Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"König Drosselbart" or "King Thrushbeard" is a German television film from 2008 that was directed by Sibylle Tafel and written by Anja Kömmerling and Thomas Brinx. These three names are very closely linked to the wave of recent German small screen adaptations of fairy tales (mostly by the Brothers Grimm). Two more years and this one here will have its 10th anniversary. Like most of the others, it is not really that long, runs for slightly under an hour, but that's not a problem. Better this way than many insignificant scenes. It's probably between this one here and the GDR version from the 1960s starring Manfred Krug as the title character in terms of which version is the most known today. I personally think the old one is still slightly better, but this one here was also a decent watch. And there are certainly some difference. This newer version included the title character's sister who was non-existent in the old film and also it's more of the emotional state of Drosselbart while the old one is almost entirely about the transformation of the princess. This new movie here has some solid actors that German movie buffs will know, such as Duken, Schwiers and Woll, also some more in the smaller roles. All of these did a good job, even if I personally felt that the sister added very little and I say this as somebody who likes Woll. More than Schwiers for sure and I think Schwiers worked best in the first half as she is just better in playing unlikable characters and not likable ones. And Duken I am not too big a fan of and he wasn't great here, but did what he had to I guess. Still he has nothing on Krug in my opinion. A decent watch for fairy tale film fans. Go see it.
