The New World (movie, 2005)

Summary

In the xvii ^th century , on the east coast of North America, three English ships land to found a new colony that became known as Jamestown . On the bank, a group of Amerindians watches them in amazement. Barely arrived, one of the settlers, John Smith , is about to be hanged for rebellion. He was pardoned in extremis by Captain Christopher Newport , the expedition leader.

Newcomers settle, build a fort and make contact with the natives. Very soon, tensions appear and John Smith is sent to embassy with the Indians. Far from being well received, he is captured and fails to be put to death when a young girl intercedes on his behalf. This is Pocahontas , the favorite daughter of Chief Powhatan . The latter agrees to save the British, provided that he and his family leave for their country at the end of the winter.

For a time, John Smith lives in semi-liberty among the Indians and discovers in them a peaceful people close to nature. Little by little, he falls in love with the young woman. The idyll ends when Chief Powhatan sends him back to his family, urging the settlers to leave. But on his return to the fort, he discovers a very degraded situation: part of the expedition has returned to England and those who remain suffer a frightful famine. As a result of a fight, he takes command of the colony, which is saved thanks to the food aid that the princess sends them in secret.

Discovering the betrayal of his daughter, the king banishes her from her village and sends her to live with her uncle, in another tribe. Having already had contact with the British, the uncle offers the settlers to exchange the girl for various trinkets. The settlers put pressure on Smith to be held hostage to ensure their safety. This one refuses and a mutiny bursts which dismisses him of his functions. The young Indian is redeemed, but the British, remembering the help she gave them while they were dying of hunger, treat her with respect.

In the spring, the ships are back from England , laden with food and settlers. Released by Newport, John Smith learns that the king wants him to take the lead in a new expedition bypassing America in search of a route to the Indies. He chose to leave and made sure that, two months after his departure, he announced his death by drowning to the young Indian girl.

The latter continues her life in the colony where she is well accepted, but she lost all her joie de vivre. One of the recently arrived settlers, John Rolfe , notices her and ends up marrying her, which she accepts. The years pass and a little Thomas is born of their union.

A few years later, at the invitation of the king, the princess and her family leave for England where, the latter having incidentally learned that John Smith was alive, a meeting takes place. Pocahontas asks him if he has found India. John shakes his head. “You’ll find them,” she assures him. “Maybe I went by without seeing them …”, replies John, sad. Pocahontas smiled before returning to her husband. Shortly after, on their return trip to Virginia, she died of pneumonia, soothed.

Technical sheet

Unless otherwise stated, this data sheet is based on IMDb ³ .

• French title: Le Nouveau Monde
• Original title: The New World
• Director: Terrence Malick
• Scenario: Terrence Malick
• Artistic direction: David Crank
• Sets: Jack Fisk
• Costumes: Jacqueline West
• Photography: Emmanuel Lubezki
• Sound: Craig Berkey
• Music: James Horner
• Additional music: Mozart , Wagner
• Editing: Richard Chew , Hank Corwin , Saar Klein , Mark Yoshikawa
• Production: Sarah Green , Peter La Terriere , Toby Emmerich , Trish Hofmann , Bill Mechanic , Rolf Mittweg and Mark Ordesky
• Production Companies ⁴ : New Line Cinema , Sunflower Productions, Sarah Green Movie, First Foot Movies, The Virginia Company LLC
• Distribution Companies: New Line Cinema (United States) , Metropolitan Filmexport (France)
• Special Effects Companies: EFilm, CIS Hollywood
• Production Budget: 30,000,000 $
• Country of Origin: United States , United Kingdom
• Language: Algonquian , English
• Format ⁵ : Colors – 2.35: 1 – DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS – 35 mm
• Genre: Adventure , drama , historical
• Duration: 172 minutes
• Release dates in theaters ⁶ :
  •  United States : December 25 , 2005
  •  United Kingdom : January 27 , 2006
  •  France : February 15 , 2006

Distribution

Comments

The New World tells the meeting of the American Indian Pocahontas with the British navigator John Smith and the life of the latter with Colonel John Rolfe until his death.

Although the story is highly romanticized (the Pocahontas that saved Smith was actually only 11 or 12 years old), the film was shot in the region where the first permanent British colony, Jamestown , was built and where the real Pocahontas spent the first years of his life ¹¹ .

Around the film

• Filming began on July 26, 2004 and took place in Oxford , Surrey and Hatfield in the United Kingdom, as well as Chickihominy River in the United States.
• The Virginia Fort was built in 30 days, that is to say, exactly the same duration as the settlers of the time who had no crane or other modern tools.
• First film since Hamlet , directed by Kenneth Branagh in 1996, to use a film of 65 mm for some scenes.
• Terrence Malick wrote his script in the late 1970s.
• Q’Orianka Kilcher was 14 years old at the start of the shoot. It is estimated that the real Pocahontas must have been 11 or 12 when she first met John Smith.
• Curiously, the music composed by James Horner is virtually absent in the film. We hear especially the prelude to Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner and the Piano Concerto n ^o 23 in A major, KV 488 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .

Distinctions ¹²

• Oscar nomination for the best photography in 2006.
• The New World was elected 9 ^th best film of the decade 2000-2009 by Cahiers du cinéma .

Bibliography

• Angelique Adagio, “Lyric; The New World » Phosphorus N ° 296 , Bayard Group , Paris, February 2006, p.26, ( ISSN  0249-8138 )

Notes and references