Die Blechtrommel

1924, Danzig, Oscar (David Bennet) is born under the unclear circumstances. His mum Agnes (Angela Winkler) lives and sleeps with her husband Alfred Matzerath (Mario Adorf), but also with her cousin Jan Bronski (Daniel Olbrychski) leaving the identity of his real father forever unclear.At 3 years old, his mum gives him a tin drum, which he loves and never lets go of. But observing the vulgar adult world, he also decides to not grow up anymore. He throws himself off the basement staircase and when he wakes up his wish has come true: he will never become older than 3 years old.

If Oscar doesn’t like something – people trying to take away his drum or the upcoming Third Reich – he hits the drum and screams in a pitch so high that all glass shatters. It’s a miraculous skill that interrupts not only common life, but also Nazi marches.Die Blechtrommel(1979) is Volker Schlöndorff’s award-winning adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass’ allegorical novel (1959). The intense and visceral ‘Tin Drum’ was one of the most financially successful German films of the 1970s and won the 1979 Oscar for Best Foreign Film and the 1979 Golden Palm (which it shared with Apocalypse Now).

In 1997, the film came under fire because of its controversial scenes in which the 11-year old protagonist appears to have oral sex and intercourse with a 24-year old actress. In 2001 the state lost the case and the film is legally available worldwide.

Guest Speaker: 

Arne Hendriks is an artist and exhibition creator based in Amsterdam. He’s almost 2 meters tall but not too happy about it. People sometimes call him a radical ecologist and although he likes the sound of that, he rather likes to say that he deliberately explores the borders of specific cultural values that define our relationship with the planet. He believes we should be more generous towards ourselves in allowing radical new ideas and practices into our relationship with ecology. As part of Activism Now! he will talk about his project The Incredible Shrinking Man – an investigation into the possibility of downsizing the human species to just 50 centimeters tall.

In collaboration with Future Flight Movie Night.
A dynamic movie night curated by the ‘captain of new industry’, flying us through their inspiration. Save the earth with cinema! (And join Future Flight Movie Night on their monthly cinema screenings in BlueCity!)