Parfum d'absinthe

This movie is very intensive. Two very good actors - Daniel Brühl and August Diehl -, a grandiose camera and a mood-laden director presents us one early film-highlight of 2004! Everything is right in this movie, even the music from the 20ths. I think it is a must!

This film tells the story of five young men and women who are in a complicated web of love and attraction. They go away for a weekend of supposed relaxation, but alcohol fuels them to a realm that they never thought they would go.

The synopsis did not prepare me for the gloomy and dark theme of "Love in Thoughts". Who would have thought a few teenagers having some fun would lead to such disastrous consequences? I guess when affection is not reciprocated, the mind goes crazy and judgement is severely impaired. In this story, unfortunately most of the characters suffer from this. The story portrays love and jealousy very well, and I could really feel the characters' pain. It is sad that there was a lethal weapon available in the house. Otherwise things might have turned out differently.

First of all: I really enjoyed this movie. I found it great. Secondly: Yes, there are a few points you might want to critisise. The question is: Do you really care about these points? The pros definitely overweight the contras though.

It was one of those movies I felt comfortable with from the first second on. It is slow, it is poetic and you have that constant feeling of melancholy and sadness surrounding you. It is kept in amazingly filmed pictures. The soundtrack simply stunned me. Not to mention the three main characters. It is nothing like any other german movie I have ever seen and I never felt like watching a german movie because it is made on an international, hollywood-like level (meant in a true positive sense!).

To give any movie the label `based on a true story' is always a bit cheap. But I generously forget about that and enjoy `a story of two young men, lost in love and life'. Yes - clothes, haircuts and make ups might not (fully) correspond to what it was really like in the 1920ies. Their lifestyle shown and the emancipated way women behave, might have been to advanced for that time. But I just don't know. I could imagine wealthy people to behave like this, in the roaring Twenties, after World War I.

If you like slow, poetic movies - you should give it a try. It very much reminded of `lost and delirious', it has got a bit of `dead poets society' and (the calm, peaceful moments in) `the thin red line'.

But if you expect another of those `typical' german movies produced in the last few years (which I find great too) and which mostly have similar plots and a similar character, you might feel in the wrong spot.

In Weimar Germany, school friends Paul and Günther travel to Günther's parents' summer house outside Berlin, full of plans for a drink-fuelled weekend of hedonism. Joining Günther's sister Hilde, a cocktail of unrequited sexual desire, boredom and indolence leads to tragedy.

Beautifully filmed and superbly acted film in the traditions of Gatsby and Brideshead. From an adult point of view, the idea of youth asking 'is that all there is'? is at once both trite and unsettling. Cleverly, von Borries creates a world devoid of adults, where thoughts and feelings are heightened to the point of delirium, and he is well served by his three leads - Diehl and Mühe in particular are captivating as the spoiled and indulgent brother and sister. A heady exploration of privileged, destructive youth.

"Was nuetzt die Liebe in Gedanken" is a very slow and intense film . The camera is awesome and the actors are doing a really good job. Although the film is set in the 1920th its focus is not set on historic details but on the timeless story of young men being in love. It's based on real incidents - Paul and his friend Guenther are in love. Paul with Guenther's sister and Guenther with his sisters boyfriend. Because they feel that their love will not be repeated they decide that once both are happy - they are going to commit suicide. During the whole movie there is that dark feeling creeping through the extremley beautiful pictures. It's a truly wonderful sad and elegant movie about unfulfilled love and the confusion of youth.