The illusionist

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Movie
German title The illusionist
Original title The illusionist
The Illusionist (2006 English movie poster) .png
Country of production USA , Czech Republic
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length 110 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Neil Burger
script Neil Burger
production Brian Koppelman,
David Levien,
Michael London ,
Cathy Schulman ,
Bob Yari
music Philip Glass
camera Dick Pope
cut Naomi Geraghty
occupation
synchronization

The Illusionist (also: The Illusionist - Nothing is what it seems ) is an American film directed by Neil Burger . The film can be assigned to the genres of fantasy film , drama and thriller . It came to US cinemas on August 18, 2006, and was released nationwide on September 1, 2006. The film is a co-production by Michael London Productions , Stillking Films , Contagious Entertainment , Bob Yari Productions and Bull's Eye Entertainment distributed by Yari Film Group Releasing . The work is a film adaptation of the short story Eisenheim the Illusionist by Steven Millhauser . The film premiered at the Newport Beach International Film Festival on April 27, 2006.

action

At the beginning of the film you can see a man on stage who is arrested and taken away before the performance ends. Then a flashback begins to tell the story of the man.

Eduard is the son of a simple carpenter who was spending his youth in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century when he met Duchess Sophie von Teschen one day. He entertains and fascinates her with magic tricks, to which he was inspired by a stranger. Despite their different status, the two become good friends, fall in love and want to escape to Asia together. Eduard gives Sophie a self-made wooden medallion with a secret compartment that contains a picture of him. When the two meet at night to run away, they are picked up by the duke's guards and separated from each other.

Eduard travels to Bohemia, Russia and the Orient and returns to Vienna 15 years later as Eisenheim - the illusionist . He rents a theater for his daily magic performances, fascinates ordinary citizens with his performances and arouses the interest of the aristocrats. Even Crown Prince Leopold visited in the company of Sophie who to marry, he intends to one of the performances of iron home. When he asks a volunteer from the audience onto the stage, Leopold sends Sophie to the front, in whom Eisenheim recognizes his childhood sweetheart, in contrast to her.

Eisenheim gratefully accepts the invitation of the Crown Prince to hold a private performance behind the walls of the Hofburg, which will be attended by the entire court and in which the Crown Prince intends to expose all of Eisenheim's deceptions, knowing full well that this will allow him to see Sophie again after one the magician’s final remark recognizes his true identity. She sends him a message and they meet in secret. But since she is under constant observation by the Vienna police, Chief Inspector Uhl gets wind of it, who immediately asks Eisenheim about the reason for the meeting and urgently warns him of further stupidities.

At the agreed demonstration, Eisenheim borrows the jeweled sword of the Crown Prince and has it balanced with its point on the ground. He asks two people from the audience to come forward, but they do not manage to lift the sword - based on the story of King Arthur - because they are not the rightful owners. Prince Leopold finally succeeds, but with a delay caused by Eisenheim. This show of force annoys the prince and he orders Uhl to somehow prevent Eisenheim's performance.

Shortly afterwards, Sophie visits Eisenheim at his house to warn him that he will probably have to leave town after the incident. Eisenheim interrupts the ensuing battle of words with a stormy kiss, and the two spend a night of love together.

Leopold learns from Uhl about the meeting between Sophie and Eisenheim. Uhl is set to find out what is behind the illusions of Eisenheim in order to be able to arrest him as a fraudster. The Crown Prince does everything in his power to destroy the romance between Sophie and Eisenheim, fearing that Eisenheim could thwart his plans. Sophie, who comes from an aristocratic Hungarian family, is said to win the favor of the Hungarians for the Crown Prince by announcing her engagement in Budapest . With the help of the Hungarians, he plans to overthrow his father in order to achieve his coronation as King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria.

The theater is closed and Uhl informs the prince about Sophie's intended escape, who wants to start a new life with Eisenheim and to leave the crown prince. Leopold, furious, confronts her and tells him that she does not want to marry him. She says goodbye to him, but the Crown Prince does not want to let her go. Drunk and watched by his servants, he follows her into the stable, whereupon a scream can be heard and a horse gallops out of the stable with bloodied, motionless Sophie in the saddle.

The body of Sophie is found by Eisenheim and a search party in a river the next day. Although Eisenheim believes that the Crown Prince murdered Sophie, the police arrest another who is found guilty and goes to prison.

Eisenheim develops a new stage program in which he appears to briefly conjure up the souls of dead people on the stage, who move and answer the questions of those present. This new show causes such an uproar that the Crown Prince wants to get rid of the magician for good. After Eisenheim apparently conjured the dead Sophie onto the stage in one of his shows, suggesting to the fascinated audience that her killer was still at large, Chief Inspector Uhl wants to arrest him on stage, but Eisenheim disappears in the same way as his conjured holograms .

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Uhl finds clues that point to the Crown Prince's culprit, including the medallion that Eisenheim had given Sophie. It is found together with a stone from the sword of the crown prince when the alleged crime scene is again inspected in the royal stables. Uhl confronts Leopold, who first threatens him with a revolver, and then has to watch how the Crown Prince himself, in view of the overwhelming evidence and the approaching officers of the emperor's general staff, who received Uhl's incriminating material about the planned overthrow of the emperor shoots. A little later, on the street, Uhl receives a folder from Eisenheim from a little boy that explains one of his tricks (orange tree). This action served as a diversion so that Sophie's medallion was stolen from the pocket of the chief inspector unnoticed when it was handed over.

Uhl takes up the trail of the illusionist again and follows him to the train station, but comes too late to reach the train that Eisenheim had boarded shortly before. While the train leaves the station, Uhl looks back over the events of the past few days. Only now does he recognize, with a smile on his face, the illusion that Eisenheim had created perfectly:

Since Eisenheim and Sophie were aware that they could not leave the Crown Prince without both of them being persecuted by him and his followers to the end of their lives, they had to fake their murder. In order to direct suspicion to the Crown Prince, Eisenheim had removed some precious stones from the monarch's sword during his magic demonstration at the royal court and placed them in the straw of the horse stable and the duchess's dress. The alleged doctor who had confirmed Sophie's death had previously appeared in another role at Eisenheim's side. To cloud Leopold's memories of the night of the murder, Sophie had added a narcotic to his wine .

Meanwhile, Eisenheim and Sophie have left. You can see him striding across a large meadow and running towards a small wooden hut. There he meets Sophie and hands her the medallion. They hug happily.

background

Filming began on April 4, 2004 in Tábor , Český Krumlov and Prague in the Czech Republic, with a budget of around 17 million US dollars , and ended in May 2005.

The film, which is actually set in Vienna, was shot in the Czech Republic for budget reasons.

Film premieres took place a. at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 25, 2006; and at the Maui Film Festival on June 17, 2006. A simultaneous theatrical release of the film with Prestige - Masters of Magic was waived in Germany. It was distributed on DVD in Germany on January 5th, 2009 .

The film alludes to contemporary magic tricks, such as Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin's Orangenbaum and the ghost projections popular in Vienna at the turn of the century, for example in the theater by Anton Kratky-Baschik . The technical advice was provided by Ricky Jay .

German dubbed version

The German dubbing of the theatrical version was done by Digital Media Technologie in Hamburg . The synchronous Director led Michael Bartel , who is also the dialogue book written. The German synchronization of the DVD version was created at Atelier Synchron in Hanover . The dialogue was directed by Lothar Meyer , the dialog book came from Tobias Neumann , who also spoke on the role of young Eisenheim.

In the theatrical version, Volker Hanisch can be heard as Eisenheim from Germany. His part was re-recorded for the DVD by Norton's standard speaker Andreas Fröhlich . Other dubbing actors were also hired for the other roles in the DVD version.

role actor German speaker theatrical version German speaker DVD version
Eisenheim Edward Norton Volker Hanisch Andreas Fröhlich
doctor Karl Johnson NN Gernot Endemann
Fisherman Eddie Marsan NN Hans Bayer
Inspector Uhl Paul Giamatti Elmar Gutmann Peter Reinhardt
young Sophie Eleanor Tomlinson Katharina von Keller Emine Cünedioglu
young Eisenheim Aaron Johnson Jannik Endemann Tobias Neumann
Jurka Jake Wood Holger Mahlich Sascha Rotermund
Crown Prince Leopold Rufus Sewell Nicolas King Kai Henrik Möller
Sophie Jessica Biel Ghadah Al-Akel Gundi Eberhard
Wiligut Tom Fisher NN Lennardt Kruger

criticism

Carsten Baumgardt felt in "Neil Burger's old-fashioned [m] history melodrama 'The Illusionist' [...] a hypnotic touch of magic, which is unobtrusive, but noticeable, so that the effect of the love story can unfold wonderfully." He felt " the look [...] appropriately noble, the setting true to style despite the moderate budget, the [n] score timely and the pace typical of the genre moderate - perfect craft ". Baumgardt judged: "Burger delivers precise, emotional, dark epoch cinema that can come up with polished and sharp-tongued dialogues."

Just like Carsten Baumgardt, Jürgen Dick also praised the characters and saw “a successful work for friends of dark, romantic films”. The only negative thing he noticed was the “surprisingly sudden end”, which “comes in a flashback sequence that is far too fast and not plausible in every detail” and leaves the impression that “the film's 'solution' [was] constructed under time pressure been ".

Christopher Klaus also praised the film, which is carried “mainly by the two brilliant actors Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti”. But “the film is also completely convincing in terms of its craftsmanship,” he says of the setting, camera work and the captured atmosphere. He appreciates: “A strong film with one of the best end twists of the last few years, in which the viewer himself becomes part of the illusion. At the end of the day, one wonders why director Neil Burger's team didn't get even more out of the story. The material would have been enough for a whole epic. "

According to Arabella Akossy, “the lavish visual display values ​​are captivating, which are given an additional atmospheric dimension through the underlay with the hypnotic-melancholy sound carpet by Philip Glass. In addition, the interactions of the actor's clover, be it love, jealousy, rivalry, manipulation, submissiveness or cruelty that come into play between the various relationship constellations, are fascinating. "

"Especially at the beginning the film threatens to drift into insignificance", assesses Dominik Petermann. His further criticism is quite positive, so that he finally judges: "Unfortunately, the film did not find its way into Swiss cinemas."

Awards

At the 2007 Academy Awards , cinematographer Dick Pope was nominated for his work, but failed to win the Oscar. In the run-up, Pope won, among other things, the Silver Frog at the Camerimage International Camera Festival and the Prize of the San Diego Film Critics Association . Philip Glass's score was awarded by the Broadcast Film Critics Association .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Illusionist . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2008 (PDF; test number: 115 900 DVD).
  2. ↑ Cinema : The Illusionist , accessed August 19, 2014
  3. ↑ a b c The Illusionist 1. Synchro (cinema) on synchronkartei.de , accessed on April 15, 2012
  4. ↑ a b c The Illusionist 2nd Synchro (DVD 2008) on synchronkartei.de , accessed on April 15, 2012
  5. ↑ a b c Criticism at Filmstarts , Carsten Baumgardt
  6. ↑ a b filmfacts.de , Jürgen Dick
  7. ↑ a b c Christopher Klaus: The Illusionist. In: Zelluloid.de. November 27, 2008, archived from the original on August 22, 2016 ; accessed on September 29, 2018 .
  8. ↑ kino.de , Arabella Akossy
  9. ↑ a b Dominik Petermann: Is it all just an illusion? In: cineman.de. Archived from the original on November 7, 2009 ; accessed on September 29, 2018 .

Web links