HEIDI
Director: Alain Gsponer
Cast: Anuk Steffen, Bruno Ganz, Quirin Agrippi, Anna Schinz, Isabelle Ottmann, Peter Lohmeyer, Katharina Schuttler, Hannelore Hoger, Maxim Mehmet, Jella Haase
Rating: (PG)
Four stars (out of five)
This German-language version (Rialto) is the latest of many. Shirley Temple starred in the most famous one, in 1937, but Heidi is such a universal favourite it was even made into a Japanese anime television series in 1974.
Anuk Steffen plays Heidi here and she has a winning smile that helps her carry the film. While the Swiss countryside looks lovely, the life of a Swiss peasant in 1890 looks pretty bleak. Orphaned Heidi is dumped on her grumpy grandfather, known as the Alp Uncle (Bruno Ganz), because he lives high in the Alps all year long. He is not keen but is quickly won over. Heidi loves the mountains and learning their secrets from Peter (Quirin Agrippi) the goat herder.
All too soon Aunt Dete (Anna Schinz), the guardian who dumped her, reclaims Heidi as she has found a position for her in Frankfurt as the companion to Klara (Isabelle Ottmann), a young girl confined to a wheelchair. While on the surface life is much easier in Frankfurt with servants and an endless supply of soft white bread rolls, Heidi longs for her mountains and her grandfather.
In much the same fashion as last year’s Anne of Green Gables, Heidi is perhaps more of a guilty pleasure for adults who loved the book growing up and want to share some of the magic with their children or even grandchildren.
- Christine Powley
