Traveling with my aunt

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Movie
German title Traveling with my aunt
Original title Travels with My Aunt
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1972
length 112 minutes
Rod
Director George Cukor
script Graham Greene ( Author )
Jay Presson Allen
Hugh Wheeler
production James Cresson
Robert Fryer
music Tony Hatch
camera Douglas Slocombe
cut John Bloom
occupation

Traveling with My Aunt is a British comedy film from 1972. Directed by George Cukor ; the script is based on the novel of the same name by Graham Greene . Traveling with my aunt was nominated for several film awards and in 1973 was awarded the Oscar for “ Best Costumes ”.

action

During the cremation of his mother, the bank clerk Henry meets his lively and eccentric aunt Augusta, who was believed dead. Augusta explains to the shocked Henry that his mother wasn't his biological mother at all and invites him to her apartment. There Henry piqued notices that Augusta is living with a black clairvoyant who is only half his age, whom she calls "Wordsworth".

Henry's life, which is turbulent enough for his taste due to the appearance of his aunt, becomes even more turbulent when Augusta receives a package containing a cut finger of her great love Ercole Visconti, which has been kidnapped. The ransom demand is 100,000 US dollars . Augusta asks Henry if he could rob his bank to get the money. But he refuses. Thereupon Augusta is offered by the seedy gangster Crowder to smuggle 50,000 pounds into Istanbul for him and receive a 10,000 pound reward for it. She accepts the offer. A few days later, the police searched Henry's apartment and found not ashes in Henry's mother's urn, but marijuana that Wordsworth had hidden there. Aunt Augusta shows up and asks Henry if he wants to travel to Paris with her. He agrees, not knowing that Augusta is involved in a foreign exchange smuggling, just trying to avoid the supposed bad press about the drugs in the urn. In Paris, Henry and Augusta board the Orient Express , where Henry meets the hippie girl Tooley. Tooley smokes marijuana with him and seduces him. During a stopover in Milan , the kidnappers Viscontis give Augusta a cut off ear. However, the planned foreign exchange smuggling is discovered at the Turkish border and Augusta and Henry have to travel back to Paris.

But Augusta already has a new plan for how to get the ransom. She meets her former lover Achille Dambreuse in a hotel, but he dies of a heart attack before Augusta can talk him out of the money. She seeks out the widow, whom Augusta coolly rejects. While Henry is taking Madame Dambreuse to the hotel where Achilles' body is lying, Augusta steals a picture of Amedeo Modigliani from the Dambreuse's house , for which she had once sat as a model. She wants to sell the picture to Crowder in order to get the ransom. Henry and Augusta get into a serious argument about the theft, in which Augusta accuses Henry of never having risked anything, lost anything or even dreamed something. This is his last chance to experience something. When Augusta apologizes the next morning, she confesses to Henry that Visconti is his father and Henry realizes that Augusta must be his mother. Augusta and Henry, accompanied by Wordsworth, travel to Spain to meet Crowder there and sell him the picture. Crowder pays $ 125,000 for the picture and the trio travel on to North Africa to hand over the money.

On a lonely beach they meet Visconti, who is driven in a wheelchair. As soon as Augusta has given the money to the kidnappers, Visconti rises from his chair and explains that he came up with this plan to get the money. Augusta vacillates between horror and disappointment and leaves the place with Wordsworth and Henry. She sinks into deep grief and suffers from her broken heart when the two men tell her that they still have the money. Visconti, on the other hand, only had scraps of newspaper. Augusta is suddenly better. Henry suggests using the money to buy the painting back and bring it to Madame Dambreuse, but Augusta does not want to. To everyone's surprise, Henry suggests tossing a coin. This should decide whether Henry, Augusta and Wordsworth lead a quiet, law-abiding life, or whether to continue following Augusta's wild life. He gives Wordsworth a coin, which Wordsworth tosses high in the air. The film ends with a still of Henry, Augusta and Wordsworth looking at the falling coin.

Reviews

The lexicon of international films judges: "Dialogue-heavy film adaptation of a novel by Graham Greene, which does not achieve the quality of the original, but is entertaining thanks to the excellent leading actress and parodistic swipes."

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards 1973
1973 Golden Globe Awards
  • Nomination as "Best Film - Comedy or Musical"
  • Nomination for Maggie Smith for "Best Actress - Comedy or Musical"
  • Nomination for Alec McCowen as "Best Supporting Actor"
British Academy Film Awards 1974
  • Nomination for "Best Cinematography" (Douglas Slocombe)
Edgar Allan Poe Award 1973

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Traveling with my aunt in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on January 10, 2012.