Historiografie

Leuchtturm des Chaos

Pharos Of Chaos
Manfred Blank, Wolf-Eckart Bühler
BRD 1983
114 min
V'19

1951 hatte Sterling Hayden vor dem House Un-American Activities Committee die Namen von Kollegen genannt, die wie er selbst in den 1940er Jahren Mitglieder der kommunistischen Partei gewesen waren. Ein Verrat, der ihn zeitlebens nicht los liess. Und auf den er immer wieder rekurriert in diesem monologisch entgleisten Porträt, das während fünf Tagen an Bord der Barkasse entstand, mit der Hayden in jenen Jahren die Kanäle Frankreichs befuhr. Illustriert von Archivmaterial enthüllt sich aus den leidenschaftlichen und oftmals rauschbeflügelten Darlegungen eines alternden Mannes schließlich die komplexe und faszinierende Wahrheit eines auf der Suche zugebrachten Lebens. (Alexandra Seitz)

In Anwesenheit von Wolf-Eckart Bühler.

 

Wolf-Eckart Bühler had already made one film about the adventur- ous, seafaring Sterling Hayden (DER HAVARIST / THE SHIPWRECKER) and finally tracked down the man in person to make this frank, fascinating document. Bühler finds the semi-retired actor, war hero, occasional writer and itinerant sailor whiling away his days – frequently drunk or stoned – living on a barge in France. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to his character in Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE, the wild and weathered old man of the sea and out of time enjoys quoting his favorite literature and telling anecdotes until finally opening up about his alcoholism, his loneliness, his “creative impotency,” and his deepest shame: publicly naming names in Hollywood during the Red Scare [referring to the Hollywood blacklist and the “House Un-American Activities Committee” – Ed.]. Dismissing most of his acting career as meaningless roles offered as a reward for his betrayal, he is proud of only of a handful of films – THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) and DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) among them. By the time Bühler catches up with him, Hayden’s dark and stormy life exists between paradise and the “prison without bars” his tortured soul has become. (Brittany Gravely, Harvard Film Archive)

In the presence of Wolf-Eckart Bühler.

 

Credits
  • Burkhard Driest
  • Hanns Zischler
  • Sterling Hayden
  • Charles Brauer
  • Wolf-Eckart Bühler
  • Manfred Blank
  • Bernd Fiedler
  • Manfred Blank
  • Manfred Blank
Bühler Films, Red Harvest Film

Filmmuseum München

Bühler Films
DCP
Farbe
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