Two Years of Vacation (1974)

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Movie
German title Two years of vacation
Original title Deux ans de vacances
Country of production Germany
France
original language none (see other)
Publishing year 1974
length approx. 335 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Gilles Grangier
Sergiu Nicolaescu
script Claude Desailly (screenplay)
Walter Ulbrich (German adaptation)
production Walter Ulbrich
music Hans Posegga
camera Alexander David
cut Alfred Srp
occupation

Zwei Jahre Ferien is a ZDF adventure four-part series by Claude Desailly (book) and Gilles Grangier and Sergiu Nicolaescu (director) from 1974 based on motifs from the novel by Jules Verne . Walter Ulbrich wrote the German version . The filming locations were Romania and the Black Sea .

Rod

The main role of Dick Sand was played by Franz Seidenschwan (he was previously seen as a young Humphrey van Weyden in the four-part series " Der Seewolf "), Marc di Napoli was Doniphan Weldon (previously in the four-part series of the same name as Huckleberry Finn in " Tom Sawyers and Huckleberry Finns Adventure ") ). Other roles played u. a. Werner Pochath and Rainer Basedow .

Hans Posegga wrote a catchy catchy tune with the whistled title melody of the four-parter . Alain le Meur wrote the music for the French version.

action

The following is the episode overview of the German version of the series. The original, also longer version of the series is in French, divided into six episodes, and aired from June 10, 1974 ( ORTF ).

Part 1: (ZDF December 8, 1974): The message in a bottle

In 1895 Edward Forbes and Josua Pike break out of a prison camp in New Zealand. They carry a map with them that they believe can lead them to the legendary "Colonel Cerna's gold", which has disappeared since a robbery and Cerna's death.

Two years later, eight young boys set sail on a vacation trip around New Zealand with the schoonerbrigg Sloughi . These young people come from well-to-do families, but not the cabin boy Dick Sand. He is an orphan and has been going to sea since he was eight. One day they fish up a message in a bottle from two castaways, which leads the boys to an island. There they innocently take two castaways on board - escaped convicts looking for a pot of gold. They unceremoniously kill the sailor Tom Cane after he noticed that they were starting a fire, which fortunately was recognized in time.

Part 2: (ZDF December 15, 1974): The mutiny

Forbes and Pike, the two castaways, secretly bring their cronies on board in Hobart . On the open sea they stage an attack and expose the old crew. They expect a large ransom for the eight rich boys to finance their treasure hunt. After the unsuccessful attempt to obtain the ship's firearms, Doniphan and Bryan are flogged by the kidnappers. While Forbes is negotiating the head price with Lord Buchanan, the boys are hidden on a lonely farm on the coast. Your first attempt at escape fails. But then they take advantage of a turbulent feast of their kidnappers to run away. The children reach the deserted schooner brig and make it clear to sea. Deckhand O'Brian, who wanted to help the boys, is shot. Now only one of them is a little seaworthy: Dick Sand. The ship is now slowly drifting off the coast.

Part 3: (ZDF December 22, 1974): A coast without a name

After their successful escape, the nine boys are alone on board the Sloughi . When the schooner brig gets caught in a storm, the boys' courage is quickly over. Fear reveals their weaknesses, but also their strengths. This is how the hierarchy develops between the three older ones, Doniphan, Bryan and Gordon on the one hand and the others on the other. These older boys with different characters run the ship together with Dick Sand. Meanwhile, Forbes and his colleague manage to get the ransom for the boys without having to hand over the boys. Eventually the ship with the boys stranded on a coast. Since the hull of the Sloughi is without masts, but still largely intact, it is used as temporary accommodation. A couple of the boys set out to explore the area. They find a cave in which they discover a human skeleton and a sketch of the island.

Part 4: (ZDF December 29, 1974): The forgotten island

Since the wreck of the Sloughi is unlikely to withstand the next storm, the boys decide to move into the cave. After burying the skeleton, they use a raft to take everything that is still usable from the Sloughi to the cave in several trips . Make yourself at home as best you can. The characters of the protagonists come into play again. Gordon, who is always level-headed and trying to find a balance, is elected "Mayor". But this does not prevent the self-confident, know-it-all and aristocratic Doniphan from acting on his own, such as when hunting. Several times he clashes with the energetic Bryan who is always ready for risky assignments. The approaching winter presents them with new problems. On their tours they make a strange discovery: Apparently they are not alone on the island. Their joy is great when one morning a ship appears on the horizon. The young are hopeful. But they are happy too soon: there are old acquaintances who come, namely Forbes and Pike with their gang, who, however, will soon be decimated by their unknown island companion. The identity of this man is no longer revealed. Eventually they are picked up by a cargo ship and returned to New Zealand. Doniphan published the experiences in many languages ​​and became famous because of it. Dick Sands was left out of the description and is now the second mate on one of the last tall ships at sea.

criticism

  • A galley boy and a pack of fine Old England boys on an adventure trip: the series began with an indestructible Jules Verne imagination and aroused curiosity about the sequels. Not as atmospheric and dense as “ Der Seewolf ” - but almost. ( Evening newspaper )

Animal shots

The animal shots were filmed by Eugen Schuhmacher and Helmuth Barth . The animals of the unknown island include monitor lizards , seals , wild boars , bats , seagulls and penguins .

Errors, inconsistencies, anachronisms

  • The sails of the brigantine are often misnamed.
  • The action takes place in 1897. At that time there was no diesel fuel for ships, yet the Sloughi often sails in the series without sails?
  • Animal and plant species that do not correspond to the geography are shown.
  • Wrong geographical distances are given; for example, the distance between Chile and New Zealand is given several times as 1800 miles ; in fact, measured in nautical miles , it is more than two and a half times as large.
  • At the time of the plot, Auckland was no longer, as incorrectly mentioned, but Wellington capital of New Zealand (The reason for this is that the plot in the book takes place in 1860; at the time this was still correct. For the film, however, the plot became postponed to a later period without taking into account the consequences of this).
  • The travel route planned according to the film does not correspond to the one in the book, which leads around New Zealand, but one would circle all of Australia - which would hardly have been possible in the planned time.
  • The treasure map is sometimes shown without the red cross, sometimes with the red cross.
  • In the film, the children only spend one year on the island because they are only there for one winter. (about in the middle of the fourth part)
  • In contrast to the book, the children in the film do not find out where the island is. They then only leave the island in a rowboat, on which they can take water and provisions with them for a few days at the most. Since they have no idea where to row, their chances of survival are significantly lower than they were initially on the 'Sloughi'.
  • While in the book the island is at the fifty-second degree of latitude, in the film it is at the forty-second degree of latitude, on which there is no longer a chain of islands off the Chilean coast, but only the much larger island of Chiloé (42 ° 36 ′ S). Chiloé has been settled for more than three hundred years at the time of the film story.
  • For an island at the forty-second parallel, the winter with the frozen sea is depicted too cold. In comparison, one would have to imagine that the Mediterranean is freezing over, since Rome and Barcelona are roughly at the forty-second parallel north.
  • When Forbes and his people took over the 'Sloughi' and abandoned the captain and the crew, the ship's name 'Birdeye' was already on the lifebelt, but Forbes did not change the ship's name until much later.
  • In the film, the dimensions of the island are given as 80 miles in north-south direction and 40 miles in east-west direction. That doesn't match the Forbes map, however, nor the map the boys find in the cave.
  • After the Sloughi ran aground and the storm ended, the ship is still largely intact. The following morning, however, it lies so far on the beach as a wreck with broken masts that the tide can no longer reach it.
  • The boys' hair fashion corresponds to the time the film was made, but not the time of the plot.

Others

  • The completion of the film was delayed several times due to the lack of the expected winter frost in the Danube Delta, which was necessary for a shot, and due to illness of two actors
  • The Sloughi is the same ship in the previous four-part series The Sea Wolf the sealers Ghost , however, represented by Gaffelschoner to Brigantine umgetakelt. The plot mentions that this ship used to be a seal catcher.
  • The white 3- masted ships shown could be the Eagle (ship) or the Gorch Fock (ship, 1958) . The ship is particularly in the second part by the figurehead of the bug - the eagle , or the the stern to see good ornaments located.
  • The character of Dick Sand comes from the novel " A Captain of Fifteen ", also by Jules Verne.
  • The original, longer version of the series is in French, divided into six episodes, and aired from June 1974. The screenplay was written by Frenchman Claude Desailly. The main roles are mostly French. The production was international, with German-speaking and Romanian actors: In a booklet accompanying the DVD, the following is stated in an interview with one of the main actors: I was interested in what it sounds like when a different tone is superimposed! They didn't want the actors to synchronize it themselves, as it is of course much cheaper for the production company in Berlin with inexpensive speakers. […] Since we partly shot in three languages ​​- with Romanian, German and French actors - it had to be dubbed anyway.

Alternative versions

The four-part series was released in a cut version as “The Pirates of the Pacific” and also “Island of Treasures”. In the GDR this was issued as a "French / Romanian" co-production. This version already received a newly composed film music in Romania (by Temistocle Popa, mainly from the film The Castle Behind the Rainbow ) and its own synchronization, which was much more oriented towards the French dialogues - the narrator is missing, Forbes feels briefly before his sudden death remorse because of the many dead on his conscience, a point of contact with Verne's literary source.

media

literature

  • Oliver Kellner, Ulf Marek: Sea Wolf & Co. - The great adventure four-part series of ZDF . Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, ISBN 3-89602-632-1 .

DVD

  • Two Years of Vacation (2 DVDs), Concorde Home Entertainment, 2007.

Film music

  • Call of the gold / Two years of vacation: Soundtracks , 1 CD, Tarantula Records SKW-86040 (Germany 1994).
  • Adventure classics - original music from the legendary TV four-part songs , 2 CDs, BSC Music / Cine Soundz Prudence 398.6619.2 (Germany 2001).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Accompanying material on the DVD