2003 – Michael Schorr
PG – 114 minutes
Vault Rating: 7.5
If you were to typify the German sensibility, you might find yourself saying words like “precise” or “industrious.” You might fall into any number of stereotypes, some of which are in evidence in today’s feature, some of which are not.
Schultze (Horst Krause), our protagonist, is a round man. Think of a retirement-aged Charlie Brown. Better still, think of Mike Wasilko of Philipsburg. He’s got big forearms, a receding hairline and big, stubby fingers. Schultze has worked his life away in a salt mine and he and his contemporaries are about to embark on their retirement.
Now, most of us look forward to retirement — Oct. 7, 2011 — not that I’m counting the days or anything. We dream of languid days, cold beer and complete freedom.
But when that day arrives for Schultze, it is somewhat underwhelming. Think of that time in your life when you graduated from school. You feel good about it, but there is a certain anxiety that goes with getting what you wished for. A certain “what next” thing happens.
Schultze finds he’s not useful anymore and he quickly runs out of things to do around his tiny house. THIS is when Schultze begins to get the blues.
We find that Schultze is a fine accordion player in the traditional polkas beloved by his community. This is about the most surprising thing you will find out about Schultze, who is, at the outset anyway, an unsurprising individual.
But in retirement, the underpinnings of his world have come loose and he begins to… dare I say it… branch out. A flamboyant barmaid here, an adventurous older love interest there and a chance rendition of a zydeco tune on the radio gently nudge our stoic hero into new directions.
When Schultze tries with his accordion to marry the traditional polka to the newly discovered cajun music, a comic theme is established throughout the rest of the film. Schultze begins to study spicy food and swamp music and enters a contest that would whisk him away to Texas in the storybook land of America.
Let’s say that Schultze suffers his setbacks, but the point is that he’s discovered something to live for in his humdrum pensioner’s world. He’s discovered a love, a spice, a passion that transforms an otherwise retiring soul. And isn’t love and spice and passion what makes life worth living?
Schultze is a quiet kind of hero for me. He reminds of a luckless Charlie Brown who finally, finally finds true happiness. Now, the movie that he inhabits is not an uproarious thing, nor is it particularly meaningful, but it is quietly true. A nice movie. A pleasant thing. I hope you like it too.
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