The Party (2017)

Movie
German title	The party
Original title	The party
Country of production	Great Britain
original language	English
Publishing year	2017
length	71 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Sally Potter
script	Sally Potter
production	Christopher Sheppard , ; Kurban Kassam
camera	Aleksei Rodionov
cut	Anders Refn , ; Emilie Orsini
occupation
	Kristin Scott Thomas : Janet; Timothy Spall : Bill; Patricia Clarkson : April; Bruno Ganz : Gottfried; Cherry Jones : Martha; Emily Mortimer : Jinny; Cillian Murphy : Tom;

The Party is a British feature film by Sally Potter from the year 2017 . The tragicomedy is based on an original Potter script and focuses on a cultivated left-liberal party society in London . The initially harmless celebration gets out of hand when unforeseen revelations call into question the bourgeois, intellectual existence of the party guests.

The film premiered on February 13, 2017 in the competition at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. The German theatrical release took place on July 27, 2017.

action

Janet and Bill have a party in their London townhouse. Janet has been named Minister of Health in the Shadow Cabinet, the culmination of her political career. The news is said to be celebrated with close friends, including Janet's cynical friend April, her German husband Gottfried, an esotericist , and the lesbian couple Martha and Jinny, who happily announce that they are expecting triplets. The attractive banker Tom has also come, the husband of Janet's close colleague Marianne, who is still a long time coming.

The joy of Janet's career advancement is not shared by everyone. Bill, a scientist by profession, has always postponed his academic career to help Janet with her career plans. He bursts out with two explosive revelations that not only shake the very foundations of his wife's existence. Bill is terminally ill and wants to separate from Janet so that he can spend the rest of his life with Marianne. The party then takes a different course than expected. In the cultivated left-liberal environment, love, friendships, political convictions and life plans are called into question, and the mood turns into violence. Janet, who is having a secret affair herself, is furious and hits Bill. Tom, upset by Koks, knew about his wife's affair and has a pistol with him. The fact that his rival is terminally ill unsettles him in his thirst for revenge, and he throws the weapon in the garbage can in the garden.

Martha, who is afraid of losing Jinny to the offspring, had a brief affair with Bill even as a young student and made her apartment available to him for the secret meetings with Marianne. When Tom, in revenge, hits Bill with a heavy hook and threatens to choke him, Janet saves his life with a heart massage . At the end of the party, all relationships are ruined, except for April and Gottfried. When the doorbell finally announces Marianne's arrival, the hysterical Janet rushes to the front door with the gun she found in the garbage - she too had an affair with Marianne. She points the gun at Marianne and the film ends.

background

In The Party is the eighth feature film by the British director and screenwriter Sally Potter. In mid-October 2015, she announced the project as one of two possible films for which finished scripts were available. Potter insisted on the engagement of well-known actors on both projects. The casting and funding came about faster at The Party . The film was produced by Potter's husband and long-term producer Christopher Sheppard and the joint company Adventure Pictures, as well as by Kurban Kassam , who accompanied Potter's previous film Ginger & Rosa (2012) as an associate producer. The project was financed by Great Point Media . Potter conceived The Party as a black and white film in real time, which, together with the plot description, can be compared to Mike Nichols ' successful theatrical adaptation Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Luis Buñuel's film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). "It's fast, intense and funny [...]", says Potter about the film, which was originally supposed to have a running time of 90 minutes. “I think all of us are political, believe it or not. It's about the ideals and beliefs that people have, or think they have, that are then challenged in a crisis situation, "said Potter when the film was announced.

Sally Potter with the cast at the Berlinale 2017: v. l. No. Timothy Spall, Patricia Clarkson, Cillian Murphy, Sally Potter, Bruno Ganz and Kristin Scott Thomas

Filming took place in London from June 15, 2016. The names of the actors were only revealed at the start of filming, all of which play characters who hide secrets. Shortly before the premiere, Potter described the film as a comedy, even if it revolved around some tragic elements, written in "Awareness of the absurdity of human suffering".

Awards

The Party competed in the Berlinale competition for the Golden Bear , the main prize of the film festival, but remained unrewarded by the competition jury. The film was awarded the Gilde Deutscher Filmkunsttheater prize at the Berlinale .