2023-12-26 09:00:33
Hugh Grant, as the British Prime Minister, falls in love with an employee, Bill Nighy sings “Christmas is all around me” as a drunken rock star, Heike Makatsch and Claudia Schiffer have small supporting roles and Rowan Atkinson (“Mr. Bean”) takes a long time as a salesman Wrapping a gift. Very long. Sure, we’re talking about that Christmas comedy “Love Actually”an ensemble romance film that was released 20 years ago and has since become a classic.
The film with the original title “Love Actually” can be seen again on German television at Christmas in 2023. Vox is showing it today, December 26th at 8:15 p.m. Last year ZDF broadcast it late in the evening of Christmas Day, and before that ZDFneo broadcast it.
The director has an explanation for the long-term success
For two decades now, the film has been one of the works that people watch again during Advent. Because December without the film wouldn’t really be Christmas time for her. It is available for streaming on MagentaTV, Prime Video, SkyGo/Wow and RTL+, for example.
The film begins five weeks before Christmas and weaves together the stories of several people in London and Britain. According to director Richard Curtis, who is considered the king of RomComs (romantic comedies), the fact that the film is still popular today could also be due to the fact that one often no longer knows which scene is actually coming next. In fact, so many stories are told that some episodes are forgotten until the following year.
The spectrum of emotions is also wide: from a little boy who has a huge crush on a classmate to a woman whose marriage is in danger of failing (Emma Thompson with Alan Rickman). The story with actress Keira Knightley, who receives a love confession on cardboard cards, is also cult.
Boris Johnson knew how to do it
The scene – wife opens the front door, husband’s best friend confesses his feelings without (spoken) words using written cardboard – is often imitated. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson copied the scene with Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln during the election campaign in December 2019. For him, of course, it wasn’t about love, but about the votes of the voters. “We’ll have Brexit done” was written on one of his pieces of paper: We’ll get Brexit done.
Boris Johnson knew how to take advantage of the film’s popularity: Shortly before the general election in Great Britain in December 2019, it appeared in a commercial. : Image: dpa
The cast of the film was unbeatable in terms of celebrities: Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley, Heike Makatsch, Laura Finney, Martine McCutcheon, Lúcia Moniz, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy and Rowan Atkinson performed.
But not everything about the film still seems modern and casual today. What is striking is that the love stories are always told from the male perspective. Women are the object of desire. Director Curtis also addressed this time-honored perspective when he was interviewed by his daughter Scarlett at the Cheltenham Literature Festival this year. His daughter noted, among other things, that her father had now learned a lot from her about feminism.
In Love Actually, the Prime Minister’s aide Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) is portrayed as chubby and criticized for her supposedly fat thighs. In addition, his films only showed a few black people, his daughter said. In “Love Actually” there are superiors who behaved problematically, such as the Prime Minister. Looking back, would he do anything differently?
“Yes. I wish I had been ahead of the curve,” Curtis said. There were some things he didn’t think about enough. “I remember how shocked I was five years ago when Scarlett said to me: “You can never use the word fat again.”” She was right. “These jokes just aren’t funny anymore.”
Jörg Thomann Published/Updated: Recommendations: 8 Julia Bähr Published/Updated: Recommendations: 16 Michael Hanfeld Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6
But the scenery at the beginning of the film at the airport remains pretty. “When I’m depressed by the global political situation, I always think of the arrivals hall at Heathrow Airport,” says Hugh Grant’s voice-over, while we see in slow motion how (real) people fall into each other’s arms as they arrive at the airport. “It is commonly said that we live in a world full of hatred and greed. But that’s not true.”
#Christmas #classic #years #Love