Heart of Stone

Peter Munk, a young charcoal burner in the Black Forest, is sick of being poor and looked down on. A figure he meets in the woods, Dutch Michel, makes him an offer: give up your human heart and take one made of stone. Peter accepts and does become rich. But he no longer feels anything, and he does harm to everyone around him, above all to his wife. Adapted from Wilhelm Hauff's tale, the film was DEFA's first colour production, shot in Agfacolor and seen by millions in East Germany. Its director, Paul Verhoeven, is not to be confused with the Dutch director of the same name; this one was a German born in 1901. The tale itself is a moral story, but the film does not turn it into a sermon; its real strength is in the forest, the fire and the use of colour.