Beneath the Trees

Here’s yet another release in Eureka’s ‘German Folktales at DEFA’ series, once again offering five fantastical tales from former East Germany in a 3-Disc-Deluxe Edition and in Blu-ray format. 

BENEATH THE TREES is the follow-up to INTO THE FOREST, which was released back in July. Unlike the latter, however, practically all the films included in the ‘Beneath the Trees’ set lack the quirky and often surreal elements which made the ‘Märchenfilme’ of the first DEFA fairytale release so memorable and outstanding, in particular ‘The Singing Ringing Tree’ and ‘The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs’. In contrast, the five fairytale adaptations included in the BENEATH THE TREES, charming as they might be, are more straightforward with regards to magical and fantastical touches though just like its forerunner, the overall message is unmistakably socialist - that is to say, that luxury and wealth won’t make you happy whereas hard, honest work and a humble existence pay off!

Disc 1 starts with THE TINDERBOX (DAS FEUERZEUG) from 1959, directed by Siegried Hartmann and based upon the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. Here, we follow a soldier (Rolf Ludwig) happily singing and walking along a country road until he reaches a forest, where he is approached by an old woman (Bella Waldritter), who is a witch, naturally. She makes him a peculiar offer: if he climbs down an old well, which leads to a secret labyrinth, in order to retrieve an old tinderbox for her which is a family heirloom, he shall be rewarded with riches. Suspicious as to why the tinderbox is at the bottom of the well if it’s such a precious heirloom, the old woman replies that years ago, she forgot to take it with her and now is too old and fragile to climb down herself. Eventually, the soldier agrees and, to his surprise, finds three secret chambers in the labyrinthine underground tunnels. In the first chamber, a trunk containing copper coins is guarded by a very big dog, and  the soldier fills his little bag with them and leaves. Upon entering the second chamber, he spots an even bigger dog guarding a trunk with silver coins. Promptly, he chucks the copper coins on the floor and fills his little bag with the silver coins instead. The third chamber is guarded by an even bigger dog and the animal watches over a trunk filled with gold coins. Again, he chucks the silver coins to the floor and instead fills his bag with the gold coins before climbing up the well. The old woman yells "Do you have my tinderbox?”, and he quickly puts it into his bag as well, as he had forgotten about it. The old woman then shows her true colours as she shape-shifts into a giant serpent ready to kill the soldier but thanks to his sword and his fighting skills, he kills the serpent. 

Now in possession of gold and a seemingly worthless tinderbox, he makes his way into town, takes a room at an inn and soon, fritters his money away left, right and center by inviting punters to hearty meals and being otherwise overly generous. He also befriends Hans (Detlef Heintze), a young apprentice whom he helps out with this, that and the other. Hans tells him about a young and beautiful Princess (Barbara Mehlan), who is locked away in the nearby castle by her parents, the King and Queen, in order to enter an arranged marriage with an Aristocrat she’s not in love with. Not only is our soldier eager to make the acquaintance of the Princess (and save her) but soon, he’s flat-broke thanks to his generosity and spending freely.

Now forced to taking up quarters in a tiny attic chamber, he lights a pipe with the tinderbox when suddenly, he realises that it has magical qualities…with each lighter flick, the three giant dogs appear and provide him with ever more copper, silver and gold coins until one day, one of the dogs transports the sleeping Princess into the soldier’s chamber, so he may finally take a look at her. Of course, it’s love at first sight and our soldier is hell-bent on making his way to the castle to ask for the Princess’ hand in marriage. Despite his wealth, the King and Queen treat him as an intruder, throw him in the dungeon and condemn him to be hanged the next day but…. Of course, the story has a happy ending (a rarity for a Hans Christian Andersen tale…) though the film takes a while to get going - the first half doesn’t really flow and it’s only after the soldier discovers the magical qualities of the tinderbox that things get into gear.
As an added bonus, Disc 1 offers the extremely insightful interview featurette ‘Two Kingdoms’ on the history of German folktales culture, by Rachel Palfreyman plus three delightful animated shorts from the DEFA studios.

Disc 2 offers two adaptations of stories by the Brother Grimm, namely SNOW WHITE (SCHNEEWITTCHEN) und SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED (SCHNEEWEISS UND ROSENROT). SNOW WHITE really needs no introduction, as everyone will be familiar with the story (and the various screen adaptations). This one is from 1961 and was directed by Gottfried Kolditz. It’s pretty faithful to the Grimm original though has a few ‘socialist’ tweaks thrown in for good measure. When the arrogant and vain Queen (Marianne Christina Schilling) plans a big banquet in order to impress a handsome young Prince (Wolf-Dieter Panse), she orders the already overworked and constantly mistreated kitchen staff to churn up all sorts of delicacies. Snow White (Doris Weikow) - banned from the evil Queen to attend the banquet out of jealousy over her beautiful looks - jumps to the aid of the kitchen staff and chips in. Nonetheless, when Snow White turns up in the dining hall helping with serving the food, the Prince is immediately smitten and asks the Queen to marry Snow White.

This sets in motion the Queen’s rage who henceforth asks her magic mirror: “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all…” and we all know the answer. Finally, the Queen orders her Royal Huntsman (Harry Hindemith) to take Snow White into the forest, kill her and present her with the girl's heart! The Huntsman, who, like everyone else, is very fond of Snow White, only pretends to have killed her when he returns to the Queen’s castle, instead presenting her with the heart of an animal which he killed. Snow White, wandering around in the forest and knowing she can’t return, stumbles upon a little hut which belongs to seven dwarves: Rumpelbold, Purzelbaum, Packe, Naseweis, Puck, Huckepack and Pick. We all know how the tale ends though. Marianne C. Schilling is great fun as the scheming Queen whose various attempts to kill Snow White constantly misfire, while Doris Weikow is perfect casting as the pure-hearted Snow White. Hardly any fantastical elements here but entertaining nonetheless.

In contrast, SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED (SCHNEEWEISSCHEN UND ROSENROT) holds a lot more fantastical elements in store. Made in 1978 and directed by Siegfried Hartmann, the story revolves around two young sisters, Snow White (Julie Juristova) and Rose Red (Katrin Martin) who live with their mother (Annemone Haase) in a humble cottage where all three carve out an honest living weaving and selling textiles at the local market. No one else lives in this area since an evil mountain spirit called ‘Moldy Beard’ (Hans-Peter Minetti) made the local mine his own and thus prevented the locals from mining (and thus prevented them from their livelihood). The mining tunnels are long shut down and rumoured to be haunted. One day, two young princes, Andreas (Bodo Wolf) and Michael (Pavel Travnicek) turn up in the area, pretending to be hunters.

At the market, they purchase all sorts of goods not only from the two sisters but buy even more to hand out to the poor locals. When the sisters return home and tell their mother about the two handsome hunters, whom they have arranged to see again, their mother - in the best socialist manner - scolds them for socialising with people who throw away money so freely. Nonetheless, the sisters meet Andreas and Bodo again, unaware that they are real princes. When the girls tell them about the mountain goblin and the mine, the two lads set out two get to the truth of it - only to be transformed into a bear and falcon by ‘Mouldy Beard’. What follows is the girls’ attempt to rescue their two admirers and there’s a wonderful little twist towards the end plus (it goes without saying), a happy ending!
Here, the video essay ‘Mirror, Mirror’ by film- and animation scholar Sam Summers is the bonus.

Disc 3 has THE FROG KING and THE ROBE on offer. Starting with THE FROG KING (DER FROSCHKÖNIG) from 1987, the film (yet another Brothers Grimm adaptation) was directed by Walter Beck and apart from a rather likeable looking frog puppet, has hardly any other fantasy elements. When Henriette (Jana Mattukat), the youngest daughter of the King (Peter Soden), plays with her golden ball in the garden, she accidentally drops it into a fountain. Distraught over the loss of her favourite toy, she is about to run back to the castle when suddenly, a talking frog emerges from the fountain and offers her to retrieve the golden ball under the condition that henceforth, he shall be invited to dine with her, drink from her cup and sleep in her chamber. In her joy to get the ball back, she promises everything the frog had asked for but then runs away without as much as granting him another look.

During dinner with her siblings and her father, the frog knocks on the door… Initially dismissing him, Henrietta’s father urges her to keep her promise and so she opens the door, but is soon disgusted that she has to share her meals and her cup with such a ghastly creature. When he demands to sleep on her stately bed, she throws him onto the wall in a fit of rage and voila, he transforms into a Prince (Jens-Uwe Bogadtke). Suddenly, Henrietta isn’t so adversed to the Frog King sleeping in her bed anymore but because she had broken her initial promise and only invited him into the castle following her father’s advice, he’s not completely freed from his spell and is forced to return to his own castle (which resembles a rather grim looking set inspired by Ghormenghast). Feeling guilty but also in love, Henriette disguises herself as a young boy and sets off to find the Frog King and break the spell. Jana Mattukat is perfect casting due to her androgynous looks and one easily believes her disguise as a boy, though her voice appears to be spoken by a real boy… 

The final film is an absolute oddity and a bonkers one at that. THE ROBE (DAS KLEID), directed by Konrad Petzold, is a 1961 adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ but not as you know it! For starters, the film was banned for thirty years and not shown until 1990. It’s easy to see why it was banned by the East German authorities when you look at the political subtext at the time. When Kumpan (Werner Lierck) and Hans (Horst Drinda), two penniless weavers, arrive at a town shielded by a massive wall (which in turn is guarded by watchmen), they are told that behind the wall lies a town in which people are happy, with the following text appearing on the screen: “On the difficulty of getting to the place where milk and honey seem to flow for everyone.” Well, well! So much for the wall which prevented East Germans escaping to the West, a place where milk and honey was available to everyone! Back to the film though.

After Kumpan and Hans manage to get to the other side, they befriend a nice maid named Kattrin (Eva Maria-Hagen, mother of German punk singer Nina Hagen) and even gain entrance to the castle of the tyrannical Emperor Max (Wolf Kaiser). There are some differences from Andersen’s original story, for example, the Emperor employs a female minister (Lore Frisch) exclusively responsible for his wardrobe, while the castle’s main hall and gallery depicts portraits of various statesmen and politicians, with one resembling Churchill sporting a bowler hat. As the two weavers proceed with their cunning plan to teach the vain Emperor a lesson he won’t forget in a hurry, some scenes are interspersed with animated cartoon sequences which feel strangely out of place, while the soundtrack is an equally curious mix of dixie jazz tunes. As for the Emperor’s parade, it gets weirder still as everyone seems to wear outfits from different periods. Still though, this curate’s egg is interesting for various reasons.

Additional bonus includes optional subtitles, audio commentaries, plus a 60-page collector’s book. Please note this release is limited to 2,000 copies only!