Snowman (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Snowman |
| Original title | The Snowman |
 | |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 119 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 16 JMK 14 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Tomas Alfredson |
| script |
Hossein Amini , Peter Straughan , Søren Sveistrup |
| production |
Tim Bevan , Eric Fellner , Piodor Gustafsson , Robyn Slovo |
| music | Marco Beltrami |
| camera | Dion Beebe |
| cut |
Thelma Schoonmaker , Claire Simpson |
| occupation | |
| |
Schneemann (Original Title: The Snowman ) is a British thriller directed by Tomas Alfredson , which was released in theaters in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2017 and in German theaters on October 19, 2017.
action
- prehistory
In a remote house, the former police officer Jonas Lynn Helgesen regularly visits his lover, with whom he has a son. The two of them quarrel on his last visit. She threatens to tell his wife about the illegitimate son, whereupon Helgesen angrily replies that she would have seen him for the last time. The son overhears this when he comes back from building a snowman. Helgesen gets even angrier, gets into his car and races off. The woman and her son chase him, but lose control of the car in the snow and end up on a frozen lake. The boy manages to escape from the car breaking in, but his mother remains behind the wheel in silence and lets herself be "pulled" into the depths of the lake in an obvious suicide.
- Main story
Harry Hole (spoken: Hule ) is a successful chief detective in the Norwegian police service in Oslo . When investigating the disappearance of a young woman, he fears that a serial killer who was never caught could have become active again, who targets young mothers and always does his deeds with the first snow of winter. With the help of the brilliant investigator Katrine Bratt, the policeman, who belongs to a special commission investigating murder cases, has to catch the perpetrator before the next snowfall occurs.
Shortly before the later victim Birte Becker disappears, Harry receives a mysterious letter signed with a drawing of a snowman. At first he does not attach any importance to this letter, but then becomes aware of just such a (real) snowman that he finds in front of the house of the missing. Apart from the reference to a red Volvo that had followed Becker home shortly before she disappeared, there is no further evidence of a possible criminal offense.
Shortly thereafter, the police received a complaint about another missing woman named Sylvia Otterson. When Harry and Katrine drive to Otterson's farmhouse to investigate, they find the young woman alive and well. They classify the ad as a joke call and leave, but shortly afterwards a figure with a black ski mask stalks and kills Sylvia in front of her house. She beheads them with a motorized cable. On the way back, Harry receives another call regarding Otterson and immediately turns back. Now he is suddenly facing Sylvia's identical twin sister Ane. They search the property and find Sylvia's decapitated body in her barn and her head on a snowman. Ane knows that her sister was pregnant, and since she didn't know who she was, she had the child aborted a few weeks ago. It turns out that both the still missing Birte Becker and Sylvia Otterson are patients of the gynecologist Dr. Idar Vetlesen were. Harry and Katrine ask the doctor what initially doesn't help them in their search for clues.
On the other hand, Harry draws attention to the snowman figures in connection with the letter and leads him to research the old cases. This leads him to an earlier case in Bergen , which has similar circumstances. Harry therefore wants to contact the investigator at the time, Gert Rafto, who had dealt with the case at the time. But when he arrives in Bergen, he learns that Rafto had died eight years ago from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that the case had been closed after his apparent suicide. Harry finds a photo in Rafto's old hut, which makes it clear to him that his new colleague Katrine is Rafto's daughter.
While Harry is in Bergen, the missing Birte Becker's cell phone starts sending again. The signal is traced back to Vetlesen's house. When the police and Harry arrive, they find the dead Vetlesen, along with the remains of Becker and another victim named Hegen Dahl. When Harry meets Katrine, he confronts her and she admits that she wants to find her father's killer. She is sure that her father did not commit suicide, but found the perpetrator. She suspects that Arve Støp, a business tycoon involved in the earlier case, is behind the death of her father. Støp is involved in a high-class prostitution ring that was supervised by Idar Vetlesen. Harry reprimands her for her plan, but cannot prevent her from taking action against Støp. She wants to set a trap for him and tries to seduce him. While she is waiting for Støp in a hotel room, she is attacked by a masked man. The next morning Harry sees the print of a snowman on a snow-covered car in front of his apartment and finds Katrine dead in the driver's seat.
Harry finds out that the last victims were all treated by Idar Vetlesen, but also by the hormone specialist Mathias Lynn Helgesen, who drives a red Volvo. Fatally, this is the current boyfriend of his ex-wife, Rakel, with whom Harry is still in contact because they have a son. Harry now realizes why he got this strange letter in the beginning, because the perpetrator always had him in his sights. So Harry has to realize that Mathias obviously kidnapped Rakel and Oleg too. He takes up the chase and finds the three in Helgesen's country house. Helgesen holds Rakel and Oleg prisoner. He has put a wire loop around Squeegee's neck and threatens to behead her with the motorized cable. So he forces Harry to admit that he abandoned his wife and child out of selfishness, just as Helgesen did from his father. Harry is able to free Squeegee's neck from the noose with a spontaneous attack, but loses one of his fingers in the process. After a bitter duel, Helgesen escapes, except for the frozen lake in front of his country house. Harry chases him and is shot in the leg by Helgesen. However, the latter can no longer fire a second and fatal shot because the ice breaks under his feet and the current pulls him under the ice and into his death.
After Harry's injuries heal, he returns to the police force and volunteers for a new murder case.
production
The film is based on the bestseller Snowman (original title Snømannen ) by Jo Nesbø from 2007. In Snømannen , as in other detective novels, Nesbø tells of cases involving Chief Inspector Harry Hole. After initially directed by Martin Scorsese , Tomas Alfredson later took over this work.
Filming began on January 18, 2016 in Oslo. Other locations were in Bergen and in the area of Rjukan and thus mainly in the Norwegian cities of the literary source. Dion Beebe acted as cameraman . A dpa review of the film said of the result of the collaboration: “Alfredson staged the picturesque snowy landscape as a gloomy wasteland that exudes a morbid charm. According to his own account, he deliberately concealed the recognizable Norwegian character in order to give the film an international feel. The police cars have no lettering. You hardly ever see names on shops or any signs. The name Harry Hole is always pronounced in English, although the inspector is actually called Hoh-le . "
The film music was composed by Marco Beltrami . The recording was made in August 2017. The soundtrack to the film comprises 25 pieces of music and was released on October 20, 2017 by Back Lot Music.
The film premiered on October 7, 2017 as part of the Haifa Film Festival . The film was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2017 and in German cinemas on October 19, 2017. A release on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray is planned for March 2018.
reception
Age rating
In the US, the MPAA gave the film an R rating for gruesome images, depictions of violence, language and sex and nude scenes, which corresponds to a rating of 17 and over. In Germany the film is FSK 16 . The statement of reasons for release states: “Despite its predominantly calm narrative style, the film has a sustained high level of tension and a gloomy atmosphere, which, in combination with drastic depictions of violence and the family issue, can overwhelm children and young people under the age of 16. Due to their media experience, 16-year-olds are able to decipher the genre mechanisms and to distance themselves sufficiently. "
Reviews
So far, the film has only won over 7 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics (as of July 29, 2019). There were hardly any positive voices in the German press either:
In a criticism of the film by the dpa it says about the work of Tomas Alfredson that he tells the story as a more traditional crime thriller with some flashbacks: “The novel was heavily modified. This applies particularly to Hole's colleague Bratt. As expected, the 500-page novel in the German version was reduced for the two-hour film adaptation. Sometimes, however, the impression arises that some elements from the book have been taken over without the necessary context. ”The review also explains that Alfredson initially relied on subtle tension, and later the film surprised with a few drastic depictions of violence. It goes on to say that Schneemann has some very exciting moments, but overall the script seems too constructed and simply not conclusive enough, the characters often behave too irrationally, and some characters even seem superfluous: “Despite its high-class cast, Schneemann doesn't offer a great cinema in the end , but looks more like an average TV thriller. "
Andreas Borcholte from Spiegel Online also said that Alfredson had misled himself with the film, which had failed on many levels. Despite an actor-ensemble, which is almost occupied absurd top-class down to the smallest supporting role, despite full professionals like Oscar winner Dion Beebe behind the camera and Martin Scorsese's masterpiece-editor Thelma Schoonmaker at the intersection and a three-member screenwriter team to the next Peter Straughan also Søren Sveistrup heard that The Snowman did not want to become a coherent, rounded or even exciting film.
Wessel's film review judged: Snowman “is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the serial killer thriller based on a bestseller by Jo Nesbø works about leaving the viewer in the dark about the perpetrator until the end and finally surprising when it is broken up. On the other hand, Tomas Alfredson leaves too many questions unanswered and the storylines come to nothing, so that the impression arises that the film fell victim to the scissors beforehand. The result: a lot seems constructed and not always logical. Nevertheless it is entertaining - also thanks to the strong cast! "
Gross profit
The worldwide revenue of the film from theatrical screenings so far amounts to approximately 43 million US dollars. So far, the film has had 453,270 visitors in Germany.
Web links
- Snowman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Snowman in the German dubbing file
- The Snowman - Official site of Universal Pictures (English)
- Snowman - Official Trailer from Universal Pictures Austria on Youtube (Video)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for snowman . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 172287 / K).
- ↑ Age rating for snowman . Youth Media Commission .
- ^ Brendan Bettinger: Tomas Alfredson to Direct THE SNOWMAN; Martin Scorsese to Executive Produce. Collider, April 28, 2014, accessed July 30, 2017 .
- ↑ Wendy Mitchell: Tomas Alfredson's 'The Snowman' begins shoot with Michael Fassbender. Screen Daily, January 19, 2016, accessed July 30, 2017 .
- ^ The Snowman. (No longer available online.) Universal Pictures, archived from the original on July 30, 2017 ; accessed on July 30, 2017 (English). 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.
- ↑ a b FOCUS Online: London: "Snowman": TV thriller instead of big cinema . In: FOCUS Online . ( focus.de [accessed on August 26, 2018]).
- ^ The Snowman | Film Music Reporter. Retrieved August 26, 2018 (American English).
- ↑ 'The Snowman' soundtrack details | Film Music Reporter. Retrieved August 26, 2018 (American English).
- ^ The Snowman In: soundtrack.net. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
- ↑ The Snowman In: haifaff.co.il. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
- ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
- ↑ "Schneemann" will be released in March 2018 on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray . In: 4K movies . October 17, 2017 ( 4kfilme.de [accessed August 26, 2018]).
- ↑ The Snowman In: parentpreviews.com. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
- ↑ Reason for release for snow man In: Voluntary self-control of the film industry. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
- ↑ The Snowman In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
- ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Jo Nesbø film: When the snowman is missing a nose In: Spiegel Online, October 19, 2017.
- ↑ Film review at wessels-filmkritik.com, accessed on May 20, 2020 ..
- ↑ The Snowman (2017) - Box Office Mojo. Accessed August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Top 100 Germany 2017. In: insidekino.com. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
