Wonderland (1999)

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Movie
German title Wonderland
Original title Wonderland
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1999
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Michael Winterbottom
script Laurence Coriat
production Andrew Eaton
Michele Camarda
music Michael Nyman
camera Sean Bobbitt
cut Trevor Waite
occupation

Wonderland (Alternative title: Wonderland - Alle sucht Liebe ) is a British relationship drama directed by Michael Winterbottom from 1999 . It is a portrait of the city of London , with simple, young people in it who have in common that they have not yet found their place in life.

action

The metropolis of London of the new millennium : The film tells of a few days in the lives of three sisters in their twenties named Debbie, Nadia and Molly. Her immediate environment consists mainly of her mother Eileen, her husband Bill, the couple's neighbor, his black son Franklyn, Debbie's eleven-year-old son Jack and his father Dan, and Molly's friend Eddie. The ensemble comes from the working class without exception and they all live in cramped rental apartments or, at best, in the petty bourgeois idyll. Instead, the evening metropolis presents itself in the most dazzling ( neon ) colors over the Thames .

The careworn mother Eileen lives in south London with her defensive husband, and is driven to white heat day in, day out by the neighbour's yapping dog . Franklyn, on the other side of the garden fence, isolates himself from his unloved parents in his small room and only listens to music through headphones around the clock.

Nadia is a waitress by profession and is single , has changing loves and tries her luck with personals. The viewer experiences her encounter with Tim, who is not only charming, but also has a sense of reliability and honesty. But it turns out to be a disappointment. Tim sends Nadia home by public transport .

Debbie is a hairdresser . Nothing but trouble can be expected from the father of her child Dan, from whom she lives separately. Their boy Dan ran off to see the fireworks and was mugged. Now the eleven-year-old is stuck in the police station, for which she blames Dan, who is both child-headed and quick-tempered. Dan, Nadia and Debbie meet at the station when they pick up the boy.

Molly is very pregnant. Molly, a nurse by profession , could well imagine a regular family life . Her companion Eddie is a professional seller of fitted kitchens, but does not really love his job, although he is quite successful. At this inconceivably inconvenient time, he actually quits his job and as a result does not dare to go home.

Darren is the only son in the family. He looks relatively satisfied, as he left his parents' home early. His birthday is imminent, but his parents are waiting in vain for him.

With a blow of freedom, Mother Eileen finally gets to grips with the neighbour's mutt with rat poison , and the barking is over. Molly gives birth to a healthy daughter who will be named Alice . Eddie may find the courage to stay with her and the child (he actually runs into her in the hospital after a scooter accident ). Darren calls his father again after a long time or speaks to him on the answering machine. In front of her parents' house, Nadia meets her neighbor's son Franklyn, whom she has never noticed before, and the two of them walk towards the bus stop, talking.

backgrounds

The London Eye at night, 2007. Not taken from the film.

The film was shot in the unusual format of 16 mm , hence the grainy appearance (with an aspect ratio of 2.35: 1).

The film was shot in Greater London and at The Langham Hilton in the Marylebone area .

The day of the premiere in the Federal Republic of Germany was November 25, 1999. On May 25, 2000 Wonderland was released on video.

According to the Box Office Mojo database , total revenue in the United States (" Total Lifetime Grosses / Domestic ") was approximately $ 414,000 as of April 1, 2008.

Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt made Wonderland, his first work on a feature film for the cinema. Film editor Trevor Waite and producer Andrew Eaton work regularly with Winterbottom. It was his first project together with composer Michael Nyman, and the first ever script by Laurence Coriat.

Reviews

  • “ Everything that is wrong in ' Intimacy ' is right in 'Wonderland'. 'Wonderland' is a wonderful portrait of the city and some of its residents, because the film makes it clear what moves its people. […] In contrast to Chereau , Winterbottom is interested in his characters. “- Andreas Thomas
  • “ Like its heroines, the wonderfully flowing rhythm of the film tries to defy the dreary reality, reinforced by the fairytale music […]. But even if at the end of the film the survivors pause for a moment to see the newborn, it is clear that this only means a short breath. “- Berliner Morgenpost
  • “ The British cinema of the late 1990s remained true to its interest in socially influenced material. Michael Winterbottom strives [...] for the greatest possible visual and acoustic realism. […] For friends of this type of cinema, this film is appealing entertainment. “- prism

The latter should mean Ken Loach and Mike Leigh . Winterbottom is the name of Chungking Express , who would have been the godfather for the appearance of some scenes: this becomes “ an amazing mixture of realism and impressionism [...] a landscape that is both familiar and strange ” (Deborah Allison).

Sight & Sound particularly praised the presentation on the part of Ian Hart and that of Gina McKee. The author found Michael Nyman's music to be exaggerated across the board, and the film overall a bit too “ polished ” in view of the pessimistic, “ bitter ” story. The will to style and the video clip aesthetics on the one hand and the documentary “ dogma lite ” claim (or cinéma vérité ) on the other hand would result in a creative film. The last few minutes are really impressive.

Roger Ebert welcomed a work in which the characters would finally be relevant again. The goal is not pure entertainment, the film is meant honestly insofar as it does not draw any conclusions.

The New York Times held Wonderland for uneven, little happy, and unfortunately for content predictable.

Stephanie Zacharek put it on Salon.com on July 28, 2000: “ [...] aggressively depressing [...] you think you are being manipulated to a point of numbness. "

Awards and nominations

BAFTA Award 2000
  • Nomination for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for Michele Camarda, Andrew Eaton and Michael Winterbottom

British Independent Film Awards 1999

  • British Independent Film Award in the Best British Film category
  • Nomination for the British Independent Film Award in the Best Actress category for Gina McKee
  • British Independent Film Award nomination in the Best Director category for Michael Winterbottom
Cannes Film Festival 1999
  • Nomination Golden Palm for Michael Winterbottom. The award went to Rosetta by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
Valladolid International Film Festival 1999
  • Golden Spike nomination for Michael Winterbottom

literature

  • Ewa Mazierska, Laura Rascaroli: From Moscow to Madrid: Postmodern Cities, European Cinema . I. B. Tauris, London 2003, ISBN 1-86064-850-9 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wonderland. In: Prism . Retrieved April 1, 2008 .
  2. ↑ a b c Wonderland in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  3. ↑ a b c d IMDb , see web links.
  4. ^ Wonderland (2000). In: Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo, LLC., Accessed April 1, 2008 .
  5. ↑ a b Deborah Allison: Michael Winterbottom. In: Senses of Cinema. 2005, accessed on April 3, 2008 (English): "a startling mingling of realism and impressionism [...] a landscape that is at once familiar and strange"
  6. ^ Andreas Thomas: Intimacy. In: Filmzentrale. Andreas Thomas, May 18, 2003, accessed April 1, 2008 (review of the film Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau ).
  7. ↑ dan: Everything inexorably dreary in Wonderland. (No longer available online.) In: Berliner Morgenpost . February 18, 2004, formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 3, 2008 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.morgenpost.de  
  8. ↑ S. a. Mitchell.
  9. ↑ a b p. A. Bill Mousoulis: The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Wonderland . (No longer available online.) In: Senses of Cinema. 2000, archived from the original on December 25, 2010 ; accessed on April 3, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / archive.sensesofcinema.com
  10. ^ Stuart Jeffries: The walking wounded of Wonderland. In: The Guardian . January 18, 2000, accessed April 1, 2008 .
  11. ↑ Xan Brooks: Wonderland. In: Sight & Sound . January 2000, accessed April 3, 2008 .
  12. ↑ Roger Ebert: Wonderland. rogerebert.suntimes.com, August 11, 2000, accessed April 2, 2008 .
  13. ^ Elvis Mitchell : Three Sisters in London, With Lives Worth Mourning. In: The New York Times . July 28, 2000, accessed April 2, 2008 .
  14. ^ Stephanie Zacharek: Wonderland. Salon.com, July 28, 2000, accessed on April 3, 2008 : "[...] aggressively depressing [...] you begin to feel manipulated to the point of numbness"