The fairy tale is well told, naturally with embellishments to expand the story into a full length film, but with no changes to the story which would disturb any but the most conservative traditionalists. The choice of historical clothing and modern language is clearly laid down right at the beginning, and is adhered to throughout the film. The best-known actor is Gottfried John, who plays the king, the most nuanced character in this film, well, as one would expect. The central character was played by Julie Engelbrecht, daughter of actress Constanze Engelbrecht, who displayed the varying emotions convincingly enough for this fairy tale, but, because the drama was limited, this being a traditional tale told in a traditional way, was not called upon to display the extent of her acting talent. Having said that, she was also a good choice of actress, and added to the enjoyment of the story. Although historical costume with modern terminology and phrasing is by no means the only possible way of retelling fairy stories, it harmonises, possibly because one is used to such clothing in such films, but one does not have to change one's way of thinking in order to follow the dialogues. It was also very good that, whilst using many phrases that are very modern, the film was not tempted in any way to use any terminology that one might find offensive. The appearances of the title character, played by Robert Stadlober in a fitting, nuanced fashion, used modern film techniques in a way that underlined the unfolding of the plot, and at no time pressed the story into the background. The appearances of animals in the woods, and the views of the castle were the photographic highlights, but throughout the film, the colouring and scenery remained fitting for the story. All in all, this was a very enjoyable remake of the well-known Grimms' fairy tale.
2 Reviews
Not particularly bad adaptation, but something's missing at the very core
Horst_In_Translation8 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This is "Rumpelstilzchen", a film adaptation of the famous Brothers Grimm movie from 2009, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year and they made many fairy tale adaptations for the small screen back then and here we got one of them. Like most of the others, it runs for pretty much exactly one hour. Director König has been making movies since the early 80s and writer Ungureit was back then also pretty experienced in terms of small screen releases. The cast here is less formidable compared to other fairy tale adaptations. Stadlober playing the title character, Engelbrecht and the late John are not unknown here in Germany, but they could have cast somebody more famous for the girl's father for example too, with which I don't want to say that the actor was bad or anything. Or the prince and yep there I am saying it but because his main efforts were on Verbotene Liebe, that is pretty self-explanatory. But as a whole, something was missing here and I somewhat found myself cheering more for Rumpelstilzchen than the naive miller's daughter. Sure they tried their best to make her likable and him unlikable with her caring for her father, her child, her mother('s necklace) and so on while Rumpelstilzchen is one who keep calling her a German term for poultry. Well, he was kinda correct here, she is pretty dumb. I found her very unlikable honestly and her future husband and father of her children, the prince too. And by the way, there is one moment that summarizes the film pretty well. When the prince tells her hs is the prince, she starts kissing him all of a sudden. And that in my opinion was not because of his words, he would want her love love him too if he was a beggar, but rather because she is a gold digger. Yep they existed back then too this film tells us. Engelbrecht was also not really good as the lead here, she doesn#t have it judging from this movie here and yes she plays the central character, even if the film is not named after her. Sets and costumes impressed me less than in other modern fairy tale movies too. Overall, I was glad this film was this short because I did not find it a good watch. By the way, a deal is a deal, dear princess and I wish Rumpelstilzchen would not have given her one delay after the other at the end, then the film could have been over earlier. By the way, I know I am blaming the Brothers grimm here, but having somebody guess one's name is not the greatest plot line either. Yeah, not among my favorite fairy tales. Watch one of the others instead I am saying from my very subjective preference here.
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