Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Movie
German title	Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Original title	Sunday Bloody Sunday
Country of production	UK
original language	English
Publishing year	1971
length	110 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	John Schlesinger
script	Penelope Gilliatt and David Sherwin
production	Joseph Janni
music	Ron Geesin
camera	Billy Williams
cut	Richard Marden
occupation
	Peter Finch : Dr. Daniel Hirsh; Glenda Jackson : Alex Greville; Murray Head : Bob Elkin; Peggy Ashcroft : Mrs. Greville; Tony Britton : George Harding; Maurice Denham : Mr. Greville; Bessie Love : Operator; Vivian Pickles : Alva Hodson; Frank Windsor : Bill Hodson; Thomas Baptiste : Professor Johns; Daniel Day-Lewis : vandalizing child (not listed);

Sunday, Bloody Sunday is a 1971 feature film by British director John Schlesinger . The drama is based on the original script , revised by Penelope Gilliatt and David Sherwin, and was produced by Vectia film studio .

action

Great Britain, late 1960s: In London , which was badly shaken by the global economic crisis , the divorced labor consultant Alex Greville agreed to look after the children of the Hodson couple over the weekend, who wanted to attend a lecture with the Afro-European Professor Johns. However, the five children of the socialist couple hardly need Alex's care and on Saturday morning they even start smoking pot during breakfast together , which their parents have left on the record shelf. Alex's lover, the much younger installation artist Bob Elkin, will also be attending the weekend. Alex hopes to be able to bind the young man to himself over the weekend. She knows about Bob's affair with Daniel Hirsh, a successful Jewish general practitioner in his forties, but soon Alex can no longer hold the freedom-loving Bob and he is drawn back to Daniel on Saturday morning. Daniel also knows about Alex, who is meanwhile plagued by depression in the Hodson's house. She wants to quit her unpopular job, but doesn't know how to formulate her resignation. At the same time she is denounced by Lucie, the eldest of the children, because her absence from Bob has not gone unnoticed. Bob does not return to Alex until late in the evening, after a nap with Daniel, after a power outage in the house. While he fixes the problem, Alex can barely contain her jealousy of her rival and her anger at Bob. However, she later gets along with the charismatic artist again.

Dr. At the same time, after a visit to a pub, Daniel Hirsh meets an old love affair again and wakes up alone in his bed on Sunday morning. Attempts to chat with his neighbor are also unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Alex goes on a trip through London with Bob and the children entrusted to her. The day that began cheerfully ends in tragedy; because on the way home the reckless Lucie runs with family dog Kenyatta on a busy street. The Rottweiler is hit by a truck while Lucie gets away with no wounds. The child is traumatized and awkwardly draws the body of her dead dog while playing a painting game with David. Alex was also deeply affected by the incident; looking at Lucie's children's drawing, she reminisces about a traumatic event from her childhood. Alva and Bill Hodson return early from the lecture with Professor Johns, and Alex draws conclusions from the weekend and ends the relationship with Bob.

At dinner with her wealthy parents two days later, Alex's mother tries to convince her daughter, who has symbolically had her hair cut, to revive the relationship with Bob. While he turns back to Daniel, Alex spends a night together with fifty-year-old George, a manager who has fired his company. Bob falls out with Daniel after an argument broke out at a party between a couple of the doctor's friends. That evening he seeks out Alex, who is just saying goodbye to George, and they spend the night together. The next day, Bob had himself vaccinated against smallpox in order to embark on the long-awaited trip to America and exhibit his glass fountains there, which, to Daniel's annoyance, ruined the joint Italy travel plans. When Daniel visits his nephew's Bar Mitzvah , he is reminded of his own ceremony as a thirteen year old and the end of his childhood. Alex has since quit her job and decides to choose not to start over with Bob in the United States, or to wait for him to return home. Bob spends another night with Daniel before he quietly makes off and flies to the States.

Ten days after the weekend, Alex meets her rival at the Hodsons' house, who keeps Alva and Bill company at lunch on Sunday. She waits in front of the house until Daniel has said goodbye to the Hodsons. In a short conversation on the street, both of them make sure that Bob, their respective object of desire, has left England. While Daniel is acquiring language skills on his own for a vacation in Italy, Alex meets Bob's Toucan in her abandoned apartment , which he has given her to look after . The film ends in a monologue in which Daniel Hirsh mourns the complicated relationship, even though Bob was actually a completely uninteresting person.

History of origin

The drama is based on a script by Penelope Gilliatt, an English novelist and short story writer and film critic for the London weekly newspaper The Observer and the US magazine The New Yorker . Writer David Sherwin was also involved in the script, but was not mentioned in the credits at the time. Gilliatt worked closely with director John Schlesinger, who won the Academy Award for Best Director the previous year for Asphalt Cowboy , and whose personal life served as the inspiration for Sunday, Bloody Sunday , on the original script . Schlesinger, born in London in 1926 as the son of a Jewish pediatrician, was homosexual himself and, like the film characters, had gained experience in triangular relationships. The two renowned British actors Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson were hired for the leading roles . Finch already had a leading role in Schlesinger's romantic drama Die Herrin von Thornhill on the side of Julie Christie and Terence Stamp in 1967 . Glenda Jackson was one of the stars of British cinema at the time and had won the Oscar for best actress the year before for Ken Russell's romantic drama Loving Women . She proved her versatility in the same year with the leading role of Queen Elizabeth of England in Charles Jarrott's historical drama Maria Stuart, Queen of Scotland . The then 24-year-old newcomer Murray Head can be seen here in his fourth feature film. The three main actors u. a. by British actress Peggy Ashcroft , who had already acted under Schlesinger's direction in an episode of the British television series The Wednesday Play in 1967 . In the run-up, many actresses had rejected the part of Glenda Jackson's mother because they brought the project into connection with pornography . The American Bessie Love , a former well-known silent film star, played a supporting role as a telephone operator . Not on the list of actors at the time was 13-year-old Daniel Day-Lewis , who played an extra role as a child vandal in his feature film debut.

The film was made at Bray Studios, Windsor, Berkshire, England, and on original locations in London, including Hampstead Heath and the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich . The Englishman Billy Williams was responsible for the camera work , who like the leading actress of Sunday, Bloody Sunday , had initiated his international breakthrough with Loving Women the year before with an Oscar nomination. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's trio from the opera Così fan tutte appears as a musical theme in the film , which is played in the scene in which Fiordiligi and Dorabella say goodbye to their lovers Ferrando and Gugliemo, who are supposedly going to war. The piece of music was interpreted by Pilar Lorengar , Yvonne Minton and Barry McDaniel .

reception

Sunday, Bloody Sunday premiered in London on July 1, 1971. The film launch in the USA was a good two months later, on September 8th. The production with the advertising slogan “It's about three decent people. They will break your heart “(German: It is about three decent people. They will break your heart ) , was critically acclaimed and understood as an outstanding character study. He was considered pioneering and daring in terms of his open and realistic portrayal of homosexual love, u. a. one of the first screen kisses of a same-sex couple was presented in the film. The acting performances of the two main actors Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson were praised, who as a Jewish doctor or divorced office worker have to let their mutual lover go in a civilized and tactful manner, without great emotion. The focus was also on Schlesinger's production, which was able to build on the success of his previous film Asphalt-Cowboy , as well as the script by Penelope Gilliatt.

Critical voices nowadays complain that the film is getting on in years. Nevertheless, Sunday, Bloody Sunday celebrated its re-release in Europe on November 17, 2002, over thirty years after its cinema release, at the Czech Brno Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and on April 8, 2003 at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival .

Reviews

“The acting is flawless ... just right for Gilliatt's script and Schlesinger's direction. You are set in a very real and dreary London (mostly seen in cold twilight), and surrounded by supporting actors who fill the dimensions of the characters in all dimensions. I think 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' is a masterpiece, but I don't think it's about what everyone is supposed to think about it. This is not a film about the loss of love, but about the lack of it. "( Roger Ebert , Chicago Sun-Times)
“'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' is Schlesinger's (' Darling ', ' Asphalt-Cowboy ') smartest, least sentimental film, an almost perfect realization of Penelope Gilliatt's original script, which I think is the best original script since Eric Rohmers ' Claire's knee ' is. "( Vincent Canby , New York Times)

Remarks

Originally, the actor William Dexter was intended for the part of Daniel.
Peter Finch later admitted that the passionate love scenes with Murray Head had given him trouble. When Finch, himself heterosexual and married three times in his life, was asked by a journalist how he felt about the famous kissing scene, he replied: "I closed my eyes and thought of England."
The dog who dies in the film was named after Jomo Kenyatta (1893–1978), the first prime minister of independent Kenya .
Murray Head , who was praised for his portrayal as a freedom-loving bisexual artist, was unable to establish himself as a serious actor after Sunday, Bloody Sunday , but achieved worldwide success in other areas - in 1984 he celebrated a successful comeback as the star of the musical Chess . The song One Night in Bangkok from the musical conquered the top positions on the international charts.
Daniel Day-Lewis played his first role.

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1972 (1971 official count) Sunday, Bloody Sunday was nominated for four Academy Awards, including a. Director John Schlesinger and the two main actors Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. While Schlesinger and Finch had the disadvantage of William Friedkin and Gene Hackman (both French Connection - hot spot Brooklyn ), Jackson had to admit defeat Jane Fonda ( Klute ) . In the same year, the relationship drama received the Golden Globe for best foreign production in English as well as five British film awards , including a. in the categories of Best Film , Director and Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson as Best Actor. Finch also received the National Society of Film Critics' award for his portrait of the homosexual Jewish doctor . Penelope Gilliatt's film script has received awards from the Writers Guild of America , the New York Film Critics Association, the National Society of Film Critics and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain .

Oscar 1972

nominated in the categories
- Best director
- Best adapted script
- Best Actor (Peter Finch)
- Best Actress (Glenda Jackson)

Society of Film and Television Arts Awards 1972

Best movie
Best director
Best Actor (Peter Finch)
Best Actress (Glenda Jackson)
Best cut
- nominated in the categories
  - Best script
  - Best camera
  - Best soundtrack