Criminal hearts

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Movie
German title Criminal hearts
Original title Crimes of the Heart
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1986
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Bruce Beresford
script Beth Henley
production Freddie Fields
music Georges Delerue
camera Dante Spinotti
cut Anne Goursaud
occupation

Crimes of the Heart is an American film drama and the film adaptation of the play Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley from the year 1986 .

action

Lenoire Josephine Magrath, called Lenny, is a lonely woman who comes home and tries to get by on her birthday with some dignity and alone. Only her neighbor Chick Boyle visits her, but not to congratulate her, but so that she can talk about Lenny's sister Meg and how good it is that Lenny has not invited her to her birthday. But she's wrong. Meg has long been on her way to visit her sister. Once there, however, she has to hear from Lenny and Doc Porter that their third sister Babe shot her husband Zackery Botrelle and admits it. There is a very emotional reunion, but you immediately decide to help Babe. The lawyer Barnette Lloyd thinks that the smartest thing to do is to steer the strategy towards the abuse of her husband for years. When Lenny and Meg found out about it, they are horrified that Babe never said anything about it and kept silent about her pain in the marriage. Rather, Babe now says that she had a short passionate affair with 15-year-old African American Willy Jay. Zackery didn't know about it, but he still beat Willy Jay and chased him away from his farm. When Zackery then made fun of Babe, it was enough for her, so she got the revolver and shot her husband.

But before that there are the little dramas and joys between the three sisters who sometimes hate each other and then get along again. Lenny is angry that her only birthday present, a box of chocolates, was torn open by her two sisters and especially by the selfish Meg. You indulge in the old days, rummage through family albums and remember how the mother once killed herself with her cat. After another argument between Lenny and Meg, Meg runs out and is approached by Doc Porter, Lenny's secret crush, so that both of them spend the night dancing and laughing together. They don't sleep together, but they kiss so passionately goodbye that Meg runs happily singing and laughing to her two depressed sisters and wonders why they are so downcast. These just came from the visit of Old Granddaddy, who is dying and has already fallen into a coma .

And it gets worse when Barnett tells Babe that Zackery's sister had taken compromising pictures of her having sex with Willy Jay weeks earlier. Barnett succeeds in preventing the photos from being published and the indictment being upheld, but Willy Jay has to get out of town. This breaks Babe's heart and she feels her loneliness. Meanwhile, Chick tells Lenny that Meg went after Doc Porter. But Lenny doesn't want Chick to speak badly of Meg, which is why she chases her out of the house with a broom and feels so good that she thinks she has overcome her shyness, which is why she immediately calls Doc. And as happy as she now seems, Babe is now so depressed after answering a phone call from him and realizing that she is now completely alone. After the planned suicide by hanging does not work, she tries to gass herself in the stove and realizes that her mother killed herself because she felt alone in the world. But before she dies, she is saved by Meg, who explains to her that as long as the other two sisters are still there, she will never be alone. And so that Lenny can still have a birthday party, the two prepare a large cake to their surprise.

criticism

"One might think that the extravagant ups and downs of the Magrath sisters are so self-sufficient that not even a second-rate production could kill them, but that would be wrong."

- Vincent Canby in the New York Times

“ Criminal hearts is a tricky business: a comedy about the serious things in life. It exists somewhere between parody and melodrama, between the tragic and the silly. There are moments when the film doesn't seem to know where it's going. But suddenly this disorientation, and that's the good thing about this film, ends with some wonderful, funny surprise. "

- Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times

"A sensitively staged, brilliantly theatrical chamber play that hits the right tone between comedy and tragedy and condenses into an impressive plea for mutual understanding and conscious responsibility."

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

publication

After its theatrical release on December 12, 1986 in the United States, the film grossed over $ 22.9 million. The film opened in German cinemas on September 10, 1987, was released on VHS in June 1988 and has been available on DVD since April 16, 2002 .

Trivia

Kim Deal, bassist for the American independent rock band Pixies , was inspired by the film for the song "Gigantic" (on Surfer Rosa , released 1988).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vincent Canby : Crimes of the Heart (1986) on nytimes.com, December 12, 1986 (English), accessed January 18, 2012
  2. ↑ Roger Ebert : Crimes Of The Heart (PG-13) on suntimes.com from December 12, 1986 (English), accessed on January 18, 2012
  3. ↑ Crimes of the Heart (1986) on boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed January 18, 2012