''Chinese Boxes'' is a 1984 British-West German crime mystery thriller film directed by

Chris Petit Chris Petit (born 17 June 1949) is an English novelist and filmmaker. During the 1970s he was Film Editor for '' Time Out'' and wrote in ''Melody Maker''. His first film was the cult British road movie ''Radio On'', while his 1982 film ''An Unsu ...

and starring

Will Patton William Rankin Patton (born June 14, 1954) is an American actor and audiobook narrator. He starred as Colonel Dan Weaver in the TNT science fiction series ''Falling Skies''. He also appeared in the films ''Remember the Titans'', ''Armageddon'', ...

and

Robbie Coltrane Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He ...

. The film was partially German funded.

Cast

as Marsh *

Gottfried John Gottfried John (; 29 August 1942 – 1 September 2014) was a German stage, screen, and voice actor. A long-time collaborator of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John appeared in nine of the filmmaker's projects between 1975 and 1981, the year befor ...

as Zwemmer * Adelheid Arndt as Sarah *

as Harwood *Beate Jensen as Donna *Susanne Meierhofer as Eva *Jonathan Kinsler as Alan *

L. M. Kit Carson Lewis Minor Carson (August 12, 1941 – October 20, 2014) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and film producer. Career Carson first gained the notice of the film world when he starred in Jim McBride's mockumentary '' David Holzman's ...

as Crewcut * Chris Sievernich as Snake *

as Gunsel (uncredited) *Michael Büttner as Policeman *Jochen von Vietinghoff as Supplier

Production

Filming for ''Chinese Boxes'' was filmed in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

during 1984. The film's score was composed by a

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

informer who also lived in East Berlin.

Release

''Chinese Boxes'' premiered on 29 November 1984 in the United Kingdom. Years later the movie was screened in 2013 as part of Petit's Museum of Loneliness project, also in the United Kingdom.

Reception

Critical reception was generally favorable.

Derek Malcolm Derek Elliston Michael Malcolm (born 12 May 1932) is an English film critic. Son of J. Douglas Malcolm (died 1967) and Dorothy Vera (died 1964; née Elliston-Taylor), Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Merton College, Oxford. As a child he ...

reviewed ''Chinese Boxes'' for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', commenting that it "looks good and is at least lively". ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' remarked that the movie was "a quintessential Eighties riddle-thriller with a hint of Godard's ''

Made in USA A Made in USA mark is a country of origin label affixed to homegrown, American-made products that indicates the product is "all or virtually all" domestically produced, manufactured and assembled in the United States of America. The label is regu ...

'' in its comic-strip flatness: it features a showdown in a paper-pulping yard, a foretaste of Petit's later preoccupation with pulped and discarded culture." ''Chinese Boxes'' has also received a 2013 review from Chris Darke in ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, chinese_boxes West German films British crime thriller films 1980s crime thriller films British mystery thriller films 1980s mystery thriller films German crime thriller films German mystery thriller films English-language German films 1980s English-language films 1980s British films 1980s German films