Welcome to Marwen

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Movie
German title Welcome to Marwen
Original title Welcome to Marwen
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2018
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Robert Zemeckis
script Caroline Thompson ,
Robert Zemeckis
production Cherylanne Martin,
Jack Rapke,
Steve Starkey,
Robert Zemeckis
music Alan Silvestri
camera C. Kim Miles
cut Jeremiah O'Driscoll
occupation

Willkommen in Marwen (original title Welcome to Marwen ) is a film drama by Robert Zemeckis , which was released in US cinemas on December 21, 2018 and in German cinemas on March 28, 2019. The biopic is about Mark Hogancamp, who is beaten up by five strangers after a visit to the bar and barely escape with their lives.

action

The film opens in Belgium during World War II. The pilot Captain Hogie, known as "Hoagy", crashes his plane over a forest and finds a suitcase with women's clothes in an abandoned Nazi vehicle. Among these, Hogie also finds a pair of high-heeled pumps . Since his boots were burned by the plane crash, Hogie puts on the women's shoes and is shortly afterwards surprised by a group of Nazi soldiers. They consider Hogie to be homosexual because of the shoes and begin to brutally beat him. After a short time, the so-called women of Marwen come to his aid and shoot the Nazis down. Then it is revealed that everything just happened in the little miniature world of the artist Mark Hogancamp. After a moving moving van disturbs him with his photographs, Mark goes back to the house, in which he has also built a large model world in his apartment. When he looks out the window, he watches as the new neighbor Nicol moves in next to him. A little later, Mark receives a visit from his nurse Anna, who brings him several purchases and his mail.

Through a flyer in the post, Mark learns that friends of his involuntarily advertised him at an exhibition in which he is supposed to present his miniature villages. Mark rejects this strictly and announces to Anna that under no circumstances will she appear at the exhibition. In subsequent flashbacks, you learn that Mark had to learn to walk and all of his motor skills again due to an accident, and in the present you learn that this event caused Mark to give up his passion for painting. In many other scenes in the world of Marwen, the characters, all of which are based on real personalities in Mark's life, experience further adventures and fight against Nazis in warlike scenarios. The next day after work in a bar, Mark goes to the hobby shop of his friend Roberta, who tries to invite him out for a meal, but Mark vehemently rejects any attempt. In the shop itself, Mark is looking for a new model figure to portray his new neighbor Nicol. After Mark wants to pay for the found figure, Roberta offers him the detailed figure of a major general of the Waffen SS for his exhibition . Suddenly, on television, a report is running at full volume about the upcoming trial of the thugs who once beat Mark. The report in conjunction with the character trigger a panic attack in Mark, whereupon he leaves the store full of panic. During the night Mark appears to be one of his characters Deja Thoris in his sleep, who seems to play a special role for him - as has already been indicated in several scenes. It is Deja who leads him to take a double dose of his pills. Over the course of the days, Mark and Nicol get to know each other better and better and get closer and closer. In Marwen, too, Nicol is now the new member of the women of Marwen as a character. When Nicol invites Mark for a cup of tea, Nicol's ex-boyfriend Kurt joins them and scares Mark off with a few scornful remarks and taunts. Barricaded in his house, Mark suffers another panic attack and memories of the attack on him.

The trial date is one day later and Mark appears after several hesitations. When he is confronted with his former attackers in the courtroom, he sees the perpetrators as the Nazi soldiers of his miniature village and fled the room in panic, whereupon the trial was adjourned. It becomes particularly clear that Mark tries to process his traumatic experiences with the help of Marwen and his characters. A few days later, after numerous other adventures by Hogie and the wives of Marwen, Mark, who has fallen in love with Nicol over time, proposes marriage to Nicol because he misunderstood her signs and words in their previous meetings and conversations. Nicol refuses the application and gives Mark a gift as consolation that turns out to be the figure of the SS major general. Despite Mark's fear, he becomes part of the conflict in Marwen and Hogie kills the SS man with the toe of his lady's shoe. He learns that Deja is a Nazi spy and keeps the dead soldiers alive. Hoagie realizes that Deja is Mark's real problem and it is she who makes him sick and Deja flies away with a time machine built by Mark and all Nazis are destroyed. Hogie and Nicole become a couple in Marwen and in the real world Mark manages to break away from Deja and packs her into a box in which he keeps "dead" figures.

With his newfound courage to face life, Mark decides to go to the exhibition after all and he puts an invitation to Nicol on the doorstep. At the court hearing, Mark finally reads his description of the crime and explains that he is feeling better again. At the subsequent exhibition he explains to Roberta that he is now calling his village Marwencol ( Mar for Mark, Wen for Wendy, Col for Nicol ) and a little later Nicol appears, who, however, leaves the gallery only a few seconds later. Roberta and Mark agree to meet again for a meal after a conversation. In the last scene you see Mark, who is walking out on the street in pumps and daring to be himself again.

production

The film tells the real life story of Mark Hogancamp. On April 8, 2000, the artist and illustrator was attacked outside a bar in New York State and beaten half to death by a group of young men. When he woke up from the coma, he had little memories of his old life. He used puppets and developed backstories for them to create his own alternate universe in which to process his trauma. One of the characters was an avatar for himself, an American captain in the US Army who is fighting with Nazis. The photos that Hogancamp took of his characters became the subject of a series of exhibitions and in 2010 led to a documentary entitled Marwencol .

Directed by Robert Zemeckis , who wrote the screenplay for the film together with Caroline Thompson .

Filming took place from August 14 to October 19, 2017 in Vancouver, Canada, and in the Maple Ridge community in British Columbia. C. Kim Miles acted as cameraman .

The film critic Antje Wessels explains that Robert Zemeckis developed his own film language for Willkommen in Marwen in order to deal with the puppet figures in a completely different way than with normal CGI characters : “For example, if a figure falls from a great height onto a pointed object, it breaks instead of being brutally impaled. ”The way in which the death of a doll is visualized is also solved quite cleverly, Wessels continues, because you immediately know what is meant when the limbs suddenly become doll-like stiffen. At the same time, however, the movements are much more fluid than in classic puppet stop-motion films . In terms of technology , Willkommen in Marwen Wessels most closely resembles Small Soldiers . The film critic also notes that the miniature world Marwen has a proper, erotically charged fetish paintwork with its provocative soldiers and highly stylized torture scenes and is thus reminiscent of works by Nazi propaganda.

The film music was composed by Alan Silvestri , with whom Robert Zemeckis has already worked on over 10 films, for the first time for On the Hunt for the Green Diamond , then for Back to the Future and for the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump . The soundtrack, which includes 21 pieces of music, was released for download by Back Lot Music on December 21, 2018. A release on CD is planned a little later by Intrada Records.

Universal released a first trailer at the end of June 2018, and a first German trailer in mid-July 2018. The film premiered on December 10, 2018 at the ArcLight in Hollywood and was released in US cinemas on December 21, 2018 and in German cinemas on March 28, 2019.

reception

Age rating and film genre

In the US, the film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA . In Germany, the film was approved by the FSK from the age of 12. The statement of reasons for the release states: “The film changes frequently, but visually easily recognizable, between fantasy and reality and shows a clear distinction between good and bad. The narrative is mostly calm, the atmosphere mostly friendly. Nevertheless, some dark fight and action scenes can emotionally overwhelm children under 12 due to their intensity and duration. "

The film critic Antje Wessels says in her review: "With Welcome to Marwen combines Robert Zemeckis eroticized war Doll action like an old penny dreadful with a sensitive drama about a trauma patient . A radical mixture that challenges the audience a lot more than the usual well-ironed feel-good Oscar dramas. "

Knut Elstermann from MDR Kultur refers to the brilliant puppet animations in the film and writes: "With almost two hours, it is clearly too long and not entirely free of redundancy, but overall a beautiful and touching appreciation of this unique self-therapy."

Britta Schmeis from epd Film writes that Steve Carell plays the amiable eccentric, sometimes with heroic seriousness, sometimes with poignant vulnerability. Some scenes are spectacular, bizarre and at the same time imposing, but Zemeckis gets too drunk on technical sophistication, polishes the story to a sentimental Hollywood shine and lets the plot float.

Awards

In early December 2018, it was announced that the film was in the preselection for the 2019 Academy Awards in the Best Visual Effects category .

Art Directors Guild Awards 2019

  • Nomination in the category Contemporary Film (Stefan Dechant)

Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards 2019

  • Nomination in the category Best Contemporary Makeup (Ve Neill, Rosalina De Silva)

synchronization

The German dubbing was based on a dialogue book by Klaus Bickert and the dialogue direction by Katrin Fröhlich on behalf of Interopa Film GmbH, Berlin.

actor Voice actor role
Diane Kruger Stephanie waiter Deja Thoris
Leslie Mann Bianca Krahl Nicol
Merritt Wever Friederike Walke Roberta

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ release document for Welcome to Marwen . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 184622 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/leslie-mann-talks-tackling-drama-in-welcome-to-marwen-and-reveals-a-ghostly-experience-in-bonos-hotel-37624900 .html
  3. ↑ a b http://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/224929/kritik.html
  4. ^ Alan Silvestri to Score Robert Zemecki's 'The Women of Marwen'. In: filmmusicreporter.com, March 26, 2018.
  5. ↑ 'Welcome to Marwen' soundtrack details. In: filmmusicreporter.com, December 13, 2018.
  6. ↑ https://www.moviejones.de/news/news-flucht-in-die-fantasie-trailer-heisst-uns-willkommen-in-marwen_32520.html
  7. ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steve-carell-diane-kruger-message-welcome-marwen-1168193
  8. ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  9. ↑ https://www.spio-fsk.de/?seitid=2737&tid=469&Vers=1&FGID=4952
  10. ↑ https://www.mdr.de/kultur/empfänger/willkommen-in-marwen-filmkritik-elstermann-100.html
  11. ↑ https://www.epd-film.de/filmkritiken/willkommen-marwen
  12. ↑ Kristopher Tapley: Oscars: 'Aquaman', 'Avengers' and More Advance in VFX Race. In: Variety, December 3, 2018.
  13. ↑ Kristopher Tapley: 'Buster Scruggs', 'Black Panther', 'Haunting of Hill House' Nominated for Art Directors Guild Awards. In: Variety, January 7, 2019.