User Reviews

Not a great movie; still, I found it a joy to watch. The imaginative opening credits (reflected in the watery-background theme in the close) set the tone for the film as a whole: convincing and witty dialogue without sounding too clever; surreal scenes of the underworld in the latter half of the movie; engaging twists in sexuality (a husband not interested, a wife who is, then their romance is rekindled via threesomes); and a soundtrack that is in turn banal-pop or highbrow-opera. The wonder for me is that such an apparent mismatch of ideas works, when all too often in films interesting ideas turn to mash. The writer and director never tip into the void of farce. They approach the edge warily but boldly, not afraid to continually flirt with outrageous ideas. That's the wonder of this movie – how did they get away with it? The answer is: through skill and competent film making of high order.

I came away feeling that although this is not a film of stellar quality, it would bear a critical second viewing. On a first viewing I was a bit suspect, wondering why the soundtrack featured opera and pop in equal doses. And did the ancient Greek mythology really have a part to play, or was it included for no good reason other than to impress the audience? But the film displays little overt pretension. Classical music compliments the Greek-antiquity storyline when appropriate, and just as appropriately, "plagiarised" pop music (the word is actually used by one of the actors to describe the music) compliments the dullness to which love can sometimes descend. Music is important to this film, and was decisively chosen. The music swelling behind the closing credits (a reprise of music already heard), has the viewer anticipating the lyrical high-notes that signal the end of the music, bringing the movie to a satisfying close.

Part humorous, part serious, this movie never has too much of either. It visits fantastic places, but is always pulled back from going too far by its tongue-in-cheek attitude. Characters from Greek legends are balanced by the more mundane problems of what to do about being in love.

I'm hoping this film appeals to me as much the second time around as it did the first. I suspect it will.

"Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe" is a German movie from 2005, so this one is already over a decade old and it was written and directed by the late Helmut Dietl, who was among Germany's biggest filmmaking stars back then still with several really successful movies under his belt. So it is no surprise that stars like Bleibtreu, Lara, Ochsenknecht, Ferch and several others appear in this movie here. The two I mentioned first are the ones whose love story the movie is about really. I think this film struggles a lot with its core idea. On the one hand the film is about sending the message that no love is eternal or forever while going against this message in depicting all kinds of (attempted) romantic scenarios which already stats with the protagonists' names or with their approach to love and how they see each other. Or also with the important role music plays in this film. It is a mix of comedy and drama I guess, just like there are so many combinations of these two genres these days. But sadly, this one here is equally weak as the Schweighöfer films of the 21st century for example, just for other reasons. I would say that the film never really succeeded with story-telling and also that there were just too many lengths and this 105-minute film could have run for 15 minutes shorter, maybe even more. Besides, the poetic queer (not in the sense of gay, more like pompous) approach hurt the idea overall and that's pretty bad as it was an essential component to the idea. it makes it all look fairly pretentious at times. There were moments when the actors (especially Bleibtreu) managed to elevate the material and make it look not so bad, but these were clearly in the minority compared to the amount of weak moments. If you are looking for an interesting romantic movie from recent years that manages to mix romantic with realistic components, then this is not it, probably because they messed up on the fantasy aspect and I just found the story-telling here really underwhelming. Thumbs-down. Don't watch. Another example of how Dietl is pretty overrated in my opinion.

i watched "vom suchen und finden der liebe" on DVD. the movie is about love, which is quite obvious after the title...but its also funny. the thing i love about that movie is, that it goes deeper than most other romantic movies. and it shows aspects of love and relationships which are often left out in films. it wraps up the orpheus and euridyke story, in a total new perspective... the actors did a really good job, i think, and there are 2 guest stars, we know from German TV... i think the cast is just great! i recommend this movie wholeheartedly to everyone who strongly enough believes in love, not to be depressed after wards, because "vom suchen und finden der liebe" tells us that love is not enough to be happy ever after.

I just saw this film for the first time tonight, and I must say, simply a piece of art. Where to begin? It starts with the voice of the narrator and what he had to say caught my attention from second one. It was intelligent and slightly ironic, the first hint, that the movie to come would have comedic elements. Moritz Bleibtreu, Alexandra Maria Lara, Anke Engelke and Uwe Ochsenknecht are extremely well cast. It's fun to watch them act out their scenes. The wonderful story of Eurydice and Orpheus first draws a thin red line throughout the movie, then becomes the movie. I cried for the first time, when Mimi (Bleibtreu) slowly takes one sleeping pill after another, after he had arranged them on the piano spelling "Venus". And then "he" hit me: Heino Ferch as the Hermaphrodite shooting like a golden torch through the sky and down to Greece, to guide Mimi's undying soul to the realms of the dead. Any other movie would have been ruined, because that would have been accidentally funny. But not this movie. Dietl simply made a caricature out of Hermes(Aphrodite). Problem solved. The rest was just moving. Venus wants to return to Mimi, but finds out too late that he's dead. She's desperate and throws herself down the well that portrays the connection between earth and underworld. She almost manages to bring Mimi back to life. But a stupid fight destroys their second chance, just like in the myth. The movie is well written, just as well cut and cinematically beautifully shot. And, for me the most important: it moved me deeply, I cried several times and it even managed to make me cry and laugh at the same time. An achievement that, to date, not many movies can account for. I can only suggest to watch this movie, if opportunity comes up. BUT: be open-minded, that's essential. Or else it will not show all of its facets to you, humble viewer.