Nachthelle

This film tells the story of two couples who meet in one of their childhood home. They have not seen each other for a long time, and they haven't visited the house for years. It's a trip down the memory lane, making old devils resurface.

The first part of the film is slow but intriguing. The relationship of the four people is slowly revealed. As the past is unveiled, jealousy and sexual tension rise, and the story gets more interesting. However, the second part of the film suddenly contains this twist that makes me super confused. It seems as if it wants to be a sci-fi film suddenly. I tried figuring this bit of the plot out, but the plot just doesn't make sense. I wish this bit of the plot doesn't exist, and the film should just concentrate on the tension between the four of them.

What an obnoxious... and silly movie! A mature woman and her younger lover arrive at the house where she grew up, a cozy but run-down place in the countryside of the former Democratic Republic of Germany, where a mining project is slowly devastating the landscape and evicting the residents from the nearby town.

Although this setup is interesting, in the end it is nothing more than a trivial fact. What matters in this prudish drama is that a homosexual couple is also in the house to finish a legal process (not very explicit). The pair is made up of one of the woman's ex-lovers and his partner, a promiscuous psychologist, whose objective is to molest the woman and seduce her boy. The actor who plays the psychologist does so with a sign on his forehead that reads "I am a psychologist." And the script emphasizes it every time he opens his mouth, and delivers lines learnt in a course of Psychology 101.

In a mixture of dreams, double manifestations of the woman's psyche and games of seduction, the film ends up taking the path of "moralistic rectitude", when none of the four characters are worth a penny. I am sure you can find better things to do than watch this.

A drama about relationships ... past and present. And how they affect each other. Not to mention our brain and the infinite possibilities ... or rather conclusions a situtation like this can have. While the movie seems straightforward and has the cliches and predictable structure to a degree of any other love drama you have seen.

But then it twists and turns inside out ... or at least gives you quite a bit to think about. Certain things seem obvious and maybe even obnoxious ... but again the mystery element of the movie is able to keep things fresh. Also the actors ... kudos! Great work overall no matter what you think of the movie itself

I saw it as a puzzle. The first part propose the original sketch. The second is dominated by improvisation. Two couples, memories and sex, conversation and secrets, a cottage and childhood traces.The good points - photography and the performance of Gudrun Ritter. The only sin, maybe, the desire to contain more than a simple theme . But , far to be a great movie, it is an interesting one.