| The Visit | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Bernhard Wicki |
| Screenplay by | Ben Barzman Maurice Valency (adaptation) |
| Based on | The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck Julien Derode Ingrid Bergman Anthony Quinn |
| Starring | Ingrid Bergman Anthony Quinn Irina Demick Paolo Stoppa |
| Cinematography | Armando Nannuzzi |
| Edited by | Samuel E. Beetley Françoise Diot |
| Music by | Richard Arnell Hans-Martin Majewski |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates | May 6, 1964 (France) October 4, 1964 (United States) |
Running time | 100 minutes |
| Countries | United States France West Germany Italy |
| Languages | English French |
| Box office | $1.1 million (US/ Canada)[1] |
The Visit is a 1964 French, Italian, German and American international co-production film distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Bernhard Wicki and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Julien Derode. The film's stars Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn also served as coproducers.
The screenplay was written by Ben Barzman and adapted by Maurice Valency based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 play Der Besuch der alten Dame (literally, The Visit of the Old Lady). At the film's end, protagonist Serge Miller's life is spared, but in the original play, the character (named Alfred Ill) is killed.
Along with Bergman and Quinn, the cast includes Irina Demick, Paolo Stoppa, Hans Christian Blech, Romolo Valli, Valentina Cortese, Claude Dauphin and Eduardo Ciannelli. Bergman and Quinn would later costar again in the 1970 romantic melodrama A Walk in the Spring Rain.
Plot
Karla Zachanassian, a fabulously wealthy woman, returns to a decaying village that she had been forced to desert years earlier in disgrace. She bore a child by Serge Miller, who denied paternity. The purpose of Karla's visit is to arrange a deal with the town's inhabitants: in exchange for a vast sum of money, she wants Miller killed.
At first reluctant, the townspeople eventually accept the arrangement and Miller is condemned to death. At the last moment, Karla stops the execution and tells the citizens that they will have to live with the guilt of their murderous choice for the rest of their lives, while Miller will have to live with the knowledge that his friends and neighbors were willing to kill him for money.
Cast
- Ingrid Bergman as Karla Zachannassian
- Anthony Quinn as Serge Miller
- Irina Demick as Anya
- Claude Dauphin as Bardick
- Paolo Stoppa as Doctor
- Romolo Valli as Town Painter
- Valentina Cortese as Mathilda Miller
- Eduardo Ciannelli as Innkeeper
- Jacques Dufilho as Fisch
- Leonard Steckel as Priest
- Ernst Schröder as Mayor
- Fausto Tozzi as Darvis
- Hans Christian Blech as Captain Dobrik
- Lelio Luttazzi as First Idler
- Marco Guglielmi as Chesco
- Renzo Palmer as Conductor
- Dante Maggio as Cadek
- Richard Münch as Teacher
Reception
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $6,100,000 in film rentals to break even but earned only $2,635,000, losing money for the studio.[2]
Awards
- Bernhard Wicki was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival.[3]
- The film received a nomination for Best Costume Design-Black and White (René Hubert) at the Academy Awards.[4]
See also
References
- ^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, 6 January 1965 p 39. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross.
- ^ Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 323. ISBN 9780818404856.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Visit". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-03-01.
- ^ "The 37th Academy Awards (1965) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
External links
- The Visit at IMDb
- The Visit at AllMovie
- The Visit at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Visit at the TCM Movie Database
- The Visit at the American Film Institute Catalog
This page was last edited on 24 September 2022, at 02:03