Devilish hug
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Devilish hug |
| Original title | L'année des méduses |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1984 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Christopher Frank |
| script | Christopher Frank |
| production | Alain Terzian |
| music |
Alain Wisniak songs by Nina Hagen |
| camera | Renato Berta |
| cut | Nathalie Lafaurie |
| occupation | |
| |
Devil's Hug is a French feature film from 1984 . The original title L'année des méduses means "The year of the jellyfish " and refers to the dangerous games of seduction that a young femme fatale plays on summer vacation in St. Tropez . This main character, played by Valérie Kaprisky , is related to the legend of ancient Salome . Writer and screenwriter Christopher Frank was responsible for the script, production and direction of the film, which was decorated with a lot of topless and nude scenes . The plot is based on his own novel of the same name. The opening and closing credits as well as scenes in the film are underlaid with songs by punk rocker Nina Hagen . Caroline Cellier received the César for best supporting actress .
action
The 18-year-old Chris and her 38-year-old mother Claude traveled from Paris to St. Tropez again this year for their summer vacation; the father goes about his business in Paris. They spend the days on the beach, the evenings in the casino and discos. Chris tests their effect on men, tastes their power and is happy about the emotional damage caused. The glamorous society also includes Vic and his wife Marianne, who are friends with Chris' parents, and Romain.
Vic remembers how Chris led him to auspicious secret meetings in Paris, at which she then turned him off at a certain moment. In St. Tropez she repeats her games with him. Romain, on the other hand, is a middle-aged bon vivant. He ensnares young women on the beach, whom he later brings to older men who reside in spacious villas or on yachts. Chris is after him too, but her coquetry is ineffective with him, which hurts her vanity. Romain calls her "Salome" and declares that he does not want to be John the Baptist . He would rather try to get the initially reluctant Claude. After dinner, he can lure them onto a yacht, where they spend a night together.
Chris does not allow her mother and unsuspecting rival the pleasure and tactics against her. She invites the German couple Barbara and Peter to her table to keep Claude from talking to Romain. When Claude and Romain spend another evening together, Chris goes out with Barbara and Peter and then goes to bed with both of them. The next morning, Peter left, but Chris lies to Barbara that Peter is fed up with her and prevents her from following her husband. As a disruptive maneuver against Claude's liaison with Romain, she lets her father come to St. Tropez. With the threat of betraying the affair, she blackmailed Romain into going out with her and taking her on the yacht. There he rejects her request to sleep with her, but tells her that she is an uninteresting, mundane woman who will never have the charm of her mother. She sees a flood of jellyfish in the water, starts an unleashed dance naked and pushes Romain overboard. Excited, she watches as he, stung by the jellyfish, tries in vain to get back on the yacht and perishes. The next day the police assume an accidental death. Chris brings Barbara, who is left without money, to an elderly gentleman before she and her mother finish their vacation and leave. A comment informs that, as Romain predicted, Chris later leads a stale life by the side of a well-off husband.
background
Leading actress Valérie Kaprisky couldn't cope with the media hype caused by her previous film The Public Woman , so that she had "a crying fit" every day. The insurance doctor ordered her to go to the cure first before she started filming. She was happy to work with the "very discreet and trustworthy" Christopher Frank. The recordings took place on location in St. Tropez and the scenes by the sea were filmed on the beach "Tahiti". In France, the film attracted 1.5 million cinema viewers.
reviews
French reviews
According to Positif , Devil's Hug is the least successful of the Frank films. The use of flashbacks and multiple narrative strands diminishes the effect of the whole. However, it is far from being an uninteresting film. He is characterized by an inexorable disclosure of the attitudes and relationships of the characters as well as a tangible closeness and sympathy of the director to them. The actors got involved in the game of false seductions great and added to the pleasant taste.
The Cahiers du cinéma had doubts that Frank had actually directed the film; any actor guidance is missing. The need for narrative construction is sad, and not even a film student would allow himself such flashbacks. Nothing remains but a parade of topless actresses.
The Revue du cinéma praised the excellent camera work by Renato Berta . The main character is a new variant of the Bardot from And the woman always attracts , only "younger, more naked and physically more free." After some wandering around, the story narrows down to the fight. Based on the unspoken and implied, the material could have been terrifying and fascinating, for example directed by Eric Rohmer . But with troublesome flashbacks and distinctive figure behavior, Frank becomes abundantly clear; less would have been enough for understanding. By emphasizing the mechanisms and meaning of the gender struggle, he deprives it of its playful character.
German reviews
The German reviews dismissed the film as insubstantial. The film service criticized the inadequate dramaturgy and one-dimensional characters; the “symbolic exaggeration is helplessly grafted onto the shallow film.” The Fischer Film Almanach described the strip as “rather banal” . In the opinion of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , the topics of the young, diabolical seductress and the pimp who exploited feelings were "exploited to the point of insubstantiality" by Christopher Frank. The fact that vacationers plunged into sexual adventures is nothing new and is once again "voyeuristic showmanship" in a film. The Frankfurter Rundschau saw a "boring and rather amateurish soft sex Schmonzette, which also makes claims. Valérie Kaprisky is once again playing her standard role as a pretty pull-out doll. "
Web links
- Year of the Jellyfish in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Valérie Kaprisky in conversation with L'Express Studio, No. 239, October 2007: Valérie Kaprisky revient dans Le coeur des hommes 2 (French)
- ↑ L'année des méduses> Secrets de tournage , allocine.fr.
- ↑ L'Année des méduses , jpbox-office.com
- ↑ Vincent Amiel: L'année des méduses . In: Positif, January 1985, p. 75
- ^ Hervé Le Roux: L'année des méduses . In: Cahiers du cinéma, No. 366, December 1984, p. 53
- ^ Jacques Chevallier: L'année des méduses . In: Revue du cinéma, January 1985, p. 32
- ^ Karl-Eugen Hagmann: Devilish Embrace . In: film-dienst No. 26/1987
- ^ Fischer Film Almanach 1988. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-596-24479-X , p. 309
- ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 17, 1987, p. 49, criticism not signed: Teuflische Umarmung
- ↑ Devilish Embrace ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. , Frankfurter Rundschau.
