Who is running away from the devil?
Who rips off right in front of the devil is a German fairy tale film by DEFA by Egon Schlegel from 1977. The film is based on motifs from the fairy tale The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs by the Brothers Grimm .
action
Jakob is a clumsy man: he is no good as a blacksmith's assistant and even falls over his own legs, but disrespectfully and carelessly approaches the tax collector in his village. He squeezes the last of the money from the farmers and declares the levy as robber protection money, although no one has ever seen robbers. The farmers therefore decide without further ado to change the subject and to be on the road as robbers from now on. They greet the king, who visits his subjects in the village, by throwing stones. Jakob, on the other hand, send them to the devil because he drives them crazy with his clumsiness. In the forest, on the other hand, the king notices Jacob unpleasantly because, among other things, he is setting scattered parts of the forest on fire. The king, who is always drunk, sends Jakob, in whom he suspects a dangerous robber, as a "royal postman" with a message to the castle. On the way, Jakob meets the farmers who have become robbers and take his letter from him. It says that Jacob should be hanged immediately as a robber dangerous to the public - the robbers quickly rewrite him so that Jacob is now determined to be the future husband of the princess.
In the castle, Jakob is immediately taken to the princess who, on the instructions of the king, has to live deep underground. The couple is about to be married when the king appears angry and the ceremony stops. Nevertheless, he consents to the marriage on the condition that Jacob first brings him the three golden hairs of the devil. Although he doesn't even think about it, he is softened by the tears of the princess, who fears that she will be trapped underground for a lifetime.
Jakob is on his way. He comes through a village where people are dying and nobody knows why. Jakob promises to ask the devil, from whom he also wants to know why a village stream in another place suddenly runs out of water and the people there are starving. The peasants who have become robbers and whom the king has put in irons will cross over to the devil. Jacob also wants to ask the devil for the key to their chains.
In the hell arrived, Jacob is held by short-sighted devil for his wife. The devil is happy about the lack of arguments and the good soup that Jacob is brewing. After the devil's intrusiveness, Jakob takes up his role as the quarrelsome woman and finally instructs the devil to go to bed prematurely. He still wants to be lukewarm and so Jacob gradually manages to pull all three golden hairs of the devil and also to get his three questions answered. The key to the chains is in the king's coat pocket, the village spring is clogged by a large rat that Jacob can pull out, and the well water from the other village poisons a large toad that is disposed of. Jakob finally comes back to the castle, richly gifted with donkey and gun from the villages, and can also recognize the ruse of the king, who pretends the princess has died. Jakob presents the donkey and the weapon as gifts from hell, so that the king goes to hell and is overwhelmed by the farmer robbers. They put their chains on him so that he now has to row the boat. The wedding between the princess and Jacob takes place and the repentant devil also gets his three hairs back after having eaten a whole ox , emptied a full wine barrel and danced with the bridegroom on Jacob's instructions .
production
After the adventure with Blasius (1974), who's going to run away from the devil was the second feature film directed by Egon Schlegel. His script and the scenario by Manfred Freitag and Joachim Nestler only loosely adhere to the fairy tale and introduce, among other things, new characters with the robbers who characterize the social conditions in the kingdom.
The film was shot in Potsdam and places in what is now the Potsdam-Mittelmark district . Individual scenes were shot at Schloss Wiesenburg and at Kähnsdorfer See, while other scenes were shot in the studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Who is going to tear away from the devil had its world premiere on December 4th, 1977 in the Berlin Colosseum . The following year it was shown at the 1978 Berlinale at the Children's Film Festival, which was held for the first time, and was even shown in Cuban cinemas.
criticism
The critics reacted split on the film, the beginning of which was described as "a little awkward and not easy to understand". The filmmakers were criticized for not relying directly on Grimm's original: "Director Schlegel and the authors Nestler / Freitag [...] over-ironic, over-satire, draw caricatures, make in modern and rob the Grimm folk poetry almost the last touch of fantasy".
The scenes in hell, which “can easily keep up with the latest inventions of Hollywood's fantasy wave”, and “the divine devil Dieter Franke” were positively highlighted .
The film service praised the film as a successful comedy:
“This very free adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale 'The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs' is staged full of wit and depth. [...] So the basic structure of the fairy tale has been preserved [...] but the film emphasizes the comedic elements of the story in the setting and staging style, even expanding them to such an extent that the original fairy tale is difficult to discover. That makes him shine. [...] All in all, a funny fairy tale entertainment, the appeal of which is only fully revealed to somewhat older children who are able to follow the irony of the story. "
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 688-689 .
- Who tears because right from vor'm devil . In: Ingelore König, Dieter Wiedemann, Lothar Wolf (eds.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children . Henschel, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89487-234-9 , pp. 241-243.
- Who is going to run away from the devil? . In: DEFA Foundation (ed.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-032589-2 , pp. 176-181.
Web links
- Who tears because of equal vor'm devil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Who is running away from the devil in the online film database?
- Who is running away from the devil at filmportal.de?
- Who is running away from the devil at the DEFA Foundation?
Individual evidence
- ↑ See progress-film.de ( 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.
- ^ A b Renate Holland-Moritz : Cinema owl . In: Eulenspiegel , No. 2, 1978.
- ^ NW in: Central German Latest News , February 10, 1977.
- ^ RT in: Der Tagesspiegel , April 9, 1982.
- ↑ Karl Klusen: Who is going to run away from the devil? In: Film-Dienst , No. 17, 1986.
