MONSTER’S BALL | Black Box Filmmuseum Düsseldorf - Neuerwerbungen aus dem Filmarchiv: Staatliche Gewalt in den USA

In the organizer's words:

MONSTER'S BALL

USA 2001 - 122 min - OV - 35mm - FSK 16 - D: Marc Forster - B: Milo Addica, Will Rokos - C: Roberto Schaefer - D: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Peter Boyle, Heath Ledger, Sean Combs a. o.

A drama unfolds in a rural milieu in the US South, interweaving institutionalized violence, family tradition and individual guilt. MONSTER'S BALL focuses on a white prison warden whose everyday life is characterized by carrying out executions and whose rigid image of masculinity is supported by racist and authoritarian structures. The death of his son marks a turning point that shakes up this order and enables a slow, contradictory opening. Parallel to this, the life of an African-American woman is shown who loses her husband to the same state violence. The unexpected rapprochement between the two characters does not form a conciliatory counter-proposal, but rather exposes the deep asymmetries that pervade their relationship. Intimacy appears here less as redemption than as a conflict-ridden process of negotiation between desire, trauma and social determination.

The film is staged with restraint, emphasizing psychological processes over narrative effects. Halle Berry's Oscar-winning performance avoids sentimentalization and lends the character a remarkable ambivalence. The result is a precise portrait of a society in which personal closeness and structural violence are inextricably intertwined.

Price information:

Admission 7 Euro - reduced 5 Euro - with Black Box Pass 4 Euro - ticket reservation Tel 0211 - 8992232