Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe

The brilliance of this film is on several levels. The visual effects and the direction of Helmut Dietl perfectly compliment the writing (script by Dietl and Patrick Süßkind) and the superb cast. In addition the all the visual appeal, the music is not to be missed.

This is a film that you will either love or hate, that's what it comes down to. I think that if you enjoyed Eternal Sunshine (Vergiss mein nicht) you will enjoy Liebe. There is a balance of raw emotion coupled with the humour that is always missing from straight up dramas.

The problem people seem to have with this film is the distinction between whether we are supposed to think that Dietl is making a joke or if he is serious about the possible existence of eternal love, die einzige große Liebe I'm Leben. I believe that Deitl wants to show us that it's possible, but that humans inevitably screw it up.

The movie is excellent and one of the few deeply touching me. I had tears in my eyes all the way home. It is a wonderful movie about "true love" and what "true love" on this world really means. It shows that even the greatest love on Earth can not stand the persistence of memory, the impermanence of the body and the insignificance of all our day to day actions. While it doubtlessly demystifies "true love" on one side, on the other side it shows how powerful it is and that the world is empty, dark and meaningless without it. Especially the casting of Alexandra Maria Lara as "Venus Morgenstern" is as brilliant as it gets. She is not only a stunning beauty; she also has so much soul and amiability in her eyes, she should get an academy award for it. The movie basically is re-telling the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Greek mythology. For this, it is re-using the wonderful music of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Opera. The scenes in the underworld are generally well done, but when Venus (aka Eurydice) sings out her love for Mimi (aka Orpheus), even the God Hermes starts crying and EVERYBODY in the movie theatre will start crying too. However, the movie has one big drawback. The movie is a mirror: it makes only sense to people who have already experienced deep love and loss in their life. For all the others, it will be just "kind of a weird story" as some of the comments here already show. The movie comes with a reflection of feelings of love and loss but only to those who already learned about this before. For the others, it will certainly just be a quite silly comedy. I hope the small group of the others will prevail. This movie is not mainstream.

Watching a film by Helmut Dietl you expect the usual posse of sometimes hysteric and strange people. You get this here - but intelligently woven into a true romance drama of love, life and death and their relationship. One of his best works was the TV series of "Monaco Franze" in the late 70ies, here he succeeds again in showing REAL feeling. Additionally it is sheer unbelievable how strong Dietl can lead his actors into impersonating their roles - wonderful and worth an academy award.

If you're into Greek mythology, German films or true love and its remainder - go see it. Don't forget your handkerchief by the way...

I really hope this was intended as a black comedy. Sadly, I don't think it was, though it would have failed as a black comedy regardless due to its being extremely unfunny.

The characters were so two-dimensional and boring that the audience has a hard time caring what happens to them.

To be fair, I couldn't get more than 3/4 of the way through this film, as it was meaningless and hollow.

Unfortunately this is the case with too many German films, which are so bent on pretension that in the end they have nothing to say.

I'm really not sure there is more to say about this film, other than that it was annoying and a disappointment.

Sorry to say, but this movie was the worst I have seen for quite a while! The theme itself is - no doubt- beautiful: love, able to cross the borders of death: When Mimi kills himself after the end of his love-relationship with Venus, she follows him to the Underworld to bring him back.... but everything in the film seems so exaggerated that it is hard to decide, whether this is all meant serious or it is supposed to be a satire on the main motives of love in myth and literature! And if so, it's not convincing. My personal advise: Don't invest in a ticket for this film, but go and buy yourself a copy of the classical composition from E. Gluck, that is part of the soundtrack. Much more beauty in this one.