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| Mads Mikkelsen with silvery hair, a sword and a sheepskin in a dramatic landscape on the poster for Arnaud des Pallières' Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas |
Kohlhaas is a merchant in France in the 16th century, who is dealt an injustice by the court and then rejected redress by the legal system, which makes him go his own way and hire a smaller army.
Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is written by Christelle Berthevas (Orpheline (2016)) and co-writer/director/co-editor Arnaud de Pallières (Drancy Avenir (1997)), adapting Heinrich von Kleist's (The Broken Jug/Der Zerbrochne Krug (1808)) novella Michael Kohlhaas (1808), based on the real Michael Kohlhase.
How much should one risk to get satisfaction, and are there limits to what can be forgiven? What is the Christian's relationship to justice in general? These are some of the large themes that this very European film raises. - Very European in that it is littered with long silences, has almost no music and only observes bloodshed from a far away distance. It attracts with a peculiar combination of beautiful nature-set photography and a strong cast led forcefully by good and very photogenic Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange (2016)). His scenes with Denis Lavant (Journey to the West/Xi you (2014)) are the film's best: Here Kohlhaas (Mikkelsen) is questioned spiritually; are you only out for revenge?
Even still the mysterious reality in Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is very distant from ours, and the film is hard to fully warm up to. SPOILER There is also the matter of the ending, in which the now otherwise satisfied Kohlhaas has his head removed, which seems inscrutable, and makes one leave the film with a 'why?' feeling.
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 813k $
= Uncertain - but certainly a box office disaster
[Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas premiered 24 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 122 minutes. No less than 18 companies and support organs were involved with the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place in France. The film opened #90 to a 3k $ (0.3 % of the total gross) first and only week in 4 theaters in North America, where it was pulled directly from distribution. The 3 biggest markets were France with 371k $ (45.6 %), Germany with 303k $ (37.3 %) and Austria with 54k $ (6.6 %). If made on a scant 5 mil. $ budget, the film the film would have returned 0.16 times its cost. The film won 2/6 César award nominations, among other honors. Pallières returned with Orpheline (2016). Mikkelsen returned in The Salvation (2014). Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is rotten at 47 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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