Prohibited games
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Prohibited games |
| Original title | Jeux interdits |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1952 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | René Clément |
| script |
Jean Aurenche , Pierre Bost , François Boyer , René Clément |
| production | Robert Dorfmann |
| music | Narciso Yepes (arrangement) |
| camera | Robert Juillard |
| cut | Roger Dwyre |
| occupation | |
| |
Forbidden games (Original title: Jeux interdits ) is a French feature film by René Clément from 1952. The film is based on the novel of the same name by François Boyer and tells the story of two children in World War II who playfully the horrors of war and their death Process relatives. The film received numerous awards, including the Golden Lion and the Oscar for best foreign language film.
action
The French province in 1940, during the Second World War : while fleeing from the Germans invading in the western campaign , five-year-old Paulette from Paris has to see her parents and their little dog Jock die in a low-flying attack. With the dead dog in her arms, Paulette wanders alone through the rural area, unknown to her, until she meets the eleven-year-old farmer's son Michel Dollé. Michel brings her to his parents' farm, where she is hospitable. She found a new home there, made friends with Michel and through him got to know the religious rural culture, which as a city child was initially alien to her.
When Michel's older brother Georges dies as a result of a horse kick caused by the noise of the German air raid, the two children develop their own method of processing the experience of death: Paulette wants to solemnly bury Jock and finds a good place in an abandoned mill. There, Michel gradually creates an extensive cemetery where he buries dead animals so that Jock is not lonely. Since Paulette demands beautiful crosses for this, he first steals the crosses from the hearse prepared for Georges, later he tries to steal the cross from the high altar in the church, finally he and Paulette fetch 14 crosses from the cemetery in a secret night adventure.
When the theft from the cross is noticed, Michel first directs suspicion to the neighbors. The Dollé and Gouard families have been enemies for years, which is why Gouard's son Francis, who deserted the army, and Dollé's daughter Berthe have to keep their romance a secret from their families. Michel had confessed his first thefts of the cross to the pastor, and when there was a serious argument between Father Dollé and Father Gouard in the cemetery, the pastor was able to clarify the loss of the cross. However, Michel refuses to reveal what he used the crosses for and where they are.
When Paulette is supposed to be taken to an orphanage by the gendarmerie against her will, Michel agrees to tell his father where the crosses are if he promises in return that Paulette will be allowed to stay with them. However, the father does not keep his word, and Paulette is taken to a Red Cross facility. Michel then runs angrily to the mill, destroys the crosses and throws them into the stream so that his father doesn't get them.
At the end you see Paulette walking around in a crowded Red Cross facility, desperately calling for Michel and her mother.
background
The film was based on the novel Jeux interdits by François Boyer . He had initially written a screenplay, but could not find a producer for the realization of the film, as the theme of child suffering during the war was felt to be too gloomy and risky at the time. René Clément was also already interested, but had to cancel for financial reasons. Notes from the director's archives show that he was already working on a film adaptation of Boyer's story in the spring of 1947. Boyer, meanwhile, penned the story as a novel, which was finally published in 1947 and ignored in France, but surprisingly became a best seller in the United States. The success of the book made it possible for Clément to take over the direction and funders were found for the project.
René Clément initially wanted to direct a feature film that would consist of three short films - the middle one of the short films should be based on Boyer's story about the two war children. Some friends of the director, including Jacques Tati , advised him early on that the plot would provide good material for an entire feature film. However, Clément initially shot the film as a short film during the summer holidays, as Brigitte Fossey's parents insisted that their daughter should not miss any school lessons. Eventually the project was turned into a feature film when producer Robert Dorfmann got into debt and could only survive by gambling in Monte Carlo . Since a feature film was cheaper and more commercially promising than three short films in this financial emergency, Dorfmann decided with Clément that additional scenes should be shot and that the Forbidden Games should be released as a separate feature film. Since the shooting was interrupted for half a year and only resumed during the next Easter break, Fossey no longer fitted into her film dress when filming resumed, which then had to be re-tailored. For Brigitte Fossey, Verbotene Spiele was her film debut, with her real parents embodying their film parents, who died in the air raid, in the opening scenes.
The Spanish guitarist and composer Narciso Yepes was responsible for the film music . For the main theme, he arranged the well-known guitar melody "Romance Anónimo", the composer of which he saw himself and whose sheet music he also published under his name. In retrospect, it must be noted that although Yepes made the guitar piece world-famous with its arrangement, the first manuscripts with the melody date from the end of the 19th century. Siegfried Behrend published the guitar solo, often referred to as the Spanish Romance , in 1965 under the title Burgalesa ("based on an old Spanish melody from Burgos ").
Forbidden games initially seemed to be a flop: after Clément's previous films such as Schienenschlacht were critical successes, it was actually expected that the film would screen in competition at the 1952 Cannes International Film Festival . However, the film was not admitted to the competition and only shown on the sidelines of the film festival, where critics discovered it and criticized it for not being accepted into the competition. Then the success of the film began. In order to make the film more agreeable for the audience, Clement shot a short framework story , with which, however, himself was not satisfied. In this, Poujouly and Fossey sit as wealthy children on a tree trunk in the lake and the boy reads the girl the war story, which makes up the main part of the film. In the final scene of the framework story, Poujouly's character comforts the little girl. The film was also shown in German cinemas in 1953 with the framework story, but in today's DVD and Blu-Ray releases it is no longer integrated into the film, but only available under the extras.
synchronization
The German dubbed version of the film from 1953 suppresses a few scenes, most importantly the early moments of the film in which the girl's parents die in the German air raid. Georg Rothkegel was responsible for the dialogue direction and dialogue script for the dubbed version produced by the International Film Union Remagen . Reha Hinzelmann spoke for Brigitte Fossey as Paulette, Klaus W. Krause for father Dollé (Lucien Hubert), Heinz Schimmelpfennig for Georges Dollé (Jacques Marin) and Wolfgang Eichberger for father Gouard (André Wasley).
Reviews
When it was screened in Cannes and Venice, the film was a huge hit with critics. Bosley Crowther wrote for the New York Times on December 9, 1952 that the jubilant criticism for the film had also been heard in the USA. Crowther compared Forbidden Games to Jean Renoir's The Great Illusion that both films portray memorable portraits of the world wars. From “simple and modest elements”, director Clément has developed a powerful story in which the “tenderest and most shocking scenes of affection” between the children are elegantly mixed with moments of “down-to-earth and macabre comedy”. Crowther highlighted the achievements of all actors in the larger roles as successful. However, the contemporary opinion was not entirely undivided, for example Die Zeit of May 28, 1953 turned out to be disgruntled, because “he forces underage child film stars into perverse roles”. Some critics were also bothered by the allegedly negative portrayal of the rural population.
In the French film review of the Nouvelle Vague , Forbidden Games was less respected, as Clément was considered to be a generalized cinema establishment for many of them. Jochen Kürten wrote for Deutsche Welle in 2012 :
“These harsh judgments also knocked down some films that didn't deserve it. Back then, people in Germany would have been happy about films like 'Forbidden Games'. The first ten minutes alone, which show how five-year-old Paulette lost her parents in a German air raid, are great cinema: melodramatic and sentimental, but also truthful and moving. "
The film has a good rating with many current critics, with the US critic portal Rotten Tomatoes all 15 ratings for the film are positive.
“A harrowing film that relentlessly shows the cruelty and thoughtlessness of everyday life in the stylization and idealization of a 'healthy' children's world. At the same time, he strongly laments the loss of innocence through the war and vehemently denounces pseudo-religious behavior. "
Awards
The film won the Golden Lion of the Venice International Film Festival in 1952 and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best foreign language film . An honorary award for best foreign language film followed at the Academy Awards in 1953 , and another Oscar nomination for screenwriter François Boyer followed the following year. The British Film Academy Awards was Forbidden Games 1954 as best film award, while a Danish in the same year Bodil "European Best Picture" in the category followed. In Japan, Clement's work was awarded the Kinema Jumpō Prize and Blue Ribbon Award in 1954 for best foreign film.
Web links
- Forbidden Games in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Approval certificate for prohibited games . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2012 (PDF; test number: 62 84V V).
- ^ Peter Matthews: Forbidden Games: Death and the Maiden. Accessed November 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Dominique Mallet: The love of children in times of occupation. Documentation by Studiocanal , as an "extra" on the DVD Verbotene Spiele (= Arthaus Retrospective 1952), Studiocanal GmbH / Arthaus Filmvertrieb , 2012.
- ↑ Dominique Mallet: The love of children in times of occupation. Documentation by Studiocanal , as an "extra" on the DVD Verbotene Spiele (= Arthaus Retrospective 1952), Studiocanal GmbH / Arthaus Filmvertrieb , 2012.
- ↑ Dominique Mallet: The love of children in times of occupation. Documentation by Studiocanal , as an "extra" on the DVD Verbotene Spiele (= Arthaus Retrospective 1952), Studiocanal GmbH / Arthaus Filmvertrieb , 2012.
- ^ Peter Matthews: Forbidden Games: Death and the Maiden. Accessed November 4, 2019 .
- ^ DIE ZEIT (archive): Forbidden games . In: The time . May 28, 1953, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed November 4, 2019]).
- ↑ German synchronous index | Movies | Prohibited games. Retrieved November 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Bosley Crowther: THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Forbidden Games,' the Winning French Film at Venice Fete, Opens at Little Carnegie . In: The New York Times . December 9, 1952, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed November 4, 2019]).
- ^ DIE ZEIT (archive): Forbidden games . In: The time . May 28, 1953, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed November 4, 2019]).
- ↑ Bosley Crowther: THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Forbidden Games,' the Winning French Film at Venice Fete, Opens at Little Carnegie . In: The New York Times . December 9, 1952, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed November 4, 2019]).
- ↑ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): … now on DVD: Verbotene Spiele | DW | December 18, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2019 .
- ^ Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits) (1952). Accessed November 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Forbidden Games. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 11, 2017 .