lavanille | [MOVIE] Schultze Gets the Blues

I finished this about ten minutes ago, and it's my first actual German-made film I've ever seen. I think. There have probably been one or two others over the years but if there were, I was too young to get into them.

Cinematically, Schultze has a very subtle feel. For example, there is no artwork except in Schultze's shack and in the bars in America. It makes everywhere else feel bland and bleached out. It took me a while to realize that was what felt so depressing about most of the Germany-based scenes.

The pacing is very slow. If an American producer edited this, it would end up being a twenty-minute short film about a man who plays the accordion and dances in cheesy Southern bars. And then you'd miss all the unspoken little details about his relationships, about his history, and why he is so happy in the Deep South of America. But we would probably have explosions and boat chases, so...

The ending is bittersweet in the best ways. I don't think any other film has ever pulled off that ending and made me smile about it.

8/10 Bass Clefs