"Am Anfang war der Seitensprung" or "It Was Infidelity in the Beginning", pretty clumsy titles both, is a German television film from 1999, so this one is already over 20 years old. The director of these almost 1.5 hours is Hartmut Griesmayr. Cannot say too much about him other than that he as in his 50s back then and is now apparently retired as he is in his 70s and has not worked on a film in a pretty long time. The writer here is Amelie Fried and she is not only the writer of the book this is based on, but also of the screenplay. So normally I would say that it is a positive thing if a novel is adapted into a movie and we have the original writer take care of the screenplay too and this does not happen too frequently, in American probably even less often than here in Germany. However, for this one here it shows only one thing. If Fried (together with her boyfriend/husband) was in charge of and apparently happy with the screenplay, then this can only mean that the original novel was also a mess already. I cannot say I am surprised about that at all. This was one of the first works by Fried that got turned into a movie and looking and the titles/quality from the other adaptations, she seems to be a writer where you ant to make sure you keep a great amount of distance to both her movies and films. Now let's be a bit more specific about this one here. The lead actress is played by Simone Thomalla and this is already where the problems start. You can say anything about her daughter really, but admittedly her daughter is not enjoying a career as anything other than an influencer while her mother (Simone) has been cast for lead roles in movies for decades and this is just not acceptable because she has the same amount of talent and versatility like her daughter, namely zero. It is a disgrace that she is in so many movies and not just in them, but plays key characters most of the time. The outcome is a body of work that is absolutely embarassing and potentially unmatched in terms of lack of quality in the history of film, although Christine Neubauer is pretty close I suppose. This film we have here is just one example for Thomalla's lack of talent. And, on a side note, anybody who thinks the Tatort series are good films must expain himself why Thomalla is part of these.
Alright, now this one here. It was a mess from beginning to end and if I say everything that is wrong with this movie, I could write 20 pages and never would manage to stay within the character limit. So I shall just mention a few examples, scenes, moments and sequences when this film hits rock-bottom. First we have the moment when the protagonist finds out that her husband was unfaithful. How he admits it, even if the evidence is very bizarre, namely the precise piece of evidence, is just so bad and for 99% of films, it would be a definite case of worst scene of the film by far. Not so for this one here. There are many other moments. Be it the unrealistic pseudo-dramatic story at the end about the daughter having run away that results in this embarrassing radio talk show escalation (btw. Sissi Perlinger is not an actress, she proves it here once again), be it the fact that the really young male child actor is horrible (I hope he is better now, still having a prolific career in acting) and the female child actress not much better, be it the side story with the man 10 years younger than Thomalla being crazy for her and really wanting her, the lack of quality is omnipresent. The latter is also very typical for a Thomalla movie by the way. She has younger lovers in many films, so maybe at least we don't forget how attractive she is and maybe not see how she cannot act at all. Well, in my opinion, she is not particularly h´good-looking either, even if admittedly her mid-30s face here is not as botched as it is now with all she had done in the last two decades. Of course, she is also always not just desired by younger men, but also very smart, very talented etc. It is very telling that while she plays the exact same character (just with a different name) in every single movie, she still can't play that character well. Take the scenes when she is singing and how she needs to be asked and does not want to initially and then she is so so amazing of course. Nope, she is not. She does not have a good voice, even less range than her versatility when it comes to acting, but of course it is all about make-believe and the writers here want us to believe she can sing. As we are talking about music: Of course the song she hears hen she spends time with these young folks is from a band (probably American) who have a concert the next day or so. How convenient. I guess that must always be the case for foreign bands. They are just waiting for Thomalla's character to be ready to go to their concerts and then they perform immediately.
Okay, briefly away from Thomalla and to the supporting character. The olde rgeneration gets a romance story between Thomalla's character's mother and her suitor as well. This one is equally cringeworthy. It only exists basically to show us that Thomalla's character has good genes and her mother is also a desired woman. This also results in one of the poorest moments of the film, namely when the old man has to come up with a codeword, the name of a former teacher, so the boy will let him in and he does not remember, but oh well, one second later he knows the name immediately. How realistic. The whole mother-daughter struggles are completely ridiculous and as poorly written as it gets. Don't even get me started on the comment about Christmas traditions. The cringe. Okay as for mother-child stories and struggles, there is more. Just take everything involving the two child actors I already mentioned. Poorly written every single second there. The boy I already mentioned is the one who has perhaps the weakest moment and it is fairly telling that this is the weakest moment despite the absence of Thomalla in this scene and this tells you how bad it is. I am speaking about the shooting birds quote. I will not go into detail, just let me say to you that this metaphor / parallel there was perhaps the worst metaphor I have heard in all the films I have seen, whcih have been thousands. It was so bad I had to laugh so hard because you could see what happens when the writers here, most of all Fried (I am sure this quote is also in her book), go for deapth and meaningful moments without having a single ounce of talent in their bodies. The grandma character walked away from the boy right after he explained what he meant and honestly, it felt as if she wwalked away because this was such stupid nonsense really that no kid would ever say. Oh wait, he is just a smart boy right? Okay.Needless to say his lines were horrible and cringeworthy and fake all the time and this was not even the kid's fault, even if his line delivery was honestly no revelation either. As for the marriage struggles between Thomalla's character and her man, well I already mentioned the scene how it all started, but of course the man realizes he really loves Thomalla's character and not the other woman (obviously because Thomalla is a goddess) and has to beg for forgiveness, so this entire story is also rubbish and also against males, which shows they were definitely going for mostly female audiences here. There was another moment so bad that it was funny, namely when the man came to the photo studio to end the affair and there is a shooting going on this very moment and of course who cares the two just start talking with the model standing there randomly and she was simply forgotten. Haha this film was such a mess. Like I said, all I just mentioned wwas not even 50% of the scenes and occasions (probably not even 10%) where this film sucked so hard and really hit rock-bottom. Another would be the discussion about family life and the role of the woman etc. early on with the fitness group. And finally, I already mentioned the idea that the filmmakers here either wanted the audience to hate men or hate men themselves (which is especially despicable as one co-writer is male, but I guess Fried is in total control over him), let me make a reference to how the female protagonists talk about a character who is in charge of looking that Thomalla's character and her colleagues make a good job. There is already some despicavle talking about him being interested in all the female employees going on earlier, but when we actually see the guy and he walks behind the women and what one character then says in order to let the main character know he is coming is just a completely abomination. Everybody who agreed that this should be part of the film, everybody who agreed that this film should be made and everybody who contributed to the horrendous outcome here should be barred from the film industry. I am not joking. Just like the film is not joking and actually takes itself completely seriously with all its ugliness and complete absence of talent, realism and quality. Massive thumbs-down. I only rate out of 5, so 1 out of 5 means 2 out of 10, but if I gave lower ratings, then I would absolutely give this movie a 1. It should never have been made and is (like mayn other Thomalla films) among the very worst German films out there. Stay away for your own happiness! Just one word on the fact that they made a sequel two years later: Death.
Alright, now this one here. It was a mess from beginning to end and if I say everything that is wrong with this movie, I could write 20 pages and never would manage to stay within the character limit. So I shall just mention a few examples, scenes, moments and sequences when this film hits rock-bottom. First we have the moment when the protagonist finds out that her husband was unfaithful. How he admits it, even if the evidence is very bizarre, namely the precise piece of evidence, is just so bad and for 99% of films, it would be a definite case of worst scene of the film by far. Not so for this one here. There are many other moments. Be it the unrealistic pseudo-dramatic story at the end about the daughter having run away that results in this embarrassing radio talk show escalation (btw. Sissi Perlinger is not an actress, she proves it here once again), be it the fact that the really young male child actor is horrible (I hope he is better now, still having a prolific career in acting) and the female child actress not much better, be it the side story with the man 10 years younger than Thomalla being crazy for her and really wanting her, the lack of quality is omnipresent. The latter is also very typical for a Thomalla movie by the way. She has younger lovers in many films, so maybe at least we don't forget how attractive she is and maybe not see how she cannot act at all. Well, in my opinion, she is not particularly h´good-looking either, even if admittedly her mid-30s face here is not as botched as it is now with all she had done in the last two decades. Of course, she is also always not just desired by younger men, but also very smart, very talented etc. It is very telling that while she plays the exact same character (just with a different name) in every single movie, she still can't play that character well. Take the scenes when she is singing and how she needs to be asked and does not want to initially and then she is so so amazing of course. Nope, she is not. She does not have a good voice, even less range than her versatility when it comes to acting, but of course it is all about make-believe and the writers here want us to believe she can sing. As we are talking about music: Of course the song she hears hen she spends time with these young folks is from a band (probably American) who have a concert the next day or so. How convenient. I guess that must always be the case for foreign bands. They are just waiting for Thomalla's character to be ready to go to their concerts and then they perform immediately.
Okay, briefly away from Thomalla and to the supporting character. The olde rgeneration gets a romance story between Thomalla's character's mother and her suitor as well. This one is equally cringeworthy. It only exists basically to show us that Thomalla's character has good genes and her mother is also a desired woman. This also results in one of the poorest moments of the film, namely when the old man has to come up with a codeword, the name of a former teacher, so the boy will let him in and he does not remember, but oh well, one second later he knows the name immediately. How realistic. The whole mother-daughter struggles are completely ridiculous and as poorly written as it gets. Don't even get me started on the comment about Christmas traditions. The cringe. Okay as for mother-child stories and struggles, there is more. Just take everything involving the two child actors I already mentioned. Poorly written every single second there. The boy I already mentioned is the one who has perhaps the weakest moment and it is fairly telling that this is the weakest moment despite the absence of Thomalla in this scene and this tells you how bad it is. I am speaking about the shooting birds quote. I will not go into detail, just let me say to you that this metaphor / parallel there was perhaps the worst metaphor I have heard in all the films I have seen, whcih have been thousands. It was so bad I had to laugh so hard because you could see what happens when the writers here, most of all Fried (I am sure this quote is also in her book), go for deapth and meaningful moments without having a single ounce of talent in their bodies. The grandma character walked away from the boy right after he explained what he meant and honestly, it felt as if she wwalked away because this was such stupid nonsense really that no kid would ever say. Oh wait, he is just a smart boy right? Okay.Needless to say his lines were horrible and cringeworthy and fake all the time and this was not even the kid's fault, even if his line delivery was honestly no revelation either. As for the marriage struggles between Thomalla's character and her man, well I already mentioned the scene how it all started, but of course the man realizes he really loves Thomalla's character and not the other woman (obviously because Thomalla is a goddess) and has to beg for forgiveness, so this entire story is also rubbish and also against males, which shows they were definitely going for mostly female audiences here. There was another moment so bad that it was funny, namely when the man came to the photo studio to end the affair and there is a shooting going on this very moment and of course who cares the two just start talking with the model standing there randomly and she was simply forgotten. Haha this film was such a mess. Like I said, all I just mentioned wwas not even 50% of the scenes and occasions (probably not even 10%) where this film sucked so hard and really hit rock-bottom. Another would be the discussion about family life and the role of the woman etc. early on with the fitness group. And finally, I already mentioned the idea that the filmmakers here either wanted the audience to hate men or hate men themselves (which is especially despicable as one co-writer is male, but I guess Fried is in total control over him), let me make a reference to how the female protagonists talk about a character who is in charge of looking that Thomalla's character and her colleagues make a good job. There is already some despicavle talking about him being interested in all the female employees going on earlier, but when we actually see the guy and he walks behind the women and what one character then says in order to let the main character know he is coming is just a completely abomination. Everybody who agreed that this should be part of the film, everybody who agreed that this film should be made and everybody who contributed to the horrendous outcome here should be barred from the film industry. I am not joking. Just like the film is not joking and actually takes itself completely seriously with all its ugliness and complete absence of talent, realism and quality. Massive thumbs-down. I only rate out of 5, so 1 out of 5 means 2 out of 10, but if I gave lower ratings, then I would absolutely give this movie a 1. It should never have been made and is (like mayn other Thomalla films) among the very worst German films out there. Stay away for your own happiness! Just one word on the fact that they made a sequel two years later: Death.
