In Milchwald, filmmaker Christoph Hochhäusler presents a modern German version of the Brothers Grimm’s classic “Hansel and Gretel.” Although these two tales are not identical, they share enough similarities to convey the same theme. By comparing and contrasting the plot, setting, and characters in Milchwald and “Hansel and Gretel”, one can see how Hochhäusler cinematically engages with his textual source to convey a theme of uncertainty and ultimately develops a compelling story for contemporary audiences.
This theme of uncertainty is most evident in the plot. Both film and fairy tale are driven by the uncertainty that surrounds the children as they attempt to return home. The Brothers Grimm write how Hansel and Gretel “soon lost their way
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In “Hansel and Gretel,” the children’s abandonment is schemed by their own mother. The Brothers Grimm portray the mother as a highly manipulative person, who refused to “give [the father] any peace until he said yes” (Grimm 44) to her plot to starve the children to save themselves. Hansel and Gretel’s mother executes this maneuver not once but twice, since the children successfully return home the first time. Although the mother is not a focus for the rest of the story, the reason for her behavior is uncertain. She is atypical of most maternal characters because she is willing to sacrifice her children to prevent her own …show more content…
When Sylvia fails to find the children, whom she temporarily abandoned along the side of the road in a burst of frustration, she merely drives back home and hides their backpacks to make it seem like she had not seen them that day. For the rest of the movie, Hochhäusler continually films her passive behavior while the father frantically searches for them. Sylvia idly stands by while the father phones the school, checks all the places his children frequent, and reports the missing children to the police. Her lack of concern sharply contrasts with her husband’s anxiety. Since the audience is left to wonder about Sylvia’s motive for the entirety of the film, her behavior contributes to the uncertainty that pervades the story. By holding the stepmother responsible for the children’s disappearance, Hochhäusler again links his film to the textual
Perhaps one of the most haunting and compelling parts of Sanders-Brahms’ film Germany Pale Mother (1979) is the nearly twenty minute long telling of The Robber Bridegroom. The structual purpose of the sequence is a bridge between the marriage of Lene and Hans, who battles at the war’s front, and the decline of the marriage during the post-war period. Symbolically the fairy tale, called the “mad monstrosity in the middle of the film,” by Sanders Brahms (Kaes, 149), offers a diagetic forum for with which to deal with the crimes of Nazi Germany, as well a internally fictional parallel of Lene’s marriage.
It is easily perceptible that Sylvia’s father was abusive, and “grinded her gears”, which is then revealed she is a victim of
Benjamin, Walter. The Origin of German Tragic Drama. Trans. John Osborne. London: n.p., 1998. Print. fourth
As I watched, I had to wonder at the manner in which action shots, such as actors jumping from moving trains, were completed. Today, with current technology, a predominant amount of the action scenes are created digitally, with green screens. It is with a knowledge of the dependency of actions films on special effects, that I gained a profound respect for this particular film. The action scenes with trains colliding, derailments and military conflicts were capable of eliciting a stark drama in black and white magnificently enabling the sense of true to life action. The Train, is a tale fraught with suspense and espionage, of two opposing forces, a vanquished countryside and the foreign foe. With that said, it is important to note that majority of the characters placed more value on the artwork than human lives. Ironically the main character, Labiche was the only person predominantly concerned with the loss of life and not the art collection. On the other hand Waldheim, the man who held little regard for human life, the enemy’s as well as his own people, treasured that art collection beyond
This book reflects the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel.” However, in Murphy’s parable, Hansel and Gretel are two Jewish children who are abandoned by their father and stepmother in order to save them from the Nazis.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is een film geregisseerd en geschreven door Tommy Wirkola in 2013. Het is een film gebaseerd op het sprookje van Hans en Grietje. Deze film begint waar het sprookje ook begint Hans en Grietje worden achter gelaten in het bos en komen zo bij de heks in het snoephuisje terecht. Van het moment dat ze daar weg komen en ontdekt hebben dat ze immuun zijn voor heksen magie (later komen ze er achter dat dit komt door dat hun moeder een goede heks was) besluiten ze om heksen jagers te worden zoals de titel al doet vermoeden.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
Once upon a time deep in a large forest there lived a woodchopper, his wife, and their two children, Hansel and Gretel. It was a beautiful forest, full of trees, flowers and butterflies and streams. Matter of fact, the family had everything they could ever want except for one little thing.
The Narrator’s family treats her like a monster by resenting and neglecting her, faking her death, and locking her in her room all day. The Narrator’s family resents her, proof of this is found when the Narrator states “[My mother] came and went as quickly as she could.
The Brothers Grimm adaptation of “Hansel and Gretel,” is one of many fairy tales in Grimm’s works and as well as in many others that introduce the story with a weak family. Weak defined as in a family that does not follow the “ideal family structure”(SEC SOURCE), such as having the protagonists family lacking an authoritative father and or caring mother figure. With this as such a common way to introduce a story, in this story in particular, it is utilized and has more of a developmental trajectory for both the protagonist and the reader itself. Grimm exercises a ______ of broken families in means to develop the protagonist and educate the reader. However, one cannot fully understand Grimm’s purpose and safely assume what an “ideal family structure” consists of. In order to do so, historical context and ____ must be analyzed.
One day I was baking an apple pie in my house made of candy. It was made out of candy purely because I loved baking. And please do not go thinking I am a fat, lazy pig. The pie that I was baking was for a brunch that I was hosting. My guests were going to be coming any minute and I wanted everything to be perfect, right down to the T. The parents of Hansel and Gretel, Gwendolyn and Augustus, were close friends of mine. Sadly though, those two fat, disrespectful, and obnoxious children had eaten all of their parent’s food, and since I was a warm-hearted person, I invited them over.
The stepmother of Hansel and Gretel is the seen as an evil and tempered character who persuades the father to break up the family by forcing the children out of the house when a famine hits the countryside. The role which the stepmother plays, “aligns her with a number of stereotypes which would be active in the minds of a German audience in the run up to WWII, during which Jews were regularly charged with seducing innocent Germans to engage in any number of nefarious plots designed to weaken the homeland” (Scott Harshbarger, Grimm and Grimmer). The story also includes the idea of disobedience being a negative distinguishing tendency a child should behave in by having the children obey the mother and father when they say they are going to into the forest to fetch wood, even after they knew their true fate. The story of Hansel and Gretel was successful in developing obedience as a desired trait people should have by creating a situation where the children where forced into acceptance and submissiveness by fear of what the authority or in this case, the stepmother would do to them. This idea of obedience through fear was an idea that the Nazi’s often used during their time in
ground. The king hears of the news and sends the army to stop the giant
...hat is the main purpose of the story. Even though it is the main theme the writers and directors have edited the timeless tale by Brothers Grimm. It is the classic fairy tale that will live on forever because it touches everyone’s heart in some aspect.
Violence is strong and present in Hansel and Gretel. Taking into account the fact that the story begins with a stepmother who forces a father to abandon his children in the forest is itself already of certain violence. Stories like this have a greater impact for children who are not very familiar with the feeling that such events bring. Children who will be presented this story will probably feel an insecurity brought by this event, and tend to avoid moving away from the family home. Also, the outcome of the story is a pretty violent scene by the fact that...