The story of the golden thaler
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The story of the golden thaler |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1985 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bodo Fürneisen |
| script | Bodo Fürneisen Eberhard Borkmann Joachim Nestler (scenario) Manfred Freitag (scenario) Katharina Steinke (dramaturgy) |
| production |
DEFA for DFF |
| music | Michael Heubach |
| camera | Eberhard Borkmann |
| cut | Ilona Thiel |
| occupation | |
| |
The story of the golden taler is a German fairy tale film by Bodo Fürneisen from 1985. The television film produced by DEFA on behalf of the DFF is based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Fallada , which appeared in 1938 in the fairy tale book Tales from Murkelei .
action
The girl Anna Barbara works as a baker's assistant and lives with her sick grandmother in the simplest of circumstances. The terminally ill woman keeps telling Anna Barbara how her life would have changed if she had only had the golden thaler. When her grandmother dies, Anna Barbara is driven out of her apartment by a gang of children and in the icy winter meets the supposed rag collector Hans Geiz and his gray horse Undaunted. She asks Hans Geiz if he knows where to find the golden thaler and he takes her with him to his underground kingdom. It's full of things that other people threw away. Hans Geiz lives in the most economical circumstances, feeds on old bread, illuminates his underground kingdom with fireflies and lets the hellhounds of envy and greed (both of which are deadly sins ) heat the rooms . Anna Barbara should work for him for three years and thus earn the golden thaler.
In the first year she is supposed to clean all of Hans Geiz's copper coins. Your meal consists of a bowl of grits that fills itself again if it is not completely emptied. The only company is a little cleaning man who makes the cleaning water hot. Anna Barbara starts cleaning the coins and soon gets into an argument with the rebellious cleaning man. The male name is Martin and once wanted to earn the golden thaler like Anna Barbara, but he was lazy and cheeky and Hans Avarice turned him into the tiny man he is now. As a big boy, he was a love of girls and believes that Anna Barbara was in love with him too. But she just laughs at him.
After a year Anna Barbara has cleaned all the copper coins and is allowed to return to the upper world for a day with Hans Geiz. Like Hans Geiz, she proves to be cold-hearted and fetches her property in her previous apartment. Among them is her bed, on which a seriously ill boy had been lying up until then - from whom she still removes the duvet that belongs to her despite requests from the roommates. Hans Geiz is satisfied, even if Anna Barbara cries on the way back. Back in his kingdom, he shows her the task for the second year: A whole cave full of silver coins is to be cleaned. Your one year meal consists of a raw potato that will grow back if it is never eaten whole. Horrified Anna Barbara tries to flee, but Hans Geiz brings her back to the cave. Martin is disappointed that Anna Barbara wanted to leave him alone. He acknowledges your rejection with a work stop. Because the cleaning water is no longer sharp, Anna Barbara does not get on with her work. Only when Hans Geiz sends rats into the cave to try to eat the potato and kill Martin do they both find each other again. Together they chase away the rats and then go to work together. After a year Anna Barbara was allowed to drive into town again with Hans Geiz. Hans Geiz demonstrates the power of the golden thaler: Although both are dressed in rags, they are let into the finest establishment in town when Hans Geiz plays with the gold thaler.
In the third year Anna Barbara has to clean all of Hans Geiz's gold pieces. Your meal for this year is a piece of stale bread that always has to be left over to grow back overnight. Martin has now fallen in love with Anna Barbara. Among other things, this means that he is constantly very hungry. When Anna Barbara has finished cleaning almost all of the gold coins, Martin is at the end of his tether. He's so hungry he thinks he's dying. Anna Barbara breaks the last piece of bread, knowing full well that it cannot grow back this way. In the last piece is the golden thaler you are looking for. At his request, Anna Barbara kisses the amorous Martin and realizes that she is tingling too. Martin grows to his original size after the kiss. Meanwhile, greed has turned the two dogs into icicles and just like the icicles are without feelings, Anna Barbara replies, "If you save with your feelings, you ultimately remain poor as a beggar". Anna Barbara and Martin flee together from the realm of Hans Geiz and wander away with the white horse Undaunted. Anna Barbara loses the taler at a railroad crossing, but doesn't even notice it when she walks away with Martin.
production
The story of the golden thaler was shot in the DEFA studio for feature films in Babelsberg, including in Brandenburg an der Havel, which with its old town has the ideal conditions. The film had its television premiere on February 9, 1985 on DFF 1 and was shown nationwide on RTL plus on December 9, 1990 . The film was released on DVD in September 2010.
In contrast to the underlying fairy tale, which "represents a reflex on life in the twenties, which is characterized by great poverty and extreme wealth, by the global economic crisis and frenzy of amusement", the film depicts the love story between Anna Barbara and the cleaning man Martin in the foreground. In addition to the lack of money, the lack of feeling is also addressed: Hans Avarice is materially rich and stingy, but impoverished as an individual due to a lack of feelings. As lovers, Anna Barbara and Martin, on the other hand, material possessions have become so irrelevant that even the loss of the golden taler goes unnoticed - the end with the loss of the taler differs from the end of the fairy tale.
criticism
The film-dienst called The Story of the Golden Thaler "imaginatively staged, but its content is very coded so that only older children can develop understanding." Other critics praised the "abundance of aesthetic charms" contained in the film and called the film one "Poetic picture narration".
literature
- The story of the golden thaler . In: Eberhard Berger, Joachim Gliese (Ed.): 77 fairy tale films. A movie guide for young and old . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00447-4 , pp. 119-122.
Web links
- The story of the golden crowns in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The story of the golden thaler in the online film database
- The story of the golden thaler at filmportal.de
- The story of the golden taler Locations and information about the film
Individual evidence
- ↑ The story of the golden thaler . In: Eberhard Berger, Joachim Gliese (Ed.): 77 fairy tale films. A movie guide for young and old . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1990, p. 120.
- ↑ The story of the golden thaler . In: Eberhard Berger, Joachim Gliese (Ed.): 77 fairy tale films. A movie guide for young and old . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1990, pp. 121-122.
- ↑ The story of the golden thaler. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The story of the golden thaler . In: Eberhard Berger, Joachim Gliese (Ed.): 77 fairy tale films. A movie guide for young and old . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1990, p. 122.