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The Tin Drum

File:Die_Blechtrommel.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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The Tin Drum

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Also known as Tin Drum

1979 film directed by Volker Schlöndorff

Film · TMDB

7.0

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

Released: 1979-05-02162 minDir: Volker SchlöndorffDrama, History, WarBudget: $3.0MBox office: $17.0M

Cast

  • Mario Adorf as Alfred Matzerath
  • Angela Winkler as Agnes Matzerath
  • David Bennent as Oskar Matzerath
  • Katharina Thalbach as Maria Matzerath
  • Daniel Olbrychski as Jan Bronski
  • Tina Engel as Young Anna Koljaiczek

Themes

  • puberty
  • adultery
  • lolita
  • suicide
  • based on novel or book
  • nazi
  • dwarf
  • gdansk, poland
  • circus
  • toxication

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Ratings

IMDb

7.4/10

27,929 votes

Year
1979
Runtime
142 min
Genres
Drama, War

via IMDb

Key facts

German
Die Blechtrommel
Directed by
Volker Schlöndorff
Written by
Jean-Claude Carrière , Franz Seitz , Volker Schlöndorff
Based on
The Tin Drum , by Günter Grass
Produced by
Franz Seitz
Starring
David Bennent , Mario Adorf , Angela Winkler , Katharina Thalbach , Daniel Olbrychski , Charles Aznavour
Cinematography
Igor Luther
Edited by
Suzanne Baron
Music by
Maurice Jarre
Production companies
Franz Seitz Filmproduktion Bioskop Film Argos Films Jadran Film
Distributed by
United Artists (West Germany) Argos Films (France) Black Cat (Poland)
Release dates
3 May 1979 ( 1979-05-03 ) ( Wiesbaden ) 19 September 1979 ( 1979-09-19 ) (France) 12 February 1980 ( 1980-02-12 ) (Yugoslavia) 1 September 1992 ( 1992-09-01 ) (Poland)
Running time
142 minutes, 162 minutes ( Director's cut )
Countries
West Germany, France, Yugoslavia, Poland
Language
German
Budget
$3 million
Box office
$13 million (Germany – 25 million Marks) , $2 million or $4 million (U.S.)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
film
Country of origin
Yugoslavia
Original language
Polish
Based on
The Tin Drum
Main subject
petite bourgeoisie
Screenwriter
Q6538
Production company
Jadran Film
Cinematographer
Igor Luther
Narrative location
Normandy
Filming location
Normandy
Duration
162
FilmAffinity ID
107852
Distribution format
video on demand
Show 15 more facts
publication date
1979-05-03
title
Die Blechtrommel
after a work by
Q6538
distributed by
Netflix
film editor
Suzanne Baron
production date
1978-00-00
set in period
Kristallnacht
capital cost
6000000
narrative motif
Anguilla
references work, tradition or theory
Zazie dans le Métro
inspired by
Amarcord
Commons category
Die Blechtrommel (film)
different from
The Tin Drum
review score
63/100
box office
4000000
Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Tin Drum (German: Die Blechtrommel) is a 1979 anti-war film adapted from Günter Grass's 1959 novel, 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.

A darkly comic war drama with magical realist elements, the film follows Oskar, a precocious child living in Danzig, who wields seemingly preternatural abilities. He lives in contempt of the adults around him and witnesses firsthand their potential for cruelty, first via the rise of the Nazi Party and then the subsequent war. The title refers to Oskar's toy drum, which he loudly plays whenever he is displeased or upset. The German-language film was a co-production of West German, French, and Yugoslavian companies.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Tin Drum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)