Seven Women (1966)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Seven women |
| Original title | 7 women |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Ford |
| script |
Janet Green , John McCormick |
| production |
Bernard Smith , John Ford |
| music | Elmer Bernstein |
| camera | Joseph LaShelle |
| cut | Otho Lovering |
| occupation | |
| |
Seven women is an American film drama of director John Ford in 1966, after the short story Chinese Finale by Norah Lofts . It was the last feature film that John Ford could make. The German premiere was on March 24, 1966.
action
1935. A remote American missionary station for Protestant Christians in northern China on the border with Mongolia . The situation is difficult and tense. Mission leader Agatha Andrews believes she found the right way to proselytize residents by being self-righteous and tough. Other members of the mission include Miss Argent, the secretary and Miss Andrews' right-hand man, Mrs. Pether and, the only man, her husband Charles, who is a teacher; also Miss Ling, a Chinese teacher and interpreter from a distinguished Mandarin family, and Emma, the youngest member of the mission and daughter of a Protestant pastor. The mission also includes Miss Binns and Mrs. Russell, who fled the nearby British mission together with the Chinese villagers because of unrest and conditions similar to civil war.
Miss Andrews is physically and emotionally drawn to Emma and has difficulty controlling her long-suppressed lesbian tendencies. The fragile rest on the ward is supported by Dr. Cartwright, an elegant, cynical and atheistic doctor, is disturbed, especially when Emma becomes her admirer. After a love disappointment and professional problems, the American came to China to be as far away from home as possible. Cartwright, who distances herself from the others, gets into an argument with Miss Andrews, who mocks her point of view, her language, her nicotine addiction, her casual use of alcohol and her lack of interest in the daily church service. The other women, especially the tolerant Miss Binns, disapprove of Miss Andrews' imperious manner in dealing with the doctor.
A cholera - epidemic breaks out, almost dies in Emma also. However, the doctor succeeds in medically getting the situation under control, and Emma gets well again. Mrs. Andrews is desperate and confesses to Dr. Cartwright in a one-to-one conversation about their loneliness and their repressed needs through the flower. Mrs. Pether is pregnant but fears complications in the birth of the child because of her advanced age. With the help of the doctor, she gives birth to her child under simple, primitive circumstances. Her husband is shot while trying to protest against the brutality of marauding Mongolian gangs in a neighboring village. The regular Chinese troops abandon the group and withdraw. Miss Andrews refuses to leave the station. The Mongols occupy the mission station, rape and humiliate Miss Ling and shoot all Chinese people present except Miss Ling. The women are crammed together in an adjoining building and wait for their further fate, but remain unmolested. Dr. Cartwright manages to encourage and motivate the group to deal with the extremely dangerous situation. Mrs. Andrews, on the other hand, is the only one who is completely overwhelmed by the new situation, becomes hysterical, lapses into religious madness and ceaselessly quotes aloud from the Bible ( whore Babylon ).
The situation is coming to a head, there is also a lack of food and milk for the newborn. To save the group, Cartwright sacrifices herself by agreeing to become the concubine of the Mongol leader, Tunga Khan. In return, the Mongols provide the women and the child with food, milk and blankets. While Andrews and the bigoted Miss Russell are appalled by Cartwright's decision, Miss Binns, Emma and Miss Argent admire their courage. Dr. Cartwright is able to convince Tunga Khan to let the rest of the women pull away on an ox cart. The roles have meanwhile been reversed: Miss Binns and Miss Argent, who is becoming increasingly self-confident, have taken over the authority in the group, while Miss Andrews hits contempt. In the final scene, Dr. Cartwright puts an end to her situation by pouring Tunga Khan and herself poisoned rice wine, which they both drink. Both die.
Reviews
The film was not particularly well received by German film critics:
- The film historian Ulrich Gregor saw the film as 'ambiguous', he certified it was a 'schematic and naive design'
“The Western, which has been relocated to China, is John Ford's last, unfortunately not very laudable feature film: a torso of lopsided moral criticism, routine and willingness to compromise. Impressive Anne Bancroft as a sporty, fearless, cynical doctor. "
"The film, which the critics didn't give up, was shot in the studio throughout and suffers from its overly artificial scenery."
The film fell through with the American audience. MGM then ended the collaboration with the director. American film buffs , film scholars and film critics now rate the film as underestimated. Well-known New York film critic Andrew Sarris put him in third place on his personal best-of-all-movie list for 1966.
In France, the film was well received by film critics:
- The Cahiers du Cinéma put him in 6th place on the magazine's best list for 1966.
Claude Beylie writes in Cinéma 69:
"A rending tragedy whose stoic morality is of great beauty"
The Japanese film critic Shigehiko Hasumi writes about the film and, above all, its end, that no other film director has ended his career with such mastery.
background
- Last directed by four-time Oscar winner John Ford .
- Ford's brother-in-law Wingate Smith was the assistant director.
- Cinematographer LaShelle came to the set with an Oscar award. He was awarded in 1945. Art director George W. Davis already had two statues, one he got in 1954, the second in 1960. Set decorator Henry Grace also won an Oscar (1959), as did costume designer Walter Plunkett (1952), for whom the film won his last work was and the special effects technician J. McMillan Johnson, who got his statue in 1949.
- The composer of the film music, Elmer Bernstein , won an Oscar only in 1968.
- Sound engineer Franklin Milton won two Oscars before the project (1960 and 1964), and won another one in 1967.
Web links
- Seven women in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Review by Ekkehard Knörer
- Review by Dennis Schwartz (English)
- Mark Deming in the New York Times (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Ulrich Gregor, History of the Film from 1960. Bertelsmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-570-00816-9 , p. 448
- ↑ cf. Lexicon of International Films 2000/2001 (CD-ROM)
- ↑ Das Grosse TV Spielfilm Filmlexikon, Volume 1 - area Verlag - ISBN 3-89996-578-7
- ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum: Ten underappriciated John Ford Films
- ↑ Andrew Sarris Top 10's 1966 ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) 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.
- ↑ Cahiers du Cinéma Top 10's 1966 ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) 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.
- ↑ Claude Beylie in: Cinéma 69, quoted here from: Ulrich Gregor, Geschichte des Films ab 1960. Bertelsmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-570-00816-9 , p. 448
- ↑ Shigehiko Hasumi: John Ford, or the Eloquence of Gesture. Translated from the French by Adrian Martin, with reference to an earlier draft by the author in English , in: Rouge 2005, the French original published in Cinéma 08 (2004)
