Categories: cinema
Date: 01 June 2008 06:06:19
Kerensa, please correct me should I be wrong, but I believe, from German taken several years' back, that this translates to What use is love in thoughts, thought it has been released here as simply Love in Thoughts.
I had not heard of the Steglitz Student Tragedy of 1927, on which this film is based. I found this film an intensely moving account of two young men on a quest for love, true love, as the pinnacle of life. However, this quest has a darker side -- once this pinnacle of happiness is reached, or if they realise they will not ever find true love, they make a pact to kill themselves and the person who took their happiness. The reason?: living with anything less than the heights of happiness they had reached will results in sadness and bitterness -- as will the constant memory of that time of happiness throughout the rest of their life.
As can be guessed, it is an extremely intense film, and slow-moving at times -- which may frustrate some people, but I thought the slowness was necessary to set the background as well as covering the issues of the confusion and ideals of youth this film raises. And everything contributes to transporting you to the late 1920s -- the scenery, the great filming, the wonderful music and the great costumes and clothing worn. The actors, among them August Diehl, Daniel Brühl and Anna Maria Mühe, are fantastic, and sweep you up in their hedonistic, yet tragic, world.
Not an easy film to watch, given the subject matter, but I think one that is well worth the effort.