Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1970 |
| length | 113 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Otto Preminger |
| script | Marjorie Kellogg |
| production | Otto Preminger |
| music | Philip Springer |
| camera | Boris Kaufman |
| cut |
Henry Herman Dean O. Ball |
| occupation | |
| |
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is a 1969 American tragicomedy directed by Otto Preminger with Liza Minnelli in the title role. The story is based on the novel of the same name by Marjorie Kellogg , who also wrote the screenplay.
action
At the center of the story are three young people, a woman and two men, whose fate played a terrible role at a young age, as is learned through flashbacks in the course of the plot. They all met in the hospital and are now looking forward to their discharge. The disfigured face of the delicate, fragile and gentle heroine Junie Moon has been littered with scars since her former friend Jesse first knocked Junie down in a fit of anger and then poured battery acid on her face. The handsome Arthur, on the other hand, suffers from epilepsy and therefore had to be treated, and the third member, Warren, is a homosexual who was left behind by his mother, who escaped to Argentina at an early age, and who always has to sit in a wheelchair due to paraplegia. It is common to all three that they do not want to give up despite their handicaps. After their release, they look for a place to stay outside of the clinic for a new start and find it in a rather dilapidated house. Apart from their own difficulties, which express themselves in the sense that all three have problems finding their way in their respective situation in interaction with the other two, the environment also turns out to be in the shape of the new neighbors, who are very hostile to them, sometimes even aggressive face to face as highly problematic.
The optically least conspicuous Arthur initially finds a job with the fishmonger Mario, but when a neighbor spreads the vicious slander that Arthur is engaged in sodomy , he soon loses his job. To make matters worse, Arthur has in the meantime fallen in love with Junie, but in view of her recent experiences, she can no longer imagine getting involved with a man again and giving him her love. And yet it is love that the fragile and not only externally deeply hurt Junie Moon longs for so much. Warren, too, quickly reaches the limit of the possible with his problems. Not only is he gay, which at this time (shooting in 1969) is still seen as a major flaw, and he can barely live out his inclination in public; During a trip to the beach he even finds himself flirting with a well-built and well-trained beach boy - and he's black of all things! In these situations, which, despite all the tragedy, sometimes have funny moments, the fact that none of the three are helpless on their own, but that you support each other as best you can, proves to be very helpful. In the end, no one was miraculously healed or “saved”, but everyone involved now looks to their uncertain future stronger than before.
Production notes
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon was shot in mid-1969 and premiered on May 11, 1970. There never was a German premiere, but the film was shown on Austrian television in the same decade.
Liza Minnelli's mother Judy Garland died while filming in London (June 1969).
Lyle R. Wheeler created the film structures, Morris Hoffman took over the equipment. Stanley Cortez photographed the titles. Nat Rudich was Preminger's production manager.
Director Preminger was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1970 Cannes International Film Festival .
Reviews
The reception of this film with its deeply humanistic message was mostly positive, as the following examples show:
Kay Weniger's Das Großes Personenlexikon der Film located Liza Minnelli's early theatrical performances in the “tender outsider romance Pookie and Otto Preminger's curious, sometimes sarcastic disabled drama Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon ” and named approaches for convincing character interpretations in Preminger's biography the film a "bizarre comedy melodrama."
Roger Ebert wrote on August 4, 1970: “Otto Preminger's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is one of his better films of late. One of the ways in which he is successful is creating human entertainment from a rather improbable story. "
"Moving story (...) moments of comedy, melodrama and compassion masterfully blended by Preminger in one of his best films."
But there were also very contrary opinions, as the following two examples show:
"Absurd tragicomedy that remains disturbingly disgusting in terms of conception and execution."
"As if you were to watch an honored elderly citizen desperately trying to show that he is in love with today by putting on transparent clothes."
Web links
- Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon in the Internet Movie Database (English)