Horst in Translation ([email protected])
This is a movie from pretty much exactly 9 years ago telling us Otfried Preußler's tale of the robber Hotzenplotz and all the other interesting characters he comes across. The film's biggest strength is maybe that almost everybody was so much fun to watch: Rohde ("Lola rennt"), Thalbach, Klocke (a personal favorite), Beck, Schöneberger and Hörbiger all looked like they were having a really good time making this movie. They may be over the top, but that is never a problem for fairytale adaptations. In most cases, like here as well, it even helps them. This movie's director is Gernot Roll, maybe Germany's biggest cinematography legend. He worked on Academy Award winner "Nirgendwo in Afrika" and an uncountable number of other movies as well. Looking at his body of work, he is probably only a mediocre director at best, but he made it work here. The guy who wrote the adaptation is not known to me, but i saw he worked on "Schtonk!" in the past and I really enjoyed this one too, especially George's performance.This film is a feast for all senses. The juicy green is as nice to watch as the costumes and the sets. And the film's wonderful music comes from Nicola Piovani, Academy award winner for his mesmerizing work on "Life is beautiful". At some points, I thought Hotzenplotz or the magician may be too scary for very young audiences, but I am not too sure about that. Talking about the magician, until shrinking in minute 60 he is probably the real main antagonist of the film. He is pure evil, he put a curse on the boy so he cannot leave the castle and Hotzenplotz even gives the hungry kid a piece of bread in one scene. But the film is named after the cocky and hot-tempered robber and so the last 30 minutes belong exclusively to him. I was not entirely happy with the film, but I only have minor criticisms. With one exception, that is. i found the which boy is who and which hat belongs to whom as confusing as Hotzenplotz and Petrosilius. It was fairly difficult to keep the two apart. They did not do to much for me anyway. Maybe the least interesting characters in the story, which is not good obviously as they were sort-of the heroes. But the crocodachshund was a hero as well. That much is safe. What a droll creature.Those who enjoyed the Gert Froebe classic which came out over 30 years before this one, could give Rohde's approach to the character a chance. They probably will not be disappointed. I also quite liked Rohde's song during the closing credits where he talks how he gets out of prison, only to find Dimpfelmoser standing outside the building. Great names by the way as well in this story. Pretty hilarious. The whole thing is much more ridiculous than most other fairytale films, but not in a bad way. It fits perfectly. All characters have memorable quirks. Recommended.
