User Reviews

"Aufforderung zum Tanz" or "Invitation to Dance" is a West German movie from 1977, so this one has its 40th anniversary this year. It is among the more known works by director Peter F. Bringmann and writer Matthias Seelig, but certainly not as known as their work on the sequel. The reason that the sequel about Theo became much more known than this first film is probably also because this one here was just a small screen release. But today this older film shall get the attention. sadly, it is no positive attention really I can give this film. I think Marius Müller-Westernhagen is a pretty good musician, but in terms of acting I am not convinced. Then again, it needs to be said that everybody else isn't better and that the script was also not doing him really any favors. It is much more about the story and events happening than it is about individual performances. And given all that happens (crime, romance, friendship, drama, comedy...), i was surprised how little MMW really had to work with here. The massive runtime is not helping things either. The film comes fairly close to the two-hour mark. As a whole, I did not see a single component or aspect in these slightly under 120 minutes that I would call memorable. A pretty underwhelming outcome. Then again I did not like the second Theor movie either. Actually remember almost nothing from that one, so I would not necessarily say that this one here is weaker just like it is less known. Both are pretty weak to be honest. The 1970s had a lot of greatness to offer in terms of German films. Perhaps they were the best decade of all time (which basically means the 20th century too unless you consider the 00s better for whatever reason) looking at the films Fassbinder, Herzog, Wenders, Schlöndorff and other gave us. This one here is nothing that fits this equation. It is rather the exception that proves the rule. Watch something else instead.