Mitten ins Herz

Anna Blume is a supermarket cashier.Her life takes an abrupt turn when she meets Armin Thal -a dentist.He makes her a strange offer of moving into his comfortable house.She accepts as she hopes of finding happiness in his company. Her happiness is short-lived as Thal's gruffness forces her to kill him.Doris Dorrie's astonishing debut "Mitten ins Herz" will always be remembered as a point of reference in judging the intensity of male-female relationships.Loneliness is the film's underlying theme. Anna Blume was always positive that she would captivate Armin Thal. The only common element in Anna Blume and Armin Thal's liaison is the fact that they employ different methods in order to deal with their loneliness.Doris Dorrie never anticipated that loneliness would become the focus of almost all her films.An indifferent spectator might find it hard to fathom how an advanced German woman like Anna Blume accepts Armin Thal's bizarre proposal.Anna Blume was not bothered about money as it can be surmised that she accepted his offer hoping that it would help her get rid of her loneliness.It must have been easy for Doris Dorrie to make Mitten ins Herz as as the film has traces of autobiographical elements in it.The narrative is rather quaint as it is hard to believe that such an event would ever occur in a highly industrialized nation like Germany.One should still watch Mitten ins Herz regardless of its melodramatic stance.

Off beat and interesting, this film is worth seeing, at least as a view of the times in 1983. I saw it many years ago and still remember the headline "blue-haired woman steals baby". This film maker seemed to have much promise-then hasn't made another film with wide circulation.

When this movie came out it was clearly in the vein then being pursued year after year by Fassbinder, but I liked this better, I'd say because Dorrie's feel for the characters was more immediate and empathic, as opposed to Fassbinder's arch feeling. The plot premise is simple, extreme and, as others on this forum have said, not very believable. Bright blue hair, of course, has become commonplace by now, but the dentist's job offer has not. A lot of recent Hollywood product has over-the-top, unbelievable plot premises, and it has become utterly tedious. Sit-coms and sit-melodramas. I felt different about Dorrie's premise, perhaps because it seemed no one else would have ever come up with this one, or because she used it for a poetic exploration of the human predicament. More like Theater of the Absurd than like Hollywood. Maybe being young then helped me to experience it as fresh. But to find out the answer to that one, I'd have to see it again today. Please? Can this be possible?

I saw this on TV in Germany as a teenager when it first was made and was fascinated by this strange, sad story set in everyday 80s Germany. Definitely recommended to anyone not averse to the darker side of life. An unusual and quirky offering.

I'd love to see it again to experience it from a different phase of life, and for 80s nostalgia. Not sure I will manage to get hold of it though, was surprised to even find it here.

Am even more surprised at the comment of the previous reviewer as the director Doris Dörrie went on to make more well-known feature films (e.g. Männer) and a name for herself in German cinema. These are also worth seeing if you enjoyed this film; Männer for example is a lot more light-hearted. Also recommended to people who like this film: Kehraus