Wild magic

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Movie
German title Wild magic
Original title Rough Magic
Country of production USA , UK , France
original language English
Publishing year 1995
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Clare Peploe
script William Brookfield , Robert Mundi , Clare Peploe
production Declan Baldwin ,
Laurie Parker
music Richard Hartley
camera John J. Campbell
cut Suzanne Fenn
occupation

Rough Magic ( Rough Magic ) is a US-American - British - French fantasy film comedy of Clare Peploe from the year 1995 . The screenplay by William Brookfield , Robert Mundi and Clare Peploe is based on the novel Wilder Zauber ( Miss Shumway Waves a Wand ) by James Hadley Chase . The film was shown for the first time in Germany on September 2, 1995 as part of the International Film Festival in Oldenburg .

action

1950s, Mexico. An ethnologist records the sacred chants of an old shaman without permission . When she became aware of it - she suddenly disappeared. In their place now sits an owl .

Los Angeles, USA Miss Myra Shumway is the enchanting and enchanting assistant of an elderly wizard who dances across the country with her. The extremely rich entrepreneur Cliff Wyatt - he owns uranium mines - moves up to an empty senatorial post. Wyatt is smooth as an eel, handsome like Clark Gable and vain, so easy to influence in the sense of the gray political mines. There is only one thing missing for an impeccable clean slate: a wife. Miss Myra Shumway is his choice. Young, pretty, intelligent, healthy.

The old wizard is jealous. He wants to keep Myra. When Wyatt comes into his cloakroom to pick up Myra, the wizard catches Wyatt's head in a stage guillotine . Myra comes in, thinks the situation is funny and takes a picture with the camera that was on the table. It bangs twice. The lightning and a shot. Wyatt had fished for the revolver on the table and shot the wizard. He dies on the spot.

Before that, he gives his Myra an old shamanic magic belt and an order: she should go to Mexico to a famous old shaman. Myra takes the belt and flees in her light yellow cabriolet. Wyatt wants to dispose of the dead wizard in the ditch. When he opens the trunk, the body is gone. Instead, two dozen white pigeons fly out of the trunk .

Wyatt wants Myra back. He hires the local editor-in-chief Clayton to search for Myra. Clayton hands this job over to war photographer Alex Ross . Ross was there in Nagasaki . He hasn't been the same since then. He must have seen the incredible. Like a small, valuable monument, he carries a Japanese tea bowl with him, one side of which has been scorched black by the immense heat of the atomic bomb . He drinks.

Mexico. Myra has arrived in a city with her open convertible and is mingling with the people. The Mexicans huddle against the blonde, touching her immorally - Myra saves herself by diving under a sales counter and a quack who helps "Doc" sell his elixir, a blue liquid. Myra takes a sip, pretends to throw up - and vomits a mouthful of gold coins. The sale of the elixir is booming.

In gratitude, the doc takes Myra out to dinner. Alex has already spotted them. The doc wants to work with Myra, but she steals from him with a quick hand - and flees to her car. Alex follows her - and himself into the car with her. Together, as a couple, a journey to Acapulco begins. At first Myra doesn't like the man who sticks to her side like honey and calls himself her guardian angel.

Myra drives. Hours and hours, so long that Alex falls asleep next to her. When the two are in Mexico, they are greeted by an owl from a tree. Alex offers to drive for the next few hours. Myra doesn't trust him, she keeps the jack in her hand as she gets into the back seat to rest for her part. Alex drives until late at night.

The next day at a Mexican gas station in a sleepy town. Alex disturbs the gas station owner and his wife while they are sleeping, the woman comes and refuel the car, Alex orders two beers. The gas station owner tries to vent his anger over the broken love affairs at the two gringos.

He provokes Alex first by spitting his disgusting chewing tobacco- contaminated saliva on his shoe, calling Myra a bitch and spitting her into her full beer bottle. Alex doesn't respond by slamming, Myra is angry. He is a beautiful guardian angel, not worth much. Myra takes a sip from the saliva-contaminated beer bottle, lights a match and snorts a flame in the face of the gas station owner. He has to put out his burning head in a rain barrel, Alex and Myra flee in the car. You owe the amount of tres dollares e quattrocinquanta centavos .

A few hours later, the two of them stop, get out. Myra stole Alex's wallet with a quick hand. She wants to know who he is. You drive on, in a small mountain village the two take a hotel room. Alex carries the suitcases. When you put it down, one of your suitcases jumps up and the image of the magician falls out. As she is picking up her things, Alex quickly steals a roll of banknotes that had rolled to one side on the floor.

He tells Myra he's going to the bank to get some money. In fact, he calls the editor-in-chief Clayton to tell him that he has found what he was looking for. He wants to receive his fee immediately, 500 dollars. There is a film capsule in Myra's money roll. Alex exchanges this for his own. It is clear to him that there is something important to be seen on the found film.

Alex and Myra have dinner at a local eatery. Myra learns about Alex and Nagasaki, he about Myra's nature: she can really do magic. Alex gives Myra her roll of money back. Then the quack appears, the Doc. He has a deal to propose. The doc has recognized Myras magic belt that she is not a magic simulant, but really has psychic powers. Myra is supposed to visit the famous old shaman Toyola and ask her to tell her the recipe for the real blue tincture that can cure the really sick. After an initial refusal, Myra accepts the deal. Alex and Myra dance.

Later that evening, they split up, Alex and Myra go to their room with a double bed. They dance a little more, the music rings out. The moment of truth is coming. You recognize each other.

Doc, Alex and Myra drive in Myra's cabriolet to the lake near the volcano to the Inca palace ruins, the place of work of the old shaman Toyola. Suddenly the gas station owner reappears on the shore of the lake, he wants revenge for a burnt hair.

He brought a fire eater and a can of gasoline. Again he threatens to rape Myra. A fist fight breaks out between the men - with a changing fate, but in the end Doc and Alex succumb to total knockout. Both are passed out. The gas station owner pours gasoline over Alex from head to toe and pulls out the storm lighter.

He spits his disgusting chewing tobacco saliva on the unconscious man. This angered Myra so much that she titled him "You fat sausage!" In anger, Myra suddenly has magic power. The gas station owner writhes in convulsions, a bang, smoke, the lighter falls to the floor, next to it: a fat sausage. Myra transformed the man. Alex wakes up and wants to light a cigarette first. He picks up the lighter, sees the sausage, forgets the cigarette. Instead of turning into a gasoline pillar of fire, he throws the sausage to Doc's dog, who eats it immediately.

Myra and Ross later quarrel, Myra returns to Wyatt.

Myra learns that her former mentor is alive after all, saved by magic. Since she is not happy with her fiancé, she gets back together with Ross. The film ends with the sight of two copulating rabbits.

background

The shooting took place in Los Angeles , Michoacán ( Mexico ) and Tikal ( Guatemala ). The film grossed less than $ 172,000 in US cinemas .

dramaturgy

Ostensibly a monolinear road movie , the dramaturgy of the film is based, similar to the Who-done-it crime film, on the construction of a context of meaning through clues. Objects such as owls, magic belts, elixirs, verbal formulations such as "tres dollares e ventiquattro centavos" are clues that, like mosaic stones, gradually discover the larger context of meaning for the viewer. The consumption of the film on the surface of the "and then and then" can generate the misguided impression that a colorful, meaningless hubbub is being presented. Here the film relies on the media skills of an audience with film experience.

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote appreciatively on ReelViews that the film was "cheeky" and could not be classified. However, its large parts would not work. The story is absurd in places. Bridget Fonda was wrongly cast in her role. Russell Crowe plays "passable", but the character he is playing is two-dimensional, so there is no need for an in-depth presentation.

The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was "a failed parody of the crime films of the 50s" that had a "poor script". Only the equipment and the atmosphere were praised.

“In a motley sequence, comic and romantic moments alternate, dangerous with soulful scenarios, and supernatural with senseless elements (...). The appealing photography, the elaborate equipment and the game of Bridget Fonda, who is able to exude at least a touch of soft-erotic magic, could nevertheless ensure that an audience interested in idiosyncratic works of art would like this truly "wild magic" will inspire. "

Awards

Bridget Fonda won an award from the Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya in 1995 . Her Italian dubbing voice was awarded the Nastro d'Argento in 1996.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Filming locations for Rough Magic
  2. Box office / business for Rough Magic
  3. ^ Review by James Berardinelli
  4. Wild spell. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ^ Criticism at Kino.de