648. Die Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum (1979)

Running Time: 142 minutes
Directed By: Volker Schlondorff
Written By: Jean-Claude Carriere, Gunter Grass, Franz Seitz, Volker Schlondorff, from novel by Gunter Grass
Main Cast: David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Daniel Olbrychski, Katharina Thalbach
Click here to view the trailer

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SEEN IT ALL...

I think this is the longest I've waited in between watching a movie and writing the review. I actually finished The Tin Drum on Thursday night, but was just too tired yesterday to make it hear and discuss the movie. My goal is to usually try and write the review within twenty-four hours of finishing the film, but it didn't work out that way this time. Oh well...

To describe the plot of The Tin Drum may be difficult, but I'll do my best. The film is narrated by the main character, Oskar Matzerath (Bennent), who upon his birth, is told that on his third birthday he will be given a tin drum. Even as an infant he can hear the adults make the promise and therefore can't wait until his third birthday. It should also be noted that we never really know who Oskar's father is, as his mother has two lovers, one being her cousin, Jan Bronski (Olbrychski) and the other a Nazi cook named Alfred (Adorf). So anyway, the third birthday finally comes, he gets the drum and he loves it. Also on his third birthday, he makes the decision to stop growing. He intentionally throws himself down the stairs to his cellar and somehow that stunts his growth permanently. So anyway, he's got the drum and he bangs it constantly and whenever anyone tries to take it away from him, or make him stop, he screams. In fact, he screams at such a volume that he can shatter glass and therefore, no one ever succeeds in quieting his drumming. It is presumed from an early age that Alfred is in fact the father to Oskar, though no really knows. Alfred opens a grocery shop with Oskar's mother Agnes (Winkler) and the three live together. What Alfred doesn't know is that Agnes is having an affair with Jan, however Oskar does know, as he catches them in the act. There's actually a whole lot more, but for some reason I'm struggling to put this wonderful movie into words, via a plot synopsis so I think I'll just leave you with that.

Probably my favorite shot from the movie, as Oskar witnesses his mother be "felt up" by her cousin, while the mirror in the closet he's hiding in shows his other presumed father none the wiser. 

So this one actually sat on my desk side table for a good week before I finally broke down and popped it into the DVD player. There was just something about that title - The Tin Drum - that made me think it would be a boring mess. I knew absolutely nothing going in, which may have been a mistake. I was thinking the movie was a historical piece, something about a Germany involved war. Technically, I guess it is about a Germany involved war, but really that all takes place in the background and it's this wildly unusual story that is the driving force. I mean, listen to some of these plot ideas: a boy who decides to stop growing, a woman who OD's on fish and a boy who who is in love with his stepmom and may or may not be the father of his supposed brother! I mean, it's like Maury Povich, but with style.

I actually started this on Wednesday night and got too sleepy to finish it, so had to carry it over to Thursday night. After the Wednesday night session (about forty-five minutes), I just wasn't sure. I admitted that it was different, but I was thinking something along the lines of a 5.5/10 or something. When I returned the next night and kept watching, I kept getting drawn in further and at one point, I looked at the DVD time and realized I only had like ten minutes left. I was a little sad, because I wasn't ready to be done with these characters and wanted to hear more of this story. I had gone from lying on the bed to sitting up - a sure sign that a movie has you in it's clutches. Another sign that I really like a movie? I'll find myself detailing the plot to my wife the next day, which I also did. You should've seen the look on her face when I talked about a three year old who was really a twenty year old and who was traveling with this performing group of other people who decided not to grow and performing for the German troops.

All I can say is you need to see this movie, because while it's supposedly filled with symbolism and references to Nazi oppression, it's also a movie that you can just sit back and enjoy for what it is. I have no idea how faithful this film is to the book, but honestly it comes off like it'd be a fantastic piece of literature and here's hoping it is. I actually kind of want to read it now just to see. Oh and the European landscapes are gorgeous, as always - another treat to this gem of a movie.

RATING: 8/10  Man, that seemed like a really crappy review, but this one was a hard one to try and put into words. Definitely one that needs to be experienced.

MOVIES WATCHED: 827
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 174

July 12, 2014  12:32pm

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410. Mediterranee (1963)

Running Time: 43 minutes
Directed By: Jean-Daniel Pollet, Volker Schlondorff
Written By: Philippe Sollers

Note: For the first time in my journey I was forced to take a shortcut that I didn't want to take. The impossible to find #410 - "Mediterranee", popped up on YouTube, with promises of English subtitles, a few months ago. When I sat down to watch it, I discovered that the subtitles were either severely out of sync or just missing altogether. I stopped the video, watched something else and continued my journey, vowing to find a complete copy of the film, with a full set of of correct English subs. Well, after looking and looking...and looking, I simply cannot find another copy and fearing that the YouTube version would eventually be taken down, I decided to bite the bullet and just watch it. The good news is that the narration seems to repeat a lot and that seemingly the images are the important part of the film and not necessarily what is being said over the images. Again, it was a shortcut I DID NOT want to take, but determined to finish the "1001" book, I really had no other choice.

IT CAME FROM YOUTUBE

So now that we got the official disclaimer out of the way, lets get down to brass tax and talk a little bit about this movie. When I say "a little bit", I do mean a little bit, because a review of this forty-three minute piece will not take long, I suspect.

Plot synopsis here is completely unnecessary, because as I said above, the film is simply more a collection of images than anything else. Images include a young girl on a metallic, eerie operating table, an old man rowing an old boat, various images of what seem to by ancient Egyptian ruins, an overripe orange hanging from a tree and various bloody images of a bull fight. There's also a soundtrack, which includes sometimes creepy music and the sound of a buzzing fly, as if the insect were lost inside your ear. According to THE BOOK, this film had a great impact on Godard's "Contempt", but I'll be damned if I see the similarities.

Instead of writing this one off as yet another piece of pretentious, mind-numbing experimental garbage, I actually found a hint of something in this one. Sure, I couldn't understand the words that were being said, but while I was forced to watch the film without any knowledge of what was being said, I used the free time to let my mind open up a little bit and wander, letting the images on the screen take my thoughts wherever they may. And since there's no right or wrong answer when interpreting art (and I may be using that term loosely when referencing this film), I'm even more eager to share what I took away.

To me, the film played out like shards of a dream. I'm a pretty heavy dreamer when I sleep, so I understand how odd the images that circle your brain when you sleep can be. Sometimes I wake up and have to take a few moments to ponder what in the world was just going through my head. The way all of the images seemed to repeat, in reverse order and in a different rotation than we saw them previously, only reminded me of the erratic nature of dreams even more. Would it be silly to suggest that the film was meant to play out like a dream and that perhaps the images were really playing out inside the head of the little girl on the operating table? I'm probably giving the filmmaker's more credit than they deserve, but a man can ponder, can't he?

RATING: 3/10  I'll give it a few points for allowing me to think a little more deeply than I would've without the movie, but in the end, it honestly wasn't anything worth labeling a "must see" and should be accused of stealing a spot from another, more well deserved film.

MOVIES WATCHED: 636
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 365

March 16, 2013  12:31am

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