The Brothers Grimm (film)

This film has only an indirect relation to the biographies of the really existing German collectors of folklore and systematizers of the German language, the brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimmov , although it uses the motives of many famous fairy tales recorded by them.

The film takes place at the beginning of the 19th century in Germany , occupied by Napoleonic France . Brothers Will ( English Will , in fact - Wilhelm ) Grimm ( Matt Damon ) and Jake ( English Jake , in fact - Jacob ) Grimm ( Heath Ledger ) - petty crooks who make a living by expelling "evil spirits" (with the role "Evil spirits" are played by their assistants). However, one day they fall into the hands of the French General Delatombe ( Jonathan Price ), who forces them to expose a much larger fraudulent "magic": in one village someone abducts girls, arranging the abductions as manifestations of magic. So that the brothers do not run away, he sends with them his henchman - the torture cases of the master Cavaldi ( Peter Stormare ).

Arriving in the village of Marbaden, the Grimm brothers soon find out that all the disappearances of the children are connected with the “enchanted forest”. They try with the help of the hunter Angelica ( Lina Headey ) to find mechanisms familiar to them from the previous tricks in the forest, but they gradually become convinced that incredible things are actually happening there - trees walk, a werewolf wanders, and in the middle of the forest there is an ancient tower in which the 500-year-old Mirror Queen ( Monica Bellucci ) lives, who, with the help of magic, has already found eternal life, and now she is trying to obtain eternal youth with the help of the blood of abducted girls.

Script

A preliminary script written by Eren Krueger was acquired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in February 2001 ^[2] . Terry Gilliam, who took over the post of director in October 2002, and his permanent co-author, Tony Grisoni, are in fact, they rewrote the script ^[3] , however, since the US Scriptwriters Guild refused to recognize their script contribution, in the credits only Kruger was indicated as a screenwriter.

Casting

Initially, Matt Damon was supposed to play Jacob Grimm, and Heath Ledger - Will, but they persuaded the director and producers to swap them ^[4] .

Terry Gilliam wanted to add a false nose to Matt Damon's makeup. However, the producer Harvey Weinstein remained adamant and did not allow the director to do this ^[5] . Later, Gilliam joked that this would be the most expensive rhinoplasty operation ever performed ^[5] .

Filming

Due to budgetary restrictions, it was decided to shoot the film completely in the Czech Republic. Gilliam reasoned: “This is a $ 80 million film that will cost $ 120-140 million in America.” ^[6]

Filming took place from June 30 to November 27, 2003. Most of the shooting of large-scale scenery and sound processing were carried out in the Prague film studio Barrandov Studios , and in November there were full-scale shootings in the Kršivoklat castle. The end of filming in the Czech Republic was scheduled for October 23, 2003 ^[7] , however, due to the replacement of the cameraman and the technical complexity of the effects, the process dragged on until November 27, 2003 ^[8] .

The military historian Oleg Sokolov acted as a consultant. ^[9]

The film was released in the United States on August 26, 2005. With a total budget of $ 88 million at the global box office, the film raised $ 105 million ^[1] .

In 2005, the film participated in the competition of the 62nd Venice International Film Festival ^[10] , but lost the film “ Brokeback Mountain ” in the struggle for the Golden Lion .

The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. Basically, the movie was scolded for unfunny, “repulsed” humor, unconvincing acting, meaningless plot and a large number of frankly stupid and unnecessary scenes, because of which it is not even clear what audience this film was intended for.

• Alexey D. Sadetsky. Be adequate to a fairy tale (review)