Shining Through
Shining Through | |
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Directed by | David Seltzer |
Screenplay by | David Seltzer |
Based on | Shining Through by Susan Isaacs |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 132 minutes[1] |
Countries |
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Languages |
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Box office | $43.8 million[2] |
Shining Through is a 1992 American
Plot
In the present (1992), elderly Linda Voss is interviewed by a BBC documentary team about her experiences before and during World War II. She explains that, growing up in
Ed and Linda travel to Switzerland, where he hands her over to master spy Konrad Friedrichs, who takes her by train across the border into Germany, to Berlin, where he hides her in his house and introduces her to his niece, Margrete von Eberstein, a socialite also working as an Allied agent. Linda assumes the identity of Lina Albrecht, and is planted as a cook in the household of Horst Drescher, a social-climbing
Meanwhile, Ed, sick with worry about Linda since her disappearance from Drescher's party, suddenly chances to see her in a newsreel of Hitler in a parade in Berlin. Ed's agents identify Dietrich as the man standing next to Linda in the film, and Ed heads to Germany to rescue her. Because he does not speak German, he assumes the identity of a wounded high-ranking German officer, who has had his throat injured and cannot speak. He tracks down Linda and tells her she must leave with him immediately, but Linda reveals that she has located her Jewish cousins, excitedly telling Ed and Margrete how nearby they are. She demands Ed give her another day to visit them and give them hope. The next day, with the children in her care, Linda tracks down her relatives' hiding place in the city, but she finds it empty and ransacked, as they have just been captured. When an Allied air raid suddenly hits, Linda has to run for cover with the children and protect them. Back at the house, the frightened boy inadvertently reveals the existence of a hidden room in Dietrich's basement. Linda sneaks down there that night and finds and surreptitiously photographs Dietrich's top secret V-1 rocket blueprints. Dietrich has fallen in love with Linda, and invites her to the opera. While there, Linda's cover is blown when Margrete's mother recognizes her, believing Linda to be a friend of her daughter's from college. Dietrich is heartbroken and, once back at his house, Linda sees him loading his gun.
Fearing for her life, Linda flees across the city, still in her ballgown, and finds sanctuary with Margrete. After Margrete suggests Linda take a bath, she uses the pay phone on the street to report in to her superiors, but Linda catches her. Margrete returns to the apartment and shoots Linda. Margrete reveals that she is a double agent, who betrayed the agent Linda replaced, causing his death, and that she gave away the location of Linda's Jewish cousins to the Gestapo. The two struggle and Linda, although wounded, overpowers Margrete and kills her. Linda hides in the laundry chute, escaping the German forces who raid Margrete's apartment.
Badly wounded, Linda is found by Ed and Friedrichs, who take her to the railway station. Ed and Linda travel to the
Cast
- Michael Douglas as Ed Leland
- Melanie Griffith as Linda Voss
- Liam Neeson as General Franze-Otto Dietrich
- Joely Richardson as Margrete von Eberstein
- John Gielgud as Konrad Friedrichs a.k.a. Sunflower
- Francis Guinan as Andrew Berringer
- Anthony Walters as Dietrich's son
- Victoria Shalet as Dietrich's daughter
- Sheila Allen as Olga Leiner, Margrete's mother
- Stanley Beard as Linda's father
- Sylvia Syms as Linda's mother
- Ronald Nitschke as Horst Drescher
- Hansi Jochmann as Hedda Drescher
- Mathieu Carrière as Capt. Von Haefler
- William Hope as Major Kernohan
- Constanze Engelbrecht as Stafson Von Neest
- Ludwig Haas as Adolf Hitler
- Wolf Kahler as German Border Commandant
Production
The film was first announced in the fall of 1988, just after the publication of the novel. It was to be written and directed by Seltzer, produced at
Because all of Berlin's great train stations were destroyed in World War II, the production traveled over 100 miles (160 km) to Leipzig at the end of October to shoot scenes in the Leipzig Hauptbahnhof terminus, built in 1915 and the largest in Europe. This was prior to the building's modernization by the Deutsche Bahn.[6]
The finale, set at a border crossing and involving a period train, was shot in Maria Elend, Carinthia, Austria, in November 1990.[7]
The
Reception
The film was neither a commercial nor a critical success. The Razzie Awards declared Shining Through the Worst Picture of 1992, with Melanie Griffith being voted Worst Actress (also for her performance in A Stranger Among Us) and David Seltzer for Worst Director. It also received nominations for Michael Douglas as Worst Actor (also for Basic Instinct) and for Seltzer in the category of Worst Screenplay.[9] The film holds a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 17 reviews.[10]
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, "I know it's only a movie, and so perhaps I should be willing to suspend my disbelief, but Shining Through is such an insult to the intelligence that I wasn't able to do that. Here is a film in which scene after scene is so implausible that the movie kept pushing me outside and making me ask how the key scenes could possibly be taken seriously."[11]
Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times that the first three-quarters of Susan Isaacs's book "never made it to the screen," including Linda Voss's love affair and marriage to her New York law firm boss, John Berringer. "David Seltzer's film version of Shining Through manages to lose also the humor of Susan Isaacs's savvy novel. Even stranger than that is the film's insistence on jettisoning the most enjoyable parts of the story."[12]
The film is listed in
References
- ^ "Shining Through (15)". British Board of Film Classification. February 12, 1992. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ a b "Shining Through". Box Office Mojo. January 31, 1992. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
- ^ Gelder, Lawrence (September 30, 1988). "At The Movies: Seltzer's Next Project". The New York Times. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ Beck, Marilyn (December 18, 1989). "Ryan, Pfeiffer Take Shine to 'Shining'". New York Daily News. p. 33.
- ^ "'Working Girl' Has Career Change; She's a Spy". Los Angeles Times. February 22, 1990.
- ^ "Das Märchen von der Gewaltspirale in Leipzig" [The fairytale of the spiral of violence in Leipzig]. Antifa in Leipzig (in German). January 26, 2016.
- ^ "Vor 20 Jahren: Ende der Drehrbeiten für "Shinning Through"" [20 years ago: End of filming for "Shinning Through"] (in German). Klagenfurt Cinema Museum. November 15, 2010.
- ^ Longsdorf, Amy (September 28, 1990). "Griffith 'Goes Average' With A Vengeance". The Morning Call. Allentown, Penn.
- ^ Wilson, John. "1992 Archive". Golden Raspberry Awards. Archived from the original on April 18, 2001. Retrieved November 2, 2018 – via razzies.com.
- ^ "Shining Through". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (January 31, 1992). "Review: Shining Through". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved November 2, 2018 – via rogerebert.com.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (February 28, 1992). "Reviews/Film: Spying and Strudel As Part of War Effort". The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0446510080.
External links
- Shining Through at IMDb
- Shining Through at the TCM Movie Database
- Shining Through at Box Office Mojo
- Shining Through at Rotten Tomatoes