Die Blechtrommel (1979)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Volker Schlöndorff

Writers:

Jean-Claude Carrière (writer)
Günter Grass (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

11 April 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Academy Award Winner Best Foreign Language Film 1979

Plot:

Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with...

Plot Keywords:

Germany | Drum | Nazi | Post Office | Flamethrower

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 12 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Mario Adorf	...	Alfred Matzerath
Angela Winkler	...	Agnes Matzerath
David Bennent	...	Oskar Matzerath
Katharina Thalbach	...	Maria Matzerath
Daniel Olbrychski	...	Jan Bronski
Tina Engel	...	Anna Koljaiczek (jung)
Berta Drews	...	Anna Koljaiczek
Roland Teubner	...	Joseph Koljaiczek
Tadeusz Kunikowski	...	Onkel Vinzenz
Andréa Ferréol	...	Lina Greff (as Andréa Ferreol)
Heinz Bennent	...	Greff
Ilse Pagé	...	Gretchen Scheffler
Werner Rehm	...	Scheffler
Käte Jaenicke	...	Mutter Truczinski
Helmut Brasch	...	Der Alte Heilandt (as Helmuth Brasch)

Also Known As:

The Tin Drum (UK) (USA)
Blaszany bebenek (Poland)
Le tambour (France)
Limeni dobos (Yugoslavia: Serbian title)

Runtime:

142 min

Country:

West Germany | France | Poland | Yugoslavia

Language:

Hebrew | Italian | German | Polish | Russian

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | Australia:R | Argentina:X (original rating) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) | Australia:MA (re-rating: 2007) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Hong Kong:III | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (re-rating) (1994) (cut) | UK:15 (re-rating) (2003) (uncut) | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | USA:R | West Germany:16 (bw)

Filming Locations:

CCC-Atelier, Spandau, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Argos Films

Trivia:

Also banned in parts of Canada for its depiction of underage sexuality.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Agnes eats eels, a brown bottle is not visible in one cut, even though other nearby objects on the table can be seen. In the same series of cuts, the position of her empty glass and Alfred's beer glass also change.

Quotes:

Vendor: Look, if you please, at this extraordinary potato... this swelling, luxuriant flesh, forever conceiving new shapes... and yet so chaste. I love a potato, because it speaks to me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Banned in Oklahoma (2004) (V)

Beautifully disturbing

It's been a while since I've seen this German film but I am still struck by key images in the film and the overall tone set forth casually against a backdrop of the chaos of Nazi Germany's rise and fall.

I do wonder how much of my love for this film is owed to the Gunter Grass novel on which it's based It's a quirky slab of magic realism to be sure, like the film, but I have no idea how closely it hews to the original.

The performances are nuanced and striking in places. The cinematography is appropriately dreary and the editing crisp and unadorned. The centerpiece though, is the performance by the child actor at the core of the film. How much is owed to his voice-over narrative, I don't know, but the man growing inside of the still-grown little boy was handled just beautifully.

It's a disturbing and strangely uplifting movie at once. I recommend it -- especially for those who have seen only black and white view of World War II and the typically American view of our adversaries in German.