The mother - The Mother

Movie
German title	The mother - The Mother
Original title	The Mother
Country of production	UK
original language	English
Publishing year	2003
length	about 108 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Roger Michell
script	Hanif Kureishi
production	Kevin Loader
music	Jeremy Sams
camera	Alwin H. Kuchler
cut	Nicolas Gaster
occupation
	Anne Reid : May; Peter Vaughan : Toots; Cathryn Bradshaw : Paula; Steven Mackintosh : Bobby; Daniel Craig : Darren; Anna Wilson-Jones : Helen; Danira Gović : Au Pair;

The Mother - The Mother is a 2003 feature film by British director Roger Michell . The drama is based on an original screenplay by Hanif Kureishi and was produced by the film studios BBC Films , Free Range Films and Renaissance Films . The work is generally assigned to the independent film .

action

May and Toots, a retired couple from the north of England, are taking a train south to visit their children in London . The two suburbs are almost overwhelmed by the impressions of the metropolis and find it difficult to get to Notting Hill and the house of their son Bobby, an apparently successful businessman. The first reunion runs disappointing - the house is being expanded to include a conservatory and Bobby and his wife Helen, who just a boutique for expensive products from cashmere wool has opened are so very busy about their work that they for their children an au pair girls and can only say hello to May and Toots. The grandchildren don't know what to do with the older couple and must be made aware by their parents that they are the grandparents laden with presents. A short time later there is a meal together in the apartment of daughter Paula, a teacher and a hobby writer. A few hours later, however, the idyllic family celebration is followed by disillusionment. During the night Toots has a heart attack from which he dies.

May, who is brought back to her home in the north by Bobby a short time later, does not manage to stay in the now empty house on her own. The fear of ending up like one of the lonely and old widows in their neighborhood is too great for them. To the annoyance of her daughter-in-law Helen, May returns to London with Bobby and settles in her son's house. During his first stroll through London, May wanders through the streets of the British capital without orientation and only finds Paula's apartment after numerous interviews with passers-by. Scared, but at the same time enlivened by the incident, May finds solace in her daughter, whom she soon entrusts with looking after her son on an hourly basis. When Paula comes home late with her boyfriend one evening, May watches the two of them having sex together through a crack in the door , only to witness a quarrel shortly afterwards. From a window, May recognizes her daughter's lover, who is Darren, a friend of Bobby's who is building the winter garden. She wonders why Paula made such a bad choice.

Over the next few days, May learns from her grandson that the unstable Paula is visiting a psychiatrist. When she then asks her daughter about the issue, May is confronted with blame. Paula complains to her about the unjust life as a single mother and is jealous of May's peaceful and simple life that she would have led as a housewife and mother. May tells Paula that she was unhappy during their marriage, but her daughter doesn't care. She is obsessed with having a decent relationship with Darren, who is unhappily married and has a disabled child. May can be persuaded by Paula to involve Darren in conversations while he is working and to learn more about his wishes, but the first conversation does not reveal any useful information. At May's insistence, Paula decides that it is better to part with Darren the following day.

While Paula has apparently finished with the Darren chapter, May seeks contact with the attractive craftsman, while he continues to expand her son's winter garden. May brings him a croissant from a café, and a long conversation develops between the two of them. They enjoy each other's camaraderie and Darren invites them on a trip on the Thames . This is followed by a joint snack and a visit to an old cemetery, where they visit the grave of the painter William Hogarth (1697–1764). A little drunk, May stumbles on the way back, Darren catches her, whereupon the pensioner lets herself be carried away to a hasty kiss. May is embarrassed about the incident; she apologizes and says she is not used to drinking for lunch. Shortly afterwards, May begins to put on a more attractive wardrobe for Paula and is taken by her daughter to a meeting of her writing group. May writes a very personal essay there about her mistakes as a mother and makes the acquaintance of Bruce, a pensioner of the same age, with whom Paula May plans to couple. However, May politely refuses to meet Bruce.

Inspired by a visit to an art exhibition, May Darren gives a book on classical painting as a present. Darren, who is just as fascinated by art as May, is touched by the gift and they delve into long conversations in which May initially portrayed the attractive craftsman at work with paper and pencil. May tells Darren about their marriage, including the fact that because of her husband she refrained from building a circle of friends and had a secret affair with an antique dealer with whom she was planning to leave. They have their first sex together when May asks Darren to go upstairs with her. They meet again in Bobby's house for a shepherd's hour and May offers Darren to fulfill his wish to travel far away from his troubled life in London, possibly with her. Shortly after voicing the idea, she is ashamed of it, but Darren is seriously considering accepting the offer.

The affair comes to light when Paula visits her brother in his house. Bobby tells her that business is bad, which is partly due to his wife's recently opened boutique. He wants to generate black numbers again by selling his home, which will generate additional profit through Darren's winter garden. During the conversation, Paula leafed through her mother's drawing pad, bored, and discovered sketches by Darren showing him and May in erotic poses. Shocked and disgusted by this idea, Bobby tries to calm his sister down and dismiss the doodles as her mother's pipe dreams, but Paula is firmly convinced that May has a relationship with her lover. However, Paula does not begin to reveal her complicity, but only pushes the coupling attempts with Bruce even more in order to make May jealous of her relationship with Darren. After eating together and going to a disco, May decides to spend a night with Bruce, but the sexual adventure turns into a farce. A short time later there is also a break with Darren and her family. Darren, who is very fond of alcohol and light drugs and angry about the fact that Bobby did not tell him about the planned sale of the house, cannot accept the role of a man who is always excluded from women. He mocks May when she surprises him with bought plane tickets and demolishes the almost finished winter garden. Bobby offers his mother to get her a psychiatrist. Paula, who burns all of her literary works in a fit of hysteria, confronts May with her knowledge of the affair. Paula seeks an outlet for her anger and asks her mother for a last-ditch favor to exercise physical violence on her, which May grants. With a violet on his eye, May says goodbye to every family member the next day, but her departure is only marginally noticed. Arrived in the empty semi-detached house, May soon begins to pack for a vacation trip and leave the dreary everyday life behind.

History of origin

The film is based on an original script by the Pakistani - British screenwriter and writer Hanif Kureishi, who was also responsible for the scripts of Stephen Frears ' Mein wunderbaren Waschsalon (1985) and Patrice Chéreau's Intimacy (2001). The screenplay for Die Mutter - The Mother was inspired by his father's illness as well as by his mother. As Kureishi one day with his mother an Indian visited the restaurant and the 75-year-old praised an Indian waiter for his lovely hands, Kureishi said a "But that was pretty frivolous, Mum." . But Kureishi saw that his mother was blossoming at that moment and he imagined her as a young woman, which meant the beginning of work on The Mother - The Mother . It was directed by the Briton Roger Michell, who had previously directed the romantic comedy Notting Hill (1999) and the critically acclaimed drama Spurwechsel (2002). British actress Anne Reid , who is best known in England for her TV work, was hired for the lead role . Roger Michell saw her in the play The York Realist at the prestigious Royal Court Theater in London and immediately decided to engage her in the lead role. British actor Daniel Craig , who two years later would gain worldwide attention as the successor to James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, played the supporting role as the object of desire .

Filming began in June 2002 and was completed a month later in July. The film was shot in a limited area around Shepherd's Bush Green in west London, which also included Piccadilly Circus and the London Eye , as well as Goldhawk Road Station.

reception

The drama premiered on March 16, 2003 at the Cannes Film Festival . After the film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (September 7th) and the French Dinard Festival of British Cinema (October 3rd) and Cinessonne Film Festival (October 9th), Die Mutter - The Mother officially opened on September 9th October 2003 in German cinemas . The British and US theatrical releases took place on November 14, 2003 and May 28, 2004 respectively. The film, which cost approximately 1.5 million British pounds (approx. 2 million euros), had a gross price of Make a profit of $ 1 million. Although Roger Michell's film was not considered financially successful, it was a great favorite of the critics, who compared Die Mutter - The Mother with works by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach . In addition to Michell's staging and the explosive film script, the performance of the actors was particularly praised, above all the leading actress Anne Reid, who, after working for decades on British television, was also successful in international cinema. Occasionally her portrait of the widowed May was compared with the achievements of Katharine Hepburn in David Lean's Dream of My Life (1955) and Brigitte Mira in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Angst Eats Seele auf (1974).

Reviews

"One of the most emotionally moving films of this year's Quinzaine became an insider tip in Cannes." (Blickpunkt: Film)
"Michell is rather ... in the footsteps of Ken Loach - only that in place of absolute compassion in spite of all laconicism, there is a certain commitment that still leaves the viewer open to excuses where Loach has long held him by the curb." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung )
"Anne Reid stars in this exceptionally clear-sighted drama as a recently widowed grandmother who has an affair with her daughter's handsome, unhappily married boyfriend." (New York Times)
"(Michell) shows what can be achieved with a small budget, a brilliant script, and a cast that rarely goes wrong." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"The film is captivating." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
“The mix of 'improper' love story and revealing study of society captivates with precise personal drawings, biting irony and believable actors. A caustic Brit-Pic in the tradition of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. " (VideoWoche)

Remarks

Like the film character May , the leading actress Anne Reid had to find her way in hectic London. The actress had lived outside London for nearly thirty years before filming began.
According to Nic Gaster , who is responsible for editing in the production, the landscape scenes should above all show the desperation and loneliness of the characters and not serve as backgrounds or mere travel reports. This was a particular challenge for Gaster, as these scenes as such had no dramatic structure. The film editor later said that The Mother could have played in a big western town.

Awards

Leading actress Anne Reid has been nominated for numerous film awards. Her acting performance was recognized at the London Critics Circle Film Awards , further nominations followed for the British Academy Film Award , the European Film Award , the British Independent Film Award and the US Chlotrudis Award . Daniel Craig was also nominated for a European Film Award in 2004, while the film itself was featured in the competition at the Cinemanila International Film Festival and Shanghai International Film Festival .