Rating: 12/20
Plot: The exact same as the Hermann Hesse novel!
It's been a very long time since I read the Hermann Hesse novel, but from what I can tell, this is a very faithful adaptation of that. This movie, the only one Fred Haines ever made, has a lot of great moments, but you have to wade through a lot of talky scenes to get to them. There's an animated biographical glimpse of Harry Haller, played by the always-solid Max von Sydow, that is really great. It's got that Monty Python cut-out look that you know can only be created by Czech animators. The whole thing climaxes with Haller finally venturing into the Magic Theater, a trippy tripy through surrealist paintings. A lot of the effects are dated, but the visuals still bring a kind of hallucinogenic punch that makes this whole thing worth seeing even if the rest of it is very sleepy.
This has a great performance by a little person named Alfred Baillou. He plays a little Goethe. He's got a great voice, performs an awesome little dance, and keeps calling the main character "honey" for some reason. The best scene with him is, like the rest of the movie, a little talky and way too dense, but there are these ever-shifting painted walls in the background the keep things visually interesting.
I had been wanting to see this one for a while. It was disappointing as a whole, but it does have some moments that I've never really seen before which made it worth seeing.
No comments:
Post a Comment