"Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern" is a German television film from 2013, so not that long anymore really until this one exists for a decade. Maybe it happened already, depending on when you read my review. This is of course one of the many, many modern fairytale adaptations ARD and its smaller channels have come up with in recent years. I am kinda glad these exists as with ARD Degeto burning millions of Euros for their trashy romance comedy movies, there is a light at the end of the tunnel because some of these fairytale films are actually fairly decent. Most of the time, they run for exactly an hour or minimally under and this is the case too. Also, like with most of the others, this was shown for the holidays back in 2013 and I assume as we are almost in December now, this is the time where this movie will also be airing on one or two more occasions in addition to today. The director is Uwe Janson and he started making movies back in the late 1980s, so basically during the time when the Berlin Wall fell over 30 years ago. He has been very prolific since then: some okay projects, some not so okay projects gently-speaking. This is not the only time he collaborated with writer David Ungureit though, not even the only time they made a fairytale film together. Ungureit is five years younger than his director, so very fittingly he launched his career five years later and has been equally prolific since then, actually been involved with quite a few of these fairytale films. And he keeps delivering quality. Of course, the base material here is not by Ungureit, but by Hans Christian Andersen, maybe the second most fairytale writer here in Germany. Or third if you count the Brothers Grimm as two, but I don't really see why anybody would because all they came up with, they came up with as a duo. As for Andersen, his tales probably do not include animals as often as the Grimms' and they are also sometimes slightly darker. Or at least they do not hide their darkness as much in playfuls ways the way the Brothers Grimm handled it. This certainly applies to this movie here as well and later on I will tell you why. Now let's take a look at the cast: The title character is played by Lea Müller and I find it quite a pity that she is no longer acting. This film came out when she was 14, visiting secondary school, and apparently focused considerably more on her education from that point onwards because she only appeared in one other project afterwards despite being really prolific as an actress before that. I liked her a lot in here and well, if she is happy now with whatever else she is doing than good for her, but still if she reads this, I think she should consider a return to acting because I think she is fairly talented. The really young Maximilian Ehrenreich, however, seems to be very dedicated to stay in acting for as long as he can. He plays the emmm.. I almost wrote "brother", but I think they are not related, just stickin' together at the orphanage. Nina Kunzendorf is the main antagonist here. Not much to say about her. She does what was needed to play a really unlikable character and she is of course a very established actress and has been for years. Jörg Hartmann that most will known from Tatort noadays I suppose plays a mysterious man. A spirit? A wizard? But in any case a helper as he makes sure the title character has it easy and comfortable on her way out. And finally Oliver Korittke is the epitome of an actor who is always easy to identify thanks to his recognition value. It is not even huge charisma with him. And definitely not massive range. I am not sure what it is. Anyway, here he plays a police officer who is a friend to the children and cannot mention often enough that he has a wife at home.
As for the plot, this is of course a version of Andersen's " The Little Match Girl". I think that after seeing this one, I am pretty sure that it is my favorite fairytale of all time. There is something about it I'm really digging and there are really many versions out for this tale. It is maybe Andersen's second-most known after "The Little Mermaid", but while I like that one too, this one here is probably my number one. I want to see more adaptations for sure. All the ones I have seen I really liked and most of them really touched me, also for example an animated short that was nominated for an Oscar is one of my favorite short films of all. So did this one here. It touched me too. Especially near the end. I mentioned the darkness in Andersen's tales. Well, you don't have it with the Brothers grimm that the title character is killed right? Or even if (s)he vanishes in a wolf belly, she still gets out unharmed in the end. Not so for the girl in here. Eventually she freezes to death and this moment really got to me, especially with her brother watching from the outside. Pay attention to how the brother is scared before that and says the cop will have to search for her immediately. Or how the cop (Korittke) says that he will make sure the antagonist gets her accurate punishment now. And the young girl's death is certainly making things easier in that department. One thing that is also unusual for these fairytale films is that there is a big jump in time in the end and we see the brother and now he is at least a decade older. But there are references back to the cold winder in which the majority of the story is set. For example the change in height. Or how the orphanage looks now (much more friendly), compared to how it looked back then. Even the main antagonist is back and she is now more of a victim and has to work hard herself as well, but we kinda see that her really evil spirit may be gone, so it is a bit of an uplifting film from this perspective too. I am of course talking about Kunzendorf's character here. She treats the children really poorly, she cheats them out of their money and she even physically abuses them, even if they kept actually violent sequences out of course because this is a film that also really young audiences will see. And they may have more fun seeing her burp than I did. Violence is also kept out on other occasions with the oldest boy from the orphanage. He is a bit of a henchman (if we are using Bond language), especially mean and almost gruesome in the scene outside when he bullies the two protagonists and threatens the boy even to make them leave because he is the only one to sell these match sticks there on the market. However, we also see he is not entirely evil in this sequence when he is supposed to severely beat up the little boy because they find a bit of a compromise, which still shows that the older boy is really not the smartest kid out there. Okay, I have written a lot here now for a relatively short film like this, but I totally wanted to because I so much enjoyed the watch here. I already mentioned the haunting scene when we see the frozen girl and that she is dead and my eyes got a bit wet there honestly and in the flash-forward sequence in the end, we also see her young friend, now much older, and how he still carries her with him all the time in the form of an amulet. The way she carried her parents with her in the past. Really nice closure like that and I absolutely cannot come up with anything negative about this film. Maybe the fictitious sequence when she meets her parents again could have been a bit more touching in terms of the execution, but then again the mere thought behind it that this as the moment when she died really and is united with them again is touching enough by definition. The shooting star reference is also as genius as it gets. May I really need to read Andersen's original tale at some point and see how good it is if I like the film(s) already this much. Of course, on a much more general note, sets and costumes (liked the cop costume especially) and effects and how basically the snow/cold is depicted really won me over as well. Must not be taken for granted this was also visually a big success in my opinion. They probably did not invest millions, but that is not important because it feels convincing overall and probably more charming than many films that invested millions in these departments. This is a movie I really need to watch at least once per year for the holidays. Or probably I should see it even more often if I find the time. Yes, it is this good and I am surprised why it took them actually pretty long until they turned this into a fairytale movie and they picked many others first, some that have maybe less famous stories that they are based on, but the wait here was 100% worth it. 200% even as there were moments when I considered giving it a perfect 10/10 rating. Maybe next time I see it. The music is really beautiful as well. Go see it in the next weeks. Do not miss out under any circumstance. Highly, highly recommended.
As for the plot, this is of course a version of Andersen's " The Little Match Girl". I think that after seeing this one, I am pretty sure that it is my favorite fairytale of all time. There is something about it I'm really digging and there are really many versions out for this tale. It is maybe Andersen's second-most known after "The Little Mermaid", but while I like that one too, this one here is probably my number one. I want to see more adaptations for sure. All the ones I have seen I really liked and most of them really touched me, also for example an animated short that was nominated for an Oscar is one of my favorite short films of all. So did this one here. It touched me too. Especially near the end. I mentioned the darkness in Andersen's tales. Well, you don't have it with the Brothers grimm that the title character is killed right? Or even if (s)he vanishes in a wolf belly, she still gets out unharmed in the end. Not so for the girl in here. Eventually she freezes to death and this moment really got to me, especially with her brother watching from the outside. Pay attention to how the brother is scared before that and says the cop will have to search for her immediately. Or how the cop (Korittke) says that he will make sure the antagonist gets her accurate punishment now. And the young girl's death is certainly making things easier in that department. One thing that is also unusual for these fairytale films is that there is a big jump in time in the end and we see the brother and now he is at least a decade older. But there are references back to the cold winder in which the majority of the story is set. For example the change in height. Or how the orphanage looks now (much more friendly), compared to how it looked back then. Even the main antagonist is back and she is now more of a victim and has to work hard herself as well, but we kinda see that her really evil spirit may be gone, so it is a bit of an uplifting film from this perspective too. I am of course talking about Kunzendorf's character here. She treats the children really poorly, she cheats them out of their money and she even physically abuses them, even if they kept actually violent sequences out of course because this is a film that also really young audiences will see. And they may have more fun seeing her burp than I did. Violence is also kept out on other occasions with the oldest boy from the orphanage. He is a bit of a henchman (if we are using Bond language), especially mean and almost gruesome in the scene outside when he bullies the two protagonists and threatens the boy even to make them leave because he is the only one to sell these match sticks there on the market. However, we also see he is not entirely evil in this sequence when he is supposed to severely beat up the little boy because they find a bit of a compromise, which still shows that the older boy is really not the smartest kid out there. Okay, I have written a lot here now for a relatively short film like this, but I totally wanted to because I so much enjoyed the watch here. I already mentioned the haunting scene when we see the frozen girl and that she is dead and my eyes got a bit wet there honestly and in the flash-forward sequence in the end, we also see her young friend, now much older, and how he still carries her with him all the time in the form of an amulet. The way she carried her parents with her in the past. Really nice closure like that and I absolutely cannot come up with anything negative about this film. Maybe the fictitious sequence when she meets her parents again could have been a bit more touching in terms of the execution, but then again the mere thought behind it that this as the moment when she died really and is united with them again is touching enough by definition. The shooting star reference is also as genius as it gets. May I really need to read Andersen's original tale at some point and see how good it is if I like the film(s) already this much. Of course, on a much more general note, sets and costumes (liked the cop costume especially) and effects and how basically the snow/cold is depicted really won me over as well. Must not be taken for granted this was also visually a big success in my opinion. They probably did not invest millions, but that is not important because it feels convincing overall and probably more charming than many films that invested millions in these departments. This is a movie I really need to watch at least once per year for the holidays. Or probably I should see it even more often if I find the time. Yes, it is this good and I am surprised why it took them actually pretty long until they turned this into a fairytale movie and they picked many others first, some that have maybe less famous stories that they are based on, but the wait here was 100% worth it. 200% even as there were moments when I considered giving it a perfect 10/10 rating. Maybe next time I see it. The music is really beautiful as well. Go see it in the next weeks. Do not miss out under any circumstance. Highly, highly recommended.
