Heintje - Einmal wird die Sonne wieder scheinen

For anyone who was around back in 1970, esp. in Germany, this movie is a real nostalgia bomb. The star is the boy singer Heintje, who was a big pop star back then, at least in Europe. I don't think he ever caught on in the U.S.

At the time it was released, it was a kids movie. Now, it is camp. I mean that in a good way. It was fun to see it after all these years, and though the full blown orchestral production of the songs Heintje sings in the movie seem odd (riding in a convertible, he opens his mouth and a full music studio sound comes out) it is just the way they did it in those movies. Think Elvis in any number of movies, you get the idea.

Also some nice views of the French Riviera back then. Cool.

Having had grown up and lived in China through 1980's, I share the sentiment for the movie by several reviewers of the Chinese origin. I don't know a single person then who didn't love the handsome, caring, optimistic and courageous boy with a golden voice. For my daughter who grew up in the U.S. to study Chinese, I took some trouble to find the movie (dubbed in Chinese) and she loves it, too. We watched it together many times. Having seen so many great movies from the east and the west by now, I sometimes wonder if I love the movie out of nostalgia or its true value? The answer is always the latter.

Now onto the movie. In the movie, the boy, growing up with his widower father, runs the simple and happy household with love and humor. When the ill fate throws him into the house of his estranged, ill-temped and rich maternal grandfather, he melts the old man's heart after a series of unexpected events.

In the west,this film may be easily neglected as time goes by.But amazingly,HEINTJE would definitely be crowned as one of the memorable western films on Chinese screen even from today's perspective.Although filmed in 1960s,the film wasn't available in red China until earlier 1980s.When the film was introduced,it was given a Chinese title HANDSOME BOY.

Actually,HEINTJE conforms with Chinese traditional values to great extend,such as parental and grand parental love,the theme of harmonious family,main character's righteous and courageous virtue.All of which seem pretty familiar and quite acceptable to Chinese point of view.What's more,the songs performed by little HEINTJE SIMONS also contributes a lot to the popularity of the film in China.

Without any exaggerating,the film is a household name among those middle-aged and well-educated. And Chinese versions of THE LAST ROSE IN SUMMER and LITTLE CHILD,LITTLE SORROW,TWO LITTLE STARS,BIRTHDAY SONG have become the classics.

From Chinese perspective,the film is 9 out of 10.

I was 16 when I saw this movie and you wouldn't expect a 16 yr old male to like it but I did. In the midst of all my teenage angst, I liked the movie because Heintje was clean, simple, happy and systematic as opposed to his father's fuzziness - all the characteristics I would have liked to be instead of being rebellious, dark and moody. His music was the typical oompahpah as compared with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin I was listening to and now I find myself watching Heintje on You Tube and wondering about the early 70s. We were only 1 year apart but we had two very different lives. My sister bought his American LP Heintje and we played it over and over. I see that Heintje is still alive and still singing as Hein Simons. I'm happy for him and I thank him for his music and golden voice. I wish him all the best,

river

It's a children's musical movie. Similiar style is "Sound of Music", of course, latter one was more well known and well made. :P (Interesting fact, apparently sound of music is not widely known in Austria). Except that there is no dancing and this movie is actually in German.

Plot: Teenager Heintje's mother died, father wrongly accused of financial fraud and arrested. Heintje moved in with his maternal grandpa, who was a rich/stingy man with bad temper and didn't like the marriage of Heintje's parents, and thus didn't care for Heintje. 90 minutes of comedy/singing/car-chasing later, justice served, ppl fell in love, stone cried...

I watched this when I was growing up in China when I was kid (80's). Now one of my childhood friends, who is depressed and become sentimental and nostalgic (listening to light FM now, yuck!), want me to find it for him because he think it is therapeutic. This is quite a task because we only know its chinese names. I searched chinese web site to get director's name "Han Hai-En-Lee-Chie", and guessed Heinrich ...

The reason I mention this is, I guess this movie made a kid recall it 20 years later, maybe it's actually good, or maybe that kid was a retard. :) For kid under 14, okay, maybe under 10 only.