Bergkristall (2004) User Reviews

absolute boring adaptation of a X-Mas novel

[michael-zechmann · 1/10 · 27 November 2004]

The movie is an adaptation of an Adalbert Stifter novel, written in the year 1845. And that says everything about the story. It's just old.

There are two villages in the Alps, one rich and one poor. Some shoemaker falls in love with a girl, who is living in the rich village. They marry, are living in the poor village, everyone hates them. They get 2 children and their marriage seems to brake up. So the wife is going back to the rich village, the kids stay with the father, but are visiting every day their mother - which is a march about 3 hours. The kids hear the story about a rock crystal that can reunite two lovers. At Christmas Eve the kids are marching from one village to another - again, but there is a blizzard. They get lost. And they search the crystal. You may envision the rest...

It's a total family film. Not only that the director is the husband of the main actress and the father of the little girl, but also because it's just a boring Christmas movie for the little ones.

Frequent continuity errors (Good weather and blue sky - cut - 1 sec later - dark clouds and snowfall; or the one I loved the most: autumn -the kids are at a stone, the trees are bald, not one leaf - cut - kids are still at the rock, all the trees got buds....yes, it's spring!), extremely bad actors, different dialects (german dialects! - Stifter was Austrian and the story takes place in Austria - but this only bothers an Austrian guy) and an absolute boring and predictable story make this movie to the X-Mas-flop of the year.

Save the money! Save your time! You won't miss anything.

Just beautiful

[orangecream · 10/10 · 7 January 2005]

One of the most beautiful Christmas movies I've seen in a long time. The films tells the story of two kids trying to re-unit their parents and in order to do so they get lost in the mountains on Christmas Eve. Where everybody would expect cheap action scenes a la "Alaska" the story has much more subtle and romantic approach.

Some sequences even bring up memories of great classics such as "Night of the Hunter". The outdoor scenes in the mountains just blew me away and the acting of the two main characters - the children - is really impressing. The film was realized with love to the detail and I got a good impression how life was a hundred years ago. The film has the potential to become a film classic itself. In any case it's a brilliant adaption of the novel and good family entertainment.

Poor man's Romeo and Juliet in the Alps

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 23 February 2018]

"Bergkristall" is a German German-language film from 2004 and one of the more recent efforts by director Joseph Vilsmaier, even if the film is also almost 15 years old already. This one is from the days when his wife Dana Vavrova was still alive and of course she appears in here too just like some of their children. Also on board, but with not too much screen time is Katja Riemann and so is her daughter, so it is a bit of a family affair. The script is by Klaus Richter and it is of course based on an old tale by Adalbert Stifter and this is not the first time this one has been turned into a film, but maybe the most known. Like pretty much all other works by Vilsmaier, there is a strong South German component in here in terms of language and photography: the mountains are dominant. Still atg the center of it all is the story of two families who have not gotten alonge well at all for a long time and what happens when their young children do get along better than anybody would want them to. The performances are all solid, the photography is decent and the story is not too shabby either and yet there was something missing here for me to get me really to care about the characters depicted I must say. It's tough to put a finger on it what the exact reason may be. It's not necessarily the bleakness of it all or that I did not really connect with any of the characters in here I think. I just did not care for anybody overall or what would happen to them or that the families eventually get along and/or that the kids may spend as much time with each other as they want to. The heart that the film offers felt like it never got an approach where it really gets you emotionally involved and the eventual search for the kids in the mountainside is when the film is perhaps at its weakest as it tries so hard to be a dramatic highlight, but never really comes even close to truly making an impact. Or making an impact at all. Quite a shame to be honest. I think this film had all the potential to be something far better than it eventually turned out. You will find quite a few known names and familiar faces from Germany's movie industry in here. Some I mentioned already and others would be the young Lau and Goeske, but also Tidof, Wlaschiha, Knaup and others you probably came across in other projects already if you are interested in German film. Nonetheless I overall do not recommend checking out these slightly under 1.5 hours. It wasn't a memorable watch on any occasion. Go for something else instead.

Powerful

[Lawrenti_P_Berija · 10/10 · 10 August 2005]

The strength, justice and beauty of this tale is almost unfathomable, the pictures are breathtaking and the music makes you cry. I read the story in school so i was very much looking forward to watch it. But here is a warning: the movie encourages you to make holidays in the mountains. I liked that movie especially because the main theme of the novel was very well worked in - the reconciliation as a Christian value. The story of two Mountainvillages that hated each other to the blood for a long time - and finally how the hatred got ultimately defeated and slain by the love and fantasy of the two children who clamped to the possibility that everything can be resolved symbolized by the search for the crystal.