Des Kaisers neue Kleider (2010)
Many years ago, there lived an Emperor, Friedhelm, who wanted so much new clothes that he spent all his money to be properly cleaned. One day, three scammers with a ruse, came along who pretended to be weavers, Jacob, Maja and Greta. "The clothes are so special, that they are invisible to any who are hopelessly dumb or unworthy of office."
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At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
The two big channels ARD and ZDF have ordered quite a few fairytale movies in recent years and this one here is actually a fairly known one: "Des Kaisers neue Kleider". Unlike most of them it is not by the Brothers Grimm, but by Hans Christian Andersen ("The Little Mermaid") and it runs for pretty much exactly an hour. It also starts right away with clothes references in minute one when a certain dress is described as to how it looks and what it is made of. Also the emperor has a nickname "Der Fesche" which means "the chic one". The central character seems to be nice. He only steals because he is very hungry and does not give away a small girl who stole something too. And he is certainly smart as he makes witty cheeky comments occasionally.The film's director is Hannu Salonen who has worked on "Tatort", "Der Kriminalist" and "Polizeiruf 110" films already, a totally different area of expertise. The writer David Ungureit has worked on quite a couple more fairytale films. Sergej Moya is the main actor and I was pleasantly surprised as I remember a movie where I was fairly underwhelmed by him. Alissa Jung gives a solid performance as well. The whole cast is decent, all of them experienced actors here in Germany. If you like the actor who plays the emperor (Matthias Brandt), I recommend his movie "Gegenüber". But this is definitely a film for grown-ups, not like this one here.The good thing about these fairytale movies is that they can be completely over the top and it does not hurt the movie at all, frequently even helps it. And this one is. Also, it has more humor than most of these films and it works nicely as well. The only thing I can think of that I did not like is the emperor's 180° transformation at the end. He seemed very unlikeable for the entire movie, but than transforms into a nice guy, even a friend to the couple. Did not seem credible to me. But everything else is fine. Recommended.