Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 18 Ratings

  • Starring: Harald Warmbrunn, Horst Krause, Karl-Fred Müller
  • Summary: 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 maintainning the daily routine deteriorates into a farce, Schultze discovers a life on the other side of the hill. (Paramount Classics) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. Filmed in a leisurely, understated style, this dark comedy is downright entrancing. A spectacular directorial debut.
  2. 80
    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.
  3. 75
    A sweet and charming treat.
  4. 60
    Krause is completely believeable as the solid old man, and though the story moves slower than molasses, it leaves the same dark aftertaste.

See all 22 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 13
  2. Negative: 2 out of 13
  1. DavidL.
    8
    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. Expand
  2. JoeyL.
    7
    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. Expand
  3. RozE.
    7
    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! Expand
  4. MauroC.
    7
    Moving, relaxing, original.

See all 13 User Reviews