NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Crap_Connoisseur "Love In Thoughts" is a beautifully made, yet ultimately pretentious, German drama based on an event in the life of the author, Paul Krantz (who published under the name of Ernst E. Noth).The film focuses on Paul's friendship with Guenter and his love for Guenter's sister, Hilde. This scenario is further complicated by the fact that Hilde is having an affair with Hans, a man that Guenter also loves. Paul and Guenter discuss taking their own lives, and those of their lovers, when their love has reached "it's zenith". Over the course of a weekend, Paul and Guenter are rejected by the objects of their affection and they reach the point where they have to decide whether or not to go through with their murder/suicide pact.My biggest objection to the film is the treatment of Paul and Guenter's fatalistic view of love. Their actions are treated as grandiose and tragic. Personally, I'm not sure what is particularly heroic or romantic about two losers who turn homicidal/suicidal when their imaginary lovers reject them. This problem is compounded by the fact that Hilde and Hans are so unappealing. Hilde is the town bike, who not only disrespects her brother's emotions but is also rude to her best friend. Hans, on the other hand, is a chef with bad teeth, who doesn't appear to have anything going for him at all.Despite the film's general pretentiousness and self importance, it does have many things to offer. Firstly, the actors. I enjoyed Daniel Bruehl's portrayal of Paul. He is a little bit pouty but the subtlety of his performance is a huge relief in comparison to August Diehl's hammy turn as Guenter. The film offers the chance to view another fine actor in Thure Lindhardt, who plays the creepy Hans. Furthermore, the film looks absolutely fantastic. The cinematography is stunning. The landscape is captured beautifully and a scene in which the teenagers get high on absinthe is wonderful filmed.This is an accomplished film but by no means a great one. Despite its significant beauty, "Love In Thoughts" is ultimately hollow and insubstantial.

lyuba Three words would best describe this movie - an incredibly beautiful drama! And although the director might've made a better use of the camera, this doesn't spoil the whole movie at all, for it has some very good actors and a brilliant story to boast with.The most promising young actors of contemporary German cinema - Daniel Brühl (as Paul), August Diehl (as Günther) and Anna Marie Mühe (as Hilde) - all make wonderful performances and tell the story of extremely tangled relationships, where love and happiness, pain and rage twist and turn their lives.Paul falls in love with Hilde, who, however, appreciates sex and fun more than love. At the time she seems to be much more interested in the ex-boyfriend of her brother - Günther, who himself is still in love with him, though, so, when the three of them decide to spend a weekend in their parent's summer house drinking and having fun and the ex eventually turns up, the passions simply get out of hand.Substantial for the further development of the story is a suicide club, that Günther and Paul found, based on the idea that we can be really happy only once in our lives and afterwards we're punished for that one moment of immense happiness by having the bitter memory of it. And since they consider happiness to be the essence of life, they decide that once this moment is over, they should kill themselves and the person who took them their happiness/love away, as well, before they feel miserable. And Günther does that.The beautiful scenery and the unobtrusive but still remarkable score make just the perfect finish to this beautiful story.Some viewers might find the paste rather slow, but I think that this is the only way to really get close to the characters and understand their motives. In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend this extremely poetic movie to everyone, but only to those lovers of the European cinema, who would appreciate something very deep, sophisticated and demanding.

Mattias Petersson 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.

hartmutstiller 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!