"Wiedersehen in Verona" is a German television film from 2007, so this one will have its 15th anniversary next year. The title means "Reunion in Verona" although i am not sure if this includes the romantic component here whatsoever, but then again "Wiedersehen" does not necessarily imply that either, so it's all good or suppose. Or "all bad" I should say which is the more fitting description for this film. If you read "ARD degeto" here and know a bit about (German) (television) films, then you also know what to expect here, namely utter absence of quality and creativity. This is one of many, many films for which millions, if not billions of GEZ money have been burned over the years. Absolutely disgraceful. The people who made this are also the usual suspects. The director is Dirk Regel and if you look at his body of work, you will be appalled, especially everything he made in the first years of the new millennium and, if we are even more precise everything had two or three years before and after this one here. The shocking thing is that he is still closer to 50 than to 60, so there could be at least a decade of additional terrible projects coming up. Maybe even two decades. At the end of his career/life, he could be a true contender for worst German filmmaker of all time. The epitome of quantity over quality, but you will have to dig really deep to find something in his body of work that is not best described as massive failure. The writer is Christiane Sadlo and you cannot go easy on her either. The good news with her is that it was until her 40th birthday almost until her works got turned into film and series. But then, she contributed to uncountable Utta Danella, Rosamunde Pilcher and Inga Lindström films, i.e. Each and every single project she has been a part of so far, is also completely void of quality and gooey romance instead.
With that being told, the cast is not helping matters here at all. Lead actress Katharina Böhm is extremely limited. Her male co-lead Christoph M. Ohrt is slightly more talented, but has not the material to shine whatsoever here and also no love for him here if he accepts parts like the one he plays in this film. Several supporting cast members are also relatively experienced and if you like German films and series, then you maybe came across Boysen or Tscharre in other projects. Maybe saw Scholze in her television show next to Ulrich Mühe. Needless to say they are all held back by the abysmal writing here as well. Some are probably also terrible actors simply. With the film being set in Italy, we also get many Italian actors for the really small parts. The dubbing is abysmal there honestly. But hey, as long as Germans are ready to pay for that with GEZ money... The cringe already starts with the setting. This is in Verona and the female protagonist is of course called Julia and we hear references to Romeo and Juliet many times. The male protagonist is called Robert. Not Romeo, but close enough, but hey, he cannot be the ultimate as he is a male and these films are always anti-male. The best example is the working title "Robert sucht Julia" as in these films men are always desperately seeking classy women that they should be grateful to have. And the men are always a bit on the follish side and clumsy, sometimes even idiots or needy, while the women are always independent and desirable. Take a look at the first scene already when Böhm's character reached a big success with a courtroom trial and we find out she is a hogh-profile lawyer always in demand of course. The actress is Karlheinz Böhm's daughter by the way. I wonder if he was ashamed of her in terms of her profession. He was still alive back then.
It was really cringeworthy to also see how literally every single character is in awe of Böhm's. We constantly hear how pretty she is, how amazing, how desirable... Just to make sure the (mostly female) audience does not forget. And she always reacts humble to all those compliments of course. Like the perfect woman she is. She is a best friend to her partner's daughter, who is 20 years younger. Yep, young woman see her as a role model. She is the one who basically fixes said woman's romance struggles when they are together in the hotel room or something on one occasion. The anti-male hatred starts early by the way with open insults in a car within the first ten minutes between out two lovable women. Oh of course Böhm's character is always really well-dressed. Self-explanatory. The young woman of course also sides with her mother figure when the latter realizes that a man from her youth is who she really wants and she does not side with her dad. Of course not. Böhm's character cannot do any wrong here. Also pay attention to how a female friend (I think not a relative) of Ohrt's characters talks about how wonderful Böhm's character is and how much of an idiot Ohrt's character was that he let her go back then. Of course, the two were ready to marry, but Ohrt's character got cold feed back then and did not show up. Well, he has the chance to make up for it here as in the end they are going for a really rushed-in spontaneous wedding in Italy. Yep, thats how things go in these films. But hey, it makes totally sense as it's true love after all between these two. And of course, this time the woman is late because of an "unlucky" (not so realistic) issue that has her not get there in time. But yes, the simple women in the audience sure think he deserves it that he lets him wait a little with what he did to her back then. True pseudo drama as well. This pseudo drama is also emphasized strongly as usual with Degeto through the soulless, over-the-top soundtrack.
Now a few words on the men: The scene with the balcony and the flower down there that finally decided that she wants only him was pure cringe. Not just the scene itself because of the Romeo and Juliet connection, but also the message from her man at home seconds earlier that also included flowers. What a coincidence! Or how of course her man from home shows up in Italy all of a sudden in an unexpected fashion. Let's be clear here: The female protagonist is a cheater basically. But it is all romanticized and justifiable because of true love. Imagine if her man at home ran into the love of his life. He would be as low as it gets and the audience mus hate him for being unfaithful and disrespectful and not appreciating the greatest woman in the world. Then there is the young guy. Another prime example of double standards. In these Degeto films, men are often punished because they are too slow with putting a ring on their partner's finger. And realize in the end that they really wanted her in fact, but she found somebody better in the meantime. So here we have a man who wants to marry his sweetheart, but she is hesitant, but still she is a good girl and just too independent and everything and that is a valid justification. Of course, in the end the two young lovebirds get their happy end too before the film ends with focus on Böhm's character just how it should be because she is the star here. Oh and Mirko Lang playing an Italian I don't even... As for the men, we still must see Ohrt's character as kinda deserving of her at least, so he has his own romantic partner that (according to him) is not good enough for him for a real relationship. All he wants is Böhm's character obviously. Guess what I thhink Tscharre was much more attractive here. As a consequence, we also get a little pseudo drama about an invented pregnancy. Right when you thought this film could not get any worse. Oh and Ohrt's and Böhm's character meeting very early on on this escalator already and kinda recognizing each other was also another nonsense coincidence.
It is the big and small moments where this film really sucks. The idea how the two meet each other again during negotiations for the purchase of a wine company was once again nonsense coincidence, also the idea how in the end she cannot side with her previous partner's business interests anymore when earlier this was all she cared about. Like Ohrt's character had to hide his interest and disguise meeting her as a business meeting. That was horrible. Felt like an abduction. Or also Böhm shows her lack of acting ability so many times. The most glaring example was maybe when she tries to talk about the young woman's studies to hide her feelings for Ohrt's character. But the young woman is of course smart enough to see through that. During that scene, coincidence strikes again as they randomly eat at the same place where Ohrt's character and his partner are about to eat. It is all so bad. Also disgraceful how they used Italy in the title here. Maybe the first ten minutes, there were two or three beautiful shots, but afterwards the film really could have taken place in any other (Italian) city. Not a worthy tribute to the city at all. All make-believe. But yeah, as I stated earlier, all the money used for this movie is worthless if talent and ambition are not existent with the people making it. Just get rich quickly was the motto here. There was never any doubt that this film would really, really suck. Since minute one basically. It is as bad as everything else out there from Degeto and I give my lowest rating possible here. Tough to say what is the worst here, probably the utterly blatant sexism (sold to us as normalcy) and the wedding in the end that really tops all the unrealistic nonsense from before and that means quite something. And also that this film, as always with Degeto too, dares to take itself seriously from beginning to end. Or the idea with the mysterious romantic stranger and these special letters that gets revealed with this circle of women that all seem to have lost it completely (at least one of the women there was really pretty and not just make-believe pretty like the others). Simply too much to choose from what is the biggest failure to it all. Highly not recommended.
With that being told, the cast is not helping matters here at all. Lead actress Katharina Böhm is extremely limited. Her male co-lead Christoph M. Ohrt is slightly more talented, but has not the material to shine whatsoever here and also no love for him here if he accepts parts like the one he plays in this film. Several supporting cast members are also relatively experienced and if you like German films and series, then you maybe came across Boysen or Tscharre in other projects. Maybe saw Scholze in her television show next to Ulrich Mühe. Needless to say they are all held back by the abysmal writing here as well. Some are probably also terrible actors simply. With the film being set in Italy, we also get many Italian actors for the really small parts. The dubbing is abysmal there honestly. But hey, as long as Germans are ready to pay for that with GEZ money... The cringe already starts with the setting. This is in Verona and the female protagonist is of course called Julia and we hear references to Romeo and Juliet many times. The male protagonist is called Robert. Not Romeo, but close enough, but hey, he cannot be the ultimate as he is a male and these films are always anti-male. The best example is the working title "Robert sucht Julia" as in these films men are always desperately seeking classy women that they should be grateful to have. And the men are always a bit on the follish side and clumsy, sometimes even idiots or needy, while the women are always independent and desirable. Take a look at the first scene already when Böhm's character reached a big success with a courtroom trial and we find out she is a hogh-profile lawyer always in demand of course. The actress is Karlheinz Böhm's daughter by the way. I wonder if he was ashamed of her in terms of her profession. He was still alive back then.
It was really cringeworthy to also see how literally every single character is in awe of Böhm's. We constantly hear how pretty she is, how amazing, how desirable... Just to make sure the (mostly female) audience does not forget. And she always reacts humble to all those compliments of course. Like the perfect woman she is. She is a best friend to her partner's daughter, who is 20 years younger. Yep, young woman see her as a role model. She is the one who basically fixes said woman's romance struggles when they are together in the hotel room or something on one occasion. The anti-male hatred starts early by the way with open insults in a car within the first ten minutes between out two lovable women. Oh of course Böhm's character is always really well-dressed. Self-explanatory. The young woman of course also sides with her mother figure when the latter realizes that a man from her youth is who she really wants and she does not side with her dad. Of course not. Böhm's character cannot do any wrong here. Also pay attention to how a female friend (I think not a relative) of Ohrt's characters talks about how wonderful Böhm's character is and how much of an idiot Ohrt's character was that he let her go back then. Of course, the two were ready to marry, but Ohrt's character got cold feed back then and did not show up. Well, he has the chance to make up for it here as in the end they are going for a really rushed-in spontaneous wedding in Italy. Yep, thats how things go in these films. But hey, it makes totally sense as it's true love after all between these two. And of course, this time the woman is late because of an "unlucky" (not so realistic) issue that has her not get there in time. But yes, the simple women in the audience sure think he deserves it that he lets him wait a little with what he did to her back then. True pseudo drama as well. This pseudo drama is also emphasized strongly as usual with Degeto through the soulless, over-the-top soundtrack.
Now a few words on the men: The scene with the balcony and the flower down there that finally decided that she wants only him was pure cringe. Not just the scene itself because of the Romeo and Juliet connection, but also the message from her man at home seconds earlier that also included flowers. What a coincidence! Or how of course her man from home shows up in Italy all of a sudden in an unexpected fashion. Let's be clear here: The female protagonist is a cheater basically. But it is all romanticized and justifiable because of true love. Imagine if her man at home ran into the love of his life. He would be as low as it gets and the audience mus hate him for being unfaithful and disrespectful and not appreciating the greatest woman in the world. Then there is the young guy. Another prime example of double standards. In these Degeto films, men are often punished because they are too slow with putting a ring on their partner's finger. And realize in the end that they really wanted her in fact, but she found somebody better in the meantime. So here we have a man who wants to marry his sweetheart, but she is hesitant, but still she is a good girl and just too independent and everything and that is a valid justification. Of course, in the end the two young lovebirds get their happy end too before the film ends with focus on Böhm's character just how it should be because she is the star here. Oh and Mirko Lang playing an Italian I don't even... As for the men, we still must see Ohrt's character as kinda deserving of her at least, so he has his own romantic partner that (according to him) is not good enough for him for a real relationship. All he wants is Böhm's character obviously. Guess what I thhink Tscharre was much more attractive here. As a consequence, we also get a little pseudo drama about an invented pregnancy. Right when you thought this film could not get any worse. Oh and Ohrt's and Böhm's character meeting very early on on this escalator already and kinda recognizing each other was also another nonsense coincidence.
It is the big and small moments where this film really sucks. The idea how the two meet each other again during negotiations for the purchase of a wine company was once again nonsense coincidence, also the idea how in the end she cannot side with her previous partner's business interests anymore when earlier this was all she cared about. Like Ohrt's character had to hide his interest and disguise meeting her as a business meeting. That was horrible. Felt like an abduction. Or also Böhm shows her lack of acting ability so many times. The most glaring example was maybe when she tries to talk about the young woman's studies to hide her feelings for Ohrt's character. But the young woman is of course smart enough to see through that. During that scene, coincidence strikes again as they randomly eat at the same place where Ohrt's character and his partner are about to eat. It is all so bad. Also disgraceful how they used Italy in the title here. Maybe the first ten minutes, there were two or three beautiful shots, but afterwards the film really could have taken place in any other (Italian) city. Not a worthy tribute to the city at all. All make-believe. But yeah, as I stated earlier, all the money used for this movie is worthless if talent and ambition are not existent with the people making it. Just get rich quickly was the motto here. There was never any doubt that this film would really, really suck. Since minute one basically. It is as bad as everything else out there from Degeto and I give my lowest rating possible here. Tough to say what is the worst here, probably the utterly blatant sexism (sold to us as normalcy) and the wedding in the end that really tops all the unrealistic nonsense from before and that means quite something. And also that this film, as always with Degeto too, dares to take itself seriously from beginning to end. Or the idea with the mysterious romantic stranger and these special letters that gets revealed with this circle of women that all seem to have lost it completely (at least one of the women there was really pretty and not just make-believe pretty like the others). Simply too much to choose from what is the biggest failure to it all. Highly not recommended.
