The Others

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Movie
German title The Others
Original title The Others
The Others Logo.jpg
Country of production Spain , France , Italy , USA
original language English
Publishing year 2001
length 101 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 14
Rod
Director Alejandro Amenábar
script Alejandro Amenábar
production Fernando Bovaira
José Luis Cuerda
Sunmin Park
music Alejandro Amenábar
camera Javier Aguirresarobe
cut Nacho Ruiz Capillas
occupation
Location: Palacio de Los Hornillos in Las Fraguas

The Others is a mystery and psychological thriller and horror film from 2001 by director Alejandro Amenábar , who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The main role was played by Nicole Kidman .

action

In 1945, Grace Stewart lived with her two children Anne and Nicholas in a remote country house on the Channel Island of Jersey , while her husband Charles went to war for England a year and a half ago . The children who are raised in a bigoted manner suffer from a light allergy and must therefore never be exposed to sunlight. One of the homeschool subjects Grace teaches is limbo , a mythological place popular belief that after death souls should and should stay who were excluded from heaven through no fault of their own.

One day the entire staff of the house disappeared without notice, so the following week Grace hires the housekeeper Mrs. Mills, the gardener Mr. Tuttle and the silent servant Lydia, who ring the doorbell, as new staff. Grace makes it clear that in all rooms in which the children are, the curtains must always be drawn and the doors must always be locked after entering a room.

Everyday life is increasingly disrupted by inexplicable incidents: doors open and close by themselves, the piano sounds as if by magic, inexplicable steps echo through the house. Anne even tells Grace about a child of the same age named Victor and a mysterious old woman who is said to have spoken to her frequently.

Shortly afterwards, Grace discovers an old photo album with pictures of the deceased, which were photographed for the last time shortly after their death. Shaken, Grace leaves the house to ask the pastor of the nearby parish for help because of the supposed visitation by supernatural forces. Instead, Grace gets lost in the thick fog and surprisingly meets her husband Charles, who is returning from the war.

While the latter seems strangely absent and retreats into the marital bedroom, Grace and her daughter have a tangible argument: Grace sees an unknown old woman in Anne's First Communion dress and goes for her - but in fact it's about her daughter Anne, who is now even more upset because of her mother's attack.

Exhausted, Grace seeks out her husband and blames him for going to war and abandoning his family. Then both spend a night of love together; the next morning, however, Charles disappeared without a trace without saying goodbye.

From now on the situation escalates: All of the curtains in the house have suddenly disappeared, which causes Grace and her children to panic. The following night the children sneak out of the house curiously. To their horror, they find three gravestones in the garden with the names of the employees Mrs. Mills, Mr. Tuttle and Lydia. At the same time, Grace came across a picture of the deceased in the house from December 1891 depicting her three servants.

A little later, Anne and Nicholas witness a séance with that mysterious old woman as a medium, who had already sought contact with Anne several times. It turns out, surprisingly, that “the others” are not ghosts, but actually human beings made of flesh and blood. Grace and her children, on the other hand, are already dead, but were previously unaware of their own condition.

The stress of having to look after her sick children without her husband and the resulting isolation had driven Grace insane and desperate, suffocating both children with their pillows and then shooting herself. Since then they have lived as ghosts in the house, which had since been sold to another family who were also responsible for the inexplicable noises and the removal of the curtains, but remained invisible to Grace and her children. Charles, who had fallen in the war, had returned as a ghost to bid farewell to his loved ones before he had to return to the place of his death, to the front of the war, which has now ended.

The appearance of the domestic servants, who once died of tuberculosis , now has an explanation: The three had carefully attuned Grace and the children to the "changed circumstances" and wanted to serve as a guide to the afterlife, but had failed because of Grace's ignorance and stubbornness.

Grace's trust in God may have suffered, but she is regaining her daughter's affection; also the love for both children and the house becomes even stronger than before. While Mrs. Mills prepares a "good cup of tea" for everyone, Grace and her children emphasize the unbroken claim to ownership of their home, which is now her personal limbo , with the phrase "This house is ours!"

Meanwhile, the family of the living leaves the property, which is then offered for sale again with a sign on the gate.

background

  • The film, which is set exclusively in a manorial house with extensive gardens, was shot mainly in Spain (exterior shots on a property in Las Fraguas ( Cantabria ); interior shots in Madrid ). Additional locations were on Oheka Castle and Jersey .
  • In the film, a pale face emerges as a section of a painting. The image section was based on the actual painting The Wounded Cavalier by the painter William Shakespeare Burton .
  • The plot shows numerous parallels to the horror classic Schloss des Schreckens (1961): In both films, the group of people is limited to a strictly religious woman who lives with two children and few servants in a gloomy mansion. As in Castle of Terror , in The Others the presence of ghosts is only hinted at through sound and subtle visual means. In both films, the protagonist repeatedly asserts that she has to protect the children, but in the end turns out to be their real danger.
  • Production costs were estimated at around $ 17 million. Around 210 million US dollars were recorded in cinemas around the world, of which around 96 million US dollars were in cinemas in the United States.
  • It was released in theaters on August 10, 2001 in the USA and on January 10, 2002 in Germany.

Reviews

Lexicon of international film : “Dark thriller based on classic guidelines, whose supposedly predictable story changes the moment you think you have understood everything. The result is lasting irritation that explores the possibilities of the genre. Behavior staged, since it is less about effects than about a claustrophobic mood and deep sadness. "

Wolfgang Huang wrote on filmspiegel.de: “No knives, no slit scenes, no dark, masked killers, only the music is classically tension-promoting, not to say used in a suspense-demanding manner. Otherwise, Amenabar restricts himself to pleasantly small means: slamming doors, a glow, a sigh. With this economical use of effects, Amenabar succeeds in maintaining the tension for an hour and a half [sic] - extremely [sic] remarkable. He also owes that he succeeds in his actors. "

Manfred Müller wrote in Der Spiegel : “The Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar is making an impressive entry into Hollywood. With his subtle horror film "The Others", he drove his leading actress Nicole Kidman to top performance and created a genre classic that does without glaring effects and relies on the audience's imagination. "

Rüdiger Suchsland wrote on artechock.de: “The Others is a cleverly calculated modern thriller and yet it looks like a film from another time. This is where its special quality lies. Because in its style, the largely successful film by the Spaniard Alejandro Amenabar is primarily reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rebecca and other films of the 1940s. "

Philipp Bühler wrote in Die Tageszeitung : “Of course, it is primarily the nostalgic flair that sets “ The Others ”apart from newer mystery thrillers such as“ Sixth Sense ”. Victorian dressers are simply more comfortable than freaky fridges and televisions. And surely Amenábar could have filmed his Manderley less conventionally. [...] But even notorious connoisseurs will have to admit that Nicole Kidman plays brilliantly. "

Awards

Nicole Kidman was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role . It won the London Critics' Circle Film Award and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award .

The Others won eight Goyas , including Best Picture, making it the first film to receive a Goya in this category despite not having a word of Spanish in it.

At the British Academy Film Awards 2002, Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress and Alejandro Amenábar was nominated for Best Screenplay.

The film won three Saturn Awards (Best Horror Film, Nicole Kidman and Fionnula Flanagan) and was nominated for this award in three other categories.

Alejandro Amenábar won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Film and Television Music Award for film music . He was nominated for an American Latino Media Arts Award for directing and writing . He was also nominated for the Bram Stoker Award .

The two child actors Alakina Mann and James Bentley were nominated for the Young Artist Award , with James Bentley winning.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Others . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2010 (PDF; test number: 89 534 V).
  2. ^ The Others. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Critique and short commentary on “The Others” on filmspiegel.de
  4. ^ "The Others" horror cabinet in the head on spiegel.de
  5. ↑ "The Others" review on artechock.de
  6. ↑ Landhaus der toten Seelen on taz.de.