Beloved Sisters | Dominik Graf | New York Film Festival 2014
In the summer of 1788, poet Friedrich Schiller (Florian Stetter) falls in love with the the von Lengefeld sisters, Charlotte (Henriette Confurius) and Caroline (Hannah Herzsprung). What should be a messy situation turns into an agreed voyage of ménage-à-trois, where the sisters agree to both share the love of Mr. Schiller. This is the simplified version of the plot of Beloved Sisters, the new film from German director Dominik Graf (and the German Academy Award entry for Best Foreign Film consideration).
After a chance encounter one day with Charlotte, Schiller finds himself getting very close to the von Lengefeld sisters. Although he’s a respected poet whose career is on the rise, he lacks any money to show for it. Things aren’t much better for the sisters family, as Caroline is unhappily married in order to provide some financial stability for the otherwise broke family, leaving Charlotte the only sister available of pursuit. The only solution is for Charlotte to marry Schiller so that both sisters can share their love for him. The faults in this rather ambitious plan are soon touched on throughout director Dominik Graf’s long-winding three hour love epic.
During that first summer together, the trio become so infatuated with each other that they send letters to one another in their own private code. They all shareIt all seems to good to be true, and usually in life, that’s because it is. Through Schiller’s marriage with Charlotte, they think their problems will be solved. But with their marriage comes childbirth, and that’s when things get rather messy for everyone involved. Soon the girls realize that it becomes nearly impossible to share one man.
Graf’s period piece is exquisite from the costume to the timeless looking locations in Germany that place your mind back in time. Directorial choices such as having the characters give monologue directly to the camera heighten the dramatic intensity at first, but are a little bit overused during its nearly three hour run-time. It relies on the performances of the love trio of Henriette Confurius (Charlotte), Hannah Herzsprung (Caroline) and Florian Stetter (Friedrich Schiller), and all three deliver magnificently. Without their rich and believeable performances the film just becomes an overbought soap opera. They along with Claudia Messner, who plays the girls’ mother, hold down the fort.
Graf’s film takes you on an impressive emotional journey that does enough to suck you into its world. While a bit melodramatic at times and maybe a bit too long, the film aims high and mostly succeeds. As far as romantic period dramas go, Beloved Sisters is as good as you’ll find.
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