the visit zusammenfassung

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Summary and Study Guide

The Visit , by Swiss author and playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt, premiered in 1956 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich under the German title Der Besuch der alten Dame , or The Visit of the Old Lady . Dürrenmatt’s darkly comic satiric plays are credited with helping revitalize German theatre following World War II. His writing also reveals the influence of German playwright Bertolt Brecht, notably in Dürrenmatt’s use of parables: simple stories using human characters to illustrate a lesson or moral. One of the themes Dürrenmatt explores in The Visit is the corrupting power of money.  

The play, a tragicomedy in three acts, is Dürrenmatt’s most well-known and enduring work as a dramatist. The hugely successful 1958 Broadway debut starred the famous acting married couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and was staged by famous English director Peter Brooks. The play has been widely adapted, as a 1964 Hollywood film, a 1971 German opera, a 1992 Senegalese film Hyenas , a 2001 musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and a 2020 version by American playwright Tony Kushner that ran in London.

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This guide references the translation by Patrick Bowles published by Grove Press in 1990.

Plot Summary

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The fictional small town of Guellen , located vaguely in central Europe, has fallen into poverty since the end of World War II. But fortunately for its inhabitants, famous multimillionaire Claire Zachanassian grew up in Guellen and is returning for a visit after 45 years. In hopes that Claire will share her wealth to save the town, the Mayor has planned a grand welcome. Alfred Ill , who is the most well-liked man in town and slated to become the next mayor, happens to be Claire’s long-ago lover. He is also the only person in town who knows and remembers her at all, and his help is enlisted to sweet-talk Claire into giving the town money. Claire upsets their preparations by arriving early, her seventh husband and a strange entourage in tow. She also brings, along with mountains of luggage, a coffin. Claire goes with Ill to some of the places where they trysted. She confronts Ill for ending their relationship to marry Matilda Blumhard, whose family had money and owned the town General Store. Because of Ill’s actions, Claire left Guellen and ended up working in a brothel until her first husband, a billionaire, married her. Ill claims that he did it to save Claire from staying in Guellen. Claire tells Ill that she will give the town money, and Ill excitedly accompanies her into town for a reception in her honor. After the Mayor gives an erroneous speech about her, Claire announces that she will donate a million pounds to Guellen, half of which will go to the town and the other half to be divided among the townspeople. But she has a condition, which they quiet their cheering to hear.

Claire’s butler comes forward, introducing himself as Guellen’s one-time Lord Chief Justice. Once, he arbitrated a paternity case. Claire, who was 17, was pregnant and named Ill, who was 20, as the father. But Ill paid two men to claim that they slept with her. Claire left Guellen in disgrace. The baby was taken away and died after a year. To survive, Claire was forced into sex work. She has had the two men who lied blinded and castrated, now a part of her entourage, and she wants to buy justice against Ill. She’ll give the money in exchange for someone killing Ill. The Mayor immediately rejects the offer as inhuman, but Claire says that she will wait.

Act II begins in Ill’s store, where townspeople are buying things on store credit. Although they all tell Ill that they stand with him, Ill suddenly realizes that everyone is spending extravagantly on credit, because they know that someone will follow through to get Claire’s money. Recognizing that he is being threatened, Ill goes to the Policeman , the Mayor, and then the Priest , begging each of them to help him. But they all demonstrate that they are spending money too. Terrified, Ill goes to the train station, followed by the entire town. Afraid that someone will grab him, Ill misses the train and collapses in panic. The townspeople walk away, leaving him there. In Act III, the Doctor and the Schoolmaster go to see Claire, who has just married and divorced another husband, to ask if she will invest in the town instead of giving a gift. But Claire reveals that she already owns everything in the town. She shut down the factories to create the rampant poverty.

At Ill’s store, his wife is helping customers who are still upgrading their purchases and buying on credit. Some men from town come in and decide to sit and make sure that Ill doesn’t decide to talk to the press that came to town for Claire’s wedding. The Schoolmaster, who has started drinking, nearly speaks up when reporters come into the store, but Ill, who has been hiding upstairs, stops him. After the reporters and townspeople leave, Ill comments that his family has also been buying on credit, including his son’s new car. He surprises his family by telling them to dress up to go for a drive. The Mayor comes in and tells Ill that there will be a town meeting and a vote about accepting Claire’s offer. He tries to give Ill a gun to save the town the trouble by killing himself, but Ill refuses, although he agrees to abide by the results of the vote. His family returns, and after a pleasant ride, Ill says goodbye and goes to the woods where Claire is supposed to be walking with her new husband. Ill and Claire talk about the end of their relationship and their daughter who died. Claire promises to take Ill in the coffin to a mausoleum in Capri, so he will be near her forever. Ill goes to the town meeting. The press is present, so the Mayor and Schoolmaster speak vaguely, but they finally hold a vote. Only Ill votes against taking the money. After the press leaves, the men of the town strangle Ill. The Mayor tells an errant reporter that Ill died of a heart attack from happiness. Claire gives the Mayor the check and has Ill’s body carried out and placed in the coffin. As Claire and her luggage, along with the coffin, head to the train station, the townspeople sing her praises and pray for their own good fortune.

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• The Visit Summary

The story opens with the town of Guellen (which literally means "excrement") preparing for the arrival of famed millionairess Claire Zachanassian . The town is in a state of disrepair, and the residents are suffering considerable hardship and poverty. They hope that Claire, a native of the small town, will provide them with much-needed funds. Alfred Ill , the owner of Guellen's general store and the most popular man in town, was Claire's lover when they were young, and agrees with the Mayor that the task of convincing her to make a donation should fall to him. As the town gathers at the railway station to prepare for Claire's arrival, they are met with an unexpected surprise when Claire steps off of an earlier train. She is grand, grotesque, and fantastic, and is accompanied by two henchmen, her husband, a butler, and two eunuchs, along with a coffin, a caged black panther, and various pieces of luggage. She begins a flirtatious exchange with Ill, and they promptly revisit their old haunts: Petersen's Barn and Konrad's Village Wood. Ill finds her as delightful as ever, though they are both now in their sixties and significantly overweight. Claire draws Ill's attention to her prosthetic leg and artificial hand.

After settling into the Golden Apostle Hotel, Claire joins the rest of the town, who have gathered outside for a homecoming celebration. A band plays, gymnasts perform, and the Mayor gives a speech. Claire takes the opportunity to announce that she will make a donation of one million dollars, half for the town and half to be shared among the families. The townspeople are overjoyed, but their happiness is dampened when Claire's Butler steps forward to reveal her condition. The Butler was once the Lord Chief Justice of Guellen, and had overseen the paternity suit that Claire had brought against Ill in 1910. In the suit, Ill had produced two false witnesses (who have since been transformed into Claire's eunuchs), and the court had ruled in his favor. Ill went on to marry Matilda, who owned the general store, and Claire moved to Hamburg and became a prostitute. She declares to the townspeople that she has come to Guellen to prove that justice can, indeed, be bought. Her donation is conditional on Ill's death. When the Mayor refuses, the town cheers in support, but Claire states rather ominously, "I'll wait."

Ill feels generally confident about his status in the town. However, as time passes, he begins to feel troubled about their growing discontent, and then increasingly fearful as he begins to notice the proliferation of new yellow shoes on the feet of the townsmen, and the fact that everyone seems to be purchasing especially expensive items on credit. He goes to see the Policeman to demand that he arrest Claire for having threatened his life, but the Policeman tells him that the threat is nonsense. Ill then turns to the Mayor, who echoes similar sentiments. Both figures are armed, because Claire's black panther has escaped from his cage and is prowling about the town. This only feeds Ill's fear, since "my black panther" was Claire's pet name for him in their youth. He runs to see the Priest , but the Priest seems to be turning away from him as well, as he effectively ignores Ill's fears and instead draws attention to the magnificent new church bell. Slowly, the standard of living in the town rises, even though the townspeople continue to assure Ill that he is safe. Claire then receives the news that her black panther has been killed, and she has a funeral song played in its memory.

In an effort to escape, Ill heads to the railway station, but finds that, strangely, the entire town is gathered there. They ask him where he is going, and he says that he is planning to move to Australia. They wish him well, again assuring him that he has nothing to fear in Guellen, but Ill grows increasingly nervous nonetheless. The train arrives, but he decides not to board, believing that someone will stop him anyway. Paralyzed, he collapses in the crowd, crying, "I'm lost!"

After some time passes and Claire weds a new husband in the Guellen Cathedral, the Doctor and the Schoolmaster go to see her and explain that the townspeople have run up considerable debts since her arrival. The Schoolmaster appeals to her sense of humanity and begs her to abandon her desire for vengeance and help the town out of the goodness of her heart. She reveals to them that she already actually owns all of properties in the town, and that she is the reason the businesses have been shut down and caused stagnation and poverty for the citizens. The Doctor and the Schoolmaster are aghast at this revelation.

In the meantime, Ill has been pacing the room above the general store, his terror growing as the townspeople buy more and more expensive products on credit. News reporters, having received word of Claire's imminent wedding, are everywhere, and they enter the store to get the scoop on Ill, having heard that he was Claire's lover back in the day. The Schoolmaster, drunk, tries to inform the press about Claire's cruel proposal, but the townspeople stop him. Finally Ill descends the stairs, surprised at the hubbub, but quiet. The reporters clear the room when they hear that Claire has just divorced the man she has just married, and has found a new lover.

After the confusion has cleared, the Schoolmaster and Ill have an honest discussion. The Schoolmaster explains that he is certain that Ill will be killed, and admits that he will ultimately join the ranks of the murderers. Ill calmly states that he has accepted his guilt, and acknowledges that the town's suffering is his fault. The Schoolmaster leaves, and Ill is confronted by the Mayor, who asks whether Ill will accept the town's judgment at that evening's meeting. Ill says that he will. The Mayor then suggests that Ill make things easier on everyone and shoot himself, but Ill refuses, insisting that the town must go through the process of actually judging and then killing him.

Ill goes for a ride in his son's newly-purchased car, accompanied by his wife, Matilda, and his daughter, both of whom are wearing new outfits. As they drive through Konrad's Village Wood, Ill says that he is going to go for a walk through the woods before heading to the town meeting. His family continues on to the movie theater. In the woods, Ill comes across Claire, who is walking with her newest husband. She asks her husband to leave so that she and Ill can speak privately. They reminisce about the past, and make plans for the future. Claire tells Ill that she plans to take his body away in the coffin to a mausoleum in Capri that overlooks the Mediterranean. She also tells Ill that she has never stopped loving him, but that over time her love has grown into something monstrous.

The town meeting is flooded with press, and the town publicly announces their acceptance of Claire's donation. They then go through the formality of a vote, which is unanimous, and the Mayor states that they have Ill to thank for their new-found wealth. The press is then ushered out of the auditorium to enjoy refreshments. The doors are locked, and the lights are dimmed. The Priest crosses Ill, and he is killed by the townsmen. Just as a reporter reappears in the auditorium, the Doctor announces that Ill has died from a heart attack. The reporters gather, and declare that Ill has died from joy. Claire examines the corpse, gives the Mayor his check, and leaves the town with Ill's body in the coffin that she brought with her when she arrived in Guellen. Claire boards the train at the railway station, and the visit comes to an end.

The Visit Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Visit is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What are the actors celebrating in "The Visit"?

The actors are attending a homecoming celebration.

grandparents

Ok, so i know this is weird because this answer is 4 to 5 years from when you asked this question. But, what happened is the real grandparents were working at the asylum. and the fake grandparents broke out and went to there house, knowing they...

How do I choose the best Laravel developers?

Sorry, this is a literature site.

Study Guide for The Visit

The Visit study guide contains a biography of Friedrich Duerrenmatt, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Visit
• Character List

Essays for The Visit

The Visit literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Visit.

• Examining Claire Zachanassian in Act One of The Visit
• An Exploration of Mob Mentality in The Visit
• The Ironic Tragicomedy
• The Effect of Dehumanization in The Visit
• Poverty and Humanistic Values in The Visit

Lesson Plan for The Visit

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Visit
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Visit Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Visit

• Introduction
• Film and television
• Literature and theatre

IB Language and Literature 2.0

Group 1 english higher and standard level, drama study: the visit by friedrich dürrenmatt, from the prl / translated work (german) / c20th / europe / switzerland.

“He considers it a part of his philosophical business to reach a mass audience through his [works] without diluting that one main idea which permeates much of his writing: justice.” William Gillis, writing in the German Quarterly, 1962

Introduction

The impoverished town of Guellen looks to multi-millionaire Claire Zachanassian for financial salvation. When she offers them a million dollars, they think their dreams have come true – but her offer comes with a condition attached. They must kill a citizen of the town, named Ill, a popular man standing for mayor – and someone who just happens to be her former lover. Initially, the townspeople refuse, but their resolve is tested by the allure of wealth. Will they hold true to their morals, or will they end up carrying out her wish?

The Visit , written in 1956, was Dürrenmatt’s third published work and is set approximately ten years after the end of the war. Famously, Switzerland remained neutral throughout the conflict, siding with neither Allied nor Axis forces. However, Switzerland had deported its Jewish citizens, refused to allow migrant Jews fleeing the Nazis to enter Switzerland, hosted Allied soldiers in prisoner of war camps, and accepted looted gold from German forces. In Dürrenmatt’s opinion, ‘neutrality’ was merely a euphemism for ‘complicity’. Therefore, his play is set in Guellen, a thinly veiled representation of Switzerland; a community forced to choose between moral convictions and material gain.

• Biography – Friedrich Dürrenmatt
• Wider Reading – from A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time

IB Student Learner Profile: Thinker

“We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyse and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.”

If any writers on your course can be called a thinker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt must be near the top of the list. He was born in 1921 in Konolfingen, a small town just outside the Swiss capital of Bern. The son of a pastor, he developed a keen interest in philosophy and went to Berlin where he began a doctoral dissertation on the philosopher Kierkegaard. In the middle of his studies, though, he came to believe that greed and hypocrisy had polluted life in Switzerland after the second world war. He abandoned his dissertation and returned to Switzerland, becoming a playwright and crafting controversial works full of dark humour and grotesqueries, laying bare the absurdity of European politics and society. He famously said, “it is not only possible to think with the philosophy, but also with the theater stage.”

IB Lang and Lit Concept: C ommunication

Arguably the defining language feature of Dürrenmatt’s play is pervasive irony . Hardly anybody says what they really mean, and their actions contradict their words. Even the ‘hero’ of the piece is guilty of shifting the truth when it suits purposes. As you read The Visit , consider how certain uses of language can be used to conceal as well as reveal, to distort as well as illuminate, and how communication is rarely straightforward in Dürrenmatt’s play.

“Everything can be bought.”

The first act begins with several townspeople gathered at the train station. They note with regret how few trains stop in Guellen; a sign of the city’s recent economic decline. They are waiting for the arrival of Claire Zachanassian, a woman who was born in the town, but had to leave under a cloud of shame when she was seventeen years old. Claire is now a multi-millionaire and the townspeople hope that Claire will give them money so they can restore their town to its former glory.

Claire arrives – early – and disrupts the townspeople’s preparations to welcome her. Nevertheless they give her the best reception they can manage and, after she visits a few places she remembers from her youth, the mayor gives a speech in her honour at the town’s hotel, the Golden Apostle. Claire then delights the gathered townspeople by offering them a million dollars – it seems like their hopes will be granted. But she attaches a condition which they cannot yet accept: they must kill Ill, her former lover, now a popular storekeeper and the man in line to be the next town mayor.

Act 1 Scene 1

“We must drink a special toast to Ill – a man who’s doing all a man can to better our lot. To our most popular citizen: to my successor!”

The once prosperous town of Guellen is plunged into desperate poverty, even while the rest of Europe seems to be prospering. Various men of the town of Guellen are gathered at the train station. The way the people look forward to Claire’s arrival shows their fixation on money, and in fact, it seems that they put money above anything else, such as religion, when they mention that “God doesn’t pay.” Guellen is a fictional town of Dürrenmatt’s invention meant to represent any Swiss town in the decade following the second world war. Therefore, the townspeople of Guellen also represent average Swiss people – if not European people as a whole – and so their fixation on money can be seen as a criticism of post-war European materialism. Equally, the town’s mayor, who is eager to welcome Claire and writes an oily speech praising her intelligence and generosity, can be seen to represent any politician who is willing to put materialism before morality and say whatever he needs to say to secure financial rewards.

Claire arrives at the station by riding a train which normally does not stop in Guellen. She pulls the emergency brake to make sure it does, and is initially scolded by an official of the railway until he finds out who she is. Then, like everyone else in the play, he wants to slavishly fulfil her every wish – even going to the ridiculous extent of offering to keep the train and all of its passengers there waiting for days until she wants to leave.

• Act 1 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)

Why are Dürrenmatt’s stage directions so specific about how Guellen should look? The shoddily tiled railway station, the ripped posters on its walls, the outlines of dilapidated buildings in the background; these details visually alert the audience to the town’s dire situation even before the unemployed men say anything.

Learner Portfolio: Putting on the Play

Based on Dürrenmatt’s detailed stage directions throughout Act 1, design the staging for a new production of The Visit. You could do some research into set design by visiting this Museums of the World online collection and viewing Milan Butina’s wonderful concept drawings for a 1958 performance of the play in Ljubljana.

Annotate your work with explainers as to the effect you want your design to have on the audience. If you don’t like doing visual or graphic design work, you could submit this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of a ‘letter from the director’, communicating with your design team about your ideas and the effects you want to create for your audience.

Act 1 Scene 2

A moment ago you wanted time turned back, in that wood so full of the past. Well I’m turning it back now, and I want justice. Justice for a million.

Claire and Ill tour some of the places they trysted together when they were young: Petersen’s Barn and Konrad’s Village Wood. Claire recalls how their relationship ended: Ill married another woman and left her all alone. She wound up leaving the town and becoming a prostitute in Hamburg, where she attracted the attention of a rich Armenian, the first of many wealthy husbands. Ill insists all turned out for the best because, if she had married him, she would not have become rich. Eventually, talk comes back to the reason for Claire’s visit and she promises that she will not let her hometown continue to suffer. Elated, Ill regrets aloud that they could not have married, and admires her once more. He keeps saying how she has not changed and kisses her hand. She corrects him; her hand, like her leg, is artificial. She was the only survivor of a plane crash and needed numerous artificial limbs.

Back at the hotel, the Mayor finally delivers his fawning speech in Claire’s honour. Afterwards, she reveals that she will indeed make a contribution to the town’s economic recovery. She will donate a million dollars to the town and its residents – but she has a surprising condition attached.

• Act 1 Scene 2 (Discussion and Activities)

While the possession of excessive wealth can lead to the corruption of one’s character, there seems to be the suggestion that poverty can have negative effects, too. Ill says that the lack of money in his family has made his home unhappy. Dürrenmatt criticises extreme wealth – and simultaneously recognises the effects of poverty. Do you think his play supports the idea of wealth redistribution from the obscenely rich (people like Claire) to ordinary people like the citizens of Guellen?

Learner Portfolio: Claire’s Worldview

Throughout the play, ‘justice’ means something different to each of the central characters. To Claire, justice is the same as vengeance – it is her desire for retribution against Ill because he wronged her forty-five years ago. This kind of justice is personal, Claire feels entitled to take Ill’s life even though it is outside the laws or even religious guidelines of her community. Furthermore, Claire treats justice as a commodity to be bought or sold. When the Mayor protests that “justice can’t be bought,” Claire responds that “everything can be bought.”

Write a one-two page piece about Claire Zachanassian’s worldview based on Act One of The Visit . Include a selection of her thoughts about various topics, such as:

• Relationships
• Other topics that you think might be meaningful.

“You can get anything you want with money”

Ill’s curiosity is aroused by the behaviour of people in the town. Customers in his shop order more expensive items than usual, people ask for their purchases to be charged to expense accounts; everyone in the town seems to have new clothes and shoes. Ill gradually starts to fear that all of this debt is being taken out on the expectation that the town will receive its reward from Claire; something they can only receive if he is killed.

Things take a more sinister turn when the black panther Claire brought with her to Guellen escapes. The Mayor orders that everyone carry a gun – even the priest Ill turns to for help has a rifle strapped to his chest. The priest, like everyone else in the town, dismisses his fears, and suggests that really it is the miserable state of his soul which should trouble him, not his fear of his fellow citizens. Eventually, things get too much for Ill and he resolves to leave town. He is headed to the train station with his suitcase, but the townspeople stand in his way. Guellen, they say, is the safest place for him. Is Ill simply being paranoid – or is the lure of money starting to erode the Guelleners’ moral convictions?

Act 2, Scene 1

“The way they all rejected the offer, all the Guelleners… unanimously, that was the finest moment of my life.”

Ill is alone in his shop. His son and daughter have both made excuses to be elsewhere, and he can only watch through the window as the townspeople bring flowers to adorn the coffin Claire has had set up as a reminder of her offer – and the condition she has attached. Throughout the morning, his shop is frequented by customers who tend to be a bit more liberal in their purchases and, what’s more, he notices their nice clothes and new shoes. All his customers ask him to charge the bill to their accounts. They would not do so unless they expected to come into possession of money in the near future, and with Guellen’s otherwise slim prospects, it is obvious they must be counting on the money from Claire. Ill quickly realizes this for himself, and this scene marks the beginning of his anxiety.

Throughout this scene, Ill sees that the people are getting used to living better than they have in the past, and he does not think that they will want to return to their previous way of life. Dürrenmatt criticises Western society’s obsession with materialism: people are unable to sacrifice what they have, even for a good cause such as saving a man’s life.

• Act 2 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)

Learner Portfolio: Practise for Paper 1 (Literature students only)

If you are a Language A: Literature student, at the end of your course you will sit Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis. This paper contains two previously unseen literary passages. SL students write a guided analysis of one of these passages; HL students write about both passages. The passages could be taken from any of four literary forms: prose, poetry, drama or literary non-fiction . Each of the passages will be from a different literary form.

Here are two passages taken from The Visit ; as this is a play the literary form is ‘drama’. Each passage is accompanied by a guiding question to provide a focus or ‘way in’ to your response. Choose one passage and complete this Learner Portfolio entry in the style of Paper 1: Guided Literary Analysis .

Act 2 Scene 2

“Do you believe the people will betray you now for money?”

His anxiety rising, Ill visits both the Mayor and the town Priest for reassurance. The mayor then tries to reassure him by recalling the lofty heritage of Guellen; the citizens would never stoop to murder, he says. The mayor becomes resentful when Ill demands Claire’s arrest and points out that perhaps Claire has a point and that what Ill did to Claire was a pretty bad thing to do. Because of this, the Mayor tells Ill that his chances of becoming mayor have been dashed. The priest, like the others, dismisses his fear, and also suggests that Ill’s conscience is troubling him. Finally, it all gets too much for Ill and he decides to leave town. At the train station, he is surrounded by people who prevent him from leaving.

If their words contradict their interior desires, the exterior actions of the townspeople mirror the true direction of their thoughts. Many carry around guns, ostensibly to defend themselves from the panther. But, as Ill points out, their reaction is excessive. Even the priest, who represents religion, succumbs to this ambivalence and carries with him a rifle.

• Act 2 Scene 2 (Activities and Discussion)

Learner Portfolio: A State of Denial

‘Denial, or evasion of responsibility, is what plagues the townspeople. As their subconscious minds become more focused on murdering Ill, they refuse to see the reality for what it is’.

Use an analysis of Act 2 to support this statement. Spend a few minutes deciding on the kind of work you might like to produce for your Learner Portfolio. For example, you could write a mini-essay, mind-map the theme of ‘denial’, or create a Point-Quote-Explanation chart.

“You must judge me, now. I shall accept your judgement, whatever it may be. For me, it will be justice; what it will be for you, I don’t know.”

In the third act, the Press arrives to cover Claire’s visit to her hometown. They are aware that she has offered the town money, but they don’t know anything about the condition she attached to it – and the townspeople are anxious to keep it that way! The schoolmaster, with the aid of some strong drink, gathers up his courage and tries to tell the press the town’s secret; unexpectedly, it is Ill himself who stops him. Ill has realized that he brought this situation on himself through his past actions.

The town is planning to vote later that day on whether or not to accept Claire’s proposal and Ill tells the mayor he will abide by whatever decision is made. Will the town vote in favour of Claire’s proposal and kill him? Or will their humanist ideals and morality prevail over the lure of cash?

Act 3 Scene 1

“The world turned me into a whore. I shall turn the world into a brothel.”

The next step in the psychological ‘devolution’ of the Guellen townspeople is an attempt to bargain with Claire to avoid the downsides of her offer while still getting the benefits. They appeal to her own sense of greed by pointing out that Guellen’s industry could be quite profitable to her if she invested in it. Their efforts fall on deaf ears. Whatever profit Claire could gain through investment could hardly be worth her time, if she can simply marry another rich husband – precisely what she is now planning to do.

Meanwhile, Ill returns to his shop to find his family enjoying their own new purchases, and a group of reporters asking questions about the town’s proposed windfall. Of all the townsfolk, only the schoolteacher seems at all repentant, and tries to pluck up the courage to go to the Press with the truth about Claire’s ghastly offer.

• Act 3 Scene 1 (Discussion and Activities)
• Wider Reading – Justice and Morality in The Visit

Ill’s situation seems to have prompted some powerful reflection on his part, signified by the way he is directed to pace up and down in his shop. Do you think that his remorse over his past actions is genuine? Or is he still hoping to avoid his fate by evoking the pity of the townsfolk?

Learner Portfolio: Practise for Paper 2

Write this Learner Portfolio in the style of a practice Paper 2 response. You can use one of the prompts below, or another prompt given to you by your teacher. Although Paper 2 requires you to write about two literary works, for the sake of this exercise you could focus only on your response to  The Visit , or you could try to compare your ideas to another literary work you have studied ( visit this post for more help with Paper 2 ).

Choose one of the following prompts (or use another prompt you have been given), talk with your teacher about how to approach and structure your writing, then complete your portfolio entry:

• In what ways can the term ‘artificial’ be applied to literary works you have studied?
• Works of literature can often function as social or political commentary. Discuss this idea with reference to literature you have studied.
• Consider how works of literature employ humour, and to what effect.
• It is not always easy to ‘forgive and forget.’ Illustrate this observation with reference to literary works you have studied.

Act 3 Scene 2

“Not for the sake of the money… But for justice.”

Ill finds Claire in the Village Woods which, he finds out, she owns. After they briefly recall the time they had together when they were young, Ill thanks her for the decorations to his future coffin and tells her that the city council is going to meet to decide his fate. Unrepentant and unapologetic, she says that she will intern him in a mausoleum she owns, thereby asserting absolute control over him. After his death she says she will no longer be haunted by him; he will become just another memory.

Ill returns to the Town Hall where the press has gathered to cover the town meeting, though they are still unaware of its full meaning; they are not aware of Claire’s offer. The mayor begins speaking and offers his thanks publicly to Ill for securing the donation from Claire. They will hold a vote to decide whether to accept or reject Claire’s offer. Surprisingly, Ill tells the mayor that he will respect whatever decision the city makes. Will the lure of money prove too much to resist or will the town’s morality and idealism win the day?

• Act 3 Scene 2 (Discussion and Activities)
• Research: Types of Justice: Forgiveness (The Guardian podcast)

This scene helps the audience understand Claire’s offer more fully. As a rich woman Claire always gets what she wants: if she wants to travel somewhere, buy up an entire town, buy a panther, she can. So far, however, she has not been able to shake the heartbreak Ill caused. Therefore, she uses the same tactic of throwing money at a problem to solve it. Do you think, though, that killing Ill will really make her problem go away?

Learner Portfolio: Crime and Punishment

‘The most obvious overall themes of The Visit are those of vengeance and justice. Claire’s driving force in the play is vengeance and what she believes is justice for the crime which drove her from town in humiliation – and she stops at nothing to get it.’

Write a one-two page Learner Portfolio entry about vengeance and justice as presented in The Visit . Consider the following points to help you structure and develop your response:

• What type of justice does Claire represent? What does ‘justice’ mean to her?
• What does ‘justice’ mean to the townspeople? Are they really motivated by a sense of justice for Ill’s past crimes?
• How has Ill’s notion of justice developed and changed over the course of the play? What does ‘justice’ mean to him?
• Given that Guellen is a microcosm of Europe, what, seemingly, does Durrenmatt conclude about justice in Western societies?

Towards Assessment:  Higher Level Essay

Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or a collection of non-literary texts by one same author, or a literary text or work studied during the course. The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length.   (20 Marks).

Please find suggestions here; but always be mindful of your own ideas and class discussions and follow the direction of your own programme of study when devising your assessment tasks.

Now you have studied the entirety of The Visit , if you are a Higher Level student, you might like to turn your thoughts to the essay that all Higher Level students must write. The Visit has been described as a ‘tragi-comedy’ and you might like to take this description as the starting point for your investigation. Begin by considering one of these angles of approach; although remember to follow your own ideas and interests where you can:

• How do the characters in The Visit present different ideas about justice?
• How are the themes of appearance, reality, and artifice developed in both the stage directions and dialogue of Durrenmatt’s The Visit?
• Is it possible for the audience to truly sympathise with Alfred Ill in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play The Visit?
• How, and to what purposes, does Durrenmatt employ different types of irony in his play The Visit?
• What does The Visit have to say about the corrupting power of money? How does Durrenmatt convey ideas about money through elements of his play?

Towards Assessment:  Individual Oral

Supported by an extract from one non-literary text and one from a literary work (or two literary works if you are following the Literature-only course), students will offer a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following prompt:  Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two of the texts that you have studied (40 marks) .

Th e Visit  could be an excellent text to talk about in your oral assessment. The themes of humanism, morality, money, denial, deception, revenge and justice can be formulated into the Global Issue which will form the core of your talk. Now you have finished reading and studying the play, spend a lesson working with the  IB Fields of Inquiry : mind-map the play, include your ideas for Global Issues, make connections with other Literary Works or Body of Works that you have studied on your course and see if you can make a proposal you might use to write your Individual Oral.

Here are one or two suggestions to get you started, but consider your own programme of study before you make any firm decisions about your personal Global Issue. Whatever you choose, remember a Global Issue must have  local relevance,   wide impact  and be  trans-national :

• Field of Inquiry:  Power, Politics and Justice
• Global Issue:   types of justice
• Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work) :  The Merchant of Venice  by William Shakespeare; Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee.
• Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit):   I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach; Nelson Mandela’s speeches;

The action of The Visit is motivated by Claire Zachanassian’s desire for revenge – which she calls ‘justice’ – over Alfred Ill for his treatment of her decades ago; a type of ‘eye for an eye’ justice. In fact, ‘justice’ means different things to different people throughout the play and exploring this idea could make for an excellent Individual Oral activity.

• Field of Inquiry:  Beliefs, Values and Education
• Global Issue:   money vs morality
• Possible Pairings (Lit course: if you are following the Literature-only course, you must pair a text originally written in English with a translated work) :  The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare; Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw; Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet; The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.
• Possible Pairings (Lang and Lit): editorial cartoons by Ann Telnaes ; I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach; The Waldo Moment by Charlie Brooker; Drop the ‘I’ Word online campaign; various artworks by Mr Brainwash .

The townspeople of Guellen are offered a Faustian bargain by Claire: a million dollars in exchange for a man’s death. Dürrenmatt’s play shows his belief that idealism is no match for the lure of money. What do other writers have to say about this conundrum?

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Categories: Drama

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best website ever, super useful

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This is fantastic! So well organized and clear. Really useful! Thanks!

Love this, thank you!

love this so helpful but can you please share the answers to the worksheet

I haven’t made ‘answers’ – the multiple choice questions are easy enough to find in the text. The ‘understanding’ questions, I have my students write short answers or make notes and simply compare ideas. Any that are too difficult, the students listen to each other and note down ideas. Sometimes it’s interesting when students have similar or different answers. You can set these to do as prep for a class or let students do them in the first part of the lessons (15 – 20 minutes, then share answers and ideas).

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

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M. Night Shyamalan had his heyday almost 20 years ago. He leapt out of the gate with such confidence he became a champion instantly. And then...something went awry. He became embarrassingly self-serious, his films drowning in pretension and strained allegories. His famous twists felt like a director attempting to re-create the triumph of " The Sixth Sense ," where the twist of the film was so successfully withheld from audiences that people went back to see the film again and again. But now, here comes " The Visit ," a film so purely entertaining that you almost forget how scary it is. With all its terror, "The Visit" is an extremely funny film. 

There are too many horror cliches to even list ("gotcha" scares, dark basements, frightened children, mysterious sounds at night, no cellphone reception), but the main cliche is that it is a "found footage" film, a style already wrung dry. But Shyamalan injects adrenaline into it, as well as a frank admission that, yes, it is a cliche, and yes, it is absurd that one would keep filming in moments of such terror, but he uses the main strength of found footage: we are trapped by the perspective of the person holding the camera. Withhold visual information, lull the audience into safety, then turn the camera, and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT? 

"The Visit" starts quietly, with Mom ( Kathryn Hahn ) talking to the camera about running away from home when she was 19: her parents disapproved of her boyfriend. She had two kids with this man who recently left them all for someone new. Mom has a brave demeanor, and funny, too, referring to her kids as "brats" but with mama-bear affection. Her parents cut ties with her, but now they have reached out  from their snowy isolated farm and want to know their grandchildren. Mom packs the two kids off on a train for a visit.

Shyamalan breaks up the found footage with still shots of snowy ranks of trees, blazing sunsets, sunrise falling on a stack of logs. There are gigantic blood-red chapter markers: "TUESDAY MORNING", etc. These choices launch us into the overblown operatic horror style while commenting on it at the same time. It ratchets up the dread.

Becca ( Olivia DeJonge ) and Tyler ( Ed Oxenbould ) want to make a film about their mother's lost childhood home, a place they know well from all of her stories. Becca has done her homework about film-making, and instructs her younger brother about "frames" and "mise-en-scène." Tyler, an appealing gregarious kid, keeps stealing the camera to film the inside of his mouth and his improvised raps. Becca sternly reminds him to focus. 

The kids are happy to meet their grandparents. They are worried about the effect their grandparents' rejection had on their mother (similar to Cole's worry about his mother's unfinished business with her own parent in "The Sixth Sense"). Becca uses a fairy-tale word to explain what she wants their film to do — it will be an "elixir" to bring home to Mom. 

Nana ( Deanna Dunagan ), at first glance, is a Grandma out of a storybook, with a grey bun, an apron, and muffins coming out of the oven every hour. Pop Pop ( Peter McRobbie ) is a taciturn farmer who reminds the kids constantly that he and Nana are "old." 

But almost immediately, things get crazy. What is Pop Pop doing out in the barn all the time? Why does Nana ask Becca to clean the oven, insisting that she crawl all the way in ? What are those weird sounds at night from outside their bedroom door? They have a couple of Skype calls with Mom, and she reassures them their grandparents are "weird" but they're also old, and old people are sometimes cranky, sometimes paranoid. 

As the weirdness intensifies, Becca and Tyler's film evolves from an origin-story documentary to a mystery-solving investigation. They sneak the camera into the barn, underneath the house, they place it on a cabinet in the living room overnight, hoping to get a glimpse of what happens downstairs after they go to bed. What they see is more than they (and we) bargained for.

Dunagan and McRobbie play their roles with a melodramatic relish, entering into the fairy-tale world of the film. And the kids are great, funny and distinct. Tyler informs his sister that he wants to stop swearing so much, and instead will say the names of female pop singers. The joke is one that never gets old. He falls, and screams, "Sarah McLachlan!" When terrified, he whispers to himself, " Katy Perry ... " Tyler, filming his sister, asks her why she never looks in the mirror. "Your sweater is on backwards." As he grills her, he zooms in on her, keeping her face off-center, blurry grey-trunked trees filling most of the screen. The blur is the mystery around them. Cinematographer Maryse Alberti creates the illusion that the film is being made by kids, but also avoids the nauseating hand-held stuff that dogs the found-footage style.

When the twist comes, and you knew it was coming because Shyamalan is the director, it legitimately shocks. Maybe not as much as "The Sixth Sense" twist, but it is damn close. (The audience I saw it with gasped and some people screamed in terror.) There are references to " Halloween ", "Psycho" (Nana in a rocking chair seen from behind), and, of course, " Paranormal Activity "; the kids have seen a lot of movies, understand the tropes and try to recreate them themselves. 

"The Visit" represents Shyamalan cutting loose, lightening up, reveling in the improvisational behavior of the kids, their jokes, their bickering, their closeness. Horror is very close to comedy. Screams of terror often dissolve into hysterical laughter, and he uses that emotional dovetail, its tension and catharsis, in almost every scene. The film is ridiculous  on so many levels, the story playing out like the most monstrous version of Hansel & Gretel imaginable, and in that context, "ridiculous" is the highest possible praise.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

The Visit (2015)

Rated PG-13 disturbing thematic material including terror, violence and some nudity, and for brief language

Kathryn Hahn as Mother

Ed Oxenbould as Tyler Jamison

Benjamin Kanes as Dad

Peter McRobbie as Pop-Pop

Olivia DeJonge as Rebecca Jamison

Deanna Dunagan as Nana

• M. Night Shyamalan

Cinematography

• Maryse Alberti
• Luke Franco Ciarrocch

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The Visit ist ein Dokumentarfilm des dänischen Regisseurs und Künstlers Michael Madsen, der mit Into Eternity bekannt wurde. The Visit hatte auf dem Sundance Festival 2015 seine Weltpremiere, in Deutschland und Österreich kommt er im Oktober 2015 in die Kinos.

Die alleinerziehende Mutter hat nur die besten Absichten, als sie den einwöchigen Urlaub bei Oma und Opa in Pennsylvania plant. Doch was verbirgt sich hinter der Regel, das Zimmer nach 21.30 Uhr nicht mehr verlassen zu dürfen? . . . . (Maxdome.de-Filmbeschreibung)

Fakten zum Film

Inhaltsangabe.

Hier findest Du die Zusammenfassung der Handlung für den Film The Visit . Achtung, Spoilerwarnung: bitte die Inhaltsbeschreibung nicht weiterlesen, falls Du das Ende des Films nicht erfahren möchtest!

The Visit ist die Dokumentation eines Ereignisses, das so niemals stattgefunden hat. Wenig fasziniert die Menschheit mehr als der Weltraum. Doch was passiert, wenn einmal tatsächlich extraterrestrisches Leben auf der Erde landen sollte? Die Menschen versuchen so gut als möglich, für eine solche Eventualität zu planen, doch es bleibt der unbekannte Nenner der fehlenden Erfahrung. Organisationen wie UNOOSA, ESA, NASA, diverse Verteidigungsministerien und wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen haben bereits Vorbereitungen getroffen, wie man mit "dem Fremden" auf der Erde umgehen könnte.

Unsere Beurteilung, das sagt die Cinehits.de -Redaktion zum Film " The Visit ": 2,7 von 5 Punkten - der Film ist OK, man kann ihn sich anschauen. Er ist nicht wirklich schlecht, aber auch nicht wirklich gut.

The Visit Explained (Plot And Ending)

The Visit is a 2015  horror   thriller  directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It follows two siblings who visit their estranged grandparents only to discover something is very wrong with them. As the children try to uncover the truth, they are increasingly terrorized by their grandparents’ bizarre behaviour. Here’s the plot and ending of The Visit explained; spoilers ahead.

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Where To Watch?

To find where to stream any movie or series based on your country, use This Is Barry’s Where To Watch .

Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer .  You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

• – The Story
• – Plot Explained
• – Ending Explained
• – The Sense Of Dread
• – Separation, Remorse, and Personal Fears
• – Frequently Asked Questions Answered
• – Wrap Up

What is the story of The Visit?

The Visit is about two kids visiting their grandparents for the first time. They are also going there to hope and rebuild a bridge between their mom and grandparents and help their mom heal after a painful divorce. The movie is in documentary form.

The Visit is one of the most unnerving and realistic horror stories. A good thing about classic horror movies is that, after the movie ends, you can switch it off and go to bed,  knowing that you’re safe . Vampires, ghosts, and demonic powers don’t exist, and even if you are prone to these kinds of esoteric beliefs, there are safeguards. If your home is not built in an Indian burial ground and you haven’t bought any creepy-looking dolls from your local antiquary, you’re perfectly safe.

However, what about the idea of two kids spending five days with two escaped psychiatric ward patients in a remote farmhouse? Now, this is a thought that will send shivers down your spine. It’s a story that sounds not just realistic but real. It’s  something that might have happened in the past  or might happen in the future.

This is  what  The Visit  is all about . This idea, coupled with documentary-form storytelling, is why the movie is so unnerving to watch.

The Visit: Plot Explained

Loretta’s past.

As a young girl, Loretta Jamison fell in love with her high school teacher and decided to skip her hometown with him. Before leaving, she had a heated altercation with her parents and hasn’t seen them since. At the movie’s start, she is a single mom of 15-year-old Becca and 14-year-old Tyler, and she  hasn’t spoken to her parents in 15 years .

What really happened on the day Loretta left?

Loretta’s mom tries to stop her from leaving the house, and Loretta hits her mom, and her dad hits her. Soon after, her parents try to reach out to Loretta, but she refuses to take their calls, and years go by.

Meet The Grandparents

Years later, Loretta’s parents reach out to  meet their grandchildren . The grandparents are, seemingly, wholly reformed and now even help at the local psychiatric hospital. Although initially not too fond of the idea, Loretta is persuaded by the insistence of her children. While she had no intention of visiting the parents, she permitted her children to pay their grandparents a five-day visit.

At The Grandparents’

Their first meeting with Nana and Pop Pop starts on the right foot. They start getting to know each other, and other than a simple generational gap, nothing seems too strange. The only thing that seems off is that they are warned  not to leave the room after 9:30 in the evening .

The kids break this rule, and on the first night, they notice  Nana acting erratically , projectile vomiting, scratching wallpaper with her bare hands, and running around the house on all fours. Grandpa appears paranoid and hides his adult diapers in the garden shed, and the situation escalates each day.

The Visit Ending Explained: What happens in the end?

The ending of Visit has the kids finally showing the elderly couple to Loretta. She, completely horrified, states that  those are not her parents . The pair posing as Pop Pop and Nana are escaped psychiatric institution patients who murdered their grandparents and took their places.

The kids survive, kill their captors, and are found alive and well by their mom and the police. Becca kills Nana with a shard from the mirror, thus symbolically overcoming her fear of her reflection. Tyler kills Pop Pop by repeatedly slamming him in the head with a refrigerator door after overcoming his germaphobia and anxiety about freezing.

The Sense Of Dread

The elements of horror in this movie are just  perfectly executed . First of all, the film is shot as a documentary. Becca is an aspiring filmmaker who records the entire trip with her camera. From time to time, we see an interview of all the characters, which just serves as the perfect vessel for characterization.

No Ghouls or Cults

Another thing that evokes dread is  realism . There are no supernatural beings or demonic forces. It’s just two kids alone in a remote farmstead with two creepy, deranged people. Even in the end, when Loretta finds out what’s happening, it takes her hours to get there with the police. The scariest part is that it’s not that hard to imagine something along those lines really happening.

The  house itself is dread-inducing . The place is old and rustic. Like in The Black Phone soundproofing a room  could have prevented kids from hearing Nana rummaging around the house without a clear idea of what was happening, but this was not the case, as the old couple weren’t that capable.

The  characters  themselves  are perfectly played . Something is unnerving about Pop Pop and Nana from the very first scene. It’s the Uncanny Valley scenario where you feel that something’s off and shakes you to the core, but you have no idea what it is.

Separation, Remorse, and Personal Fears

What this movie does the best is explore the  ugly side of separation, old grudges, and remorse . The main reason why kids are insistent on visiting their grandparents is out of their desire to help their mom.

They see she’s remorseful for never  working things out with her parents . In light of her failed marriage and the affair that caused it to end, she might live with the doubt that her parents were right all along. This makes her decision and altercation with her parents even worse. Reconciling when you know you were wrong is harder than forgiving the person who wronged you.

The Kids’ Perspective

There are personal fears and  traumas of the kids . Tyler, in his childish naivete, is convinced that his father left because he was disappointed in him as a son. Tyler tells Becca that he froze during one game he played, which disappointed his dad so much that he had to leave. While this sounds ridiculous to any adult (and even Becca), it’s a matter of fact to Tyler. As a result of this trauma, Tyler also developed germaphobia. In Becca’s own words, this gives him a greater sense of control.

On the other hand,  Becca refuses to look at herself in the mirror  or stand in front of the camera if she can help it. Both kids  had to overcome their fears to survive , which is a solid and clear metaphor for how these things sometimes turn out in real life.

Frequently Asked Questions Answered

The visit: what’s wrong with the grandparents who are the grandparents.

The people who hosted Becca and Tyler were runaway psychiatric hospital patients who murdered the real grandparents and took their place. Nana’s impostor (Claire) was actually responsible for murdering her children by drowning them in a well. Pop Pop’s impostor (Mitchell) wanted to give Claire a second chance at having kids / being a grandparent.

How did the imposter grandparents know about the kids’ visit?

It appears Claire and Mitchell hear the real Nana and Pop Pop brag about their grandkids’ visit. They also learned that neither the grandparents nor the kids had seen each other. The real grandparents appear to have been consulting in the same hospital Claire and Mitchell were being treated. The two crazies take this opportunity to break out, kill the real grandparents and go to the station to pick up the children.

The Visit: What is Sinmorfitellia?

Claire and Mitchell believe that Sinmorfitellia is an alien planet, and the creatures from there lurk on Earth. They spit into the waters of wells and ponds all day, which can put people into a deep sleep. They take  sleeping with the fishes  quite literally. Long ago, Claire drowned her children believing they would go to Sinmorfitellia.

The Visit: What happened to the real grandparents?

Claire and Mitchel killed Nana and Pop Pop and put them in the basement. This information went unnoticed because Becca’s laptop’s camera was damaged by Nana, so Loretta could not confirm the imposters. Claire and Mitchel were not present every time someone came to visit, so no one suspected foul play except Stacey, who received help from the real grandparents. As a result, she is killed.

What did Claire and Mitchel intend to do?

They plan to go to Sinmorfitellia with Becca and Tyler. They all plan to die on that last night and enter the well, which they believe is their path to the alien planet where they can be happy together. This is perhaps why the grandparents hang Stacey outside the house because they don’t care about being caught.

The Visit: What’s wrong with Nana?

We don’t know what caused Nana’s mental illness, but she was crazy enough to kill her two children by putting them in suitcases and drowning them in a pond. It appears she suffers from schizophrenia as she has delusions.

The Visit: Wrap Up

From the standpoint of horror, The Visit has it all. An unnerving realistic scenario, real-life trauma, and an atmosphere of fear. Combine this with  some of the best acting work in the genre  and a documentary-style movie, and you’ve got yourself a real masterpiece.

On the downside, the movie leaves you with a lot of open questions like:

• Considering the kids have never seen the grandparents and are going alone, Loretta didn’t ensure her kids knew what her parents looked like?
• How are Claire and Mitchell out and about so close to the hospital without being caught?
• Considering they are mentally ill, how did Claire and Mitchell plot such a thorough plan? (e.g. strategically damaging the camera of the laptop)
• I understand  Suspension Of Disbelief  in horror films, but neither kids drop their cameras despite the terror they go through only so we, the audience, can get the entire narrative?

What were your thoughts on the plot and ending of the movie The Visit? Drop your comments below!

Stacey is a talented freelance writer passionate about all things pop culture. She has a keen eye for detail and a natural talent for storytelling. She’s a super-fan of Game of Thrones, Cats, and Indie Rock Music and can often be found engrossed in complex films and books. Connect with her on her social media handles to learn more about her work and interests.

z. B. : Alien Romulus , Speak No Evil , Spuk unterm Riesenrad

Die Filmstarts-Kritik zu The Visit

Auch wenn wir das Will-Smith-Starvehikel „After Earth“ gar nicht so schlecht fanden , waren wir doch so ziemlich die einzigen, die M. Night Shyamalans Sci-Fi-Abenteuer nicht in Grund und Boden gerammt haben – und an den Kinokassen gab es ebenfalls eine herbe Klatsche , die auch den Regisseur von Megahits wie „ Signs - Zeichen “ und „ The Village - Das Dorf “ selbst nicht unberührt gelassen hat: Nach dem Blockbuster-Flop drehte Shyamalan seinen Found - Footage -Horrorfilm „The Visit“ nun mit eigenem Geld und ohne Studiounterstützung („Insidious“-Produzent Jason Blum und der Verleih Universal stießen erst später dazu). Und offenbar war diese Extraportion Risiko genau das, was das „ The Sixth Sense “-Mastermind gebraucht hat, um die kreativen Säfte wieder in Schwung zu bringen: „ The Visit “ ist ein kleiner, hundsgemeiner und zudem auch noch ziemlich lustiger Leinwand-Schocker mit einer unerwartet persönlichen Shyamalan-Note und einer herausragenden Psycho-Oma.

Eine alleinerziehende zweifache Mutter (Kathryn Hahn) hat keinen Kontakt mehr zu ihren Eltern gehabt, seit sie vor 15 Jahren überstürzt von zu Hause abgehauen ist. Aber nun haben sich Nana (Deanna Dunagan) und Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) bei ihr gemeldet, weil sie gerne mal ihre Enkel kennenlernen möchten. Die Mutter stellt ihren Kindern daraufhin frei, ob sie ihre Großeltern auf dem Land besuchen wollen – und die sagen begeistert zu, auch weil die 15-jährige Becca (Olivia DeJonge) unbedingt einen Dokumentarfilm über den einwöchigen Trip drehen möchte. Zunächst sind Oma und Opa auch superlieb, aber dann geschehen immer mehr merkwürdige Dinge: Beccas jüngerer Bruder Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) entdeckt in einer Scheune einen großen Haufen vollgeschissener Windeln, nachts dringen furchterregende Kratzgeräusche ins Gästezimmer und Nana verlangt von Becca, dass sie ganz tief in den Backofen hineinkrabbelt, um auch noch die hinterste Ecke sauber zu bekommen…

Einen makabren Horror-Spaß wie „The Visit“ sollte man natürlich am besten mit Kumpels und `nem Bier genießen. Wir haben den Film hingegen (weil in einer Pressevorführung) mit `nem lauwarmen Kaffee morgens um Neun geschaut – und trotzdem haben uns die präzise platzierten Schockeffekte kalt erwischt! Aber nicht nur die Schreckmomente sitzen, auch abseits davon zieht Shyamalan die Spannungsschraube geschickt an, wenn er die Großeltern immer verstörendere Aussetzer produzieren lässt (die sie ihren Enkeln gegenüber zunächst noch glaubhaft mit einsetzender Demenz und Inkontinenz rechtfertigen): Vom kotbehafteten Windelhaufen über nächtliche Kotzattacken bis zum „Hänsel und Gretel“-Gedächtnis-Ofenputz gibt es gleich eine ganze Reihe von Szenen, die echt ungemütlich anzuschauen sind. Und zum Finale hin entpuppt sich „The Visit“ endgültig als kompromisslose Horror-Groteske mit Momenten, die es in dieser radikalen Form – immerhin gehen hier Kinder und Senioren aufeinander los - sicher nicht gegeben hätte, wenn von Anfang an eines der großen Hollywoodstudios an dem Projekt beteiligt gewesen wäre (Stichwort: Kühlschrank-Ausraster).

Aber nicht nur in dieser Hinsicht hat Shyamalan die Freiheiten eines aus eigener Tasche bezahlten Herzensprojekts genutzt, „The Visit“ ist nämlich zudem auch noch sein persönlichster Film seit „ Das Mädchen aus dem Wasser “. Es ist schon ziemlich offensichtlich, dass da gerade der Autor selbst durch seine jugendlichen Protagonisten spricht, wenn diese über ethische Standards in Zeiten des Reality-TV und die geschickteste Mise en Scène diskutieren. Das dürfte vor allem für Fans des Regisseurs ein weiterer Anreiz sein, wobei einem Ed Oxenbould („Die Coopers – Schlimmer geht immer“) als Nachwuchs-Checker mit seinen improvisierten Ananaskuchen-Raps durchaus auch auf die Nerven fallen kann. Über jeden Zweifel erhaben ist hingegen Deanna Dunagan, sie ist der wahre Star des Films: Die für ihre Bühnen-Performance in „August: Osage County“ mit einem Tony Award ausgezeichnete Broadway-Ikone verwandelt sich von einem Augenblick auf den nächsten von der liebenswürdig-fürsorglichen Keksback-Oma in eine greise Psycho-Bitch allererster Güte. Hätten wir „The Visit“ als Kinder gesehen, hätten wir uns zweimal überlegt, ob wir Großmutti noch mal alleine besuchen wollen, egal wie lange sie uns vor der Glotze zu sitzen erlaubt.

Fazit: Die Schockeffekte sitzen, der Humor ist schön schwarz und einen Twist Marke Shyamalan gibt’s auch.

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Screen Rant

The visit ending explained: is the m. night shyamalan movie based on a true story.

M. Night Shyamalan's twist-filled 2015 shocker The Visit had audiences guessing until the very end, but is the found footage horror film a true story?

• "The Visit" is a twist-filled thriller that earned its scares through a plausible story and clever use of found footage genre.
• Despite being eerily plausible, "The Visit" is actually a work of pure fiction and not based on a true story.
• The film explores themes of aging, fear, and generational trauma, while also highlighting the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation.

M. Night Shyamalan's twist-filled thriller The Visit kept viewers guessing all the way up to the shocking conclusion, but is the found footage horror hit based on a true story? Released in 2015, The Visit follows teen siblings Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) as they are sent to spend a week with their estranged grandparents. Naturally, strange things are afoot, and the teens must learn the shocking truth about their relatives. As with all of Shyamalan's horror movies, The Visit built up to a shocking twist that many didn't see coming, but it cleverly incorporated humor in a way that left many perplexed by its tone.

Despite a largely mixed critical reaction (via Rotten Tomatoes ), The Visit was a bona fide financial success (via Box Office Mojo ) and it stands as one of M. Night Shyamalan's highest-grossing movies . Unlike many of Shyamalan's other films which incorporate fantastical elements, The Visit earned its scares by being an entirely plausible story. Visually speaking, Shyamalan used the found footage genre deftly to convey a deeper meaning, and he got genuinely creepy moments from what could have easily been goofy. The compelling mix of plausibility and realism had many wondering whether The Visit was actually based on a true story.

Every Character M. Night Shyamalan Played In His Own Movies

The visit is not based on a true story.

Despite being eerily plausible, The Visit was actually a work of pure fiction and had no connection to real life. The script was penned by M. Night Shyamalan himself, with many of the movie's more positive reviews calling it a return to his former glory. Nearly all the writer/director's films have been works of his own imagination and in an interview with Geeks of Doom he said " That is the primal thing of it, that we are scared of getting old. Playing on that is a powerful conceit ". The director would return to that theme a few years later in 2021's Old but to a less effective extent.

The Grandparents Twist Explained

Throughout the film, Becca and Tyler are unsure about the behavior of their Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) and Nana (Deana Dunagan), who have seemingly grown worse as the story progresses. Obviously, something wasn't right about the elderly couple, but the pieces finally clicked when Becca discovered the remains of her real grandparents stashed away in the basement. It is revealed that Pop Pop and Nana are actually escaped patients from the local mental health facility and that they have killed Becca and Tyler's grandparents to assume their lives. It is unclear whether the two escapees would have posed a threat to the kids if they hadn't nosed around.

If there is one thing that the multi-talented Shyamalan is best known for it is his films' abundant use of shocking twists towards the end of his stories. Nearly every M. Night Shyamalan twist has kept audiences guessing, and The Visit was unique because it truly earned its shocking climax. Unlike earlier films which stuck a twist in just to fulfill the obligation, The Visit naturally built towards the twist, and it was a crucial part of the plot, unlike so many throw-away gimmick twists of the past.

Why The Visit Is A Found Footage Movie

Thanks to blockbuster horror hits like Paranormal Activity , the found footage genre started to expand in earnest at the beginning of the 2010s. However, by 2015 and the release of The Visit , the style had largely fallen out of favor. Despite this downturn in popularity, The Visit nevertheless opted for an approach that innovated the found footage tropes by injecting a bit of humor and eschewing the self-serious tone. From a story perspective, The Visit is a found footage movie because it is about Becca's quest to chronicle her family for a documentary, but the choice actually goes deeper.

Unlike other directors who chose found footage as a cheap way to save on the movie's budget, Shyamalan intellectualized the style by making it crucial to the plot. In the same Geeks of Doom interview, the director mentioned " The camera is an extension of those characters...It is manifesting in literal cinematography in this particular movie ". Additionally, Becca's abundant camera usage actually factors into the plot, such as when she shows the footage to her mother, which further integrates it into the fabric of the film.

The First "Found Footage" Movie Came 38 Years Before The Blair Witch Project

The significance of tyler’s phobias.

Horror movies are all about exploiting common phobias , and The Visit used Tyler's irrational fears as a chance to spook viewers and say something about the themes as well. Tyler is shown to be a bit of a germaphobe, and he also has a fear of freezing to death. While both have rational elements and point back to the omnipresent fear of death from which all phobias stem, Tyler's fears also speak to the idea that the elderly are frightening because they are reminders of death. The slow degradation of the body through aging is a lot like freezing to death, and it is clear that Tyler sees his elderly grandparents as unclean which activates his germ phobia.

The hilariously gruesome scene in which Pop Pop rubs his dirty adult diaper in Tyler's face forces the younger man to confront his fears, and it empowers him later when he finally dispatches the imposter grandpa. It is likely not a coincidence that Tyler kills Pop Pop by slamming his head in the refrigerator, as the ice box is an extension of Tyler's fear of freezing. He literally kills his tormentor with a symbol of the thing that mentally torments him.

How Loretta’s Past Affected The Kids

At the beginning of the film, Becca and Tyler's mom Loretta (Kathryn Hahn) explains that she hasn't spoken to her parents in 15 years because she eloped with one of her high school teachers when she was only a teenager. Instead of facing her problems like an adult, Loretta instead allowed her kids to act as a bridge between the generations, inadvertently sending them to live with two violent escapees from the local mental health ward. Loretta would later reveal that Nana and Pop Pop aren't her parents in one of Shyamalan's most terrifying scares , but she was away on a cruise and couldn't come to their aid.

This forces her kids to mature faster than she ever could, and they go on the offense as they are tasked with escaping from the murderous impostors occupying their grandparent's home. At the end of the film, Loretta explains her last interaction with her parents turned violent, which sheds a bit of light on why she couldn't just face up to the past. In some ways, Loretta's choices as a teenager eventually led to the precarious situation that Becca and Tyler ended up in, and she passed a bit of generational trauma on to them.

Why Becca Puts Her Father In The Documentary

Having survived the harrowing ordeal, Becca's documentary finally begins to take shape at the very end of The Visit . She is given the chance to cut in footage of her estranged father, and though Loretta informs her she doesn't have to, Becca opts to put him in. This choice shows that Becca has matured significantly since the titular visit, and she has come to the realization that forgiveness really is the best path. Loretta could never forgive her parents, and it robbed her of a chance for reconciliation. By putting her dad in the documentary, Becca left that door open for her future self and maybe her own children too.

How Many M. Night Shyamalan Movies REALLY Have Twists

The real meaning of the visit’s ending.

From a horror perspective, the ending of The Visit is all about the fear of death as personified by the elderly. Nana and Pop Pop are terrifying embodiments of the eventual degradation of the body, though they also fill the role of the conventional horror antagonist. However, from a more thematic side, The Visit is also about forgiveness and reconciliation, as the harboring of deep-seated pain can eventually lead to a bad outcome. Even if it isn't literally an encounter with escaped murderers, it is at least a path of nothing but pain and loss.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

Tanya finds her summer plans canceled when her mom jets off for a last-minute retreat and the elderly babysitter who arrives at her door unexpectedly passes away. Tanya finds her summer plans canceled when her mom jets off for a last-minute retreat and the elderly babysitter who arrives at her door unexpectedly passes away. Tanya finds her summer plans canceled when her mom jets off for a last-minute retreat and the elderly babysitter who arrives at her door unexpectedly passes away.

• Wade Allain-Marcus
• Chuck Hayward
• Neil Landau
• Jermaine Fowler
• June Squibb
• Nicole Richie
• 4 User reviews
• 11 Critic reviews
• 61 Metascore

• Tanya Crandell

• Party Guest

• Zack Crandell

• Melissa Crandell

• Rose's assistant designer

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Joanna Cassidy : As the fashion executive who meets Nicole Richie 's character Rose at the end of the fashion show. Cassidy played the role of Rose in the original Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) .
• Connections Features Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991)

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• sirgarrykay
• Apr 15, 2024
• How long is Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead? Powered by Alexa
• April 12, 2024 (United States)
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• Santa Clarita, California, USA
• SMiZE Productions
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Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, claire zachanassian quotes in the visit.

Two gangsters from Manhattan, sentenced to die in the electric chair at Sing Sing. Released at my request to carry my sedan chair. One million dollars per petition is what it cost me. The sedan chair comes from the Louvre, a gift from the French president. A nice gentleman. Looks just like he does in the papers. Carry me into town, Roby and Toby.

ILL: I wish time were suspended, my little sorceress. If only life hadn’t torn us apart. CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: You wish that? ILL: Just that, nothing else. You know I love you! (He kisses her right hand.) The same cool white hand. CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: You’re wrong. Another prosthesis. Ivory. ILL: (Dropping her hand, horrified) Clara, is everything about you artificial?!

You have remained unforgettable. Truly. Your academic achievements are still held up as an example by our educators, especially the interest you showed in the most important subject, botany and zoology, thus expressing your sympathy with every living being, indeed with all creatures in need of protection. Even then, your love of justice and your charitable nature were widely admired.

CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: I will tell you the condition. I will give you a billion, and with that billion I will buy myself justice. MAYOR: What exactly do you mean by that, Madam? CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: I mean what I said. MAYOR: But justice can’t be bought! CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: Everything can be bought.

Correct. Chief Justice Hofer. Forty-five years ago I was Chief Justice of Güllen and then moved on to the Court of Appeal in Kaffigen, until twenty-five years ago Mrs. Zachanassian offered me the opportunity to enter her service as her butler. I accepted. A peculiar career for a man of learning, perhaps, but the salary was so fantastic—

BUTLER: What happened to you? CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: I became a prostitute. BUTLER: Why? CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: The court’s verdict turned me into one.

Life has gone on, but I have forgotten nothing, Ill. Neither the woods of Konradsweil nor Petersen’s barn, neither Widow Boll’s bedroom nor your treachery. Now we have grown old, the two of us, you down at the heels and me cut to pieces by surgeons’ knives, and now I want us both to settle accounts: you chose your life and forced me into mine. You wanted time to be suspended, just a moment ago, in the woods of our youth, so full of impermanence. Now I have suspended it, and now I want justice, justice for a billion.

Mrs. Zachanassian, we are still in Europe; we’re not savages yet. In the name of the town of Güllen I reject your offer. In the name of humanity. We would rather be poor than have blood on our hands.

Zachanassian’s favorite piece. He always wanted to hear it. Every morning. He had class, all right, that old tycoon with his tremendous fleet of oil tankers and his racing stables, and billions in the bank. A marriage like that was still worthwhile. A great teacher, a great dancer, a master of all sorts of devilry. I learned all his tricks.

Human kindness, gentlemen, is made for the purses of millionaires. With financial power like mine, you can afford yourself a new world order. The world made a whore of me, now I’ll make a whorehouse of the world. Pay up or get off the dance floor. You want to join the dance? Only paying customers merit respect. And believe me, I’ll pay. Güllen for a murder, boom times for a corpse.

If he tries to expose Clara by claiming she put a price on his head or something like that, when actually it was just an expression of unspeakable suffering, we’ll just have to take action.

The temptation is too great and our poverty is too wretched. But I know something else. I too will take part in it. I can feel myself slowly turning into a murderer. My faith in humanity is powerless. And because I know this, I have turned into a drunk. I am scared, Ill, just as you have been scared. I still know that some day an old lady will visit us too, and that then what is happening to you now will happen to us, but soon, maybe in a few hours, I will no longer know it.

ILL: The town’s holding a meeting this evening. They’ll sentence me to death and one of them will kill me. I don’t know who he will be or where it will happen, I only know that I’m ending a meaningless life. CLAIRE ZACHANASSIAN: I loved you. You betrayed me. But the dream of life, of love, of trust—this dream that was a reality once—I haven’t forgotten that. I want to rebuild it with my billions, I will change the past, by destroying you.

MAYOR: The Claire Zachanassian Endowment has been accepted. Unanimously. Not for the sake of the money— THE COMMUNITY: Not for the sake of the money— MAYOR: But for the sake of justice— THE COMMUNITY: But for the sake of justice— MAYOR: And to allay our conscience. THE COMMUNITY: And to allay our conscience. MAYOR: For we cannot live if we sanction a crime in our midst— THE COMMUNITY: For we cannot live if we sanction a crime in our midst—

“The Visitor” by Thomas McCarthy Critical Essay

The Visitor , directed by Thomas McCarthy, is a film with a thematic bias on immigration. The movie integrates humor, realism and social relations to make it very captivating and interesting. These features of the movie are developed as the protagonist, Walter, tries to mourn and recover from the death of his wife. The movie has several themes and perspectives integrated in a realistic and captivating plot.

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is depressed after the death of his wife. He represents a colleague in a conference and finds a couple, Tarek and Zainab, subletting his apartment illegally. After chasing them, he becomes compassionate and offers them a room in his apartment. He soon discovers that Tarek drums with a jazz band. Tarek starts teaching him the drums and, thus, an odd relationship develops between them with Walter accompanying Tarek to the performances of his band.

ne day Tarek is detained by the police. His friends and family are illegally in the country and thus Walter is the only help he has. After missing his weekly call, his mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass) comes looking for him. Walter tries to help him but time is running out. Walter realizes that he is up against stubborn and blind bureaucracy. Tarek is eventually deported to Syria.

The Visitor is characterized with a couple of themes. The thematic scope touches social-cultural awakening, racism, homelessness etc, and has a notable bias on immigration. Walter learns to be social-culturally flexible as he interacts with his housemate and learns from him. Homelessness and racism are addressed through Tarek and his girlfriend, Zainab. They are homeless in their stay in New York.

This homelessness helps McCarthy build his main theme; U.S. immigration policies. Tarek and his girlfriend are in the U.S. illegally. When Tarek is detained, nobody can visit him because his friends are illegally in the U.S. With these incidences and facts, McCarthy expresses his lack of confidence in the immigration policy of the United States. Racism is depicted as Zainab sells her home-made jewellery to tourists.

Despite the fact that the film addresses harsh subjects, it is humorous, perceptive, and joyful. It has an uninspiring synopsis but subverts the expectations of the viewer by its humor, captivation and touch of reality. As Walter attempts to play drums, the viewer is moved from pitying him to appreciating his role.

His relationship with Tarek gives the film its humorous touch. Music, color and richness of life in the movie make it very interesting. The film combines authenticity, pathos, surprises, comedy etc. that make it a likeable piece of work. Viewers are given the chance to predict events in the movie but the film still surprises them. This makes the movie interesting and captivating. This can even be seen at the start of the film as Walter tries to reconnect with his wifeby playing the keyboard.

The viewer is given the chance to analyze Walter’s situation. At this point, it is apparent that Walter will not live this kind of life forever. Viewers are given the chance to guess what would come to his rescue making his life more exciting. However, nobody expects his saviors to be a couple of homeless illegal immigrants. This kind of viewer involvement and surprises makes the movie very captivating and interesting.

As discussed above, the captivating nature, realistic nature and the humor integrated in the movie, The Visitor, makes it a creative masterpiece. It belongs to the class of movies that make their viewers to go back to the stores hoping to get a similar movie.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, May 7). "The Visitor" by Thomas McCarthy. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-visitor/

""The Visitor" by Thomas McCarthy." IvyPanda , 7 May 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/the-visitor/.

IvyPanda . (2019) '"The Visitor" by Thomas McCarthy'. 7 May.

IvyPanda . 2019. ""The Visitor" by Thomas McCarthy." May 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-visitor/.

1. IvyPanda . ""The Visitor" by Thomas McCarthy." May 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-visitor/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""The Visitor" by Thomas McCarthy." May 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-visitor/.

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Advertisement

How Arsenal came from behind to draw with Bayern Munich after late Saka penalty appeals were denied

Champions League result: Arsenal 2-2 Bayern Munich

• 12’: Bukayo Saka curled a shot past Manuel Neuer for opening goal
• 18’: Former Arsenal player Serge Gnabry levelled on counter-attack
• 32’: Harry Kane scored from the spot to put Bayern in front
• 76’: But Leo Trossard levelled at 2-2 after great work by Gabriel Jesus
• 90+5’: Saka collided with Neuer in box late on but no penalty given
• Return leg to be played in Germany next Wednesday April 17

Subscribe to The Athletic using our latest discount offer for the spring here .

Did Trossard’s goal deliver Arsenal’s ‘magic moment’?

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“You are going to have magic moments,” said the Arsenal manager ahead of facing Bayern. “At a certain stage, at a certain moment, in the competition, in the tie, something exceptional has to happen.

“We are now creating a new history and that is why those moments that we had in the group stages, for qualifying first and now what we did with Porto, is really important as it generates belief, a sense of positivity in the team that when the moment comes, we can overcome it and go through.”

That is why his number one priority going into the run-in was to have a fully fit squad. When he looked to the bench at 2-1 down, he saw players he could trust in Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus.

Read more at the link below

Arsenal 2 Bayern Munich 2: Saka denied late penalty, Kane gets better of Raya, ‘magic moments’

Why did Arsenal’s defence look very… ‘un-Arsenal’?

Arsenal did not perform badly, but the two first-half goals they conceded displayed how undermining uncertainty can be for a back line.

They have had total control of games in the Premier League since returning from the winter break, with clarity in most of their actions. The mistakes that led to Serge Gnabry’s equaliser and Harry Kane’s penalty were both results of overthought and inaction — traits that have not cost Arsenal since the first half of the season.

Bayern thrived on the counter-attack. Why don’t they do that in the Bundesliga?

If there has been one consistent Bayern Munich problem this season, it has been issues against transition.

When they lose possession, or if their opponent can move upfield at any speed, they have regularly been unable to cover breaking players or fill the developing space. You can trace that problem all the way back to the German Super Cup.

How interesting then to see them profit in the reverse: to face a team having possession in the quantities they usually enjoyed, be forced to simplify their football, and actually look better for it.

Saka shines on Champions League stage… again

Arsenal returning to the Champions League has come with a need to prove themselves. Many of their players had not played consistently at this level before this season — and one of those players was Bukayo Saka.

The winger has been a consistent performer since he broke through at age 18 but still needed to announce himself among Europe’s elite. Regardless of the scoreline against Bayern Munich, he has done that with more direct goal involvements than any other Arsenal player in the Champions League this season (eight).

Do Bayern only have themselves to blame at the back?

You rarely hear it said that defenders are playing as individuals — that’s a criticism levelled at attacking players — but if ever that was true of a team, then it is of this Bayern Munich.

They do little collectively. There’s no trust in their surrounding system. As a result, even talented players such as De Ligt are reduced to punchlines through their individual errors — see him being rag-dolled for the second Arsenal goal — and the goals keep going in.

What does history tell us?

Well, lots of things. Don't invade Russia in the winter, don't trust Brutus, so on and so on.

But as for the return leg at the Allianz Arena next week!

• Bayern Munich have drawn an away first leg of a two-legged UCL knockout tie eight previous times, going on to advance from the tie in six of those eight instances. Both times they failed to progress, the team that beat them went on to win the whole tournament.
• Arsenal, meanwhile, have drawn a home first leg three previous times, going on to advance from only one of those instances, against AC Milan back in 2008.

How the first leg has shifted the odds

Coming into today's match, Opta gave Arsenal a 57 per cent probability of advancing from this tie, compared to 43 per cent for Bayern Munich.

Now that the first leg at the Emirates has ended in a draw, Opta gives Bayern the advantage, with a probability of 51 per cent to Arsenal's 49.

Match dashboard

The Athletic

The Athletic 's match dashboard shows the threat timeline, territory, match stats, shot maps and pass networks.

Introducing The Athletic’s match dashboard: Our detailed snapshot of how a game unfolds

Tuchel: Bayern are the team that should have had a penalty

Much of the post-game conversation has revolved around whether Bukayo Saka should have been given a penalty for his late collision with Manuel Neuer, but Thomas Tuchel has instead claimed that Bayern Munich are the team that should have had a spot kick, saying: "It was a huge mistake in not giving a hand(ball) penalty. He told our players it’s a kids mistake and he won’t give it in a Champions League quarter-final. It is a huge mistake."

On the Saka-Neuer decision, he added: "I saw contact. I didn’t see the replay. For me I thought the ball was lost, it was more of a follow-through. The action started from Saka but I might be wrong, I was 60 metres away."

Tuchel: 'We could have won it'

Thomas Tuchel spoke to Amazon after the match: "We could have won it at the end, we had the huge chance with Kingsley (Coman hitting the post). It was a tough night against a very good opponent. The fans were really behind Arsenal, so the result is okay.

"We knew we had to play better for 90 minutes than we did in (our defeat last time out at) Heidenheim, that was clear. It was necessary here. It was difficult. We've got a draw so the situation is clear, the winner moves on.

"We're playing at home, we need this kind of atmosphere from the fans and we need the same devotion, passion and quality as we had tonight – and we'll get through."

More from Kane: It was tough having no fans here

(Getty Images)

Harry Kane, speaking to TNT Sports, added: "Having no fans here tonight was tough. Having a full stadium (next week) will push us on. We had a big chance to go 3-1 up but Leroy (Sane) didn't put it away unfortunately.

"It's been an amazing experience in Germany personally. To see a different culture and a different league. The league is gone this season but I am there for a long time.

"You saw a real determined team today. We had to show togetherness and show fight. Today was small step in the right direction."

On Thomas Tuchel leaving at the end of the season, he said: "It's a little bit strange if I am totally honest. All I can say is he has given everything in every training session."

More from Arteta: They decided it was not a penalty

Arsenal head coach Arteta continued speaking on TNT Sports post-match, saying: "We started really well, we were dominant, didn't concede anything. We scored a really good goal.

"After that is the moment of the game when Ben (White) is in front of (Manuel) Neuer and if it was 2-0 it would have been a very different game... in the Champions League you give something, they will take it. You get punished. That is part of football as well.

"The things we can control is do the simple things better."

Discussing the late penalty shout, he added: "They said they checked it and decided it was not a penalty.

"I have a lot of belief we can go there (to Germany) and beat them. We have to prepare really well."

Will Gnabry be available in the second leg?

Pundit Martin Keown said on TNT Sports: "Arsenal are quick learners. There's nothing lost for them. Sané going off was a massive relief for Arsenal.

"It will be interesting to see if Gnabry's available for the second leg. The pace Bayern had in wide positions was really hurting Arsenal, particularly on counterattacks."

Arteta: If you make mistakes, you get punished

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, speaking to TNT Sports after the match, said: "We started pretty well, were dominant and didn't concede anything. We scored a really good goal and, straight after that, it was a different match.

"We gave the ball to our opponents and they scored, which created some uncertainty. The second goal was also an unusual one for us to concede.

"This is the Champions League: if you make mistakes, you get punished. We didn't do a lot of the simple things to our normal standards.

"We allowed them to have spaces to run and they are very dangerous. But even at 2-1, we were composed, tried to find our rhythm and didn't try to rush things."

Saka coming through in Champions League

Despite not being awarded a penalty in the closing seconds, Bukayo Saka did score Arsenal's first goal in the 12th minute. He has now been directly involved in eight goals in eight appearances in the Champions League this season (four goals, four assists).

That's the most goal involvements for the club in the UCL since Alexis Sanchez also had eight in the 2015-16 season.

Instant reaction to a chaotic match

The Athletic has broken down the major talking points from this wild contest, diving into:

• Arteta's super subs
• Kane penalty after Raya went too early
• Bayern lethal on the counter
• Should Saka have had a spot kick?

Follow the link below to check out our analysis!

Rio is wrong, that wasn't a penalty

I'm a big fan of Rio Ferdinand’s punditry but I can’t believe he’s doubling down over that penalty shout.

It’s just not a penalty. Neuer stands his ground and Saka sticks his leg out to make sure there’s contact.

Ferdinand and Keown think it was a penalty...

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, speaking on TNT Sports, has insisted he thinks Arsenal should have had a penalty at the end.

He said: "Manuel Neuer leaves his leg out. It has to be a penalty. They (VAR) had to send him (the referee) to look at it. It's such a big decision in a game like this. There is so much riding on it."

Fellow pundit Martin Keown, formerly of Arsenal, added: "I find it quite alarming he has not given that penalty."

Keown is slightly biased, to be fair.

Kane pleased Raya 'research' paid off

Harry Kane was pleased his "research" paid off with his penalty against Arsenal in the Champions League.

The England captain scored Bayern Munich's second of the night from the spot — a record sixth goal for the former Tottenham man at Emirates Stadium.

Kane stroked the ball home with ease after David Raya moved early and Kane revealed after he was expecting the goalkeeper to tip his hand.

"It was one of them when I have done a bit of research of his games against Porto," he told TNT Sports. "It was nice to see him go early and make it easier for me."