The magician
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The magician |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 74 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Christoph Engel Erwin Anders |
| script |
Margot Beichler Gudrun Deubener Christoph Engel |
| music | Wolfgang Pietsch |
| camera | Erwin Anders |
| cut | Anneliese Hinze-Sokolowa |
| occupation | |
| |
The Magic Man (alternative title: Rumpelstilzchen is The Magic Man ) is a DEFA fairy tale film from 1960 with Siegfried Seibt in the title role, directed by Christoph Engel and Erwin Anders together. The film, made in the DEFA studios of the GDR , is an adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, based on the production by the Hans Otto Theater Potsdam.
action
The miller's boy Hans works for Müller Kunz. He's in trouble with the farmers because Hans can't deliver enough flour, even though he works from morning to night. But Müller Kunz prefers to spend the day bragging and lounging instead of helping him. Because Müller Kunz doesn't get any money from the farmers and can no longer pay the taxes to the king, he tells the king's treasurer that his daughter Marie can spin gold out of straw.
Marie reacts horrified when she learns of her father's boasting. The king orders that the miller's daughter should prove her ability to spin straw into gold. In case of failure, it should be thrown into prison and the miller's mill should be taken away.
When Marie is supposed to get down to work in the king's palace, a male appears and offers her his help; in return, she gives him her necklace. When Marie is supposed to spin more straw into gold the following night, the male appears again. This time it receives Marie's ring in return.
The king is so satisfied that Marie is supposed to spin three times the amount of straw into gold the next night; as a reward he promises her the wedding. This time the male appears too, but since Marie has nothing left to give him as a reward, he demands the first child from her, which she gives birth as queen.
The king and the miller's daughter get married and have a child. Müller Kunz becomes the king's advisor and enjoys a life of idleness. After a year the male appears and demands the promised reward; he doesn't want the child to grow up with people for whom gold is the most important thing. When Marie refuses to give her child away, the male offers her that she can keep her child if she guesses its unusual name.
With the help of her father, Marie collects some unusual first names, but none of them is the right one. Marie could only be helped, according to the little man, if Marie confessed how the straw turned to gold; once more the male wants to come back.
Marie tells the king about the male and his demands for the child. The king then gives his subjects the task of collecting unusual names and searching for the male. Marie asks Hans to go into the forest where no one else goes and look for the male there. There Hans watches as the little man dances around the fireplace next to his hut and calls out:
- “Today I bake, today I brew, tomorrow I'll bring the queen her child.
- How good that nobody knows that my name is Rumpelstiltskin! "
Hans immediately rushes to Marie and tells her what he has found out. When the male reappears and Marie can tell him his name, he keeps his promise, because Marie loves the child and the king has also been cured of his greed for gold. The male returns to the forest. Hans wants the miller to work in the mill again as a punishment for his lies; the simple-minded neighbor should help him with it; Hans himself is appointed advisor to the royal couple as a reward for his help.
Production background
The Little Magic Man came to GDR cinemas on July 29, 1960, where it ranks 25th among the most successful GDR films with an audience of 4,453,527. The first broadcast on GDR television took place on April 23, 1977. Siegfried Seibt, who took on the role of Rumpelstiltskin here, played this role again in 1979 in the seven-part children's series Spuk unterm Riesenrad .
Reviews
“Stage version of the Hans-Otto-Theater, Potsdam, filmed in a studio setting, based on the play by Günter Kaltofen . From today's point of view, very leisurely. (Alternative title: "Rumpelstiltskin") "
Web links
- The magic figure in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The magic man in the online film database
- The magician in the Thuringia film catalog
- The magic man at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ The most successful GDR films in the GDR at Insidekino.com.
- ↑ The magician. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .