Narziss und Goldmund

Just watched this movie and need to express my admiration for the costumes, the set design, the casting and the cinematography. The world the the story is set in feels very real while having a very distinguished look and poetic feel to it. Unfortunately everything else is falling a bit flat and tends to get a bit boring and stiff.

I probably would have switched it off half way if the role of Goldmund would not have been cast with such a beautiful (and fortunately mostly lightly dressed) handsome young actor. *sigh* Actually a 5 star movie but adding one for the beauty of the film and one for the sex appeal of the leading role.

Despite incredibly beautiful cinematography and a great story, the film is not able to transport the emotions of the original book. Some of the main cast is simply not convincing, perhaps there was not the right chemistry with the provenly talented director. Probably more enjoyable for people that don't know the book.

A very nice try to adapt the novel of Hermann Hesse . The only small problem remains the novel itself.The work of Hesse remains only for its readers. The cinematography is contained by the pages , lines, phrases and words. Because the film is a decent one, with not small potential to be perceived as good , only if you ignore the book. The music has the desire to propose a sort of aura , the story itself becomes one of too many about forbitten feelings and new forms of comradery. But it is beautiful and a real nice try to give the essence of a splendid novel.

In the film, Goldmund's sculptor master tells him how he gave up the true heartfelt art for commercial success... Well, that just about sums up the character of this feature.

Hesse's original novel is not anyway an accurate representation of history, so the film version should be also free from the pressure of historical-accuracy. But the overall presentation, from costumes, make-up, production design, cinematography, and atmosphere, are too much closer to those popular quasi-fantasy costume TV serieses such as the Tudors or Merlin. It is the world viewed through the glamour filter. I mean, such an entertainment has its place, but if that was the aim of the film makers, why did they bother with Hermann Hesse? They could just opt for a fantasy story with magicians and dragon... or something like that.

It's not terrible by all means. A large scale production, OK actors, some beautiful views... But it's ultimately too kitsch to have any true impact.

An incredible film adaptation, with beautiful landscapes and extraordinary music. However, the story fails to captivate at all, so it becomes predictable moments. But overall it's a nice movie to watch, featuring great German performances by the young Jannis Niewöhner, Sabin Tambrea and Henriette Confurius, as well as extraordinary actors like Matthias Habich and André Hennicke.