• Post category:Movies
  • Post last modified:February 13, 2021

The American

theamericanAfter a mission in Sweden goes terribly wrong, an assassin (George Clooney) arrives in Italy and hides out in a small town where he gets to know a girl (Violante Placido)ā€¦ but his enemies are after him.Ā Director Anton Corbijn followed his impressive debutĀ ControlĀ (2007) with a thriller that some critics found pretentious. Perhaps they were confusing it with European? The settings, Corbijnā€™s sentiments and the international cast influence the way a rather simple story is told. Slow at times, but ultimately touching as we get to know a lonely and cold-hearted predator who may finally learn how to make love, not war. Excellent performances by the two leads.

2010-U.S.-Britain. 105 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced byĀ George Clooney, Anne Carey, Jill Green, Grant Heslov, Ann Wingate. Directed byĀ Anton Corbijn. Screenplay: Rowan Joffe. Novel: Martin Booth (“A Very Private Gentleman”). Cinematography: Martin Ruhe. Cast: George Clooney (Jack/Edward), Violante Placido (Clara), Thekla Reuten (Mathilde), Paolo Bonacelli, Johan Leysen… Irina Bjƶrklund, Bjƶrn Granath.

Last word: “I [ā€¦] came across the script for this story and went to read the book, upon which I realised there was a better script to be written. But the core of the film is the question of whether a person can change himselfā€¦ thatā€™s the essential thing. In our lives, itā€™s whether we can turn things around if we discover that our lives are empty or wrong in his case. So, taking that core question, we put a body around it of a suspense thriller. But at the same time I saw the possibility of putting an element of the Western in there, so thereā€™s all these references to Westerns as well. The structure is like a Western.” (Corbijn, indieLondon)

 

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