The cuckoo's egg

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Movie
German title The cuckoo's egg
Original title Torch Song Trilogy
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1988
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Paul Bogart
script Harvey Fierstein
production Howard Gottfried
music Peter Matz
camera Mikael Salomon
cut Nicholas C. Smith
occupation

Das Kuckucksei (original title: Torch Song Trilogy ) is a film by Paul Bogart from 1988. It is an adaptation of the play of the same name by Harvey Fierstein , who also wrote the screenplay for the film version. In addition, Fierstein embodied the leading role of Arnold Beckoff both on stage and in film.

action

1972: Arnold and Ed meet at The International Stud and fall in love. While Arnold is okay with his homosexuality and works as a travesty artist in a small theater, Ed has problems accepting his bisexuality. He left Arnold and from then on lived with a woman whom he eventually married.

At Christmas 1973, Arnold met the love of his life: Alan, who worked as a model. They move in together and are also invited by Ed and his wife to their country house to spend a weekend there. Their love is put to the test there, but their relationship lasts. Arnold and Alan decide to adopt a child and are eventually promised to have a gay teenager who has been rejected by his family as a foster child. But in the midst of happiness, Alan, who wants to protect someone else from a robbery, is beaten to death by an anti-gay gang.

1980: Arnold now lives with his adopted son David, and although he still misses Alan, he has more contact with Ed, who has separated from his wife. When Arnold's mother comes to visit, she clearly shows him her disapproval for his homosexuality and adoption. She also expresses her displeasure that Arnold had his partner Alan buried in the family grave. The result is an open controversy in which Arnold explains to his mother how hard his life is often and how much he always had to fight. He demands that she accept his life as it is, otherwise she will not accept him either. At first his mother is shocked by the frank words, but the next day the first signs of mutual understanding between mother and son appear.

criticism

  • film-dienst : Spread over a period of almost 30 years, the film adaptation of a play lives from extraordinary performance, so that despite the staging length and some clumsiness a moving, important and comedic-enlightening film has emerged.
  • epd Film 6/1989: As on the stage, Fierstein also took on the leading role for the film. This is also a successful theater coup in the cinema. Because Das Kuckucksei lives above all from Fierstein's ability to present himself in comical ways.

Honors and nominations

In 1989 Bogart was nominated for the Critics' Award at the Deauville Film Festival ; the film won the audience award. In the same year Fierstein was nominated for the best male leading role at the Independent Spirit Award .

Others

  • First, Broderick, who had played the role of adopted son David in the stage version on Broadway in 1981 , turned down the role of Alan because he was recovering from the consequences of a traffic accident in Ireland. The role eventually got Tate Donovan , who was fired by Fierstein on the second trial day after Broderick had changed his mind.
  • To honor the work of the travesty artist Charles Pierce , Harvey Fierstein added the role of the travesty artist Bertha Venation to the film .
  • While the play is designed as a trilogy, the individual acts of which together have a playing time of over four hours, Harvey Fierstein had to shorten the script for the film version significantly in order to meet the requirement of a maximum of two hours.
  • The titles of the three stage pieces in the trilogy are International Stud , Fugue in a Nursery and Widows and Children First! .

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