Max Topas - The Book of the Crystal Children

Movie
Original title	Max Topas - The Book of the Crystal Children
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	2018
length	86 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Doc Miguel
script	Doc Miguel
production	Michael W. Driesch
music	Michael Club Dance
camera	Doc Miguel
cut	Michael W. Driesch
occupation
	Steffen Gräbner : Monsieur Quidam; Jens Hajek : Max Topas / narrator; Edda Fischer : Madame Edda; Max Driesch : Max Topas (as a child); Vincent Druyen-Bloch : The wise Vincy; David Malinka : David; Paul Minderjahn : Ernest B. Young; Lina Gottlieb : Mila; A'lia Hitzer : School newspaper twins; Michael W. Driesch : Monk;

Max Topas - Das Buch der Kristallkinder is a multi-award-winning children's film by German director Michael W. Driesch (also called "Doc Miguel") from 2018, based on the novel of the same name by Miguel G. Baldío. A preview took place on November 9, 2017 in Düsseldorf . The film started in German cinemas in April 2018 and was the opening film of the 30th Bielefeld Children's Film Festival 2018. The US premiere took place on August 24, 2019 at the Buffalo Dreams Fantasy Film Festival in New York state.

action

9-year-old Max Topas wakes up one morning to find that his parents and sister have disappeared. A strange man, who goes by the name of Monsieur Quidam, appears and explains to him that he has cursed the three and that Max will only see them again if he can get him the book of the Crystal Children within two hours . Quidam gives the boy the visiting card of a "Madame Edda" who will help him understand the matter. Max learns from Edda that he is a so-called crystal child with special abilities. And so, with Edda's help, he not only goes to a special dreamland, but thanks to his special strength also to Florida and New Zealand within an hour to look for the special book so that he can save his family.

The film spans a time span from the year 1516, the point in time when the Book of the Crystal Children was last seen, to the year 2063, in which the meanwhile graying Max Topas reports on his experiences as a child.

background

In 2015, Driesch made a short film about six superheroes with 9- and 10-year-old children from the Max School in Düsseldorf. As part of this project, he discovered a number of young talented actors, so he made the decision to shoot a feature film with them. The model for this was the novel Max Topas - The Book of the Crystal Children , which he had written under the pseudonym Miguel G. Baldio , and whose plot was greatly reduced for the film adaptation. From summer 2016 to spring 2017, the film was shot on 51 days in a Düsseldorf studio as well as at original locations in Germany, Spain and the USA. The film was produced independently, and a crowdfunding project was started at Startnext in spring 2017 to finance the final sound mix and the composition of the film music .

After numerous test screenings during the production, with which Driesch interested the Cologne film distributor W-film, among others, there was a preview on November 9, 2017 in Düsseldorf. Due to the very positive audience reactions, W-film was convinced to bring the film to cinemas in Germany. The German cinema premiere took place on April 29, 2018.

Specialty

It only took Driesch 13 months from the first idea, through pre-production and shooting, to the completion of the film. He made the film de facto single-handedly. In most cases, the film was shot with a one-man team: Driesch directed, was camera and sound man in one person. Large parts of the film were made in the green screen studio. On some days of shooting, the actor of Monsieur Quidam, Steffen Gräbner , was there as an acting coach for the children. Driesch also carried out film editing , 3D modeling , compositing and color correction . He only had three of the required 3D sets created externally by 3D artists, and for some visual effects he had a specialist at his side over five days. Only the sound design , the film music and the sound mix were completely implemented externally.

Quotes from other films

The film quotes film classics in some places: The first encounter in dreamland and the old television set at Madame Edda refer to the “Construct-Scenes” in Matrix . The sound of the mask that Monsieur Quidam has to use a few times to get his voice is a copy of the breathing sound of Darth Vader from Star Wars . The huge computer that Mila created in Dreamland is called ", HAL" ("Have all the solutions"), like the legendary computer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey , and also has its famous red eye. The unusual punctuation in the lettering (a comma and three dots) is a visualization of the “9000”. The original time at which Max Topas is to hand over the Book of the Crystal Children to Monsieur Quidam is 10:05 a.m. - one minute after the lightning strike on the clock in Back to the Future . The intro scene of the film pays homage to the opening sequence in Ex Machina .

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was written by the German conductor and composer Michael Klubertanz . It is based on the classic, orchestral scores of large fantasy and adventure productions, complemented by a boys' choir, glass flutes, a church organ and electronic "steam instruments".

Film music critic Mihnea Manduteanu praises the composition as “a delightful and infectious fantasy score. With wondrous dream characters, spectacular action moments and playful motifs that immerse you deeply in the story, Michael Klubertanz's film music for Max Topas is a revelation in 2017. "

Awards

Filius e. V. Düsseldorf: Best Children's Film 2017
30th Bielefelder Kinderfilmfest 2018: Best film (jury decision)
30th Bielefelder Kinderfilmfest 2018: 3rd place audience award
Virgin Spring Cinefest 2019: Gold Award in the Family and Children's Film category
Official selection for the US metafestival "Kids First!" (50 participating children's film festivals)
Calcutta International Cult Film Festival 2019: Best Childrens Movie
South Film and Arts Academy Festival: Best Fantastic Feature, Best Supporting Actor and Best Child Actor
Florence Film Awards: Best Director of a Feature Film (Michael W. Driesch)
Best Actors Award: Best Child Actor (Max Driesch)
Hollywood Blood Horror Festival: Best Child Actor (Max Driesch)
San Diego International Kids Film Festival 2019: Best Mixed Media
Global Film Festival Awards, Los Angeles 2019: Best Child Actor (Max Driesch)

Reviews

"... just made exciting and very intelligent."

- filmportal.de

"A very simple and simply told film that plays with the expectations and fears of the audience and works brilliantly."

- moviepilot.de

"Everything a children's film needs: good story, suspense, great pictures, great actors ..."

- IMDb

“This is a wonderful, enchanting fairy tale, wonderfully told. Hats off to director Michael W. Driesch and his talented actors for bringing such a great story to the screen. "

- Kids First!

Web links

Max Topaz - The Book of Crystal Children in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Official website
Trailer on YouTube
Sales site at W-film (film distribution)

Individual evidence

↑ Release certificate for Max Topas - The Book of the Crystal Children . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 169730 / K).

↑ Homepage of the Atelier-Kino (accessed on May 9, 2018)

↑ Kinderfilmwelt.de ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed October 15, 2018) @1@ 2

↑ Festival website (accessed August 8, 2019)

↑ Description of the action by the author after viewing the film at the preview

^ Westdeutsche Zeitung (accessed November 25, 2017)

↑ Facebook entry ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Retrieved November 25, 2017)@1@ 2