LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

MrGKB ...about following one's bliss is perhaps the best way to describe "Schultze Gets the Blues," an auteur debut from Michael Schorr, a guy with one documentary prior and a follow-up feature that apparently went nowhere fast. One-hit wonder perhaps, but it's a good one-hit wonder, presuming you have the patience for its deliberate pacing and (what a surprise!) documentary feel. Whiz-bang fans will get nothing from "Schultze Gets the Blues," while fans of unprepossessing human stories, be they indie or foreign language or whatever, will be amply rewarded, no pun intended vis-a-vis the beer-belly protagonist played to perfection by a busy German actor, Horst Krause, who may now well be my new favorite character actor. He makes his shyly determined character much more than one might imagine from the sparse dialogue. Some fine camera-work from a DP who (surprise again!) mostly does documentaries seals the deal.Let's put it this way: perhaps my tastes are occasionally odd, but it's a rare film that holds my attention well enough to forestall the traditional halftime cigarette in favor of seeing what happens next. "Schultze Gets the Blues" was one of those films. "Broken Flowers" was another one; maybe I'm just a sucker for such movies. Regardless, a highly recommended sleeper.

Syl Schultze is a retired German miner. He finds life and love again with his accordion. In Germany, he finds retirement to be dull and boring. Instead, he heads to Louisiana in the United States with his accordion for an adventure of a lifetime in a music competition. There he finds a new way of living, loving and laughing again with Southern Louisianans on the Delta. The film is more character driven about Schultze. There isn't much action on screen but you learn to feel for him. Even though he is alone most of the time, he's not lonely. He makes friends quite easily even in the Delta. This film was done both in Germany and in Louisiana and Texas. There were many more questions I had than I received answers for the movie. It's slow paced more normally than most films but well-acted almost realistically. I can see why it won awards. It's not over the top but done just right to explore Schultze's soul and heart.

Terrell-4 If you like sweet-natured movies with unlikely lead characters, particularly when they find themselves breaking out of old habits, you should like the German film Schultze Gets the Blues. It's the first film from director Michael Schorr and he brings it off with style. Herr Schultze (Horst Krause) is a heavy set man, probably in his late fifties, who with two friends has been eased into retirement at the commercial salt mine he has worked at for years. Calling Schultze portly would do poor justice to his sizable belly. He's not flabby; he's earned those inches through hard work and plenty of beer. He lives alone and has never thought much about fancy ideas like life. Now, he takes afternoon naps, drinks beer with his two friends, washes his garden trolls and continues to play the accordion at polka parties. He's a slow moving, slow talking, deliberate man. Life is just there, nothing is happening in it, and Schultze is slowly being bored to death without realizing it. He just continues to take each day at its own pace. Then one night he turns the radio dial at home and suddenly hears a fast, strange style of accordion playing he's never heard before. He's come across a broadcast of Louisiana zydeco music. He listens, puzzled. He turns the radio off and starts to go back to bed, then turns and switches the music on again. He listens some more. He tries to figure out the music he's listening to. He turns the radio off again, heads back to bed, but then stops and puts on his accordion. He picks out the tune, then plays it faster and faster, trying to match the zydeco beat. Herr Schultze doesn't know it yet but he has just changed his life. Before long Schultze is playing his zydeco song before puzzled polka audiences. He finds a recipe for jambalaya and cooks it for his two best friends, who've never had such a spicy dish before. Schultze smiles approvingly as they keep eating and drink more beer. He gets part time jobs to earn money for a trip to bayou country in the States. And he wins a contest which will give him enough money to go to his town's sister city in America, New Braunfels, Texas, to compete in a music festival. Schultze gets there, listens to the others and realizes he's out of his league. Instead of going home to spend more time polishing the garden gnomes and taking naps in the afternoon, he buys a small blue boat with an enclosed cabin and sets out from coastal Texas into Louisiana bayou territory. Schultze can speak probably no more than a dozen words of English. He also is one of the most sincere, innocent and non-threatening people you'll ever meet. Schultze meets people he never thought of meeting yet somehow always wanted to. Old men playing dominos in a friendly bar in Moulton, Texas. A Czech band made up of cheerful Americans on the Texas gulf coast. Middle-aged cajuns dancing to a zydeco beat in a bayou bar. A woman and her daughter on a boat who give him a glass of water and invite him to stay for a creole lunch of crab and shrimp. The postcards and pictures he sends back to his friends bemuse them. Schultze also finds a contentment that we share with him. The movie takes its time. There is no flashy cutting. The director isn't afraid of setting up his camera and simply letting a scene unfold. The first half of the movie when Schultze is at his home can sometimes seem as slow-moving as Schultze himself, but stay with it. Once you get into the rhythm of the movie, it works. There is little dialogue, especially when Schultze gets to Texas, just the efforts of a well-meaning man to be understood, and of the efforts of well-meaning Texans, Creoles and Cajuns to understand him. The movie has a dead-pan sense of humor about it at times. It can be poignant but it's not sad. And even the ending is not too sentimental. The movie is well photographed, especially the long, gray days in Schultze's home town and the lush, bayou landscapes that make up the last half of the film.

lastliberal This is director Michael Schorr's first film, and, from the honors it has been given, we can expect to see more greatness from him in the future.Some compare this film to About Schmidt, and say that this is what it should have been. I leave that to the viewer to decide, but I was enchanted by this brilliant character study starring Horst Krause, a long time German actor, who is enchanting as Schultze.All of us face death. Sometimes we think about it constantly; especially when you have an illness due to your work, or are facing depression. Schultze knows that it is coming and his life is routine and boring even if he has his music.To change at this time of life is an impressive feat. Schultze finds life in Zydeco. I can relate to that as you cannot possible ignore the stirring in you very being when you hear that music. It, and the sexy Ellen Barkin, are the reasons The Big Easy is a favorite film of mine.Fortunately, Shultze gets the opportunity to savor some of the life in the land of Zydeco before he dies. Only speaking German, he is welcomed and accepted here as he was rejected by those in Germany who could not accept change.It is a beautiful story about the end of life, searching for your dreams, and stretching beyond the comfortable.