Big and little Klaus

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Movie
German title Big and little Klaus
Original title Mikola a Mikolko
Country of production Czechoslovakia , Federal Republic of Germany
Publishing year 1987
length 83 minutes
Rod
Director Dušan Trančik
script Jan Fleischer ,
Dušan Trančik
music Iva Bittová ,
Pavel Fajt
camera Alojz Hanúsek
cut Eduard Klenovský
occupation

Big and Little Klaus is a TV film based on the fairy tale Little Klaus and Big Klaus by Hans Christian Andersen . Directed by Dušan Trančik . The title characters are played by Stefan Reck and István Hunyadkürti .

The film was first broadcast in Germany on October 9, 1988 on ZDF .

action

Two men named Klaus live in a small village. To distinguish them from one another, they are called Big and Little Klaus, according to their wealth . One day when Big Klaus marries the wealthy landowner's daughter Dora and is in a good mood, the very poor Little Klaus makes him an offer. Because his field is small, Big Klaus should lend him his four horses, then he would be finished with his work very soon and only work for him for the rest of the week. He agrees, but he is very displeased that Little Klaus announces everywhere the next day that it is his horses. Without further ado, he reverses the business and takes the horses away from Little Klaus . So now he has to pull the heavy plow with his own lean nag . When the animal collapses from exhaustion, a gypsy offers him two talers for the horse. Since Little Klaus cannot make a decision right away and only comes back to the offer later, the gypsy only offers him an old fur for the animal. Disappointed, he packs the fur in his pouch and makes his way home because it is late. When he passed a mill and it began to rain, he asked for shelter. But the miller's wife rejects him because she is supposedly alone and the miller is not in the house. But when Little Klaus secretly looks through the window, he sees the miller's wife at a richly laid table with a lover. Unexpectedly, the miller returns prematurely and the miller's wife hides her lover in a chest and the beautiful food in the oven. When the miller discovers Little Klaus in front of the house, he invites him over to his house. There the miller's wife only serves them a simple porridge for dinner. While Little Klaus reluctantly begins to eat the porridge, he comes against his bag in which the animal skin creaks strangely. The miller becomes curious and wants to know what that was. His guest cunningly said that he had a little magician in his sack who told him not to eat the porridge, but rather the delicious dishes that he had conjured up for them in the oven. The miller looks and finds a roast goose. When the sack “speaks” one more time, it reveals to both of them that it also has some delicious red wine behind the fireplace. The miller is enthusiastic and wants to know whether the magic can conjure up the devil. The Little Klaus explains that his magician everything could and if he wanted to see the devil, who would sit in the shape of the sexton in the chest. The miller looks into the chest and actually sees someone there who looks like the sexton of the village. Now he absolutely wants to own the magician himself and offers Little Klaus a bag of silver coins for the sack with the magician in it. Klaus agrees and has to take the chest with the "devil" that he should throw into the water. But he then releases the sexton on the way.

The Little Klaus returns as a rich man. When Big Klaus finds out that he can exchange all of this for an old horse, he brings his four beautiful horses to the gypsies to sell them to them. He trades them for all the hides they have and thinks he can sell the hides dearly in town. When that fails, he is so angry with Little Klaus that he sets his house on fire. Little Klaus tries in vain to find the silver coins under the rubble. Penniless he comes to a hostel, but he has taken a sack full of ashes with him. He gives it to the landlord for safekeeping and tells him not to look inside, otherwise everything that is inside would turn to ashes. But the landlord cannot resist and sees that there is really only "still" ashes in the sack, so he gives little Klaus his inn and his daughter to compensate.

The Big Claus is so jealous that he the little Klaus coat, put in a sack and wants to throw into the river. Since the gypsies are just passing by, they distract him, free little Klaus and bring him back his old horse as a wedding present. His wedding guests also include the miller couple and suddenly little Klaus remembers that he had hidden his silver treasure in the oven and there he can now find the thalers intact.

The Big Claus is now hunted by Dora from his farm.

background

The fairy tale film was produced by Omnia Film Munich in collaboration with Slovenská filmová tvorba, Bratislava on behalf of ZDF .

Difference from fairy tales

While in the original fairy tale the great Klaus first kills little Klaus' horse, then his own animals, in this film nobody has to die violently. The horses are exchanged and gypsies serve as intermediaries. In the film little Klaus outsmarts a landlord and receives his inn, while in the fairy tale a cattle dealer is persuaded to let little Klaus have his cattle, whereupon the big Klaus himself lets himself be thrown into the water and drowns. In the film, he is simply chased from his farm.

See also

Web links