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Love in Thoughts | 
| Actors: Daniel Bruehl, Verena Bukal, August Diehl, Julia Dietze, Buddy Elias
Studio: Wolfe Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $22.49
You Save: $2.46 (10%)
New (24) Used (10) from $10.94
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 53017
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: German (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D4025D
ISBN: 1932134379
UPC: 754703762313
EAN: 9781932134377
ASIN: B000AM6ODK
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
Release Date: October 18, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Description
Based on the 1927 infamous Steglitz Student tragedy. In the volatile era between world wars, two young men share a romantic view of life and its possibilities. They differ greatly: Paul, a shy poet, comes from a working-class family, while daredevil Guenther hales from the wealthy upper class. Rebellious and passionate, both boys reject their parents' empty world. They even create a pact: At the point when love fails them, they will end their lives. One weekend at a bohemian party, this reckless agreement is put to the test...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
a film of questionable morality and uncertain motivation January 27, 2008
AIROLF (USA)
Ultimately, the movie is done with style, but the subject matter is subjective at best. The fact that it's based on a true story does not make me feel more sympathetic towards the characters. The entire film works as a teleplay, but is unsuccessful as a larger film in truly touching the spirit or bringing about an understanding of the characters or the reasons for doing what they did. In the end, it might be as one of the characters says, "No one will remember or be influenced by this course of events." No one will pay much attention to this movie either, although it must be acknowledged that parts of it are done quite well.
But don't get TOO comfortable November 5, 2007
A. Hickman (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Anyone following the career of Daniel Bruehl will want to see this film, especially anyone who felt, rightly, cheated by Bruehl's walk-on in "The Bourne Ultimatum." "Love in Thoughts" takes a rather moralistic view of a handful of young people in the years between World Wars I and II. Like young people in movies tend to do, these fall in love too hard and learn to regret it. Paul loves Hilde and Guenther loves Hans, but Hilde and Hans love themselves. A fifth character, or wheel, is Elli, who just wants to be loved, period. Paul and Guenther, however, who have nothing in common but who have inexplicably been friends since childhood, make a pact to commit suicide once they have known one happy moment in their short lives. Well, it's the sort of thing kids do. The problem is that there is only so much happpiness to go around, and Guenther, to say the least, misses out on all of it. Or perhaps he was happy romping through the woods with his Platonic boyhood friend? The movie doesn't really do much with motivation. When Paul closes the door in one crucial scene, what really happens is between him and his conscience, no matter what the courts later say. "Love in Thoughts" is based on a true incident, and the viewer is left with one of those "where are they now?" postscripts that doesn't really add much to our understanding of the film. What I did like, in addition to seeing Daniel Bruehl get a relatively meaty role, were the music and the cinematography. The former was a witty addition to an otherwise far too sober screenplay, while the latter put me in mind of a similar trip down memory lane in "Atonement." Don't dig for any deeper meaning: we do not learn why Germany's youth embraced Nazism in the '30s, for instance (Really, we DON'T). But do look for a credible time-passer, especially on DVD, where, in the comfort of your living room, the film's leisurely pace should not lead to ennui (the perils of which are on constant parade in the film itself) and you will be free to enjoy the acting skills of a fine troop of young German actors, all of whom acquit themselves quite handsomely.
 Golden Swan Dive June 29, 2007
Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Achim von Borries directed this German picture based on a real incident. He was able to find work directing a TV show episode after "Love in Thoughts" was completed. August Diehl who has played in European films such as "The Counterfeiter" & "Nothing But Ghosts" won the German Film Critics Association Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Gunther, son of a wealthy family. Daniel Bruhl who has also filmed many European features including "Two Days in Paris" this year and "A Friend of Mine" last year plays the poor poet Paul who Gunther befriends. The film was a bit confusing since Gunther makes longing looks at his friend Paul, but as the story unfolds is supposed to really have an infatuation for a cook named Hans. Gunther's sister Hilde is played by Anna Maria Muhe who won the *coveted Golden Swan Best Actress Award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival for this film. Hilde strikes up a romantic flirtation with Paul and then jilts him for Hans claiming that she doesn't want to be with only one man. She does this before actually "being" with Paul; so the audience is quite as confused as Paul. Paul then seeks solace in the arms of Hilde's friend Elli played by Jana Pallaske whose lips seem to occupy an unusually large portion of her face. Thure Lindhardt plays Hans who seems to romantically attack Gunther before tossing him over for Hilde. The relationships in the film take themselves quite seriously, but no character loves just one person.
Hilde likes Hans & Paul
Gunther likes Hans & Paul
Paul likes Hilde & Elli
Hans likes Hilde & Gunther
The biggest hole seems to be why Paul is hanging out with Gunther. Maybe being poor he's impressed by wealth. Despite the cover with August Diehl and Daniel Bruhl frolicking in a meadow with open shirts, Paul seems hardly attached to Gunther as a friend, barely making an attempt to take the gun away from him. The film is visually interesting in period costumes. However, the motivations & romantic attachments of the characters are muddy and confusing. By the film's end, we're glad it's over. The story is told in flashback; so we generally know something tragic will happen. Unfortunately, it isn't that interesting to watch. Taxi!
*I'd never heard of this award before. It sounds like something Claire Danes should win.
 Passionately disturbing, ultimately irresistable November 18, 2005
queer movie lover
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
Wow. This is an amazing story, told amazingly well. Passionate and
compelling from the first scene to the last, "Love In Thoughts" takes us
into the volatile, romantic, reckless lives of a group of rebellious
students in 1927 Germany.
Based on the story of the infamous Steglitz student tragedy, a group of
romantic-thinking, outside-of-the-box-living 20-somethings make a pact
about how tragically far they'd go for love. Aside from their shared
passion for parties and love, the main characters have little in common.
The brilliant, shy, poetic Paul is a loner from the working class, while
his best friend, Guenther, is a wealthy gay boy from the countryside. Then
Guenther invites Paul home to the rich countryside for the weekend -- a
weekend of limitless love, sex, bohemian-style partying, jealousy,
rationale, and a completely unexpected outcome.
"Love in Thoughts" tells a passionately disturbing and ultimately
irresistable story. It's heartbreaking yet invigorating, shocking yet
somehow simple. It's a powerful story, and a great movie.
Beautifully realized, but ultimately empty, and dull October 25, 2005
M. J Leonard (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States)
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
Watching Love in Thoughts (Was nuetzt die Liebe in Gedanken) is like watching grass grow. It's supposed to be a tense and edgy psychological thriller, but I found it to be one of the most stultifying and frustratingly dull movies I've seen in recent years. Absolutely nothing happens in this movie for at least the first thirty minutes, and by then, most viewers will have probably have lost interest.
There's not doubt that Love in Thoughts is attractive as a period drama and it brings a fittingly poetic and languid air to its story of youthful alienation and doomed love. But the pacing is so slow and director Achim von Borries's, direction so heavy handed and labored that any pretense of excitement or action is drowned out by numerous scenes where no one does anything but stare wistfully at each other. The movie clocks in at eighty-nine minutes, but it feels longer, much longer.
Fellow students Paul Krantz (Daniel Bruehl) and Guenther Scheller (August Diehl) are about to take their final exams. Though friends, the two young men seem to have little in common. Guenther is rich, highly strung and with bohemian pretensions and no future plans beyond what he's drinking that evening; Paul is working class but a bright and talented wannabe poet; both are in love with the idea of love, and with the idea of reckless living with no limits.
Spending a weekend at the Scheller's lakeside summer house, shared with Guenther's free spirited sister Hilde (Anna Maria Muehe), they throw a drunken party which results in a volatile mix of heightened emotion, jealousy and heady longing, and even some absinthe. Complicating their friendship is Paul's unrequited love for Hilde plus a tangle of other relationships that no one wants to take seriously.
The film's focus involves a suicide pact between Guenther and Paul, in which they promise to kill themselves when they no longer love. As the movie opens, Guenther is already dead and Paul has been taken into custody with the police intending to get him to tell exactly what happened. The story is Paul's narrative as he examines the last few days in the country: a binge drinking, sex marathon with the central trio and a dozen or so friends.
In this case, seeing young, self absorbed and self indulgent young men and women acting out their bisexual and drug induced fantasies isn't really that interesting. We already know that Guenther is going to suicide so much of the dramatic tension of the story is lost from the outset, even though we're not sure until the end who pulled the trigger and why.
The film is well crafted, by a director who obviously cares about the topic and his subjects, even if their pseudo-philosophies are juvenile and unsustainable. But the story is just so frustrating, we want Paul, the only character with a shred of sense, and the only character that we remotely care about - to break away from this clan of phonies and the shallow Hilde, but he just never wises up. He really should have known better.
More concerned with creating a dreamlike mood and tone than presenting a fully fledged dramatic narrative, Love in Thoughts serves up hedonism and melancholy in equal measure, revealing the excesses and the folly of its young protagonists, but it's rarely that engaging and not that entertaining. Watching this smug, young, privileged group flirting with debauchery and discovering that the world is bigger than themselves is hardly eye opening, even when they're German. Mike Leonard October 05.
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