Simon (2011)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Simon |
| Original title | Simon och ekarna |
| Country of production | Sweden |
| original language | Swedish |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 121 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lisa Ohlin |
| script |
Marnie Blok Lisa Ohlin |
| production |
Leander Carell Marc-Daniel Dichant Sveinung Golimo Per Holst Patrick Knippel Steffen Reuter |
| music | Annette Focks |
| camera | Dan Laustsen |
| cut |
Kasper Leick Michal Leszczylowski |
| occupation | |
| |
Simon is a Swedish history - drama from the year 2011 . It is a literary film adaptation based on the novel Simon by Marianne Fredriksson . The film was released on January 23, 2013 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc under the title Simon - Every Family Has Its Secret .
action
Summer 1939. Simon Larsson, a child dearly loved by his mother, likes to hide on an old oak tree near his parents' house and lose himself in books and daydreams. His mother Karin is determined to enroll him in a school in Gothenburg, but his father, the craftsman Erik, fears that this will alienate him from his simple background. Instead of reading, he should learn to fight. Finally, Erik lets himself be persuaded to pay Simon the school fees if he forgets his tree and makes real friends at school. On the first day of school, Simon befriends his Jewish classmate Isak Lentov, whom he defends against anti-Semitic hostility. He also visits Isak at home and thus meets his father, the Jewish bookseller Ruben Lentov from Germany. Lentov's wife is terrified of the Nazis and after Hitler started the attack on Poland and marched into Denmark and Norway , she tried to poison her family and burn the apartment down. She is admitted to a sanatorium and Isak is allowed to stay with the Larssons for the time being.
But Erik's relationship with Lentov is already strained. Since Simon had raved about Rubens' books and his piano before, Erik is jealous. When Ruben shows that he is grateful that the family is taking care of Isak by giving away perfume, sweets and books as well as wanting to pay money, Erik is even more annoyed. Meanwhile, Ruben worries about the Nazis and the stories he hears. When a German delegation in uniform visits Gothenburg, Isak escapes from school and no longer dares to go there. He is traumatized and is hiding with Erik. Ruben says that Isak had a terrible encounter with five SA men in Nazi Germany , who wanted to know whether he was circumcised and then tortured him for several hours.
While Erik takes care of Isak with devotion and keeps him busy in his workshop, Ruben turns more and more to Simon. He knows from Erik and Karin that Simon is not their biological child, but the illegitimate son of Erik's reclusive, supposedly crazy cousin Inga and a German-Jewish music teacher who has since returned to Germany. Ruben takes Simon to classical concerts. This is how Simon discovered his love for music. When he also wants to learn the piano, Erik gets angry. But he lets himself be softened and pays a single piano lesson. Simon is enthusiastic and asks to be allowed to continue to deal with music. Meanwhile, Isak is less interested in intellectual than practical. So he wishes to be able to build a boat with Erik. Ruben agrees if he goes back to school.
When the Second World War came to an end in the spring of 1945 , Karin had a heart attack from happiness that Simon had survived and was admitted to hospital. Erik, who has always lived in modest circumstances with Karin, decides to grant her all the wishes she had before. He is modernizing the house and installing a new kitchen. Meanwhile, Simon's love of music continues to be promoted by Ruben. He gives him a music system and a record. For hours, days, weeks and months, Simon listens to the same piece over and over again, Berlioz 's Symphonie fantastique , which almost drives Erik crazy. One day it is enough for him and he destroys the record. This leads to a dispute between Simon and his parents, where he learns that Aunt Inga is his actual mother. Simon says with satisfaction that he finally understands why he never really fit into this world. During his archeology studies he visits Inga. She gives Simon a letter that his father wrote to her many years ago from Berlin, but which she was never able to read because she doesn't understand German. Simon learns from this that his father loved Inga more than she suspected and that he missed her.
Simon leaves his home and moves to Ruben. With its help he tries to find out who his father was and how he can establish contact with him. Soon they received news from Germany: Simon's biological uncle, the conductor Ernst Habermann, let him know that his father was dead. Ruben and Simon visit Habermann in Berlin and learn that Simon's father survived two and a half years in prison in Buchenwald , but died three years ago of cancer . Habermann gives Simon his father's violin as a gift. In the hotel, Simon and Ruben receive the next terrible news by phone: Karin died at night on a rock by the sea and was only found late by Erik. Simon had left her in an argument because he accused her and Erik that his father could still be alive if they had translated the letter in time. But when he then played the violin, he realizes that Karin always loved him and was there for him.
criticism
Helena Lindblad of the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter was amazed that it took almost 26 years for the bestseller to be made into a film. In addition to the usual “scramble in the film business”, that would also be due to the Swedes' not exactly proud past at the time. However, this “broad story” is presented fairly through an “attractive and intelligent script”. She praised the attention to detail and the actors who breathed more life into the characters than is conveyed in the novel.
Malena Janson of the Swedish morning paper Sydsvenskan said that the film tries to "be much more" than just a collection of "archetypal conflicts". But he fails. He offers “just way too much”, which makes it appear overloaded and “never reaches the quality and level of an excellent film”.
Bernt Eklund of the Swedish tabloid Expressen realized that you had to compress the story from the novel in order to be able to film it. The interesting thing is to see how it works. In the first half of the film it was successful, but in the second half the level fell. However, that is less due to the director. Ohlin "make full use of all the resources available to her". It is also less up to the actors, because they know how to convince, although it is less the actors "than the film the actual star".
The lexicon of international films said: “A congenial film adaptation of a novel, which, in addition to being anchored in the Second World War, is about identity, origin and father figures. Well played, excellent in camera work. "
The daily newspaper praised this “film full of natural shots” especially for its optics, as it successfully captures the Swedish landscape.
background
The film had its world premiere on September 7, 2011 at the Hamburg Film Festival . After it was released in Swedish cinemas on December 9, 2011, it was released in German cinemas on June 28, 2012. It has been available as a German DVD since January 23, 2013 .
Björn Runge was originally supposed to direct. He saw the German film Der Baader Meinhof Complex and hired Jan-Josef Liefers. When Runge left the project, Ohlin was hired. She rewrote the script and directed. Liefers stayed with film and it was his first completely foreign language film production in which he took part. A Swedish actress living in Berlin trained the Swedish language with him over a long period of time.
The film is said to have cost around 50 to 60 million Swedish kronor . There were a total of 18 different script versions.
Awards
The film was nominated a total of thirteen times for the Swedish Guldbagge Film Award, including Best Picture , Best Director , Best Actress and Best Cinematography , with Liefers being named Best Supporting Actor and Nilsson as Best Supporting Actress .
German production
The German version was produced by TV + Synchron Berlin .
Web links
- Simon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Simon at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Swedish press review on kritiker.se
- Official German website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helena Lindblad: "Simon och ekarna" on dn.se from December 9, 2011 (Swedish), accessed on January 29, 2013
- ↑ a b Malena Janson: Vilse i schablonerna on svd.se from January 4, 2012 (Swedish), accessed on January 29, 2013
- ↑ Bernt Eklund: Simon och ekarna on expressen.se of December 8, 2011 (Swedish), accessed on January 29, 2013
- ↑ Simon. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c If you don't belong on taz.de from June 28, 2012, accessed on January 29, 2013
- ↑ An interview with the actor ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on maerkischeallgemeine.de from June 30, 2012, accessed on January 29, 2013
- ↑ Markus Tschiedert: Liefers plays in the Swedish drama on bz-berlin.de from June 27, 2012, accessed on January 29, 2013
- ↑ Simon. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
