driven from the island, which they moved across the frozen sea to Quoyle Point. Quoyle now spends more and more time with Wavey and faces intrigues on the part of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper office.

As he goes out to sea in his new boat, he comes across a decapitated corpse. In a panic, he turns the boat so improperly that it sinks. Quoyle can cling to a floating cooler that holds the corpse's head. Quoyle is saved by his employer. The dead man was the owner of the "Hitler yacht" reported by Quoyle, and which was killed by his abused wife.

Quoyle learns that Wavey's husband cheated on his wife many times and tries to force Wavey to be physically close. The next morning, Wavey breaks her silence and tells Quoyle of a secret. Her husband, Harold, is not dead, but left Wavey and Killick-Claw for a younger girl when she was pregnant. Out of shame, Wavey disguised Harold's disappearance as an accident, took his boat out to sea and sank it. She played the grieving widow and planned to leave Killick-Claw, but the people of the village welcomed the woman with open arms, and she stayed.

When Quoyle, Bunny and Agnis leave the house to spend the winter in town, a heavy storm approaches. Quoyle takes refuge in Wavey again, and they spend the night together. Jack Buggit, the owner of The Gammy Bird , drowns during the heavy storm. When a wake is held for the deceased and his wife tries to infect him with the naval order, the pseudo-dead suddenly comes to life. Quoyle then has to ask Bunnys questions, who also wants a wake for her mother Petal. However, Quoyle makes it clear to his daughter that Petal is dead and that it is not because of Bunny that her mother left the family and died. The family curse seems to have been overcome and the chance for a fresh start has come when it is confirmed that the centuries-old Quoyle house was torn from the tightrope in a storm and fell victim to the forces of nature, just as Quoyle's daughter had dreamed.

Film music

The music comes from the film composer Christopher Young .

No. title
1. Shipping News
2. The Gammy Bird
3. Weather Rhymes
4th Killick / Claw Harbor
5. Deep water down
6th Dutsi Jig
7th One kite better
8th. Seal Flipper Pie
9. Strictly Fishwrap
10. Mooncussers
11. Alwyn Spiers
12. Asleep with the Angels
13. Death Storm
14th Botter yacht
15th Dog on Fire
16. Sail on

History of origin

The film is based on the novel of the same name by the American E. Annie Proulx, which was first published in 1993 and won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award . Proulx was inspired by the mysterious names of the fishing villages to visit Newfoundland and wrote her novel out of conversations with the locals.

The film producer Linda Goldstein Knowlton read the novel in 1993 shortly before its actual publication. E. Annie Proulx wanted it to be made into a film , but insisted that part of the film should be shot in Newfoundland. It took a year before Knowlton was able to interest the production companies in the complex novel. Interest increased significantly when the novel won the Pulitzer Prize. The director was the Swede Lasse Hallström , who read ship reports and felt strongly reminded of his own film Mein Leben als Hund ( 1985 ). The screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs adapted the novel for the big screen. Nelson Jacobs had already worked with Hallström on the comedy Chocolat - A Small Bite Enough ( 2000 ). The American actors Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore were hired for the leading roles , as well as the Australian Cate Blanchett and the renowned British character actress Judi Dench , who had also starred in Hallström's previous film Chocolat - A Small Bite Enough . Filming began on March 12, 2001 in Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , Canada , where all of the studio scenes were recorded.

The film crew traveled to Newfoundland for the outdoor shots. The production designer David Gropman traveled with the support of Newfoundland Film Corporation over the entire island to the right fishing village to find. The perfect backdrop to the novel eventually put the three hours from Newfoundland capital St. John remote New Bonaventure is where the houses in the 18th century emerged and were architecturally intact. The inadequate infrastructure , which resulted in logistical problems, made filming difficult . The people had always moved by boat, so that the entire island only began to be built in 1965. The selected locations would not have been accessible to the film team if the Newfoundland government had not commissioned the construction of a new main thoroughfare, which the film studio contributed financially to the costs. The increasing tourism on the island after the release of ship reports later justified the government's decision.

During the shooting in spring 2001, the film crew was surprised by the snowiest winter on the island for 119 years. During the three winter months, 605 centimeters of snow fell in the capital of Newfoundland, so the sets in the film had to be built in such a way that they could defy the forces of nature. The inconsistent weather conditions turned the shooting schedule into a lottery game - within five minutes the weather could change significantly to rain, hail, storm or snow. So the actors had to be prepared for every scene. An important motif in the film was the green Quoyle House, which was built in Halifax , Canada and brought to Newfoundland in individual parts by ferry. The film crew could only approach the filming locations with snowmobiles .

reception

Ship reports celebrated its premiere on December 18, 2001 in Canada . The US theatrical release followed seven days later, on December 25, in 186 theaters. Critics attested the film, which was among other things one of the favorites for the Oscar awards in 2002 , staging weaknesses and criticized deviations from the award-winning literary original. The drama, which opened US weekend sales of $ 318,000, grossed $ 11.4 million through March 10, 2002 at an estimated $ 35 million in production costs and became titled as a financial flop. In Canada, the work was heavily criticized for its clichéd portrayal of the people of Newfoundland. In Germany , ship reports celebrated its premiere on February 11, 2002 at the Berlinale and officially opened in cinemas on March 28 of the same year.

Remarks

  • The role of Billy Pretty is the Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent , who was actually born and raised in Newfoundland.
  • For the construction of the Quoyle House, the traditional Newfoundland style was used, which also provides for the houses to be fixed to the ground with ropes in order to withstand the strong wind. The wind can reach speeds of over 160 km / h in this region.
  • The fictional location Killick-Claw is a mixture of different elements of real locations.
  • In order to ensure optimal weather conditions in Newfoundland, the film crew printed T-shirts with the inscription Embrace the Weather ( Eng .: hugs the weather ).
  • Three actresses were hired for the role of Bunny, the identical triplets Alyssa , Kaitlyn and Lauren Gainer . Lasse Hallström had favorite girls for different scenes: he used one for the cheerful moments, another for the pensive moments and the third for the angry moments.
  • Originally, John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston were associated with the project. Billy Bob Thornton was later considered for a role.
  • In order to appear more authentic in the film, Kevin Spacey gained over 11 kg for his role as Quoyle, while supporting actor Jason Behr did the same and weighed almost 7 kg more than his normal weight.
  • Originally, the composer Jerry Goldsmith was supposed to compose the film music.
  • Newfoundland folk-rock band Great Big Sea were keen to have their music featured in the film's soundtrack . So the band members put their CDs on the stereos in the bed and breakfast hotel rooms of the actors and the director in the hopes that this action would attract their attention. Indeed, the band was successful, and managed to put five songs in the film, which, however, are not available on the official Ship Announcements soundtrack created by film composer Christopher Young .

Awards

Lasse Hallström's drama Ship Messages competed for the Golden Bear for best film at its German premiere at the Berlinale in 2002 , but had to admit defeat to the Japanese contribution Spirited Away and Paul Greengrass ' drama Bloody Sunday . Leading actor Kevin Spacey was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and British Academy Film Award that same year . Supporting actress Judi Dench also received a BAFTA nomination, while Cate Blanchett was awarded the National Board of Review for her role as Petal .

British Academy Film Awards 2002

Nominated in the categories

  • Best Actor (Kevin Spacey)
  • Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench)

Golden Globe Awards 2002

Nominated in the categories

  • Best Actor - Drama (Kevin Spacey)
  • Best film score

Further

Berlinale 2002

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2002

Nominated in the categories

  • Best movie
  • Best Film Composer (Christopher Young)

Florida Film Critics Circle Awards 2002

  • Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett)

National Board of Review Awards 2001

  • Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett)

Screen Actors Guild Awards 2002

  • nominated in the category Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench)

USC Scripter Awards 2002

  • nominated in the Best Screenplay category

Young Artist Awards 2002

literature

  • Proulx, E. Annie: Ship Reports. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-596-13041-7 .
  • Proulx, E. Annie: The Shipping News. Simon & Schuster, New York [a. a.] 1994, ISBN 0671510053 (English edition).
  • Jacobs, Robert Nelson: The shipping news: a screenplay. Turnaround, London 2002, ISBN 0786887818 (English edition).

Web links