Wide awake

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Movie
German title Wide awake
Original title Wide awake
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1998
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK o. A.
Rod
Director M. Night Shyamalan
script M. Night Shyamalan
production Bob Weinstein ,
Harvey Weinstein ,
Meryl Poster
music Edmund Choi
camera Adam Holender
cut Andrew Mondshein
occupation

Wide Awake [ waɪd əˌweɪk ] is an American fiction film from 1998. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan , who also wrote the screenplay. The film can mainly be assigned to the film genre of comedy and drama . It tells the story of a ten year old boy who goes in search of God after the death of his grandfather.

action

Ten year old Joshua goes in search of God after his beloved grandfather dies. While searching, he ran into some difficulties and devastating situations at the Catholic boys' school "Waldron Academy". With the help of his friend and a nun interested in sports, he tries to uncover the mystery that surrounds God. When he finds his friend wounded in his room after one of his epileptic seizures, he is able to save him and then decides to give up the search for God.

Emergence

After his autobiographical film Praying with Anger , which was praised by most film critics, Shyamalan set out to write a new story for the screen. He wrote a screenplay with the core plot that a little boy goes in search of God. After completing the script, the filmmaker looked for a film studio. So he came across Miramax Studios, who accepted the script and allowed him to direct the film himself, as they had liked Praying with Anger .

Shyamalan was supervised by producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein . For his comedy drama he was able to attract actors such as Joseph Cross , Rosie O'Donnell and Julia Stiles and he was given a budget of around 6 million US dollars. Filming began in 1995, and the film was released three years late in 1998 in American cinemas.

Film analysis

dramaturgy

Shyamalan always incorporates surprising moments with the help of "precise directorial work" and image design: One example is the church scene. Joshua and his grandfather are sitting on a bench in the church. The little boy is watching his grandpa. After the pastor calls for communion for the sick, “the camera shows a woman from Joshua's perspective who follows the call.” The boy then says in a close-up that he did not even know that Mrs. Pitman was sick. However, when he turns to his grandfather, he surprisingly also went forward. Again next to his grandson, he says a rosary. Meanwhile, Joshua stares at him in dismay.

Another phrase in "the form of a postponed information is found towards the end of the film". After David's epilepsy, Joshua plays in the front yard at night with his toy truck, which is laden with earth. He has given up the search for God, he has come to the conclusion that God is only an invention. The viewer is at the dramaturgical turning point of the character. During his game, Joshua flashes back to a school race that he wanted to win for his grandfather, but fell during the run. While the others have already reached the goal, his grandfather tells him to keep running. After crossing the finish line, Joshua falls into the old man's arms "for the last time". After this flashback it becomes clear to the viewer what the vice game and the earth are all about: With the earth he buries his grandfather's beloved shirt. He does not want to attend his funeral. “This reinterpretation of the initially harmless children's game into a serious and sad symbolic action functions as a dramaturgical bracket that frames a narrative unit as such.” Furthermore, it also picks up on the meaningful content and reflects it.

Color design

Wide Awake is characterized by earth and pastel tones. The warm but also dark colors are sometimes drawn from the locations. In North-East America, the “sunny light and pale California skies”, which predominantly appear in American family films and series, only occur to a limited extent, which gives the film this certain “color darkness”. In addition, it is located in the autumn or winter time, which creates a pale, diffuse light in the interior. This "saturated (and saturated) lighting" makes the faces of the protagonists appear pale, white and vulnerable.

In The Village, or The Sixth Sense , the color red was an important part of the story, but in Wide Awake this color is rarely found. It is mostly "faded or tinted, contaminated, as red-brown or, at most, crimson". Yellow also looks rather pale. Its use in school sportswear is probably the most distinctive, but even there it appears pale and with a tendency towards orange. As a result, it fits perfectly into the environment and does not stand out as a "signal color".

reception

Reviews

In the US, reviews were average (41% of the reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes were positive).

“The warm-hearted, child-friendly film seriously deals with essential problems and at the same time entertains thanks to the good actors. The second directorial work by M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense"), in which many of his themes already shine through. "

"With the full use of strings and winds, the orchestra brings out the already emotionally forced moments [...] with the repeated melody even further on the music track and thus undermines Shyamalan's other, comparatively subtle means of staging such as camera movements and color composition."

- Bernd Zywietz

“The religiously based play of light does not gain depth in moments of assurance of salvation, but in moments of doubt and depression. [...] In flashbacks, Shyamalan succeed in touching scenes, not least thanks to his leading actor Joseph Cross and Robert Loggia in the grandfather role. Perhaps it is the down-to-earth, realistic foundation of “Wide Awake” that simply cannot take the thickly applied drama. [...] Shyamalan's notorious hooks at the end, called “Last Minute Twists”, cannot be revealed. Here you don't have a guilty conscience, because the blond curly golden angel in civilian clothes is more of a “last minute kitsch” - a surprise of the oozing kind. "

- Jens Hinrichsen

“The thoughtful family film with New Age sensitivity has the best of intentions, but it is precisely the sense of mission to deliver a meaningful contribution in terms of content that makes the variant of" Hello Mr. God, Anna is speaking here "appear as heavy as lead where lightness would have been necessary. In any case, children should only show themselves moderately enthusiastic due to the thickly applied tearfulness and the melancholy topic. "

- Kino.de

Income and awards

The film is considered a commercial failure, since it with a budget of about six million dollars grossed only back 282,175 US dollars. Was filmed Wide Awake primarily in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . The film was nominated for Best Drama and Joseph Cross for Best Young Actor at the 1999 Young Artist Awards .

literature

  • Bernd Zywietz: Seeing dead people: M. Night Shyamalan and his films. Volume 1, Edition Screenshot, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-025297-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Galore . Vol. 45 (December 2008), interview with M. Night Shyamalan, p. 57.
  2. Wide Awake. In: Box Office mojo. Retrieved March 11, 2009 .
  3. a b Zywietz: Seeing dead people. P. 34.
  4. a b Zywietz: Seeing dead people. P. 35.
  5. Zywietz: Seeing dead people. P. 32.
  6. a b Zywietz: Seeing dead people. P. 33.
  7. Wide Awake. ( Memento from June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Rotten Tomatoes. (English)
  8. Wide Awake. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 16, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. Zywietz: Seeing dead people. P. 36.
  10. http://www.filmzentrale.com/rezis/wideawakejh.htm  : Criticism in the film headquarters by Jens Hinrichesn
  11. http://www.kino.de/kinofilm/wide-awake/44972.html  : Film review from the cinema website
  12. Wide Awake. In: Box Office mojo. Retrieved March 11, 2009 .