Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken? (Love in Thoughts)
It’s interesting how I watched this on Tuesday while chatting with Shii, and immediately wrote up this post afterwards. I just didn’t come around to copy/paste this post and click “publish”. How silly.
Of course, it was Shii who proposed to me to watch this film, and here I am. I have watched the trailer years ago and decided that this would be a horrible film, but I am intrigued by adolescent suicide themes (especially since I’m not an adolescent who could pull that off anymore) and I actually think that Daniel Brühl and August Diehl both are pretty good actors. I’ve seen “Good Bye Lenin”, “2 Days in Paris” and “Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei” (The Edukators) with Brühl and I watched “23” with Diehl who was actually pretty great in it. So yeah, here I am, watching a film with both of them.
Another reason why it took me awhile to watch this film is the Wikipedia picture of Anna Maria Mühe. She’s Ulrich Mühe’s daugther with this abominable woman (his second wife) and looks like quite a bitch. There are femme fatales that I admire and there are femme fatales that I am jealous of and find horrible – she definitely is the second kind. Her eyes look extremely large in this film, and you easily see how she uses these eyes to give off an ‘irresistible’ air. Perhaps it’s just that she’s not my type, but the predictability of her charm just makes me feel repulsed somehow. She is attractive after all and the way how the males in the film fall for her is pretty well done, and she’s not too bad an actress (just a little bit bad).
Also, Shii says that this film is like “Frühlings Erwachen” by Wedekind. The only thing that both have in common is that they are about german children growing up. But there are millions of coming of age films out there – and these are fundamentally different for me. The ones don’t know about love; the others think they know about love but don’t love at all. The ones get screwed by society while trying to fit in; the others refuse society and want to rebel. The ones have issues with their future on a rational level; the others only have issues with their feelings. The one is about the attitude of adults towards growing children; the others are about adolescent relationships among themselves. Very simply said, the one is about sex, the other about love. Or so. How are these stories similar?
In some aspects, the brother and sister + best friend constellation is a little bit like “The Dreamers”. It’s also both about finding ‘love’, but really, they are like day and night too. Especially when comparing Eva Green’s personality and Anna Maria Mühe’s role in these respective films. I actually find it impressive that Eva Green has not turned out a second Maria Schneider.
Another aspect I really liked was the friendship between the young boys. Even though it wasn’t *really* well portrayed, I was able to feel the something between them, and I liked that. Unfortunately all the other relationships along with the characters involved are pretty boring and none of their feelings of “love” have touched me, even though August Diehl brought up an impeccably passionate yaoi kiss. It’s too bad.
What struck me deeply however was the beauty of this film. The style is exactly my thing. Sure, it looks absolutely wrong. The characters look wrong, the acting is wrong, the english party music is wrong and especially the clothes are wrong. But who cares? Their white shirts are so incredibly attractive, the backgrounds are great and the slow pacing (although it made the story very simple and short) contributed greatly to the stylish atmosphere. The scenes under the moonlight make me want to spend a night swimming naked in one of the lakes around here. Simply for the style, I am glad that I have watched this film in the end. It just suited my tastes.
However, it is a little bit sad that the film is such a bad depiction of that time. The Weimar Republic is fascinating after all.
With this nice style, what I like the most about the film are its details. For example, the menu of the DVD features white butterflies (which appear a little bit in the film): It struck me because butterflies have a very special place in my personal life, I’d even call them my favourite animals and there is a beautiful symbolism for them. What is interesting is that black butterflies stand for death. Perhaps white butterflies stand for suicide? *hrr* (An “innocent” death?) After all, with all those overly white shirts, white is probably the leitmotif colour of this film.
Another detail is the white (!) “cravatte” that Anna Maria Mühe wore at the very end of the film. It’s basically just a very long and thin scarf draped like that – I want it!
Finally, I think I could never really, really like this film. Firstly, the story is so simple and predictable, but my ain issue is that I don’t agree with their “dying out of love philosophy” at all. I totally understand that one can want to die at the happiest moment of your life, but didn’t these two boys die at the most unhappiest time of their life? Right when they were incredibly unhappily in love? How silly.
“Another reason why it took me awhile to watch this film is the Wikipedia picture of Anna Maria Mühe.” – When you told me you found her ugly and unsympathetic and so on, I also looked at the Wikipedia article for her and just thought the picture depicted my image of her as an actress really, really badly. I found her charming in this movie, the picture is… meaningless and thus bad. Well.
“Also, Shii says that this film is like “Frühlings Erwachen” by Wedekind.” – I don’t. XD I said the movie had a “touch” of the Wedekind play. I do agree with you that the plots and the meanings are completely different, but I still feel this urge to compare the two works. Maybe it’s really just a stylistic feeling I have. When I think of Moritz and Melchior in Frühlings Erwachen, I imagine them wearing white shirts. (Daniel Brühl and August Diehl could never be appropriate actors for Moritz and Melchior though)
“I totally understand that one can want to die at the happiest moment of your life” – Well, how do you realize you are experiencing the happiest moment of your life? That’s a pretty hypothetical reason for suicide.
The aspect that annoyed me the most was their egoistic, kitschy, obsessive image of “love”. It wasn’t the *time* they killed themselves, but the *reason* they killed themselves that annoyed me as hell and made me dislike the story. I had to recommend it to you nevertheless, because I was interested in your opinion on the movie. XD And indeed, a very interesting posting. :)
PS: I have to watch “23”!
Oh my, I think I have to admit defeat. When you brought up the white shirts, I have to admit that it really, really works out perfectly for Melchior and Moritz. Now this makes me feel like a shotacon XD
Yes, Brühl and Diehl are too manly to play those ‘boys’, hihihi.
Somehow I would worry about you a lot if you hooked up with a girl of the same “charm” as Anna Maria Mühe, I’m serious. How should I put it – I think she honestly looks a lot like the kind of person who cannot be trusted, ahaha. I wonder why?
No no, you can always say that it was the happiest moment in your life until now – and then, when you have died, it effectively was the happiest moment, so all is fine :3
PS. “23” really is not a good movie, it’s very… german XD I really found it pretty bad at that time.