Change Your Image
yusufpiskin
- an ex-lover-
https://linktr.ee/yusufpiskin
.- .-.. .--. / -.-. . -. .- -. / -.-- ..- --.-. .- -.-..
#BluRay #DVD #VHS #CD #vinyl #books #comics #horror #Collector #EricDRAVEN
Reviews
We Live in Time (2024)
Garfield
Andrew Garfield, in an interview, confessed to having shared lodgings with the likes of Robert Pattinson and Eddie Redmayne ere fame found him... Andrew Garfield is a unique and humble talent who hath risen amidst such formidable rivals... In truth, Andrew Garfield is, to my mind, the finest and greatest actor of our generation (those born in the 1980s).
John Crowley, though much beloved by myself, faced criticism after The Goldfinch (2019), a film misunderstood by many. He remained silent for a time, then returned to his roots and collaborated once more with Andrew Garfield, with whom he had found great accord in the film Boy A (2007)... Indeed, Garfield's contribution to the script, penned by Nick Payne, cannot be denied... Garfield is not merely a master of crafting characters, but also possesses the ability to convey those characters to the audience, a skill he hath likely honed through his theatrical background. He and Florence Pugh have found a marvelous harmony together.
"'We live in time' tells the tale of a promising chef and a newly divorced man whose lives are changed by a chance encounter." Aye, such is the film's presentation, as hath been written in all the media. But is the meeting of the two in the film so simple as to be called chance? Or might we say, "There are no coincidences in coincidence"?
To tell the audience that the story will end in death, and then to narrate it in such a naive fashion, and yet, despite never resorting to sentimentality, to leave the audience with a sense of melancholy at the film's end, is a testament to Crowley's skill as a storyteller.
Cancer...
Divorce...
Poor career choices that lead to crisis...
Great matters... pertaining to life...
Sig Parvis Magna
The logic of cracking an egg with two bowls, the desire to master risotto when one has the ability to dance with a knife on ice... Small matters...
Can hundreds of small but beautiful things influence the negative repercussions of one great evil thing?
Crowley makes another wise choice and presents the story to us not with linear transitions, but with a narrative that salutes life, and in doing so, he completes his tale with the cinematography of Stuart Bentley, who, having made his presence known in many mid-scale projects, finally has the chance to show himself, and Justine Wright, who also edited Locke (2013), a film that broke ground with its narrative.
A24, while for some time now appearing to be a company that raises question marks in people's minds, hath managed to say "I am still here" with "We Live in Time".
Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert (2012)
Meh!!!
"The film 'Your Beauty Is Worth Nothing', which hath been awarded six prizes at the Golden Orange Film Festival..."
Indeed, only in a land such as Turkey, where the arts are middling, could such a melodramatic film garner so many accolades and praise.
Tabak, a filmmaker of Turkish nationality and Kurdish descent, residing in Germany... He hath studied cinema in Vienna and such places, but when opportunity and coin came to hand... He hath made a melodrama in the style of Yesilçam, in partnership with Germany and Austria...
With the identity of a Turkish citizen within thee, no matter what university in the world thou attendest, no matter in what country thou dwellest, thou canst not surpass mediocrity. This film, too, hath not surpassed mediocrity.
Forsake the Turkish coffee houses of Austria and Germany, and venture forth to take in the air!
Take inspiration from the likes of Fatih Akin and Ferzan Özpetek...
Komm und spiel (2013)
Masterpiece
How much is truth, how much is play?
At times "Im Westen nichts Neues", at times "Lord of the Flies".
At times East German cinema, at times a Northern tale reaching Bergman Island...
The collapsing USSR? Or Germany, divided in twain, long forgotten by history?
The Great War? Or the Second World War?
How much is past? How much is present...?
The Russian filmmaker Daria Belova hath proven two years hence that her success with the film "Ballet Story", presented to her audience in 2011, was not a mere fluke. Alas, I discovered the film late.
Indeed, Daria is a filmmaker who, for her young age, has made few but choice works.
Within 31 minutes, Daria Belova has told her story with an expressive yet serene language, containing incredible drifts... And with creative camera work that turns her lack of budget into an advantage. But still, one must admit that the greatest asset of the film and Daria Belova is; Alexander Josef Shtol.
Nightshade (2017)
Yes.. But...
Kubilay Sengül and Mustafa Duygulu did their best, one might even say it was the best performance of Mustafa Duygulu's career, and Kubilay Sengül, despite his age and inexperience, played this difficult character very successfully...
But... That "but" is the factor that weakens the film.
Director Shady El-Hamus, with the inexperience that comes with his youth, has failed to manage both the camera angles and the ending of the film. The clumsiness in the close-up shots makes it difficult to focus on the subject, and the last 45 seconds of the film were literally prepared in a haphazard and careless manner, thus ending the film.
Maria Callas at Covent Garden (1964)
Callas Went Away
Despite being one of the greatest voices not just of recent times, but in the history of mankind, very few of Maria Callas' performances were recorded. This is why the 70-minute recording compiled from two gala concerts recorded at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in '62 and '64 is so important.
On November 4, 1962, in front of a rather sophisticated audience, a recording of one of these concerts, along with several other artists, unexpectedly surfaced on a television broadcast. The fact that Callas' voice was in perfect condition on the recording disproved the rumors that she was staying away from the stage to be with Aristotle Onassis or because her voice was irritated, as well as reassuring fans who had heard these rumors.
In these recordings, Callas sang "Tu che le vanità" from Verdi's Don Carlo and the role of the flirtatious gypsy girl in Habanera, and Seguedille from Bizet's Carmen.
In 1963, Callas made occasional recordings for EMI in Paris, but her last known triumph was her appearance in Puccini's Tosca at Covent Garden in 1964.
The director at this concert was Franco Zeffirelli, and baritone Tito Gobbi sang the role of Scarpia...
The recording, 40 minutes of which can be watched on YouTube, is truly a legacy...
Playa prohibida (1985)
Mexican Treasure
For years, the greatest injustice done to this film has been its dismissal as an "erotic film," an attempt to devalue its worth. Screenwriter Carlos Valdemar has masterfully portrayed the Oedipus Complex, and director Enrique Gómez Vadillo approached the task of bringing this narrative to the screen with bold determination.
A hidden gem of 1980s Mexican cinema, the film feels like a tribute to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalytic theory.
Despite its low budget, the choice of locations, the creative use of these spaces, and similar subtle details are praiseworthy decisions by the director.
La classe de neige (1998)
Still watchable
Claude Miller's narrative style sometimes wavers between French New Wave and something akin to an adaptation of Stephen King's "Nightmares & Dreamscapes," and while the film could have been a successful coming-of-age drama/thriller, it occasionally descends into a public service announcement-like narrative. Despite this, the film has stood the test of time and aged gracefully. It still manages to be a highly watchable motion picture.
By the way, I haven't read the novel of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère, which was published a few years before the film and served as its source material... Perhaps the director remained faithful to the book.
Ojos de madera (2017)
Lynchian atmosphere
It would not be an exaggeration to say that writers/directors Germán Tejeira and Roberto Suárez were influenced by the early works of David Lynch. Because the Uruguayan filmmakers' capture of the Lynchian atmosphere in "Ojos de Madera" clearly stems from their deep admiration for Lynch.
Despite his young age, Arauco Hernández Holz, who demonstrates considerable talent as a cinematographer, and the cast of actors who are not well-known globally, add depth to the film's atmosphere.
It saddens me that such films are so little known... Especially knowing that big companies like Horror Cinema are ruining the industry by spending big money on bad films.
11'09''01 - September 11 (2002)
DVD
9/11/2001. I was in the barracks for my compulsory military service, and we were preparing for a joint US-Israel-Turkey military exercise that would begin in a few months. American and Turkish commanders were sitting and watching the news on CNN when they saw the attack. After a deep silence, the American lieutenant colonel turned to his Turkish and Iraqi colleagues and said, "The world will never be the same." As if everything was so different on the 10th of the month... For me, 9/11 is all about this because three officers who had been hanging out, having fun, and watching basketball together for days did not speak to each other until the day of the planned exercise, unless official circumstances required it.
Why am I telling you this? This film was released in 2002, and I bought the DVD in 2004 because I couldn't watch it in the cinema because I was in the military.
2002... That is, while the ashes of 9/11 were still falling from the skies of New York, Hollywood started thinking about how to turn this into political propaganda and money and started producing projects. The funny thing is, the countries of the non-American directors/writers in this film were militarily or economically devastated by the US after this film. Here is a recorded and served version of the West's hypocrisy.
As a work of art, the film consists of very good short films... But at the end of the day, it's not just a film.
Le sourd dans la ville (1987)
Canadian...
"Le sourd dans la ville" by Marie-Claire Blais... note to self: must read this book...
Another Canadian film lost in the dusty pages of history despite being part of the selection at the 44th Venice Film Festival. Canada might just have the world's most crowded film graveyard. They've been producing underrated films for decades, and then they don't even remember them.
"Le sourd dans la ville" is an exceptional film with that title. In the film, we dive in and out of the lives of Florence, who moves into a dilapidated hotel in downtown Montreal after her husband leaves her and befriends the hotel owner Gloria (Béatrice Picard) and her deaf son Mike (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge), and the hotel, the hotel guests. I felt like the morning after a night of cheap wine when the film ended.
I wish such films would somehow be brought back into the spotlight.
PS: Ginette Bellavance and Michel Caron are two miraculous invisible hands that add amazing details to the film.
PS: As this is a Canadian film, some dialogues are in English and the majority of the film is in French... And I can say this; French suits art and literature very well...
Icare (2017)
Albert Chassagne-Baradat
Magritte 2019 Best Fictional Short Film Award... On a small island crowned with steep cliffs, stands a single house overlooking the sea. An inventor, obsessed with the dream that man will one day fly like birds, conducts experiments with his machines on this abandoned piece of land. According to this man, only a pure, light, and naive soul can achieve such a feat. Eleven-year-old Joseph, recruited from the mainland, seems like the perfect candidate...
The director, Nicolas Boucart, who himself worked in the camera department, is also the screenwriter of the film. In this short film, it is evident from the very first second that Nicolas Boucart has a background in camera work, because each frame is like a Renaissance painting, a film completed at 24 frames per second. Although such good visuals dominate and overshadow the film's script, a very good child actor, Albert Chassagne-Baradat, comes into play here.
"Icare" is one of the finest examples of how intense the narrative power of a short film can be.
Gladiator II (2024)
million-dollar garbage.
"Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"
If I didn't know he died on April 23, 1850, I would say William Wordsworth wrote these lines from his magnificent poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" after watching this film.
The very idea of making a sequel to "Gladiator" sounded absurd to me when I first heard the news, but similar negative things were written about "Blade Runner 2049," and yet we trusted the director and actors and were not disappointed. So I said to myself, "Maybe," "a good film could come out of this."
The resulting film is entirely formulaic: CGI, social messages shoved down our throats, CGI, high-octane action sequences...
Thanks to this film, Paul Mescal can probably make a move towards Hollywood films; it could be Hollywood's Mescal discovery film... This may be good news for Mescal, but it is debatable how good news this is for film lovers on the other side of the ocean.
Also, critics who saw this film a few days ago in the US wrote that it was "Ridley Scott's best film since 'The Martian'"... I beg your pardon... "The Last Duel" (2021)???
This may be the answer to the question of why we shouldn't trust American critics.
Zizotek (2019)
Vardis Marinakis
The subtlety (and superfluity) of the border between Greece and Turkey is reflected in its art and literature. Vardis Marinakis has written such a screenplay and Christina Moumouri has captured such beautiful frames that at times, if I didn't realize I was reading subtitles, I could say that I was watching a film made in my native language.
With Vardis Marinakis' clever choices, "Zizotek" reaches its audience with small touches and deep meanings hidden in naive frames, even though it could have conveyed its message in big letters, grabbing people by the scruff of their necks and shaking them.
This film, which tells the story of a child who is emotionally abused by his mother and shares things about life with a deaf man, is one of those films that I can't understand why it is so underrated.
The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2018)
Xavier
Xavier Dolan, born in 1989, quit filmmaking a few years ago despite winning numerous awards with every film he made. Why? Because he said people don't watch these kinds of movies and the effort he puts in is wasted. At the time, many viewers and critics told Xavier Dolan he was wrong... In the intervening time, Xavier Dolan has been proven right, because now even so-called independent film festivals have become places where Disney+, Apple TV, and other companies' big-budget, multi-million dollar films are awarded and showcased.
This film has an amazing cast, and Xavier Dolan has used this cast to the fullest. There is not a single scene/dialogue in the film that is not meaningful. Xavier Dolan has had a hand in everything from the editing to the costume design of the film, which has a very solid narrative language thanks to its dynamic editing.
The classic Xavier Dolan mother-son relationship - which I feel to my core in every one of his films - is brought to the forefront with a terrific narrative in this film as well.
The queer narrative is better than most queer films made in a long time. Dolan, as always, focuses on the real concerns of LGBT individuals.
I identified so much with the scene where Jacob Tremblay watches his favorite actor's film in front of the TV and is left screaming that even today, when someone I love makes a film, I get into that state.
Even when it came to cutting Jessica Chastain's scenes from the film, I admired Xavier Dolan at the time. It's not every man's job to completely remove such a high-profile name - and I adore the woman - from the film because she's detrimental to the narrative.
When the film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, it received low ratings from film critics and was voted the worst of the year... Now the same critics at the same festivals are busy praising Disney+ / Apple TV+ films...
If it were up to audiences and critics, Marvel films would have killed cinema... If the subject is the death of cinema, that is, the production of good films, film critics and the audience that watches films are the common cause.
This film and this director are proof of that.
Hosszú alkony (1997)
Shirley Jackson
It is impossible not to mention Mari Torocsik, who passed away recently.
András Forgách and Attila Janisch have created a very interesting and unique adaptation of Shirley Jackson.
Actually, two adaptations, because on the DVD release of the film "Hosszú alkony" you can also find another Shirley Jackson adaptation called "ZiZi"... as a short film, of course.
In this 86-minute film, which contains all the beauty of Hungarian cinema and Hungarian nature, Mari Torocsik makes you truly experience the film.
Attila Janisch is not a filmmaker who produces a lot of work, but watching two of his films back-to-back has made me curious about his other films.
The Little Prince (1974)
Stanley Donen
I love this film. Because Gene Wilder plays the Fox, because there's Bob Fosse, Richard Kiley, and the film's director is Stanley Donen... the lyrics are by Alan Jay Lerner, the music is by Frederick Loewe, and the songs, arranged and orchestrated by Angela Morley, complete the musical part of the film perfectly.
The dance moves of the 'Snake' character, voiced by Fosse, which contain elements of his signature style, and the connection of these moves to Michael Jackson were talked about for many years.
I hope that Paramount Pictures will one day release a 4K restoration of this film and remaster the soundtrack album.
Sebastian (2024)
Sundance
The director and screenwriter of this film, Mikko Mäkelä, is only 35 years old, and this is not his first work; he has been making quality films in the industry for years.
The young actor Ruaridh Mollica, who delivers a very good performance in the lead role, is only 25 years old, and he has also been acting and writing in the industry for over a decade.
That such a profound film could come from two such young individuals... That's cinema, that's art.
"Sebastian," both the film and the character, is one of the most naive yet daring productions of 2024...
Sundance selections never disappoint.
Disclaimer (2024)
Why Cuaron... Why?
I was so excited about Alfonso Cuarón making a miniseries that I was afraid to watch it as soon as Apple TV released it, for fear that it would end too quickly... Over 300 minutes of Alfonso Cuarón... and with a cast like Emmanuel Lubezki, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin Kline, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Cate Blanchett, who could win the cup if they were a soccer team.
However, the end result, with the exception of KSMP and SBC, is mediocre, even a tad below average at times.
I haven't read Renee Knight's novel, I don't know how different it is from the miniseries, but if it's not much different, I might not have watched this miniseries at all, despite the cast. If the opposite is true, that's even worse, because I can't believe this cast would have made a bad adaptation of a good novel.
I realized while correcting the data on IMDb that they were all involved in the production as producers. So the quality of the product doesn't matter, it's been sold and the money will be deposited into their accounts. It's people like us who trust a few names for quality content who lose out.
There's something wrong with Apple TV+, they seem to have made it their mission to make miniseries and films that are a tad above and a tad below average by bringing together casts like a Champions League mix... They probably want to be the Warner Bros. Of the streaming world by not giving directors full control and asking them to stay within certain standards.
Midnight Run (1988)
80's
Al Pacino or Robert De Niro? Robert De Niro or Al Pacino?
This question is one of the dilemmas that film fans have not been able to answer since the late 70s. For me, the answer to this question has always been Robert De Niro, because apart from writing and directing, his acting and role-playing range is also wider.
This film is one of the proofs of that. Director Martin Brest also made "Scent of a Woman" (1992) with Al Pacino four years after this film, and apart from the "Gigli" (2003) debacle, he is a magnificent filmmaker who has never fired a blank.
Screenwriter George Gallo, who has no other noteworthy work apart from this film, deserves to be commended, because the dynamics of the dialogues in the film are very good and increase the enjoyment one gets from the film.
This legendary film, which has had three sequels that cannot surpass the magnificent chemistry between Charles Grodin and De Niro, is still making headlines today as a new generation discovers it.
There is not a single wasted frame in the film. In addition to the flawless musical score, the songs chosen, the locations chosen, and the accessories chosen, such as the leather jacket and jeans that have become synonymous with De Niro, even the actors who appear for three seconds in the film's cast are like a parade of stars.
In interviews they gave to Rolling Stone magazine and The New York Times in 2016, both Grodin and De Niro said they loved and missed their characters...
As a film fan, I really miss those days.
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Cagney
"What do you hear, what do you say?"
It follows in the footsteps of "Scarface" (1932 version) and delves into the criminal underworld, but offers a delightful alternative to "Scarface's" moralizing didacticism. In contrast to the Italian in "Scarface," the Irishman in "Angels with Dirty Faces" is more of a "wiseguy." While Camonte is a coward who grovels at the feet of the police when arrested, Sullivan does so at the cost of destroying his name, to avoid setting an example for young teenagers. He chooses the courage of "God" over the courage of tough guys. A kind of "profession of faith," just before death.
Sullivan is one of two young friends who grew up under the sway of the perception of the ordinariness of lawlessness. Under the influence of this ordinariness, he and his friend engage in a petty crime spree with almost childish enthusiasm. Not being as quick as his friend, he cannot escape the law. The law, which claims to rehabilitate him, ends up creating a gangster out of him.
Punishment alone is not capable of changing the conditions that give rise to crime. The same place continues to produce new Sullivans. The divine sermons of the "fast-talking" priest, who strives to prevent these "Angels with Dirty Faces" from turning into sharp-dressed gangsters, pale in comparison to the vitality of their actions.
The "angels" see their own future in gangster Sullivan, who was once one of them. In a world where the traces of the holy commandments are erased by sin-ridden earthly people, the priest's sermons are about a world that does not exist for children. They are concerned with existing in the most worldly way in the world that does exist. That's why their hero is Sullivan.
Give credit where credit is due. It conveys the potential of laws to create criminals with the naiveté of a clergyman, and in this respect, it is a very close follower of "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932) in delving into the nature of crime.
This is, in my opinion, the best film by director Michael Curtiz, who went down in cinematic history with "Casablanca" (1942). It was my father's favorite VHS tape and is among my favorite DVDs.
And I can't help but say; James Cagney is such a good actor that he overshadows the likes of Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart.
PS: In the scene where the priest enters Sullivan's room minutes before the execution, the moment the priest says in a low voice, "I'm going to ask you for one last favor," a passage from Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" came to mind... I won't write about that... Please read the book.
Nightmare Classics: The Turn of the Screw (1989)
Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics
There was a television program created by Shelley Duvall, with Linda Hunt doing the opening presentations for the episodes. This American TV show, known as "Nightmare Classics" (also known as "Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics"), premiered with an adaptation of Henry James' immortal novella, "The Turn of the Screw."
Two masters like Micole Mercurio and Amy Irving are accompanied by Balthazar Getty, who did wonders with "Lord of the Flies" (1990) and "Lost Highway" (1997). Getty's character, Miles, is the most sinister character in the book, and he delivers a terrific performance as the most sinister character in this TV adaptation... His playing Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano was especially eerie.
By the way... David Hemmings, who plays the uncle, originated the role of Miles in Benjamin Britten's opera adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw" in 1954... An interesting detail.
Deep End (1970)
70's
Two years ago, the film "IO" was quite the talk of the town, especially thanks to Mubi's advertising, but I couldn't get into the mood of the film and therefore didn't like it. Apart from "Moonlighting" (1982), which I adore, that was the extent of my relationship with Jerzy Skolimowski's cinema. This year, when Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam came to Istanbul for an event during Ramadan, I went to see him thanks to a few people at the Ministry of Culture. While I was getting him to sign my father's old records, he stopped, looked at me, and said, "Have you seen 'Deep End'?"
Of course, I hadn't, but I didn't understand why he asked... then the film slipped my mind again... When the conversation at the Sweden consulate turned to it over the weekend, I realized while watching that the film's music was by Cat Stevens...
So this was Jerzy Skolimowski's signature work. Everyone loves this film... And now I do too... It's full of 70s England and the trends that started with the rising BRIT movement... John Moulder-Brown, who had just turned 17 when the film was made and, naturally, had no trouble playing a horny teenager, and Jane Asher, whom I've always loved, even though her film career is full of mediocre films apart from a few very good ones, have achieved a wonderful harmony...
And of course, the music... How could I not know about this? I feel ashamed.
Waking Up in Vegas (2023)
Short but Deep
A Swiss-born brother of Turkish descent and a teenager who likes to paint his nails.
Michèle Flury brightens up my Saturday morning and captures my heart with a short but impressive queer coming-of-age narrative.
Finnigan Inan and Fritz Rudolph fulfill their roles with a maturity unexpected for their age and take us back to our childhood for 15 minutes.
Although we are in 2024, a couple of teenagers dream of a career in the world of soccer, which is still as masculine as it was in the 50s... One of them has a Turkish family born in Switzerland, so he is already a minority, and the other is brave enough to confess that he finds his best friend beautiful and paint his nails, but also desperate enough to have to make up fake heterosexual sex stories.
Michèle Flury is aware that the change in society will not happen overnight, that it will happen with baby steps, and she has based her film on this...
Seeing the fragile state of mind beneath all the masculine armor of his role model brother (Ayhan Eranil), Yael (Finnigan Inan) finds himself next to his secret love Aaron (Fritz Rudolph), with whom he is comfortable, in the middle of the night. And the change begins with a small stroke of nail polish...
And dance...
Although popularized by Katy Perry's 2009 song of the same name, the phrase "Waking Up in Vegas" is used to mean people who go wild in Las Vegas casinos not remembering the next day, but thanks to the memories of our own childhood, we are sure that the two protagonists in this story will remember this moment.
The quality productions that queer cinema lacks come with such naive narratives, not with big-budget, big stories, and this is a really beautiful detail.
Babycall (2011)
Noomi Rapace
The Match Factory, The Match Factory, The Match Factory, The Match Factory... Yes, that company, recently acquired by Mubi, is the producer of this film... The Match Factory used to make films like this. What happened to them?
"Babycall," aka "The Monitor," directed by Pål Sletaune, whose films I've never seen before, is a thriller co-produced by Germany, Norway, and Sweden, bearing the characteristic features of the nature, people, and literature of all three countries.
However, I want to open a separate heading here for Noomi Rapace. Born to a Swedish mother and a Spanish father, she is one of the rare actresses in the world who works wonders both in her own country, in her own language, and in global cinema in English.
Burning Secret (1988)
David Eberts
This film came to mind again the other day when I watched the film "Sredni Vashtar" (1981) by British director/screenwriter Andrew Birkin, whose screenplays already hold a privileged place in my physical media collection.
Undoubtedly, there are few works in recent literary history that have sparked as much controversy as Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice," written in 1912, and this short story, written a year later by Stefan Zweig under the title "Burning Secret." So much so that all the film, theater, and TV adaptations of these works have caused great controversy...
"Burning Secret" was banned and its publication prevented so many times that Adolf Hitler and the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda banned the book separately and the film adapted from it, titled "Das brennende Geheimnis, Mutter, dein Kind ruft!," separately.
This adaptation was quite risky for MGM because they actually wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct the film. They both wanted the project and feared that Kubrick, who had already generated great controversy with his film "Lolita," would take things even further with this script.
Ultimately, the film was written and directed by Andrew Birkin, but according to him, there was never a comfortable working environment on set due to the constant quarrels between Klaus Maria Brandauer and Faye Dunaway.
He even says in an interview that he made the film with David Eberts, which I didn't quite believe, but later, when I saw his videos with Hans Zimmer, I did...
This film and all the adaptations of this book are very underrated because MGM doesn't have the guts to release these films today.