Times of turmoil

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Movie
German title Times of turmoil
Original title Revolutionary Road
Country of production USA ,
UK
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Sam Mendes
script Justin Haythe based
on the novel by
Richard Yates
production Bobby Cohen
Sam Mendes
Scott Rudin
music Thomas Newman
camera Roger Deakins
cut Tariq Anwar
occupation

Revolutionary Road is a British - American feature film by Sam Mendes from 2008 . Justin Haythe's script is based on Richard Yates' novel of the same name .

action

The film is set in America in 1955 and focuses on the hopes and longings of the self-confident couple Frank and April Wheeler, who had met years earlier at a party.

The two give up urban life to raise their two children in suburban Connecticut . To do this, they buy a single-family house on Revolutionary Road , which shaped the English title of the film and the novel. The Wheelers consider themselves “different” from the neighbors in their residential area, the so-called Revolutionary Hill Estate - and they are also perceived by the neighborhood as “different”, as special.

April attended drama school, but remained unsuccessful on stage and became a housewife after giving birth to her first child. She also plays theater in an amateur troupe, which April only makes more frustrating. There is a crisis in their relationship. Out of defiance and anger about the lovelessness of his dissatisfied wife, Frank starts an affair with his colleague Maureen Grube on his 30th birthday. When the unsuspecting April surprisingly suggests that they move to Paris that same evening , where her husband could look for his actual calling and she would earn a living as a secretary for so long, she took up an old idea of ​​her husband. Frank, who is bored of his work in Manhattan at Knox Business Machines, is initially hesitant about his wife's idea, but is soon persuaded by her to give up suburban life in order to feel “really alive” in Paris again. But while he was still preparing to leave, an unexpected promotion made his job more attractive again and put the common dream on the back burner. The Wheelers' attempt to break free from the stereotype of their existence finally fails when April learns that she is pregnant again, increasing Frank's initial opposition to the Paris plans. Frustrated, April lets herself into a one-night stand with her neighbor Shep Campbell, who, also disappointed in his wife, has long had a covetous eye on her.

Because of the conflict over a possible abortion , which April endorses and Frank rejects, the faded dream of a different life, and because April says directly to Frank that she no longer loves him, their marriage dissolves more and more into endless, bitter arguments and blame. Still, both try to maintain the facade of their domestic happiness. Only John Givings, the mentally ill son of the local realtor Helen and her husband Howard, notices and speaks brutally what is going on behind the bourgeois scene.

Eventually April dies of blood loss from her own and secretly carried out abortion. Frank remains a broken man. He quits his job, leaves the pseudo-idyll of Revolutionary Road and from now on looks after his two children alone. A new couple moves into the Wheeler's house, just as young and “special” as the Wheelers were before.

production

The director John Frankenheimer considered a film adaptation early after the publication of the novel by Richard Yates, but without actually realizing it. In 1967, producer Albert S. Ruddy bought the rights to the film for $ 15,000. Five years later, Yates offered to write a screenplay for the film adaptation, but Ruddy turned it down in favor of other projects and eventually sold the rights to actor Patrick O'Neal . Yates read O'Neal's script and found it "godawfull", but O'Neal declined to sell the rights back to Yates. Yates died in 1992, O'Neal two years later, and the project was pending until David Thompson eventually acquired the rights to BBC Films. In March 2007, BBC Films partnered with DreamWorks and the rights to sell the film worldwide were given to Paramount , the owner of DreamWorks. On February 14, 2008, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Paramount had announced that Paramount Vantage would be distributing Times of Troubles .

When making the film, director Sam Mendes first worked with his then-wife Kate Winslet, who had been in front of the camera for Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kathy Bates in 1997. The filming locations were in Connecticut and New York State . After the premiere on December 15, 2008 in Los Angeles, Revolutionary Road was shown in the USA from December 26, 2008, and in Germany from January 15, 2009.

Revolutionary Road was developed by the Motion Picture Association of America with a rating R ( Restricted provided) so that in the United States under 17 the movie an adult may only accompaniment. Language, sexual content and nudity are given as reasons for this classification. The film played - 35 million dollars production costs - worldwide approximately 74 million US dollars a.

Reviews

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

In the German-language press

Critics see the cast couple from Titanic (1997), Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio , as the epitome of the romantic couple, as "film lovers of the late century", who are now finally falling into disaster. This misfortune is normal, and times of turmoil a wise antithesis to Titanic , where love overcomes death, while here it is subject to everyday banality. It can be understood as an exploration of how the couple would have lived if the ship hadn't sunk, as "rubbing your eyes after the excessive Titanic sinking night" . The taz finds the drama about two lovers who run out of breath more alarming than the sirens of the Titanic . Since their appearance at that time, the actors have "matured enormously" .

While the plot in Titanic strengthened the self-confidence of the Winslet character, here the dreams are disenchanted. Love shatters on the ice of the cold 1950s, depicted as a period of well-groomed superficiality behind which there is depressive emptiness. In this respect, the film surpasses Dem Himmel so Fern (2002). Also compare Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are drawn. The quality of the film is especially thanks to the novel. He shows "the full narrowness of a security-oriented society" , in which people would be forced by "pressure to conform into an oppressively banal existence" . Times of turmoil relentlessly demonstrate the sterile existence of an average marriage that is shattered by its banality. The production is a sign of many Americans' need for truthfulness. She confronts viewers who are in a similar situation with terrible truths and forces them to question their own life.

The Cinema finds DiCaprio and Winslet's portrayal as "brutally intense" . For the Frankfurter Rundschau, the two main actors put inner states into excellent facial expressions and gestures. Winslet was rightly awarded the Golden Globe . The standard, however, says they played poses. For the Tagesspiegel , Winslet is an event; it shows April's coincidence with disturbing intensity. According to Neue Zürcher Zeitung , she impressively plays that her April always seems to be on the verge of the outbreak of latent feelings, while the Süddeutsche sees gestures of incredible elegance. The world thinks that she gets deep into the role and carries her audience away, the time that she doesn't play, but lives through her role. DiCaprio succeeds in showing differentiated emotions, finds the Tagesspiegel , but the Neue Zürcher Zeitung finds that in some scenes he only recites his text. He tries, but remains harmless, so that Winslet plays him against the wall, judge the taz and the world .

It is not a feel-good film, rather “quite elegiac” , a great melodrama, patiently and quietly told, tragic and depressing. In unobtrusive images full of melancholy, director Sam Mendes creates a beautiful, quiet sadness. The tone is sad and funny, there is a grim sense of humor, but satire only exists with the secondary characters. Mendes transports the audience into the musty world of the 1950s with fascinating ease. The straightforward, clear script contains razor-sharp dialogues, says the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , but the film is too dialog-heavy for the Frankfurter Rundschau . The form of the hopeless melodrama binds the two at least as tightly as the social conventions ( Die Welt ), in the well-composed tableaus there is no escape ( Der Standard ). The Tagesspiegel rates Mendes' staging as precise and cold, according to the standard , his gaze remains too indifferent, the press finds his approach skilful, but also too cold.

Die Welt claims that the film contains, in addition to the accusation of that era, a certain glorification, since Frank's office world appears calm compared to today's conditions. The time and the daily mirror find that the couple's children, who appear sporadically like foreign bodies, remain shadowy. The Frankfurter Rundschau is bothered by the excessive film language , which with its perfection undermines the intensity of the actors. The press and standards do not leave the director with good hair , because they treat the characters too condescendingly; the conflicts between the characters seemed artificial and artificial, it was a rigid film, whose “cocktail of neuroses” wanted to describe society as a whole, but ultimately didn't say anything about the world and was visually too dignified and beautiful.

In the United States

The Washington Post sees in Revolutionary Road , a prequel of the Sam Mendes film American Beauty and praises in addition to the excellent performance of Michael Shannon particularly Kate Winslet's representation. Also, The Hollywood Reporter looks even than others, more parallels to American Beauty , which extend into the plane of the image composition and musical accompaniment. Times of turmoil is an instructive, but also emotionally bombastic criticism of the soulless suburbs.

The New York Daily News finds Winslet sensational, DiCaprio's portrayal is also successful, the film comes - by taking up some of Yates' important thoughts - close to the novel, but ultimately lags behind. The criticism of the New York Times also aims in the same direction, stating that little happens in the story of two average lives that only touched on the margins. Such novels easily botch Hollywood because there is a lot going on in the minds of the characters, the main characters are not particularly sympathetic and pessimism sells badly without obvious redemption . The director, according to the final verdict, is too distant, too routine and too diagnostic with the material, which has its charm in the personal concern that the novel reveals. Mendes staged the tragedy splendidly and symbolically, forgetting, however, that it was not just about theater, but also something like life .

Awards and nominations

Golden Globe Awards 2009

Nominated in the categories:

Oscar 2009

Nominated in the categories:

BAFTA Award

  • Best Actress: Kate Winslet (Nomination)
  • Best costume design: Albert Wolsky (nomination)
  • Best production design: Debra Schutt and Kristi Zea (nomination)
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Justin Haythe (nomination)

Costume Designers Guild Awards

London Critics' Circle Film Award

Screen Actors Guild

  • Best Actress: Kate Winslet (Nomination)

Satellite Awards

  • Top 10 Films of 2008
  • Best production design: Kristi Zea , Debra Schutt , Teresa Carriker-Thayer, John Kasarda and Nicholas Lundy (nomination)
  • Best film (nomination)
  • Best Actor Leonardo DiCaprio (Nomination)
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Justin Haythe (nomination)
  • Best Supporting Actor Michael Shannon (Nomination)

St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards

  • Best Actress: Kate Winslet

Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award

  • Actress of the Year Kate Winslet (for Revolutionary Road and The Reader )

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Criticism mirror

  • Cinema Nr. 1/2009 , p. 20f., By Jochen Schütze (high thumb; an almost brutally intense cinema experience; outstanding actors)
  • epd Film No. 2/2009, p. 55, by Anke Sterneborg (5 out of 5 stars; “crystal clear view” of society, strikingly up-to-date, Winslet and DiCaprio play a multi-layered basis)
  • Frankfurter Rundschau , January 15, 2009, p. 35, by Katja Lüthge: Oppressive banal existence (rather positive; excellent actors, but the direction overlays their work with too clear stylistic devices)
  • Kronen Zeitung from January 15, 2009, by Christina Krisch (positive; Winslet and DiCaprio convince, film sharply carve the American dream)
  • Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 15, 2009, p. 45, by Susanne Ostwald: Window to Hell (great approval; sharp dialogues and impressive winslet)
  • Die Presse , January 13th, 2009, by Christoph Huber: Grausame Geschichte (n) (Rejection; the director who despises the human being would fail the society portrait)
  • Stern , No. 4/2009 of January 15, 2009, p. 119, short review not signed ("masterly")
  • Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 14, 2009, p. 11, by Fritz Göttler: Hopeless emptiness ... wow! (positive; praise for staging and winslet)
  • Der Standard , January 12, 2009, p. 24, by Dominik Kamalzadeh: Die Vorstadtneurotiker (unsuccessful; not interested in directing, characters who appear artificial, pictures too fancy)
  • Der Tagesspiegel , January 15, 2009, p. 27, by Daniela Sannwald: When love goes down ("Masterpiece", director and Winslet highlighted)
  • taz , January 15, 2009, p. 17, by Birgit Glombitza: Cheap satisfaction (very positive; appropriate staging and winslet with size, DiCaprio remains blurred)
  • Die Welt , January 13th, 2009, p. 23, by Holger Kreitling : The triumph of Kate Winslet (“great”; shows social hopelessness, strong Winslet)
  • Die Zeit , January 15, 2009, p. 44, by Kati Thielitz: Trautes Heim, Krieg alone (“masterful downfall”; authentic Winslet, but mixed judgments)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for times of turmoil . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2008 (PDF; test number: 116 501 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for times of turmoil . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ^ Blake Bailey: Revolutionary Road - the Movie. Leonardo DiCaprio. Kate Winslet. Richard Yates' dark novel is finally being made into a Hollywood movie . On: slate.com , June 26, 2007.
  4. ↑ Pamela McClintock: DiCaprio, Winslet to star in 'Road'. Duo together again for 'Revolutionary' . In: Variety , March 22, 2007.
  5. ↑ The Hollywood Reporter , February 14, 2008.
  6. ^ Box Office Mojo
  7. ↑ a b [1] at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on January 2, 2014
  8. ↑ a b [2] at Metacritic , accessed on January 2, 2014
  9. ↑ Revolutionary Road in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Dominik Kamalzadeh: Die Vorstadtneurotiker . In: Der Standard , January 12, 2009, p. 24.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g Katja Lüthge: Oppressively banal existence . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , January 15, 2009, p. 35.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Daniela Sannwald: When love goes down . In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 15, 2009, p. 27.
  13. ↑ a b c d Jochen Schütze: Times of turmoil . In: Cinema No. 1/2009, pp. 20f.
  14. ↑ a b c d e f g h Birgit Glombitza: Cheap satisfaction . In: taz , January 15, 2009, p. 17.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g Susanne Ostwald: Window to Hell . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 15, 2009, p. 45.
  16. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Holger Kreitling: The triumph of Kate Winslet . In: Die Welt , January 13, 2009, p. 23.
  17. ↑ a b c d Fritz Göttler: Hopeless emptiness ... wow! In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 14, 2009, p. 11.
  18. ↑ a b c d e f Kati Thielitz: Trautes Heim, war alone . In: Die Zeit , January 15, 2009, p. 44.
  19. ↑ a b c Christoph Huber: Grausame Geschichte (n) . In: Die Presse, January 13, 2009.
  20. ↑ “ Mendes creates a kind of prequel to his earlier ode to suburban angst, 'American Beauty.' ”
  21. ↑ Shannon delivered “ the movie's finest performance ”.
  22. ↑ “ Winslet […] never puts a foot wrong in a performance that calls for April to appear unhinged and then coolly self-possessed in a moment's time. […] It would be interesting to watch 'Revolutionary Road' with the sound off, just to read the movie in Winslet's face. "Ann Hornaday: Hitting a Dead End. 'Revolutionary Road,' An Unrelenting Journey Through Suburban Ennui . In: The Washington Post , January 2, 2009, p. C01.
  23. ↑ “ 'Revolutionary Road' is, essentially, a repeat for Mendes of 'American Beauty,' right down to the formal camera compositions, repetitive musical chords and shocking death at the end. Once more, the suburbs are well-upholstered nightmares and its denizens clueless - other than one estranged male. ”
  24. ^ A " didactic, emotionally overblown critique of the soulless suburbs ". Kirk Honeycutt: Film Review: Revolutionary Road ( December 1, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ). In: The Hollywood Reporter , November 17, 2008.
  25. ↑ “ Nothing much happens in the story, just two ordinary lives coming apart at the seams. ”
  26. ↑ “ 'Revolutionary Road' is the kind of great novel that Hollywood tends to botch, because much of it takes place inside the heads of its characters, and because the Wheelers aren't especially likeable and because pessimism without obvious redemption is a tough sell . ”
  27. ↑ “ Mr. Mendes stages this tragedy grandly, symbolically […] forgetting that this isn't just theater, but also something like life. ” Manohla Dargis : Revolutionary Road (2008). Two Faces in the Crowd, Raging Against the Crab Grass . In: The New York Times , December 26, 2008.