This is Love (DVD)
Genre: Drama
Love, loneliness, police officer, kidnapping, Saigon brothel, interrogation
Such interrogation scenes are rare in cinema: the suspect is an accomplice, the interviewee turns the tables and determine what happened suddenly. In Matthias Glasner’s crime is one of the extraordinary meeting of two lost souls of the most impressive scenes. His film convinced elegantly by the nested narrative. It should, however, due to manner in which he treats the subject of pedophilia, create controversy. (# This tells) Love is three stories in one. The first is the meeting of Commissioner Maggie (Corinna Harfouch) and Chris (Jens Albinus) who is under suspicion as a murderer and child molester and wanted to kill himself now. On the other hand there are the hidden story of Chris and the hidden story of Maggie, which are unraveled in many flashbacks. Maggie has been abandoned 16 years ago by her husband, unexpectedly and seemingly without reason. Chris buys into Vietnam child prostitutes from their pimps free and flogged off the girls to adoptive parents in Germany. But it is clear from the first scene that hides behind this business longer. Chris apparently mollified by the “good” deeds of a guilty conscience. Since puberty, he felt a desire that he has to kill at any cost in itself. What has happened so before that night in which Chris was racing with suicidal intent in a truck, in his apartment was a dead man and disappeared from Vietnam nine years ransomed Jenjira? This we learn in the most exciting way: in a cleverly woven, naturally into one another gliding narrative structure. Matthias Glasner relies on the layer beneath the surface on which the two stories together melts and so the time frames in its own logic linked, making it even counterproductive seems to think about where you are now and how the one with the other related. Suffice it to drift from the river of the images. The connecting theme is related to the damage of the two main characters. Each track their way, a desire that must be suppressed because it brings too much pain with it. Both characters are like the living dead, crushed by disappointments and rejections. This makes some allies in the interrogation room: two people treat each other by each of them tells a story that has never heard of someone. This takes place against considerable resistance, and is repeatedly interrupted by anger and despair. Here succeed scenes of intense power, with unusual settings and careful exploration of faces and objects, almost as if you had exposed the camera to the unknown terrain, and it should now find their way in a kind of minefield. But the strength of the thematic merger poses a problem as the other side: the love between adults is placed on the same level as the love of an adult to a child. This is a balancing act that brings some dangers with it and maybe leave a stale aftertaste. Similar to Glasner’s The Free Will is about sexual misconduct. There is a rape, here it is the sexuality of a nine year old that always lurks in the background, even though Chris has his impulses under control. That you can see in this presentation an attempt to play down pedophile tendencies, but does not in the excellent actor performances. The Dane Jens Albinus, who has worked in various Lars von Trier films with (among others in Dancer in the Dark and idiots), shines in a sad figure, who has just so much to say because it is silent most of the time. And Corinna Harfouch, who last played in the whiskey and vodka, the strong woman that we know of their characters, shows an enormous range. She is so “tough” as in many of their other roles, but also immensely hurt and wounded. The very first scene where she meets completely drunk on their adult daughter, is an acting revelation. (Peter Gutting)
Title: This is Love (DVD) Country of production: , Germany Year of Production: 2009 Length: 106 (Min.) (# ) Published at: format: 16:9 tone / language: Dolby Digital 5.1, German EAN: 4006680048581 (# ) Extras: Deleted Scenes (40 min), audio commentary, photo gallery, interviews, trailers, turn cover