Das Zaubermännchen (1960) User Reviews

Doesn't spin into gold

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 2 May 2019]

'Rumpelstiltskin' may be a fairly slight story that doesn't really lend itself well to a feature film (the most being a half an hour episode of a series of of fairy tale adaptations), but it does have an unforgettable titular character (one of the most memorable in all literature), an interesting conflict and personally have always gotten out of it a valuable and important message of greed.

DEFA distributed a number of fairy tale adaptations from East Germany, some are better than others but they do intrigue. Mainly for seeing older versions of these stories and some have some very interesting differences to the original stories. All are worth a look, if some more for curiosity and completest sake. The 1955 version of 'Rumpelstiltskin' is one of those. It has notable and interesting changes, namely a different take on Rumpelstiltskin himself, with him being an intended more sympathetic interpretation rather than the nasty one of the Grimm story, its larger cast of characters (on top of the original characters, there are major and minor additions with extras acting as go-betweens) and the heavy economic theme.

Yet for all those interest points, this 'Rumpelstiltskin' disappointed me. Appreciated that it aimed to be different and it is far from trash or unwatchable, but found it lacking in a lot of areas.

Will say that there are good points. The sets are simple and sparsely detailed, but are cleverly used and are still not hard on the eyes. The costumes are more interesting and are very colourful, the best thing about the film visually, and it's all complemented beautifully by the photography, one of the better-photographed DEFA fairy tale films, and lighting, the latter of which actually making the sets more interesting than they are. The incidental music, while not sticking in the head a long while after, is a pleasant listen. Karin Lesch is charming as Marie.

Did really appreciate the character development to Marie and the King. Marie is not someone potentially passive, though always actually rootable in the original story, but learns to be more assertive. Can myself learn from doing that, being someone who gets easily stressed and struggles to be assertive. The king is also not as greedy, with him learning to put his family first. Appreciation too is had for what the film has to say about greed and how money corrupts, very truthful and very relevant today.

Despite the more intended sympathetic interpretation of Rumpelstiltskin, this doesn't really come off successfully. It just doesn't gel with his grotesque appearance and comes over as annoying and at times too creepy, Siegfried Seibt does admirably but overplays at times. This version of 'Rumpelstiltskin' can be too stagy, feeling like a filmed play or something and never feeling opened up, and suffers from the original story lending itself much better to a shorter length, evident in the over-stretched pacing and that it somehow feels padded. This is including the decision to broaden the cast and number of characters, as intriguing as it was they merely distracted and didn't add very much.

Its handling of the message/theme can come over as heavy-handed and obvious and the dialogue doesn't flow very well. The direction has competence but is undistinguished.

Summarising, don't consider 'Rumpelstiltskin' a good film but it did serve as an interesting take on the story which is hugely appreciated, despite the differences mostly failing. 5/10

Maybe not the best adaptation, but still alright

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 23 April 2020]

"Das Zaubermännchen" is a German fairytale movie from 1960, so this one has its 60th anniversary this year in fact. It is a DEFA production, which means it is an East German film and many people say that if there is any genre, or any activity even, that the GDR really succeeded with, then fairytale films fit the description. I would not be overly enthusiastic with this one here, but I kinda agree. At slightly over 70 minutes, it is definitely not the longest film out there, but that is alright as it firs the material and no need to stretch it to 1.5 hours at any cost. The director here is Christoph Engel and this is pretty surprising because otherwise he was an extremely prolific actor and never directoed another film before or after this one here. Or wrote another because he is also one of a massive writing team of four people that adapted the Brothers Grimm tale into a movie here. The most known from the quartet is maybe Günter Kaltofen, even if he did not have a really long life, but he worked on several other GDR fairytale films too that I came across. So I just mentioned that this is a Brothers Grimm movie and this is where things get interesting. In fact, the tale this is based on is the famous Rumpelstilzchen that has been turned into movies so many times. However, the change of name into "Zaubermännchen" happened for a reason here. It basically means "Little man with magic abilities" and makes the title character sound a lot more friendly. And this is no coincidence. Early on, everything is still pretty normal, but the at the end, there is a mssive change. Normally, Rumpelstilzchen is the one and only main antagonist in these films and I must say I wondered why many times. Sure he is not the most friendly fella out there, but he made a deal, even if it is a pretty cruel deal, and a deal is a deal. So I always found it difficult with this movie to really cheer for the girl to defeat Rumpelstilzchen by knowing his name and actually frequently he blows up even in the end.

Here things go very differently. Rumpelstilzchen takes his defeat with grace and makes a statement even about how the people love her for what she has become, so there is even a bit of character transformation to her and the king. And the real antagonists are called out immediately afterwards and there are quite a few. These are in fact the ones who had slightly capitalist tendencies in the way they ran their work/business and also in the ways how they treated others. Several punishment are announced for these. So this is where you can really see where this film is from. I am not sure I agree with this ending, but with my views on Rumpelstilzchen and how he rarely really deserves what happens to him, i found it really refreshing to see such a different take on the story when it comes to closure. Alright, other than that, it is all fairly solid I suppose. The female main character did not in me over this time, maybe for subjective reasons because I did not think she was that attractive. I will not deny that. sets and costumes are okay, but do not really stand out. One thing that surprised me is the inclusion of several Swiss actors in this film. Now that certainly came out of nowhere, but well, back in 1961 the Wall did not exist yet (only in people's heads perhaps, where some have it to this day), so travelling was probably easier. One thing I like here is that some of the cast members who were really young when this film was made are still alive today. That's pretty nice. Overall, I give this film a thumbs-up and positive recommendation. Go check it out. I think it is not one of DEFA's best or worst, but somewhere in the middle. It's closer to a weak watch than to a great watch for sure, but it's still an okay watch overall. I also feel somehow that I perhaps would not have enjoyed it as much if it was in black-and-white. Oh yeah, two final notes: The way one character talks to the audience directly very early on was interesting. It also made me think that they were sending the audience here more of a message than you would initially expect from a fairytale and the ending confirms this as I elaborated on earlier. And last note goes to the nice little animation pieces when the actors' names are shown on the screen early on. Yep those were the days when the credits came in at the beginning frequently, probably also something younger film audiences have not come across yet. One more reason to watch this one. Go for it!

Not the best DEFA fairy tale, but charmingly naive

[suchenwi · 8/10 · 7 May 2009]

Out of this world, out of this time - this can be easily said about DEFA movies from a country that disappeared 20 years ago: East Germany, DDR (GDR in English). However, it is still alive in some peoples' memories, and can even create new memories in other people. I bought this film today with SuperIllu magazine, just finished watching it. Now what to say? Had I lived some at most 100 km more to the east in 1960, this might have been a highlight in my childhood. Now I'm experiencing (mild) East German propatainment, 49 years later.

The fairy tale (Rumpelstilzchen in the Grimm Bros. collection) is somewhat decently retold, but like often, the end lacks the real strength. In the book, the magic midget cries "The devil has told you that!" and tears himself apart from the legs. How often have I read this story to my daughters... and how I waited for this scene... in vain. Instead we get a short sermon about the dangers of greed (which the young king had already found out on his own).

In comparison, this lacks the psychedelic looks of Das tapfere Schneiderlein, or the lavish sets and costumes of Dornröschen. It is basically a rendering of a play by Potsdam theatre, pepped up with some close-ups and "special" stop-motion effects. The most surprising scenes were the feet-only takes of everybody searching for rare names (which might even be called a little Eisenstein-ish).

And still, I enjoyed it, as a trip to an unreal reality. The young and bankrupt king.. the not exactly beautiful, but therefore even more impressing queen.. a sometimes revolting (see the painted moon) movie experience, but ultimately rewarding film. We don't have time machines yet, but you might watch this to feel out of this time, out of this world.