Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his cherished daughter. After having an affair with a student, he moves to the Eastern Cape, where he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.
Schande, Un'arida stagione bianca, Бесчестье, Desgracia, Disgrâce, Hańba, Desonra, 耻, Szégyen, Häpeäpaalu, Ганьба, 屈辱, 존 말코비치의 수치
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A difficult film taken from JM Coetzee's novel, this concerns a university lecturer who, spurned by his regular prostitute lover, fixes on a student, Melanie, and engages her in an explotative sexual relationship.
This eventually costs his job and reputation and causes him to leave to take up residence with his lesbian daughter on her farm, where she and he are subject to an orchestrated attack driven by racial tensions (this being South Africa) which lead him to question his own sense of guilt.
Themes of coercion, victimisation, racism and retribution drive both novel and adaptation, and Malkovich in particular handles the material well. His character is repellent but complex, manipulative but vulnerable, focused but also floundering.
I found this film hard to watch and not without problems relating to plot, but it is filmed well and is a good version of an award-winning novel.
Ein großer Pluspunkt an Schande ist auf jeden Fall John Malkovich, der hier ausgezeichnet spielt und die vielen Emotionen und Zustände die sein Charakter durchlebt, oder besser durchleben muss, sehr überzeugend herüberbringt - von diabolisch, über gebrochen, bis erleuchtet.
Auch Südafrikas weites Outback ist mal eine nette Abwechslung und bietet einige schöne Landschaftsbilder.
Und die eigentliche, ziemlich ruhig und mit einige Längen erzählte, Geschichte über die dortige Ethnienproblematik wird mit ganz viel Sexualität vermischt und nimmt fast biblische Ausmaße an. Teils richtig unangenehm bis frustrierend sich das oft sinn- und moralbefreite Handeln und den Macht-Missbrauch aller Beteiligten anzusehen.
... was alles als (irgendwie doch sehr clevere, interessante und mutige) Parabel für Südafrikas Geschichte/Psyche wahrscheinlich sogar Sinn ergibt.
"Ambivalent-Aparte Apartheid-Aufarbeitung."
John Malkovich stars in this tense drama about a university professor struggling to contain his inappropriate sexual urges towards one of his young students. Thankfully, this isn't just a story about about a dirty old man, the contrary, Disgrace becomes something much more thought provoking and intelligent.
Set in post-apartheid South Africa and based on a novel by J.M Coetzee, director Steve Jacobs wastes no time by thrusting us straight into the world of David Lurie (Malkovich) and his dangerous, extracurricular relationships. David is a deep man, unafraid to voice his feelings. We see his apartment, his shelves are filled with books on the poet, Lord Byron. He turns his nose up at Charles Dickens. He's a bit of a…
A movie titled Disgrace is bound to be heavy going. The topic is rape and Disgrace tackles it from two perspectives and two degrees of severity. The amount of depth that the film derives from it is remarkable. It looks at the action, the toll and the unexpected social dilemmas that follow.
Malkovich's performance is key. He is a professor of literature and thus listening to him is like opening the door to a library. His character is smart, arrogant and quietly possessing. He is a flawed man, situated somewhere in between culprit and affected father and very difficult to grasp.
Disgrace is a movie that creates ambiguity where one would least expect it. It is not as powerful as it could have been due to its quiet approach but it is all the more thought-provoking for it.
The source novel by J.M. Coetzee happens to be one of my all-time favorite books so any attempt to adapt it for the screen was bound to elicit a skeptical response at best. The end result is good; it respects the source material and doesn't shy away from the harder to stomach parts of it. What it lacks is the "movie" element - the film looks as though it was made for TV and Steve Jacobs doesn't seem to be interested in the cinematic aspects as much as the thematic ones.
I had the strangest experience with this movie because at uni I watched this once with a lit theory professor and then the second time with a film theory professor literally on the same day because they don’t coordinate their lecture topics and the lit professor focused her lecture on things like race, alienation, relationships, power dynamic and then I walk into the film class and the professor spends 45 minutes throwing around hot takes about SA and then calls John Malkovich ugly like bro what the fuck was that 😭 Get a podcast or sth
John Malkovich spielt ein Arschloch dem Scheiße passiert. Entschuldigt die Worte aber hier mußte es sein.
Hinterlässt mich mit Wut im Bauch wegen der Gewaltszenen
Plätschert am Anfang so dahin, dann passiert was und dann plätschert es wieder bis zum Ende.
Vielleicht war ich auch nicht in Stimmung für so einen Film.
