Snow White (1961)

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Movie
Original title Snow white
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1961
length 60 or 63 minutes
Age rating FSK o. A.
Rod
Director Gottfried Kolditz
script Günter Kaltofen
music Siegfried Tiefensee
camera Erwin Anders
cut Ursula Zweig
occupation

Snow White is a DEFA fairy tale film based on the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm from 1961, directed by Gottfried Kolditz . Doris Weikow can be seen in the title role . Marianne Christina Schilling acts as an evil stepmother and Wolf-Dieter Panse as a prince.

action

A queen stabs her finger while sewing. When she saw the drops of blood in the snow, the thought occurred to her that if she should give birth to a daughter, she should be named Snow White . Some time later, the queen actually had a little girl whom she named Snow White. Her happiness with her child is only granted for a short time, as she dies a few weeks later.

After a year, Snow White's father remarries. Snow White's vain stepmother desperately wants to be the most beautiful in the country; her speaking mirror confirms this regularly.

Snow White grows up to be a beautiful young woman. During a castle festival, she meets a young prince who immediately wants to take her as his wife; at the same time, the mirror tells the evil queen that Snow White is even more beautiful than she is. Angry, the evil queen orders the hunter to kill Snow White in the forest. As proof of the execution of the order, she demands Snow White's heart. The hunter reluctantly agrees. Once in the forest, however, he lets Snow White live and kills a wild boar in order to be able to present the queen with a heart.

On her hike through the forest, Snow White comes across a small hut with seven small beds, seven chairs, seven plates, seven cups, seven small forks, seven small spoons and seven small knives. Hungry and exhausted Snow White eats the food prepared on the table and goes to sleep. Meanwhile, the residents of the little hut, the seven dwarfs, work in the quarry. When they get home they wonder who has used their furniture and dishes. You introduce yourself to Snow White, who has hiked over seven mountains to meet the seven dwarfs. To their great joy, Snow White offers the dwarfs to help them with their housework and tells them her story.

Meanwhile, the evil queen is happy about her supposed triumph over Snow White, but is shocked to learn from the speaking mirror that Snow White is still alive and is behind the seven mountains. Angrily, she banishes the hunter from her land and, following the mirror's tip, looks for Snow White with the seven dwarfs. Disguised as an old woman, she hands Snow White a belt, which she then ties so tight that the young woman can no longer breathe. But by untying the belt, the seven dwarfs can bring them back to life.

After questioning the mirror again, the evil queen makes another attempt to kill Snow White. This time she tries to kill Snow White by telling her, disguised as a wandering trader, to accept a poisoned comb. Once again the seven dwarfs can save Snow White.

In the meantime, the hunter reports to the prince of the queen's attempted murder of Snow White. The prince decides to look for Snow White to protect her from the queen.

But the disguised queen starts another attempt to get Snow White out of the way. Since the girl has become cautious because of the dwarves' warnings and does not want to take an apple from her, she breaks one of the apples in half and gives Snow White the red, poisoned half. After Snow White sees the "old woman" bite into the light half of the apple, she does the same. This time the seven dwarfs can no longer help Snow White. They build a glass coffin for her and take turns guarding it. The wicked queen is satisfied that she is now the most beautiful in the country again and wants to celebrate this with a party.

In the meantime, the prince arrives at the house of the seven dwarfs and, to his dismay, learns that Snow White is dead. When he wants to take Snow White with him and the dwarf Naseweis stumbles while transporting the coffin, the piece of apple slips out of Snow White's neck; she comes to life. The prince happily holds Snow White's hand and invites the seven dwarfs to the wedding. The wicked queen also receives a wedding invitation. But her joy at being the most beautiful in the country comes to an abrupt end when she learns from the mirror that the young queen is a thousand times more beautiful than she is. Curious, she attends the prince's wedding, who offers her a red apple half that she believes is poisoned. Frightened, the queen flees and is chased out of the country by the prince. Snow White and the prince celebrate their wedding with the seven dwarfs.

production

Production notes, background

It is a pure studio production by DEFA in Babelsberg .

The actress of Snow White Doris Weikow was a presenter and announcer on GDR television from 1965 .

Differences from fairy tales

The film adaptation sticks closely to the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm . However, in this version the queen appears out of curiosity at the wedding feast, then believes that the half of the apple offered to her is poisoned, flees from the feast and is then chased out of the country. In the fairy tale she has to dance in red-hot iron slippers until she falls over dead. In addition, the prince and Snow White meet in this film adaptation at a castle festival, where the prince immediately falls in love with Snow White. In the course of the further action he looks for the girl in order to protect her from the queen. In the fairy tale there is no meeting of the two in front of the coffin scene.

Publication, success

At the start of the film around 4 ½ million viewers saw it, making it one of the 20 most successful fairy tale and children's films in the GDR.

With 7,597,495 visitors in addition to the version from Disney Studios , it was the most famous film adaptation of the fairy tale in Germany. The fairy tale film premiered on October 6, 1961 in the German Democratic Republic in the Babylon cinema in Berlin . On December 27, 1987, it was published in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Icestorm Entertainment GmbH released the fairy tale film within the series “The World of Fairy Tales” on March 27, 2001 on DVD. On September 13, 2010, a digitally revised version of the film was released by the same studio as part of the “MärchenKlassiker” series.

criticism

For the lexicon of international film , Snow White was a "lively, lively film adaptation of the well-known fairy tale, provided with" catchy songs, closely related to the original ".

Cinema spoke of a "somewhat grayed-out Grimm film".

The Superillu read: "Almost 50 years ago one of the most beautiful fairy tales in DEFA history celebrated its premiere: 'Snow White'."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The announcers in the 50s and 60s ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2012 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. on mdr.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mdr.de
  2. a b DEFA fairy tale adaptation "Snow White" (GDR 1961) at schulkinowoche.bildung-rp.de
  3. The most successful GDR films in the GDR at Insidekino.com.
  4. Snow White (GDR 1961) at maerchenfilm-pytalhost.com. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  5. Snow White DVD within the series "The World of Fairy Tales"
  6. Snow White at jpc.de (with video trailer)
  7. Snow White. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. Snow White at cinema.de (with 8 pictures from the film)
  9. Bärbel Beuchler: Snow White Bärbel Beuchler spoke to Marianne Christina Schilling, who played the evil queen. In: Superillu . Retrieved December 5, 2016.