Eureka Entertainment: Heart of Stone (1950) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Eureka Entertainment

Eureka Entertainment, between their Mabuse Lives! and Terror in the Fog boxes, have made a concerted (if not competitive) effort to publish a great many number of East as well as West German films on Blu-ray disc in the United Kingdom and United States for the first time outside of Germany.  In addition to their now out-of-print Strange New Worlds sci-fi box of East German DEFA films, the boutique label recently acquired and released a special 2K restored release of DEFA’s foray into fantasy folklore tales as effects heavy wonderments.  Circa 1950, the state-owned DEFA company turned to German author Wilhelm Hauff’s folklore The Cold Heart, the fairy tale of a young man living in the Black Forest who is tempted by a forest spirit into trading his heart over for success including enhancing his social status.  In the Agfacolor production, the first East German film made in this format, it was directed by Paul Verhoeven (not to be confused with the Dutch director of Robocop) and seen today is one of the undiscovered gems of Eastern European fantasy fiction.
 
Charcoal burner Peter Munk (Lutz Moik) lives with his mother and falls madly in love with Lisbeth (Hanna Rucker).  Much to his chagrin however, he’s no match for the proud socialite Ezechiel (Paul Esser) a regular at the local tavern.  Deciding to take a step further, he appeals to the generosities of the small but good forest spirit dubbed the Glass Imp (Paul Bildt).  Granting him two wishes that prove to be more troublesome than they’re worth, making him a rich man until he winds up penniless unable to manage his glassmaking business in over his head in debt to creditors and unable to secure a marriage to Lisbeth.  Hastily he turns to another more nefarious forest spirit, a giant warlock named Dutch Michael (Erwin Geschonneck) who offers to grant him boundless wealth provided he trades his heart over for a stone, effectively selling his soul and principles for success. 

 
Filmed at the historic Babelsberg Studio with other sequences done in Tabarz and Schwarzburg as the real Black Forest was in West Germany and couldn’t be filmed there, Heart of Stone was a game changer for East German cinema and DEFA.  Becoming the first fantasy fairy tale live action film to incorporate real actors into the proceedings rather than animation despite the film’s innovative use of in-camera photographic effects, the film was originally intended to be directed by The Blum Affair filmmaker Erich Engel before Paul Verhoeven took over.  Playful and peculiar but also at times scary and gothic macabre, the film is a sensory feast thanks to luminous cinematography by Burning Hearts cameraman Bruno Mondi, illuminating Emil Hasler’s still stunning set pieces and Walter Schulze-Mittendorff’s period costume design.  The score by Adventures in Berlin composer Herbert Trantow also adds to the atmosphere of magic and mystique, colorful whimsy and dark grey horrors. 

 
A large production that supposedly went over budget, it amassed a crew of well over fifty people and is by and large a visual effects marvel.  The leading actor Lutz Moik who later became a voice actor perfectly inhabits the youthful innocence gradually being corrupted by power and money.  Meanwhile perhaps the film’s most notable actor is Paul Bildt as the magical Glass Imp, coming off of Two Merry Adventurers and The False Step.  And of course Erwin Geschonneck as the nefarious giant proposing the Heart of Stone swap is a legendary actor who would later win the 1993 German Film Honorary Award. 

 
Released in December of 1950, the film became a huge hit for DEFA selling as many as 9 million tickets on its opening.  Something of a precursor to the darker fantasy fiction screen fables such as The Neverending Story or Legend or Return to Oz while predating those films by three decades, Heart of Stone comes to Blu-ray for the first time via Eureka Entertainment and the DEFA Foundation in a new pristine 2K restored transfer from the original 35mm camera negative. 

 
A film that prompted other dark East German fantasies such as The Devil from Mill Mountain, The Singing Ringing Tree and Rumpelstiltskin, the Eureka disc includes new interviews and video essays on Soviet cinema and gothic horror folktales from Eastern Europe.  Most strikingly, however, among the extras are the inclusion of three animated short films made between 1954 and 1958.  Though presently Region B locked, the gradual unveiling and publishing of DEFA titles in the UK and US have been very exciting for worldly cinephiles scouring the corners of international film circles keen on practical effects heavy Eastern European fantasy films you can’t get here anymore. 

--Andrew Kotwicki