When it comes to fairytale authors, Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm are in my mind the quintessential ones and penned a lot of timeless stories. Andersen penned 'The Tinderbox' ('Das Feuerzeug' in German) and it from a young age has been one of my favourite and the most intriguing stories of his, especially the first bit with the witch, coins, tinderbox and dogs and have always found the soldier a rootable lead character.
Find in general the East German fairy/folk tales absolutely fascinating and well worth watching. More should have been made and they should be better known, they do put a fair share of recent year adaptations to shame despite overtime technological advancement. 'Das Feuerzeug' sadly is not one of the best, of these DEFA-distributed films it is my least favourite alongside 'Rumpelstiltskin'. Not because it's awful, it's not. It is tough to rate and review though, because my feelings are pretty conflicted.
'Das Feuerzeug' mostly looks very well done. It's beautifully and atmospherically photographed, with some rich (light and dark) colours and un-complicated but charming sets, especially in the first half. The special effects are not elaborate or massive in scale but are well done all things considered. A better job could have been done with the witch perhaps, but a good job, and it was much harder to do, is done with the dogs' differentiating sizes and eyes with one exception. Musically, it is not dissonant with what's going on and is pleasant on the ears in its own right.
That it follows the original story quite closely is to be admired, there are changes that don't harm the storytelling at all. Actually appreciated that the witch was made more threatning and her trickery more sinister, which to me was an improvement on her character. The script balances not getting too mature or too childish, so there is enough for both children and adults, and the first half of the story is imaginative and suspense, full of charm as well. Rolf Ludwig is a likeable soldier, while Maria Wendt shares the acting honours, being both sinister and fun. The dogs are far from tame and did appreciate that they were not made too scary.
Unfortunately there are debits. Do agree that momentum and quality does dip towards the end. There are also exceptions to the well done quality of the visuals. The costumes are near-shoe-string like, they agreed overshot a bit with the witch and the eyes as big as dinner places brought unintentional humour (a shame because mostly the film did well with the dogs). The rest of the acting is not great, verging on overt pantomime as characters reduced to caricatures, where whether they were good or bad was laid on far too obviously. Barbara Mehlan lacks the allure and charm for the princess and one doesn't really get what the soldier sees in her.
Pace also slackens towards the end, with what was left of the material being padded out. So the film does get pretty dull and bland and the length being shortened by about 15 minutes would have helped things. Will admit that with the original story the early parts always have been more interesting to me and this film did nothing to change that for me.
On the whole, watchable but disappointing. 5/10
Find in general the East German fairy/folk tales absolutely fascinating and well worth watching. More should have been made and they should be better known, they do put a fair share of recent year adaptations to shame despite overtime technological advancement. 'Das Feuerzeug' sadly is not one of the best, of these DEFA-distributed films it is my least favourite alongside 'Rumpelstiltskin'. Not because it's awful, it's not. It is tough to rate and review though, because my feelings are pretty conflicted.
'Das Feuerzeug' mostly looks very well done. It's beautifully and atmospherically photographed, with some rich (light and dark) colours and un-complicated but charming sets, especially in the first half. The special effects are not elaborate or massive in scale but are well done all things considered. A better job could have been done with the witch perhaps, but a good job, and it was much harder to do, is done with the dogs' differentiating sizes and eyes with one exception. Musically, it is not dissonant with what's going on and is pleasant on the ears in its own right.
That it follows the original story quite closely is to be admired, there are changes that don't harm the storytelling at all. Actually appreciated that the witch was made more threatning and her trickery more sinister, which to me was an improvement on her character. The script balances not getting too mature or too childish, so there is enough for both children and adults, and the first half of the story is imaginative and suspense, full of charm as well. Rolf Ludwig is a likeable soldier, while Maria Wendt shares the acting honours, being both sinister and fun. The dogs are far from tame and did appreciate that they were not made too scary.
Unfortunately there are debits. Do agree that momentum and quality does dip towards the end. There are also exceptions to the well done quality of the visuals. The costumes are near-shoe-string like, they agreed overshot a bit with the witch and the eyes as big as dinner places brought unintentional humour (a shame because mostly the film did well with the dogs). The rest of the acting is not great, verging on overt pantomime as characters reduced to caricatures, where whether they were good or bad was laid on far too obviously. Barbara Mehlan lacks the allure and charm for the princess and one doesn't really get what the soldier sees in her.
Pace also slackens towards the end, with what was left of the material being padded out. So the film does get pretty dull and bland and the length being shortened by about 15 minutes would have helped things. Will admit that with the original story the early parts always have been more interesting to me and this film did nothing to change that for me.
On the whole, watchable but disappointing. 5/10