Käthe Kruse is a
German historical movie that is based on a true story: the life and career of
Käthe Kruse (1883-1968). It was shown on German television (ARD) and released
on DVD in 2015. Here is some basic information about it:
** Director:
Franziska Buch
** Writer: Sharon
von Wietersheim
** Soundtrack:
German – no English subtitles!
** Run time: 90
minutes
The cast includes
the following:
** Friederike
Becht as Käthe Kruse (1883-1968)
** Fritz Karl as
Max Kruse (1854-1942) – artist
** Franz Dinda as
David – friend, lawyer, photographer
** Ursula Strauss
as Christiane Simon – Käthe’s mother
** Helena
Schönfelder as Maria – Käthe’s daughter
** Wilfried
Hochholdinger as Ferdinand Bing – a businessman
Since this movie
is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They
are not a secret. Therefore I feel free to mention some of them in this review.
While this movie
is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized
version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown in the movie. But
the basic story-line is true.
While this movie
is a biography of Käthe Kruse, it does not cover her whole life. Apart from a
brief glimpse when Käthe is seven (1890), the movie covers only 25 years of her
life: the time 1900-1925.
But Käthe lived to
be more than 80 years old. This means that the movie covers less than a third
of her life. The story begins in 1900 and stops in 1925. There is nothing about
the 1930s, nothing about World War Two, and nothing about the time after the
war. This is a shame.
Käthe was born in 1883
in a small town near Breslau, which was at the time a part of the German Empire
(today it is in Poland). Her mother (Christiane Simon) and her father were not
married. Christiane Simon was a single mother, but Käthe’s father visited from
time to time. It seems he helped to pay for Käthe’s school.
As a child, Käthe wanted
to become an actress, and her dream became true. In the year 1900, when the main
story begins, she is a popular actress on the stage in Berlin. She also tours
other cities. In 1902 she meets Max Kruse who is a famous artist. They become a
couple. Max is recently divorced, but he does not want to marry Käthe. As an
artist, he does not care for conventions. In 1909 he changes his mind and they
are married. They have several children, both before and after 1909.
Käthe’s career as
an actress ends when she has children. Now she focuses on being a mother. In
order to make some money, she sells homemade products in the market.
She also makes a
doll for her daughter. At one point a customer wants to buy this doll, which
was only made for fun. Now Käthe has an idea. She wants to make dolls and to
sell them. She wants to have a second career. She wants to become a
businesswoman!
At the time, this
was something quite unusual. In the German Empire, a woman was expected to be a
wife and a mother. Not to start her own business. But this is what Käthe does.
And she is quite successful. In this movie we follow her life and her career as
a doll maker.
What do reviewers
say about it? On IMDb it has a rating of 66 per cent, which corresponds to 3.3
stars on Amazon. On the German version of Amazon there are three reviews of
this product. The average rating is five stars. If you ask me, the former
rating is too low, while the latter rating is too high. Why?
I like this movie,
and I want to give it a good rating, but it has a flaw. As mentioned above, it
covers less than one third of Käthe’s life. I would like to know what happens
in the 1930s, during World War Two and after the war. I have to remove one star
because of this flaw. Therefore I think it deserves a rating of four stars.
PS # 1. For more
information, see the following biography: Käthe Kruse: Ein Leben by Gabriele
Katz (2015).
PS # 2. Friederike
Becht and Franz Dinda also appear in Westwind, a historical movie from 2011.
*****
Käthe Kruse (1883-1968)
*****
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