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Willy
Wonka and the chocolate factory
USA 1971
USA / Great Britain2005.
Production:USA 1971
Director: Mel Stuart
Duration: 91'
Genre: Fantasy
Characters:
Charlie Bucket-Peter Ostrum
Mr. Salt-Roy Kinnear
Veruca Salt-Julie Dawn Cole
Mr. Beauregarde-Leonard Stone
Violet Beauregarde-Denise Nickerson
Mrs. Teevee-Nora Denney
Mike Teevee-Paris Themmen
Mrs. Gloop-Ursula Reit
Augustus Gloop-Michael Bollner
Mrs. Bucket-Diana Sowle
Candy store owner-Aubrey Woods
Mr. Turkentine-David Battley
Mr. Slugworth-Günter Meisner
Plot: Charlie is a young boy, living in a poor condition with his grandpas and grandamas in a small house of two rooms together with his mother. When the most popular and brilliant producer of chocolate in the whole world decides to allow 5 lucky persons to visit his factory. The 5 golden tickets are put in 5 chocolate bars spread all over the world. Charlie, who has a lust for chocolate, tries to find one but he understands that in his poor condition it is very difficult and after many attempts he finds one and he decides to visit the factory with his grandpa Joe.
When the day comes all the world is anxious about it and in front of the chocolate gates thousands of people are waiting this magical moment, the arrival of Willy Wonka.
And this moment arrives and after a very funny kid made by this strange man, the five lucky founders and their partners enter the factory.
In the factory they visit wonderful places and strange rooms and in every room one of the travellers goes away, till the end when only Charlie remains.
But something strange happens: Willy Wonka starts to be angry and he treats Charlie and his granpa in a bad way. But everything changes when Charlie shows his humility: by giving back his everlasting gobstopper (a gift of Wonka’s) he shows that he doesn’t care about the proposal made to him by a strange man when he found the ticket, in fact that man wants him to reveal the recipe of that candy. So Willy Wonka understands he is a good boy and takes him and his grandpa on the great glass lift and offers him his factory and the office of owner.
Personal comments: Amazing!!!! Everything is amazing in this film, from the songs to the setting, from the actors to the director, from the beginning to the end. I don’t want to be prosaic, this is what I really think.
First of all the young actors/actresses are not bad actors, like it usually is when the actors are young children; on the contrary they are all able to do anything and really well, almost brilliantly. However they are not as brilliant as Mr Gene Wilder, the only Willy Wonka the cinema will have.
He is absolutely marvellous. For example, the first scene where he is shown, his joke is amazing, and every other scene he makes, including the musical scenes, is perfect - if you have not understood, I just love him so! Normally the special effects are not astonishing as in the second and more modern film released in 2005, but this gives the film, in my opinion, a particular atmosphere that the new one can’t have.
As a matter of fact I loved this film, really loved it. I want to add a piece of advice to all the viewers, if you see it for the first time keep with you some chocolate, because especially in the first scene you will need it.
Director
biography:
: Mel
Stuart was born in New York, and during his college years
aspired to become a composer. However, after graduating from New
York University, he decided to change direction and began to
pursue a career as a filmmaker. In 1954, he began working as an
assistant editor for a company that made commercials. There,
Stuart became a special assistant to avant-garde filmmaker Mary
Ellen Bute. Several years later, Stuart obtained a position as a
film researcher for Walter Cronkite's breakthrough series - The
20th Century. In 1959, David Wolper asked him to join a
newly formed production company. For the following 17 years,
Stuart served as a key executive with the Wolper Organization.
During that time he produced and directed dozens of
documentaries - - among them, The
Making of the President, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Four
Days in November and Wattstax.
He also directed various features including Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and If
It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.
In 1977 the Wolper Organization was acquired by Warner Brothers.
Since that time, Stuart has been an independent producer and
director. Among his productions have been documentaries such as Man
Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde and Billy
Wilder - The Human Comedy, AFI's 100
Years-100 Movies, Inside
the KGB and the seventy-nine part series, Ripley's
Believe It or Not. He also worked in long-form fictional
television, producing or directing various dramas such as Bill,
The Triangle Factory Fire and Ruby
and Oswald and the twelve-hour miniseries- The
Chisholms.
In November 2002, St. Martin's Press published Pure
Imagination: The Making of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
Stuart's remembrance of the creation of the film. (ISBN:
0312287771)
His latest directing efforts have been a series dealing with the
lives of well-known American poets and a one hour special for
PBS entitled The
Hobart Shakespeareans which deals with an extraordinary
teacher, Rafe Esquith, and his class of inner city school
children.
Among the many acknowledgments of his work have been four Emmies,
a Peabody Award, an Oscar Nomination and numerous awards from
festivals around the world. For two years Stuart served as
President of the International Documentary Association.
He has been a guest lecturer on the subject of film and video
production at various universities throughout the United States.
Over the years Stuart has made over one hundred and eighty films.
In his professional life he has followed two dictums -
"Work is good, no work is bad" and "never
rationalize your emotional response to your own work"
Stuart lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Roberta. He has three
very talented children, Madeline, Peter, and Andrew.
by Cecilia
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