Under the volcano (film)

Movie
German title	Under the volcano
Original title	Under the volcano
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1984
length	112 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	John Huston
script	Guy Gallo
production	Moritz Borman ; Wieland Schulz-Keil
music	Alex North
camera	Gabriel Figueroa
cut	Roberto Silvi
occupation
	Albert Finney : Geoffrey Firmin; Jacqueline Bisset : Yvonne Firmin; Anthony Andrews : Hugh Firmin; Ignacio López Tarso : Dr. Vigil; Katy Jurado : Senora Gregoria; James Villiers : Brit; Dawson Bray : Quincey; Carlos Riquelme : Bustamante;

Under the Volcano is an American drama from 1984 . It is the literary film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Malcolm Lowry .

action

Cuernavaca , Mexico : November 1, 1938 celebrates the Day of the Dead . For former British Consul Geoffrey Firmin, that's no real reason to celebrate. Rather, the alcoholic is in a permanently intoxicated state. He is waiting for letters from his wife Yvonne, who plays as an actress in the theater in New York City . Although his friend Dr. Vigil has been persuaded that she will write to him soon and that all marital problems will come to an end, Geoffrey simply says that he has not yet received one. The only one who came forward was Yvonne's lawyer, who gave him the divorce, which was one more reason to get drunk. With a lot of tequila and little dignity, Geoffrey then spends the evening in the pub and at an official festival of the embassy. After publicly embarrassing himself, Dr. Vigil dragged into the church where he is supposed to pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary . Geoffrey refuses at first and then lets himself be persuaded. He prays that his beloved Yvonne will return to him.

Yvonne is already on the way. After a long journey by ship and plane, she arrives by bus the next morning. She quickly finds her husband in his local pub, where he is drunk and tells old war stories. He invites her for a drink. She refuses and they both walk home. She says that her theater engagement ended. She has now returned to live with her husband again, although she actually wants to leave Mexico. When he gets home, he invites her to have a drink again, but she doesn't want to. They both approach and after a passionate kiss, Geoffrey assures that he would do anything if she would only come back to him. Even with the alcohol he would stop. But she doesn't want to live with him in Mexico. So he uses the time of her absence to look desperately for alcohol. Somewhere in his overgrown garden, he then finds a hidden bottle of tequila.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey's half-brother Hugh, who recently returned from the Spanish Civil War, appears. He's now trying his hand at being a journalist and doesn't yet know what else to do with his life. He asks Yvonne how the marriage is going. She doesn't know, but has returned for the time being, and she wished for nothing more than to withdraw from Mexico with Geoffrey, perhaps to live on a farm, isolated from civilization. He assures her that Geoffrey still loves her and that he keeps her letters in the inside pocket of his jacket close to his heart. It makes no difference that Geoffrey comes home as a wreck. He surely still loves her. The three of them make their way to the bus to go to the big party.

When they then arrive, they eat together. Hugh impresses the Mexican people as a bullfighter in the small local arena and Yvonne asks Geoffrey to move away from Mexico with her. Geoffrey seems to like the idea of living with her on a farm. But enthusiasm quickly turns into sarcasm, until he accuses Hugh and Yvonne of sleeping together. That was what drove him into alcoholism. He feels a certain imbalance in himself and only the alcohol can make him more balanced again. Yvonne begs him to be allowed to be his wife again. But Geoffrey wonders where she was ever a woman to him. While Hugh and Yvonne are still shocked, Geoffrey uses the time, takes a bottle of tequila, gets drunk and takes the bus on. Yvonne and Hugh follow him.

Geoffrey drives to a pub where he not only finds prostitutes, but also lots of other alcohol. He gets drunk and accidentally discovers all the letters that Yvonne wrote him. He opens it and reads it. He has to realize that it is not Yvonne who loves him anymore and wants the divorce, but that his behavior made Yvonne believe that he no longer loves her and wants the separation. Geoffrey is drunk and shocked. She loves him as much as he loves her. But all of his behavior. There is only one answer to that: more alcohol. He keeps getting drunk and getting himself a whore. Shortly afterwards, Yvonne and Hugh also appear in the pub, where they are shocked and tearfully to learn that Geoffrey is cheating on them. She leaves the bar crying.

After a while, Geoffrey also wakes up from his intoxication. He's still drunk and staggering out of the establishment. Outside he sees a white horse, which he examines and pats for a long time. The owner of the horse thinks he's a horse thief, so he asks him back to the bar, where he and his friends question him. Drunk, Geoffrey gives some answers that are hardly true. The Mexicans take his money, his letters, and mistake him for a Mexican spy. They get aggressive as he keeps introducing himself as William Blackstone. He accuses them of being murderers who stole the horse. An argument ensues, they throw him out and shoot him, causing the horse to run away. In the distance, Yvonne hears the shots and rushes to the bar. She is killed by the horse. More shots kill Geoffrey as well. The corpse is only kicked into a pit.

criticism

Vincent Canby of the New York Times praised John Huston for "the impressive courage, intelligence and restraint" with which he adapted this novel, which is considered to be unfilmable. Too often, drunkenness is shown exaggerated in films, which is why Canby also praised Finney for his "extraordinary sensitivity with which he brilliantly captures the wretchedness, fragility and stature of the consul".

The renowned film critic Roger Ebert said that with Albert Finney's game he was "the best portrayal of a drunk he has ever seen in a film". Above all, he was impressed by the fact that the camera documented everything soberly and did not engage in visual gimmicks. He also praised John Huston for “leaving out all the symbols, implications and subtexts” in order to focus only on the character of Geoffrey Firmin.

In the Spiegel , Hellmuth Karasek praised the play of Finney, which plays "the strained, tense, almost dream-like normality of someone who is getting more and more drunk and whose booze only reveals itself in small, terrifying break-ins". He also came to the conclusion that "this wonderful, chunky, subtle, clumsy, elegant and clumsy film consul was an Oscar-worthy performance".

The lexicon of international films said: “The power and intensity of the story can be felt, but one-dimensional and without development. In the end, the film adaptation of the famous novel seems simplified and not consistent enough, important details remain unclear. What remains is still extraordinary: a film consistently staged as a great melodrama, shaped by the shocking performance of Albert Finney. "

background

John Huston lived near Cuernavaca for over thirty years. Since then, he has been eager to film this novel. According to Huston's testimony, there have been over 60 different script versions of the book, about 25 of which he read himself. The problem was that all the scriptwriters tried to capture the symbolism of the novel. Rather, Huston wanted to stage a story that deals with the simple fundamental story of the book, without all of the fantasies, hallucinations and nightmares.

Originally, Huston asked actor Richard Burton to play the lead role. Burton has already had a successful reading tour with the book, and read a few passages from the book on the Canadian documentary Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry . But Burton was on a tour of America with Elizabeth Taylor with the play Private Lies and was thus contractually bound.

The film opened in US cinemas on June 12, 1984 and grossed just over 2.5 million US dollars. In West Germany , it was released in cinemas on October 26, 1986. It has been available as a German DVD since October 17, 2008 .

John Huston was the first director who managed to secure the film rights and successfully adapt the book. Six directors, including Luis Buñuel , Ken Russell , Joseph Losey , Jerzy Skolimowski and Jules Dassin, had failed before him . Together with actor Zachary Scott , Dassin was the first to secure the rights in 1957.

Shortly before publication, the Honorary Consul, another literary film adaptation, was published in 1983 , which is about a constantly drunk British consul. Michael Caine played the character of Charley Fortnum based on the 1973 novel The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene .

With Observations Under the Volcano by Christian Blackwood and Notes from Under the Volcano by Gary Conklin there are two documentaries that deal with the shooting of the film.