The Tin Drum (film)
Encyclopedia
The Tin Drum is a 1979
film adaptation of the novel of the same name
by Günter Grass
. It was directed and co-written by Volker Schlöndorff
. Stylistically it is a black comedy.
The film won the Palme d'Or
at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival
and the 1979 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
.
plays Oskar, the young son of a Kashubian
family in a rural area of the Free City of Danzig
, circa 1925.
He humorously explains his lineage, which is illustrated by the camera, explaining how his grandfather being pursued by police, hid under his grandmother's skirts in a potato field. The film also gives a "childs-eye view" of his own birth, from the womb out, and he explains his displeasure at being born.
On his third birthday, Oskar receives a shiny new tin drum. At this point, rather than mature into one of the miserable specimens of grown-up humanity that he sees around him, he vows never to get any bigger. He throws himself down the basement stairs...and stops growing. Whenever the world around him becomes too much to bear, the boy begins to hammer on his drum; should anyone try to take the toy away from him, he emits an ear-piercing scream that shatters glass. Oskar wears a sailor suit and a cap from the SMS Seydlitz
. As Germany evolves towards Nazism
and war in the 1930s the unaging Oskar continues savagely beating his drum. Only after the Soviet invasion at the end of the war, when only his grandmother and his half brother survive, does he decide to grow up.
at Cannes, along with Apocalypse Now
.
The film features scenes in which Bennent, then 11 years of age and playing a stunted 16-year-old, licks effervescing sherbet powder
from the navel of a 16 year old girl, played by Katharina Thalbach
. Thalbach was 24 years old at the time. Subsequently Bennent appears to have oral sex
and then intercourse with her.
In 1980, the film version of The Tin Drum was first cut, and then banned as child pornography
by the Ontario
Censor Board in Canada. Similarly, on June 25, 1997, following a ruling made by State District Court Judge Richard Freeman, who had reportedly only viewed a single isolated scene of the film, The Tin Drum was banned from Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
, citing the state's obscenity
laws for portraying underage sexuality
. All copies in Oklahoma City
were likewise confiscated and at least one person who had rented the film on video tape was threatened with prosecution. Michael Camfield, leader of a local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
, filed a lawsuit against the police department on July 4, 1997, alleging that the tape had been illegally confiscated and his rights infringed.
This led to a high-profile series of hearings on the film's merits as a whole versus the controversial scenes, and the role of the judge as censor. The film emerged vindicated and most copies were returned within a few months. By 2001, all the cases had been settled and the film is legally available in Oklahoma County. This incident was covered in the documentary film Banned in Oklahoma, which is included in the 2004 Criterion Collection
DVD release of The Tin Drum.
1979 in film
The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
film adaptation of the novel of the same name
The Tin Drum
The Tin Drum is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. The novel is the first book of Grass's .- Plot summary :The story revolves around the life of Oskar Matzerath, as narrated by himself when confined in a mental hospital during the years 1952-1954...
by Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
. It was directed and co-written by Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff
Volker Schlöndorff is a Berlin-based German filmmaker who has worked in Germany, France and the United States...
. Stylistically it is a black comedy.
The film won the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival
1979 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Françoise Sagan *Sergio Amidei *Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud *Luis García Berlanga *Maurice Bessy *Paul Claudon *Jules Dassin *Zsolt Kézdi-Kovács...
and the 1979 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
.
Plot summary
David BennentDavid Bennent
David Bennent is a Swiss actor.He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. His parents are actor Heinz Bennent and former dancer Diane Mansart...
plays Oskar, the young son of a Kashubian
Kashubians
Kashubians/Kaszubians , also called Kashubs, Kashubes, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia ....
family in a rural area of the Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
, circa 1925.
He humorously explains his lineage, which is illustrated by the camera, explaining how his grandfather being pursued by police, hid under his grandmother's skirts in a potato field. The film also gives a "childs-eye view" of his own birth, from the womb out, and he explains his displeasure at being born.
On his third birthday, Oskar receives a shiny new tin drum. At this point, rather than mature into one of the miserable specimens of grown-up humanity that he sees around him, he vows never to get any bigger. He throws himself down the basement stairs...and stops growing. Whenever the world around him becomes too much to bear, the boy begins to hammer on his drum; should anyone try to take the toy away from him, he emits an ear-piercing scream that shatters glass. Oskar wears a sailor suit and a cap from the SMS Seydlitz
SMS Seydlitz
SMS Seydlitz"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German. was a 25,000-metric ton battlecruiserAdmiral Alfred von Tirpitz referred to the ship as a large cruiser in his annual budgets in an attempt to reduce opposition from the Reichstag; the ship was not referred...
. As Germany evolves towards Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and war in the 1930s the unaging Oskar continues savagely beating his drum. Only after the Soviet invasion at the end of the war, when only his grandmother and his half brother survive, does he decide to grow up.
Reception
The Tin Drum was one of the most financially successful German films of the 1970s. It won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and was jointly awarded the 1979 Palme d'OrPalme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at Cannes, along with Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
.
The film features scenes in which Bennent, then 11 years of age and playing a stunted 16-year-old, licks effervescing sherbet powder
Sherbet (powder)
Sherbet, Kali , or Keli is a fizzy powder sweet, usually eaten by dipping a lollipop or liquorice, or licking it on a finger.-Etymology:...
from the navel of a 16 year old girl, played by Katharina Thalbach
Katharina Thalbach
Katharina Thalbach is a German actress and film director.- Life and work :Katharina Thalbach comes from a particularly artistic-oriented family. Her father Benno Besson was a director, her mother Sabine Thalbach was an actress. Her late husband Thomas Brasch was an author. Her daughter Anna and...
. Thalbach was 24 years old at the time. Subsequently Bennent appears to have oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
and then intercourse with her.
In 1980, the film version of The Tin Drum was first cut, and then banned as child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
by the Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
Censor Board in Canada. Similarly, on June 25, 1997, following a ruling made by State District Court Judge Richard Freeman, who had reportedly only viewed a single isolated scene of the film, The Tin Drum was banned from Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
Oklahoma County is a county located in the central partof the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 718,633 at the 2010 census. The county seat and principal city is Oklahoma City...
, citing the state's obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
laws for portraying underage sexuality
Child sexuality
Child sexuality is the sexual feelings, behaviors, and development of children.-Freud:Until Sigmund Freud published his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality in 1905, children were often regarded as asexual, having no sexuality until later development. Freud was one of the first researchers to...
. All copies in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
were likewise confiscated and at least one person who had rented the film on video tape was threatened with prosecution. Michael Camfield, leader of a local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, filed a lawsuit against the police department on July 4, 1997, alleging that the tape had been illegally confiscated and his rights infringed.
This led to a high-profile series of hearings on the film's merits as a whole versus the controversial scenes, and the role of the judge as censor. The film emerged vindicated and most copies were returned within a few months. By 2001, all the cases had been settled and the film is legally available in Oklahoma County. This incident was covered in the documentary film Banned in Oklahoma, which is included in the 2004 Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
DVD release of The Tin Drum.
Cast
- Mario AdorfMario AdorfMario Adorf is a German film and stage actor, best known for his lead role in the 1978 film The Tin Drum.-Biography:...
—Alfred Matzerath - Angela WinklerAngela WinklerAngela Winkler is a German actress.- Biography :Born in Templin, Winkler trained to be a medical technologist in Stuttgart. Interested in theater, she went to Munich, where she took acting classes with Ernst Fritz Fürbringer...
—Agnes Matzerath - Katharina ThalbachKatharina ThalbachKatharina Thalbach is a German actress and film director.- Life and work :Katharina Thalbach comes from a particularly artistic-oriented family. Her father Benno Besson was a director, her mother Sabine Thalbach was an actress. Her late husband Thomas Brasch was an author. Her daughter Anna and...
—Maria Matzerath - David BennentDavid BennentDavid Bennent is a Swiss actor.He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. His parents are actor Heinz Bennent and former dancer Diane Mansart...
—Oskar Matzerath - Daniel OlbrychskiDaniel OlbrychskiDaniel Olbrychski is a Polish actor best known for leading roles in several Andrzej Wajda movies and also known for playing the Russian defector and spymaster Vassily Orlov, alongside Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie in the movie Salt....
—Jan Bronski - Tina EngelTina EngelTina Engel is a German actress. She has appeared in 50 films and television shows since 1975. She starred in the 1981 film The Boat Is Full, which was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, where it won a Silver Bear....
—Anna Koljaiczek (young) - Berta Drews—Anna Koljaiczek (old)
- Charles AznavourCharles AznavourCharles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
—Sigismund Markus - Roland Teubner—Joseph Koljaiczek
- Tadeusz Kunikowski—Uncle Vinzenz
- Andréa FerréolAndréa FerréolAndréa Ferréol is a French actress, officer of the Ordre national du Mérite .Her debut is in the 1973 film La Grande bouffe, which made a big scandal at the Cannes Film Festival....
—Lina Greff - Heinz BennentHeinz BennentHeinz Bennent was a German actor.Bennent was born in Stolberg, Rhineland, and served in the Luftwaffe during World War II. His career began after the end of World War II in Göttingen. He moved to Switzerland in the 1970s, where he lived until his death at age 90...
—Greff - Ilse Pagé—Gretchen Scheffler
- Werner Rehm—Scheffler
- Käte Jaenicke—Mother Truczinski
- Helmut Brasch—Old Heilandt