Heart of Stone

Based upon the fairytale of Wilhelm Hauff, HEART OF STONE (DAS KALTE HERZ) was not only the first East German film made in Agfacolor but the first East German adaptation of a fairytale novel… the result is lavish, macabre and whimsical.

Previously, DEFA Studios practically sneered at the idea of adapting material belonging to the fantasy genre but due to the fact that Hauff’s story is a morality tale which lent itself perfectly to the very socialist values which Eastern bloc countries were so eager to promote, the decision was made to turn HEART OF STONE into a feature length movie - which is just as well, because the film turned out to be one of the most successful DEFA pictures of all time, laying the foundation for many more productions based on folktales by various novelists such as the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. That said, not all of them bore socialist values.

HEART OF STONE (1950) is a pretty faithful adaptation of Hauff’s story, with only some minor changes. The plot concerns a young woodsman called Peter Munk (Lutz Moik) who lives with his mother (Lotte Loebinger) in a cabin in the Black Forest, carving out a meagre existence as a charcoal seller. His existence and poverty isn’t made any easier by the fact that whenever he visits the local village he is ridiculed and laughed at, especially by the rich and wealthy. Of course, Peter doesn’t visit the village to be humiliated but because he is completely smitten with pretty Lisbeth (Hanna Rucker), who is likewise smitten by him. Unfortunately, Lisbeth’s ‘Oheim’ or guardian, rather (Alexander Engel) has different ideas for his niece: he is keen on marrying her off to Hannes (Hannsgeorg Laubenthal), one of the wealthy villagers and also crowned the ‘King of the Dance’. In fact, when Peter arrives, a jolly dance with oompah music is in full swing and it is evident that Hannes is eager to marry his ‘Queen of dance’ Lisbeth… just as it is evident that she doesn’t fancy Hannes and would much rather be with poor Peter.

In his desperation, Peter ventures into a part of the forest he’s never been to before in the hope of meeting a friendly forest spirit called the Glass Imp (Pal Bildt) because, as a ‘Sunday child’, the impoverished woodsman is certain that the imp will grant him some wishes. Indeed, after some mischievous capers during which the imp shape-shifts from a squirrel to imp and back and back again, the friendly forest spirit listens to Peter’s tale of woe and why he needs to become wealthy in order to marry Lisbeth. Sure enough, the imp grants Peter three wishes in total although initially, he is only allowed two and the third one shall be reserved for later. Peter wishes that he will be crowned the new ‘King of the Dance’ and above all, he wishes for wealth, so that he may purchase the local glassworks factory, which would mean money. On that subject, he hopes to have just as much money in his pockets whenever he enters the local tavern as one of the villagers, the filthy rich Ezechiel (Paul Esser), who regularly frequents the tavern and usually wins while gambling. The glass imp grants Peter the first two wishes but points out that in his opinion, the two wishes aren’t well thought through.

Nonetheless, when Peter arrives in the village and another dance is in full swing, he competes with Hannes and - to everyone’s astonishment - turns out to be a much better dancer. He is crowned the new ‘King of the Dance’ much to Lisbeth’s delight while Hannes, humiliated and angry, leaves the dance floor. Soon after, Peter purchases the local glassworks while preparing everything for the wedding, seeing how he is now presumably wealthy. Unfortunately, he forgot to ask the glass imp how to mould and blow glass and soon, the business suffers due to his inexperience. To make matters worse, he resorts to gambling but soon gambles his money away and is furthermore accused of cheating. Soon, the creditors are after Peter, who is forced to postpone his wedding due to his many debts. In desperation, he ventures into the forest again but this time ‘round not to visit the glass imp but to locate an altogether more sinister and seemingly more powerful forest spirit called Dutch Michael (Erwin Geschonneck). Dutch Michael, who can grow like a giant, shrink to the size of a shrimp and command the trees to act upon his will, grants Peter his wish and promises him wealth beyond his wildest dreams in exchange for his heart…with Peter’s new heart made of stone. Not weighing up the consequences, Peter agrees to the pact and within a few weeks, he is among the wealthiest men in the land and is finally able to marry Lisbeth. Unfortunately, with his wealth also comes an extremely unpleasant change of character and he behaves dastardly towards all and everyone who are in the position he once was in: poor! On one cold winter’s night Peter’s disillusioned new wife opens the door to a freezing beggar (who turns out to be the friendly glass imp) and offers him a warming glass of wine. When Peter returns and finds his wife having offered wine to a poor stranger, he loses his temper and tragedy strikes - is it too late for Peter to mend his ways?

The overall message here is that wealth, money and consumerism don’t make you happy - an ideology dear to any true socialist’s heart! No wonder the film was a box office sensation upon its initial release in East Germany. All in all, the film is an absolute delight from beginning to end, in particular Lutz Moik is excellent as the poor woodsman whose gentle and timid soul begins to resemble that of Wall Street wolf Gordon Gekko once money and wealth begin to corrupt his character.
Eureka have done an ace job in restoring the film - now available in 2K Blu-ray format and as a Limited Edition boxset (2000 copies only) including collector’s booklet. Special features include optional english subtitles, audio commentary, Once Upon A Time In The East and Tales From The Black Forest video essays, trailer, plus three animated folktale shorts from the DEFA studios produced between 1954 and 1958.