Le maître des sorciers

I am absolutely aesthetically satisfied by this film. So much out of the cliché. Great storyboard, visuals, acting and sound. It is actually a very profound film done with German precision. European film making in its best form. I haven't read the book and I don't really care about it whatsoever as in my opinion the film served its purpose. Passionate actors play combined with beautiful yet depressive atmosphere. Sadly sometimes sites like this one are doing us bad favours, we came to see medium ratings plus low voting activity and the film is lost...we never even give it a chance. Well, that one definitely proves us wrong. Bravo to all of you who took part in it.

Krabat is a good adaption of the novel by Otfried Preußler. The story is set in the mid 17th century during the Thirty Years' War, and tells us the story of Krabat, a homeless orphan that finds shelter in a mill. But not everything is as it seems to be. A beautiful cinematography, fine settings and good acting make watching this dark and twisted fairy tale a real pleasure. There are only a real few movies of German cinema that provide this quality regarding the fantasy genre: The NeverEnding Story (1984) and Momo (1986) comes to mind.

I first watched this as a teen, and it made me remeber the uneasy feelings I got out of reading the book as a kid. The movie managed to capture that certain lasting sadness and the underlying sense of danger that makes the book so memorable to me. Being able to fly and all of that cool stuff, but at what cost.

Anyway, the movie is far from perfect, but they did pretty good with the budget they had imo. The acting was ranging from OK to damn, Daniel Brühl! The soundtrack is amazing.

Having read the book times and times again since my childhood, I was excited to learn a movie was made, but I was disappinted.

The story, quickly summarized, is located in Augustus the Strong's Saxony, Germany around 1700. It is about a dark magical school disguised as a mill with 12 young journeymen and a master who trains his pupils but also has a contract with the devil to offer one of them each year. Krabat, a 14-year-old beggar enters the school, enthusiactically picks up magical knowledge but then notes the evil behind it and that he and his comrades are all in a deathly trap. The only way out, he learns, is to gain the love of a girl and have her asking his release from the master. But this comes at a deadly risk, and others have already failed and lost their lives...

Things that bother me on this movie: 1. The movie's mood is always dark. But in the book, while the apprentices are generally in a desperate situation, they are also young, and there are episodes full of wit and humor, the optimism of the youth. 2. Scenes of the book which would have been great in the film have been omitted, and dull scenes with no sense have been inserted instead. Left out are the Pumphutt duel (a great effects opportunity missed), the Dresden visit (again a great opportunity missed to show the beautiful palaces), the oxen sale, the mocking of the recruiters and much more scenes who could have inserted some fun into the dreary dullness. Instead we see a pointless and boring scene where the young men fight some soldiers who want to loot a village - this was not in the book. 3. The screenwriters and directors could not free themselves from images of other fantasy films with somewhat similar plotlines, mainly Star Wars and Harry Potter. Why do we need to see Palpatine the Emperor and the Marauder's Map in this movie? Why are the journeymen waving around with sticks like Jedi trainees? 4. In the book, the Kantorka has light hair to symbolize her "white magic" of love as opposed to the Dark Arts taught in the mill. In the movie she is black-haired and thus adds no visual contrast to the overall dark picture.

Summary: A missed opportunity. Please do a remake with better screenwriting/directing which follow the book more closely, because the book is a masterpiece you cannot improve.

Krabat, boring??? How can that be? I just don't get it - Preussler s novel would have made a wonderful script, if they stuck to his idea instead of changing most of it. didn't they see it? In an age when fantasy works like the Lord of the Rings are made into fantastic movies, it is inexcusable that the screenwriters changed so much of the original storyline, and killed so much of its beauty and depth. The movie was shallow at best Yes, the basic story is about love being the only thing that can overcome the darkness. the biggest crime that was done here was to change the characters: The deep bond between Michal and Merten, which leads to Merten trying to run away and finally kill himself. Lyschko not a bad guy in the end, the betrayal played down to nothing... I really like Daniel Brühl, but Tonda? Also, whatever magic there was, it didn't come through.

It was all about power over people, why not lighten the story up as Preussler had done magnificently in the book and send them off to the market or show how the master - and therefore the devil whom he served - manipulated the politicians of this time? could it have been a matter of budget? Or is it just impossible for us Germans to dive into the spiritual side of things? I don't think any of the changes made to the story were really necessary - it was perfect as it was written, and the screenwriters changed it into a mediocre, lenghty dark tale, nothing more or less. Definitely not what the book was: A story that captured generations of readers. I predict that this movie will be forgotten very quickly.