Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken (2004)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Achim von Borries

Writers:

Hendrik Handloegten (writer)
Annette Hess (writer)

Release Date:

16 April 2004 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A posthumous look at the last days of Guenther's life as he, his best friend, and his sister let loose on a four-day binge of alcohol, drugs, and sex.

Plot Keywords:

Best Friend | Weimar Germany | Despair | Suicide Pact | Gay Interest

Awards:

6 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Daniel Brühl	...	Paul Krantz
August Diehl	...	Günther Scheller
Anna Maria Mühe	...	Hilde Scheller
Jana Pallaske	...	Elli
Thure Lindhardt	...	Hans
Verena Bukal	...	Rosa
Julia Dietze	...	Lotte
Buddy Elias	...	Dr. Frey
Luc Feit	...	Zipfer
Marius Frey	...	Bittner
Holger Handtke	...	Wieland
Jonas Jägermeyr	...	Pit
Roman Kaminski	...	Vorsitzender bei Gericht
Christoph Luser	...	Macke
Tino Mewes	...	Django

Also Known As:

Love in Thoughts (International: English title) (USA)
Liebe in Gedanken (Germany) (working title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Japan:R-15 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:MA | Argentina:18 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | France:U | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich)

Filming Locations:

Brandenburg, Germany

Company:

X-Filme Creative Pool

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The film is set in 1927, the song "Mir ist so nach dir" which was played in the film was 1930 released.

Quotes:

Günther: Maybe it's true that people are only truly happy once in their lives. Just once. And then they are punished for it. For the rest of their lives. The punishment is that they never forget that one moment.

Soundtrack:

Das Manifest

German Cinema on a high international level

First of all: I really enjoyed this movie. I found it great. Secondly: Yes, there are a few points you might want to critisise. The question is: Do you really care about these points? The pros definitely overweight the contras though.

It was one of those movies I felt comfortable with from the first second on. It is slow, it is poetic and you have that constant feeling of melancholy and sadness surrounding you. It is kept in amazingly filmed pictures. The soundtrack simply stunned me. Not to mention the three main characters. It is nothing like any other german movie I have ever seen and I never felt like watching a german movie because it is made on an international, hollywood-like level (meant in a true positive sense!).

To give any movie the label `based on a true story' is always a bit cheap. But I generously forget about that and enjoy `a story of two young men, lost in love and life'. Yes - clothes, haircuts and make ups might not (fully) correspond to what it was really like in the 1920ies. Their lifestyle shown and the emancipated way women behave, might have been to advanced for that time. But I just don't know. I could imagine wealthy people to behave like this, in the roaring Twenties, after World War I.

If you like slow, poetic movies - you should give it a try. It very much reminded of `lost and delirious', it has got a bit of `dead poets society' and (the calm, peaceful moments in) `the thin red line'.

But if you expect another of those `typical' german movies produced in the last few years (which I find great too) and which mostly have similar plots and a similar character, you might feel in the wrong spot.