The Tin Drum 1979

type: Movie

language: German

duration: 142 min

genre: comedy

theme: war

director: Volker Schlöndorff

Score: 6 / 10

The Tin Drum is a 1979 internationally co-produced magical realistic dark comedy anti-war film adaptation of Günter Grass's novel of the same name, directed by Volker Schlöndorff from a screenplay co-written by Schlöndorff, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Franz Seitz. It stars Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Katharina Thalbach, Daniel Olbrychski, and Charles Aznavour, with David Bennent in the lead role of Oskar Matzerath, a young boy who willfully arrests his own physical development and remains in the body of a child even as he enters adulthood.

Plot

The film centers on Oskar Matzerath, a boy born and raised in the Free City of Danzig prior to and during World War II, who recalls the story's events as an unreliable narrator. Oskar is the son of a half-Polish Kashubian woman, Agnes Bronski, who is married to a German chef named Alfred Matzerath. Agnes secretly carries on an affair with Jan, a Polish Post Office worker and her cousin. Alfred and Jan are great friends, and Alfred mostly acts willfully ignorant of his wife's infidelity. Oskar's parentage is uncertain, though he believes he is Jan's son.

Awards

Cast

More details

author	Franz Seitz Jr. Günter Grass Jean-Claude Carrière Volker Schlöndorff
award	Academy Award for Best International Feature Film Palme d'Or
contentLocation	Gdańsk Kashubia Normandy Paris
director	Volker Schlöndorff
editor	Suzanne Baron
events	class relations Germany–Poland relations nazism petite bourgeoisie
genre	comedy drama political
keywords	allied invasion of normandy an armed standoff arrest break in build collect danzig defence of the polish post office in danzig drown flight and expulsion of germans from poland during and after world war ii free city of danzig german girl hide his shop is vandalized and a synagogue is burned down hitler youth in the closet injured kashubian kashubians kill kristallnacht leave for germany married nazi nazi party on tour petty criminal polish post office post office russian soldier sa search sexual relationship skat sturmabteilung treblinka treblinka extermination camp unreliable narrator world war ii wound young woman youth boy
musicBy	Maurice Jarre
nomination	Academy Award for Best International Feature Film International Submission to the Academy Awards
producer	Franz Seitz
productionCompany	Argos Films Bioskop Film Franz Seitz Filmproduktion Jadran Film
publisher	United Artists
recordedAt	Gdańsk Munich Normandy Paris West Berlin Zagreb
theme	dance independent magic realism war