Showing posts with label Michael Böllner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Böllner. Show all posts

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Succes 2011: Michael Böllner alias Augustus Gloop in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Michael Bollner (born 14 September 1958; spelled 'Böllner' in his native language of German) is a German former child actor who played Augustus Gloop in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Interviewed on HBO, along with the other stars of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, he said he enjoyed acting in the film, even though he could not speak English beforehand and had to have his lines coached by a crewmember.

In the feautrette "Pure Imagination, The Making of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" Böllner mentioned that he has done a couple more films in Germany after Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but quit soon because his father said he should finish school. He is now a tax accountant in Munich.
Augustus Gloop is an antagonist in the book and movies "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".


Augustus is an overweight German boy who loves nothing but eating excessively. Augustus is rude and insubordinate in his never-ending quest to fill his own face. His parents choose to indulge him rather than listen to his whining.
He suffers for his greed while in the factory: while sucking from the chocolate river, he falls in and is sucked up by one of the pipes that leads to the room where Willy Wonka makes strawberry-flavored chocolate coated fudge. In the end, Augustus comes out changed on the other side, as evidenced by his new thin body.


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of the eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka.


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in 1964 and in the United Kingdom by George Allen & Unwin in 1967. The book was adapted into two major motion pictures: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in 1971, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005. The book's sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, was written by Roald Dahl in 1972. Dahl had also planned to write a third book in the series but never finished it.

The story was originally inspired by Roald Dahl's experience of chocolate companies during his schooldays. Cadbury would often send test packages to the schoolchildren in exchange for their opinions on the new products. At that time (around the 1920s), Cadbury and Rowntree's were England's two largest chocolate makers and they each often tried to steal trade secrets by sending spies, posing as employees, into the other's factory. Because of this, both companies became highly protective of their chocolate making processes. (Both have since been acquired by larger food companies; Cadbury by Kraft Foods and Rowntree's by Nestlé.) It was a combination of this secrecy and the elaborate, often gigantic, machines in the factory that inspired Dahl to write the story.
It's the story of an ordinary boy: Charlie Bucket. He was no stronger or faster than anyone else, his family was not rich, powerful or well connected but he was the luckiest boy in the entire world, he just didn't know it yet.


15 years ago, Willy Wonka opened the largest chocolate factory in the world but spies stole his recipes so he closed the factory. It didn't close forever though, and suddenly he decided to allow 5 children to visit the factory and one of them will win a special prize at the end. The children have to find one of the five golden tickets hidden beneath the ordinary wrapping paper of five ordinary Wonka bars. So, Augustus Gloop (a German excessive eater), Veruca Salt (a spoiled English brat), Violet Beauregarde (junior bubblegum champion), Mike Teavee (who hates chocolate, but loves to watch television), and Charlie Bucket (the luckiest boy in the entire world) win tickets and visit the factory.


"Accidents" happen while on the guided tour. The greedy Augustus falls in the chocolate lake and gets accidentally sucked up and taken away to the room where they make the most delicious kind of strawberry flavoured chocolate coated fudge. Violet, ignoring Wonka's advice, tries some of his three course dinner gum, swells up like a blueberry and needs to be juiced. Veruca tries to grab a squirrel and ends up falling down the garbage chute in the direction of the incinerator (which thankfully is broken so there's about three weeks worth of rotten garbage to break her fall). Mike tries to use Wonka's chocolate teleport machine and ends up shrunken to about 6 inches high.


Charlie wins the prize - it's Willy Wonka's factory. He goes in the Great Glass Elevator through the roof, and down the roof of Charlie's Cottage.

1971 film

The book was first made into a feature film as a musical titled Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, directed by Mel Stuart, produced by David L. Wolper and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, character actor Jack Albertson as Grandpa Joe, and Peter Ostrum as Charlie Bucket. Released worldwide on 30 June 1971 and distributed by Paramount Pictures (Warner Bros. is the current owner), the film had an estimated budget of $2.9 million. The film grossed only $4 million and, while it passed its budget, was still considered a box-office disappointment. However, as was noted in an article entitled; "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: From Inauspicious Debut to Timeless classic", exponential home video and DVD sales, as well as repeated television airings, the film has since developed into a cult classic.


Like many films based on books, there were several notable differences in the film from the book. For example:

* Charlie's father had died prior to the events in the film.
* The fake ticket was the "final" ticket and was "found" by a Paraguayan man rather than the "second" ticket being "found" by a Russian woman.
* The other four children were accompanied around the factory by just one of their parents rather than both parents.
* The "nut" room was changed to the "egg-laying" room.
* The date of the factory tour was changed from the first of February to the first of October
* The film did not show the final fates of the bad children after they were removed.
* Most notably, a morality test and a contract came attached to the Golden Tickets to determine the worth of the finders.
* Charlie misbehaved by "stealing Fizzy Lifting Drink" and was nearly removed himself. (Although the Fizzy Lifting Drinks were mentioned in the book, they did not enter the room.) He redeemed himself by giving the Everlasting Gobstopper back to Wonka, thereby passing the morality test.
* Arthur Slugworth was an alias of Wonka's co-worker Mr. Wilkinson, who was sent to test each child who won the Golden Ticket. The movie does not explain how the false Slugworth was able to approach each winner so soon after they found their tickets. However, it is implied that Wonka somehow managed to keep track of each ticket's destination and then he told Wilkinson where they were most likely to be found.