Schultze Gets The Blues

A charming, very peculiar German film; Schultze is an old, retired miner who spends a great deal of his time in the company of his two constantly bickering friends. He discovers at a late age a passion for playing American music on his accordion (instead of the traditional Polka!), a love that is scorned by most of the people around him. So when he wins the opportunity to go to Texas for an accordion music festival, he takes his instrument and some clothes, and with a remarkably unemotional parting, leaves his friends and Germany for the American South. There, intimidated by an impressive performance by an Austrian accordionist and singer, Schultze abandons the performance and takes to the marshes in a river boat, chugging from stop to stop in the Louisiana delta.

This movie has tremendously invigorating music, and great dancing at every turn - Schultze is quite the ladies' man, with his old creased hat and his gigantic paunch. What really got me were the spectacular shots; surreal, definitely, and not always relevant to the plot, dozens of completely silent shots characterized the movie the most. For instance, a stunning view of an endless flat horizon, with a solitary windmill on the left wheeling in the wind; or a shot of Schultze sitting as third party to an abandoned chess board, with pieces scattered on the ground; or even a glimpse of a driveway, with tire tracks worn into the ground up to the glaringly clean garage door...

Four stars: the long, silent segments wear on the Hollywood-conditioned brain that needs to have every instant accompanied by a soundtrack. You know, I think it's true when people say that their life has a soundtrack; we may not necessarily need music all the time, but we need noise. Absolute silence is unnatural, and the segments of Schultze sans music or even noise are a little bit weird. But all in all an excellent movie, and one I recommend highly.

Labels: entertainment

posted by Holly @ 11:08 PM