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Schultze Gets the Blues
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Foreign | Musical
Written by: Michael Schorr
Directed by: Michael Schorr
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 18, 2005
DVD: August 30, 2005
Running Time: 114 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany
Summary
RATING: PG for mild language
Starring Horst Krause, Harald Warmbrunn, Karl Fred Müller, Ursula Schucht, Hannelore Schubert, Wolfgang Boos, Leo Fischer, and Loni Frank
Schultze has spent his whole life in a small town in Saxon-Anhalt near the river Saale. Schultze's life, divided between work and the pub, the allotment, folk music and fishing, is rudely interrupted when he and his mates Manfred and Jürgen are made redundant. As entropy sets in and maintaining the daily routine deteriorates into a farce, Schultze discovers a life on the other side of the hill. (Paramount Classics)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Filmed in a leisurely, understated style, this dark comedy is downright entrancing. A spectacular directorial debut.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
This deadpan ode to living life to its fullest could be the ultimate crowd-pleaser at this year's PIFF.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The writer and director, Michael Schorr, is making his first film, but has the confidence and simplicity of someone who has been making films forever.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
A delightfully deadpan comedy from Germany, is one of those movies where nothing whatsoever seems to happen until you look closely, at which point everything happens.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's the warmest, most generous portrait of American hospitality you've seen from a European movie in some time.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Michael Schorr's delightfully deadpan comedy debut blew away the German box office, and once you let yourself sink into its gentle rhythms, as slow and deliberate as those of its protagonist and inflected with tiny but significant shifts of pace and tone, you'll see why.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
A droll, deadpan film, deliberately paced and told.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Like the blues, you feel it first, and think of the meaning later.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
A quietly celebratory film about music and human kindness.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
With dialogue as spare as its harsh landscapes, the film is so tonally dry that it makes Aki Kaurismäki look like the Farrelly brothers--it begins at a snail's pace before speeding up to a turtle's drowsy crawl.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Edward Crouse
Ends up an intricate, becalmed take on a soul adrift.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
A sweet movie that takes its time at first but soon takes you over.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Schorr's endearing little movie gets under your skin much like the music it celebrates.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Krause is completely believeable as the solid old man, and though the story moves slower than molasses, it leaves the same dark aftertaste.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer
Schultze has a spare style, deliberately slow pace, and so little dialogue that to say it's in German with English subtitles seems to be stretching the truth.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
The scenery is pretty and the locals endearing, but Schorr never gets past charming.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A sweet German movie by a first-time filmmaker, who, I would bet, is more than a little familiar with the early work of Jim Jarmusch or just about any Aki KaurismŠki film.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Simply too tedious and stretched out to be amusing. Had Schorr brought in his picture at 80 or 90 minutes Schultze might have been a different story.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Krause is very nearly too passive. Deadpan is one thing, an empty vessel is another.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
It's a good thing the movie has so little dialogue, because when it talks, the words dilute its almost surreal visual spell, and the fructose turns to saccharine.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Roz E. gave it a7:
I enjoyed this movie whilst watching it, and found my impatience of thinking "get on with it!" after a while very telling; this is exactly what the film-maker is probably trying to achieve! Once I settled into the rhythm, I enjoyed all the little vignettes. My only complaint was his death at the end: not that he died, but that it was a bit unclear that he had died, and that the funeral was actually his and not them giving him up for dead in his non-return & disappearance to the Bayou.... worth it, if you have a visual appreciation and long attention span!
Mauro C. gave it a7:
Moving, relaxing, original.
David L. gave it an8:
Conrad K is simply ignorant and impatient. While this movie will not be mistaken for the greatest all time classic, it will also not be mistaken for pure stupidity. Take your head out of your ass, perhaps some directors may want to change things up a bit and focus the camera on the beauty of nature and place man second. Symbolism at its best. Can be slow at times but so is the point to which this movie is attempting to drive home. I agree with many former reviewers that it is quite admirable for the movie having ended in such a fashion of so little lights and glory and instead how a true retiree's life ends.
Joey L. gave it a7:
I found this movie while channel surfing, and heard my grandmother's voice singing a song in the background. I watched, and found Shultze to be an ordinary man with an interest in Louisiana Cajun music. He could be any lonely old senior citizen, which is what makes the movie so real. Its a good movie, a little slow, but good.
Les H. gave it an8:
Great move that shows plain kindness works best and carries much farther in life. Many words not spoken, told the best part of this tale. You never know when or where destiny pulls you. It`s the ride that counts, and I liked this ride! Thanks!
Karen M. gave it an8:
This was a delightful movie. Instead of the usual American hype dream that is realized at the end, this deals with an ordinary man and life. Schultze is like most of us leading our little lives as the prevailing norms have defined us. Hence, the assault of t "Reality "series.Yet,.he breaks out of the mold and lives out his dream in a Louisana Bayou.
Chad S. gave it a7:
Anybody who knows the story about Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival will recognize the allusion to this seminal confrontation of artist versus fanbase when Schultze decides to turn a cold shoulder towards the crowd's beloved polka. Although it's absolutely refreshing to see a film, especially a comedic one, in a realist style, "Schultze Gets the Blues" is somewhat hampered by its formalist ethos. Schultze(Horst Krause) is so unassuming, more close-ups might've helped us better gauge the man through facial expressions since he's a man of very few words. And when he gets to America, the film's unpredictability, at times, is a strength and a weakness. What could've been a musical odyessy that culminated in his becoming a better musician, turns out to be a series of sometimes interesting, sometimes boring digressions into American life. What ultimately plants "Schultze Gets the Blues" firmly on the worth seeing list is an absolutely charming scene in which Schultze is invited sit down at the table of a Bayou woman and her daughter.
