After "Kohlhaas oder die Verhältnismäßigkeit der Mittel" this is already the second Michael Kohlhaas film I've seen this year at the big screen. It does not happen very frequently that I've read the book before seeing a new movie, but we read Michael Kohlhaas in school in German class many many years ago and I've always been quite fond of it since then. So I was eagerly awaiting this film, even more so after Mikkelsen's strong turn in "Jagten" recently. And just like in that film, he plays a tormented soul facing a great deal of injustice again and trying to get things straight in this one as well. His recent work has convinced me that he is among the best actors currently working. And just like Robert Gwisdek in the other Kohlhaas film, it's the Dane's strong performance that makes this movie. It would have been way worse without him probably and yet, also like the other film, it was an adaptation that did not totally satisfied me.
The book makes for a great read and I'm not really sure why it's so difficult to turn it into an equally good movie. There's as much attention to detail in character development as there's many showy scenes that could work wonders transitioned to motion pictures, so it should normally be a good basis. It's difficult to exactly put the finger on what was missing here that avoided it from being a really great film. Ganz is good as always and he has the final scene with Mikkelsen which is one of the highlights of the film. Even David Kross, who I'm not always a fan of, plays his part convincingly here. I usually feel hat the villain or main antagonist is a crucial figure for a film's success or lack thereof and I was not too big on Arlaud's performance as the baron here or the way he was written. He just didn't exude the kind of quiet threat I hoped he would. Nonetheless, thanks to Mikkelsen mainly, I never felt the movie dragged and transferring the whole story to French soil turned out to be a good idea. It's one of the best bleak movies I've seen all year and I'd recommend it.
The book makes for a great read and I'm not really sure why it's so difficult to turn it into an equally good movie. There's as much attention to detail in character development as there's many showy scenes that could work wonders transitioned to motion pictures, so it should normally be a good basis. It's difficult to exactly put the finger on what was missing here that avoided it from being a really great film. Ganz is good as always and he has the final scene with Mikkelsen which is one of the highlights of the film. Even David Kross, who I'm not always a fan of, plays his part convincingly here. I usually feel hat the villain or main antagonist is a crucial figure for a film's success or lack thereof and I was not too big on Arlaud's performance as the baron here or the way he was written. He just didn't exude the kind of quiet threat I hoped he would. Nonetheless, thanks to Mikkelsen mainly, I never felt the movie dragged and transferring the whole story to French soil turned out to be a good idea. It's one of the best bleak movies I've seen all year and I'd recommend it.