Die Blechtrommel (1979)

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:

Birthday | Drum | Danzig | Germany | Nazi

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:

Acclaimed Polish-British actress Beata Pozniak made her movie debut as an extra when scenes were shot right outside her home.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: WWI Breaks out, and after 2 years of war Oscar's father (biological father - Mother's cousin) reaches the military age and is checked out by military doctors if he is suitable for duty. When he left military hospital there is a soldier in the sentry box who wear WW2 type helmet (M1935 - STAHLHELM) instead of WW1 type helmet (M1916 - Stahlhelm). M1935 released in 1935 and they had more compact shape than M1916

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:

Featured in Banned in Oklahoma (2004) (V)

Extraordinary Film making.

The Tin Drum is Extraordinary. It captures the perverse side of the individual and the whole. Oskar is conscious inside the womb. He is a product of kissing cousins. He is an inbred. He is a product of a secret love affair. Oskar's expressions capture the evil that would soon devour his home state. It is set in World War II, Poland, a town called Danzig. A town with billowing smoke and towering spiral steeples. A Grimm's Faerie Tale.

The film plays out like a fantasy. To never grow up. The Tin Drum contains some of the most fantastic images found in a feature film; The shattering of the jar with the fetus; The cracking of the teachers glasses ; The eels oozing out of the horses head as the seagulls scream and Oskar bangs his drum. It was an incredible scene to read on the pages of Gunter Grass' novel but to see a filmmaker capture the words and turned it into a real life experience was awe-inspiring. Directed so well.

It is an erotic film. Intense scenes of desire. Primal. It captures the dark side of us all. The scenes where Oskar and his first adolescent love exchange spit and fizz are very perverse and effective.

Oskar does grow up as a man but remains the size of a 3 year old. He bangs his Tin Drum to drown out the craziness around him. World war II must have been horribly felt by those so close. The Nazi regime seemed so frightening. As a three year old who was conscious in the womb, how would Oskar see this direction that man, who once was three years old, has taken. What is wrong with us?

Overall, it is about the next generation wanting the previous one to get over itself and enjoy this paradise called Earth.

The film is mesmerizing. It is a beautiful piece of celluloid art. The magical realism is captured very effectively. How about doing One Hundred Years of Solitude? Here's your director.

Victor Nunnally MFA Film Production and Theory, BFA in Dramatic Theory, AA in Performing Arts