Review CI - Die Blechtrommel

Review 101
The Tin Drum (1979)

I finished reading Günter Grass' Die Blechtrommel, aka The Tin Drum, a few months ago, only to find out there was a movie adaptation that had won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture back when it was released in 1979. Of course this made me very curious because The Tin Drum is a magic realistic piece, i.e. a novel that takes a surrealist turn and everyone takes it as normal. For example, in The Tin Drum (movie and book), little Oskar Matzerath (played by David Bennent in the movie) decides, at three-years-old, to stop growing. So he throws himself down the stairs of the cellar so everyone believes that was the cause and blame Alfred Matzerath (played by Mario Adorf in the movie) for leaving the cellar door open. I kept meaning to watch it, but then other films got in the way. However, Günter Grass recently passed away, so I decided that I'd check out the film after much delay.

The story doesn't actually begin with Oskar - instead, we must get to know his family. In Kashubia (northwest Poland now), a young Anna Bronski (Tina Engel), who wears five skirts, is busy picking her potatoes and cooking them for consumption when she spots a young man being chased down by policemen. She allows him to hide under her skirts, but the two decide to dance the tango as he gets away, and she falls pregnant with Agnes Koljaiczek (Angela Winkler), Oskar's mother. Agnes begins a relationship with her cousin, Jan Bronski (Daniel Olbrychski), though marries Alfred Matzerath (Mario Adorf). A child, Oskar, is born, though his mind is not that of a child, deciding that he'd prefer to stay three for ever after receiving his red-and-white tin drum.

I should be honest right now and say the book was not a favourite of mine. It was an interesting read at times, but it was quite long and, though I have some Lithuanian/German/Austrian blood in me, I have never been to the area and know very little pre-twentieth century history of the whole thing, and so I have very little knowledge of the history behind Poland and Germany, let alone who the Kashubians were! Basically, from what I understand, the Kashubians are an ethnic group that were forced into modern-day Poland, so, as Jan Bronski says in the film (or maybe it was someone else), they're not Polish enough or German enough for either side. However, that is as much as I know. Wikipedia also doesn't seem to provide much information, mentioning that the people occupy a border region with Germany of Poland in the north. I even asked my grandfather, but he didn't seem to know who they were - though maybe it didn't help that I was probably confused as to the name of the people. All that to say, some of the stuff really flew over my head in the film and the book. Is that to say you won't enjoy it? Not quite. I mean, it still takes place during the Third Reich, as well as its downfall, so, slight spoilers I guess, you get to see how the Nazis tried to suppress the Polish resistance in Germany and how the Russians raped whoever they could. And this is stuff I'm sure you know about. It was just pre-World War I and II that the book just escaped me. I really ought to look up about the Kashubians!

Okay, I really went on a talk about Kashubia. As I was saying, the book was not a favourite of mine. Though not as detailed as a Russian novel, it nonetheless has that kind of feel, in a way. I really don't want to compare the two because it's different, but still, you really have to be in the mood to read that stuff. It's deep, strong, powerful, and detailed. So sometimes I'd pick up the book and ravish it, whereas other times, I was just reading for the sake of getting by. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the film to start off with, but since the book did a great job with surrealism, I wanted to see how the film would handle it. And honestly, it did it surprisingly well! I was very impressed. The initial scene with the skirts was actually really good in my opinion. The birthing scene was creepy...? If only because David Bennent is playing the baby as well. But yeah, it took that surrealist feel super well. Good job, director Volker Schlöndorff! Very impressive! I thought it was funny how in the book, Oskar would see things going on between his mother and Jan Bronski and the descriptions were obvious as to what it was, but still kind of sugar-coated. In the movie, though, they just go ahead and show the sexual acts they had going on between them. I liked the way it was executed in the book a lot, but it's a film, so you can only show what they're doing. I guess they could have had a voice over instead, but this film is from the seventies - they're going to show nudity and sex whenever they can! And the book had sex, so the film takes every advantage.

I could go on about small details, but I don't think you guys would be too happy about that. The film ends with Maria Matzerath (Katharina Thalbach) moves away from Danzig, Germany to Düsseldorf, so stops short of where the book ended. That was a bit too bad because it would have been fun to see the whole story. But the film was already over two and half hours long, so I guess that would have meant another part. Anyway, the film is interesting. Not really my thing, but neither was the book. Still, looking back, I'm glad I read the novel because the whacky stories were quite imaginative and funny at times, while still providing a view of Poland/Germany, and the movie really tries its best to stay true to the source material, even the magic realism parts. Try reading the book - it's pretty crazy. And if you lose the patience to read it, check out the film. Not my thing, but I still managed to sit through the book and movie. That's saying a lot! Rest in peace, Günter Grass.