The Devil's Three Golden Hairs

I definitely think the target audience of this film was the younger, lower/middle class because of the emphasis on hard work (as with the DEFA Snow White film) as well as the element of comedy present in the film.

I found many similarities between "The Devil's Three Golden Hairs" and "Snow White" - the most obvious similarity to me was in the opening scene. "The Devil's Three Golden Hairs" opens with the blacksmiths working really hard, and in "Schneewittchen," the kitchen scene with all the cooks and kitchen hands working away. Both of these scenes were really long (even though they really didn't contribute that much to the actual plot of the story) and were meant to emphasize the benefits of hard work.

This "lesson" of hard work that the film attempts to teach makes me believe even more that the film was geared towards the younger population (possibly towards children)

Devil with the three golden hairs

     I would say that this audience might be lower to middle class, and younger rather than adults.  It is created in such a way to preserve teachings, and not be able to interpret it in any other way than just a story.  

     This movie is similar in a way to the version of Snow White that we saw, because of its humanization of certain elements.  In Snow White, instead of the "magical" element of the mirror, we got a clever machine.  In this movie, the devil is very human looking.  There is not necessarily an aspect of "devilish" nature, like I would necessarily expect.  While the devil does have horns and a tail, they are very minimal in terms of the whole.  His magic is also overdone, and could be explained by special effects.  

     I found the medium of this film to be told in a very humorous way, especially the part with the boy taking care of the devil.  There is no devil's grandmother as in the Grimms novel.  Instead, the boy is left handling things himself.  He watches the devil play piano, combs out his hair, makes him dinner...I interpreted this part of the plot as an additional way to make the concept of this movie ridiculous, and fake.  This society didn't want to acknowledge that there was magic, or stories other then the ones they were telling.  

The Devil w/ 3 Golden Hairs

The intended audience of this film seems to be the middle class who could potentially identify with the working class of the movie. This is identifiable as a DEFA production because, as in Snow White, the film seems to involve a slapstick element even though it is acting as propaganda of East Germany. The medium is an advantage to the propaganda effort because not much is let up to the imagination, so whatever image the DEFA wants to portray is seen by the audience.

Assignment 7 - 17.March 2009

Hi Nikki, Tiffany, Erin, Benton, Emily and Michelle,

Here's the assignment for this week. Please note that the deadlines are different from the usual.


After having viewed the DEFA film "The Devil's Three Golden Hairs", do the following:

1. Try to interpret from the movie, who the target audience might be. Keep in mind, that the film was made in 1977 in East Germany.

2. Compare the movie with the DEFA version of Snow White.

3. Explain how the medium 'film' is used to tell the story. You could consider talking about the plot, dialogue, etc.

Do try to touch upon all three points in your blog.

Deadline for posts: 11.00 a.m. on Wednesday

Deadline for comments on at least two posts: Midnight on Wednesday

Looking forward to your posts!

Ann