Parfum d'absinthe

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.

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.

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!

'Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken' ('Love in Thoughts'), while based on a true incident in Berlin in 1927, is a story about the confusion of adolescent hormonally driven needs and desires brought to the screen by director Achim von Borries based on a dramatization by Hendrik Handloegten, Annette Hess and Alexander Pfeuffer of the Steglitz Student murders. It is as much a tale of the decadent 20s in the Berlin that would breed the Nazi Party as it is a stirring thriller. And if think back to the times of this story, a similar theme was being played out in this country under the names of Leopold and Loeb! Strange crossover...

Paul (Daniel Brühl) is a student poet from a working class family who makes friends with Günther (August Diehl) who is a gay and wild romantic from the wealthy class. Their common thread is their sense of rebellion against their families and the need for Byronic defiance in a world they find shallow. The make a 'suicide pact' - that once they discover true happiness in love, and knowing that true love cannot be repeated, they will commit suicide. The two lads go to the country home for a weekend party of drinking and carousing. Günther brings along his love Hans (Thure Lindhardt), a kitchen worker clearly not in Günther's social class, who begins having a sexual liaison with Hilde (Anna Maria Mühe), Günther's lusty, superficial, hedonistic sister. Paul is in love with Hilde, but at the party he observes her acts of sexual freedom and turns to plain Elli (Jana Pallaske) for his initial sexual encounter. When Günther realizes he has lost Hans to Hilde, the options of the 'suicide pact' play out in a gruesome way. Paul is left to tell the story, later becoming a novelist (condemned by the Nazis and thrown into exile).

Achim von Borries manages to recreate this sick tale with all the feeling of Weimar decadence. It takes a while to get the characters straight, but once they are in place the development of each has a fearsome momentum. The young cast is excellent. It is refreshing to see a film that includes a gay main character whose sexuality is at the core of his life but at the same time the story is not focused on the gay character so much as being focused on all youth in a cumbersome time in history and in adolescent physiology! The film is in German with English subtitles and presents the actual events of the case in writing on the screen after the story is completed. Very Effective. Grady Harp

I saw this film recently at the Stockholm International Film Festival of 2004. More of a coincidence than deliberately i might add, since the premises of the film did not really seem to suit me. But being a sucker for German films (also always wanting to test my failing German language skills) i decided to give it a try, and i'm quite happy that i did.

Set in the decadent days of 1920's (or maybe 1930's?) Berlin, this is a story of world-weary rich teens looking for new kicks to make their life interesting. The two friends Günther and Paul go out one weekend to Günthers family's summer house, for partying and drinking. Troubled love is involved and soon things spiral out of control.

I did enjoy this film quite a lot. I'm sure the slow pace will put some people off, but i had no problem with it. I found the actors to be the films most prominent strength, many of them managed great performances. Also i found the lack of sex and nudity (in a film revolving mostly around love and sex) to be liberating. It never feels like exploitation.

The one thing that put me down a bit is that i don't really know what the film-makers wanted to say with this. We get a view of events happening, but where is the point of all these events? Perhaps that is for us to find out, but i still feel i would have liked some sort of closure. This is a small point though, and probably also something that won't bother most viewers. So i'm confident in recommending this to anyone interested in this kind of film. It's a nice period piece, and well worth watching if you are not put off by the somewhat slow pace.

I rate it 6/10.