User Reviews

"Für Elise" is a German 90-minute movie from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. It was written by Erzsébet Rácz and it is her most known work to date. Same goes for director Wolfgang Dinslage, even if this does not really mean anything because it is the only full feature film effort of his career. The cast includes a couple actors that you may have come across if you like German films. This especially applies to rising German actresses because here we have Saskia Rosendahl, Maria Ehrich and also Jasna Frotzi Bauer, who plays the title character and fittingly the male central character's name is Ludwig. I assume you know that "For/Für Elise" is a famous work by composer Ludwig van Beethoven for the women dearest to him. But this is a modern film of course, one that takes place nowadays and Elise is actually a good respectable girl She does well at school and somehow manage to cope impressively with her mother's alcoholism and promiscuously unhappy relationships with men. Ludwig is one of these men and there is more focus on him than on the other men because of his relationship with Elise. I myself enjoyed the watch. There is some talent in Bauer for sure and the other actors were decent too I guess. Yes there is an occasional weakness I guess, but it is okay. Nothing too heave or negatively deal-breaking. One example may be the ending, which may be a bit forced and unrealistically happy I guess. This is especially a problem as the movie keeps going for bleak realism from start to finish. Oh well, at least you leave the theater with a smile on your lips I guess. As a whole, it is certainly among the better German movies I recently watched and with all the mediocrity, weak films and downright garbage, this is a bit of a refreshing character study of a teenager coming of age. i give it a thumbs-up. Worth seeing.

"Für Elise" tells the story of a young girl that struggles in life due to an irresponsible and often drunk mother, that leaves her alone a lot to visit parties and avoid her responsibilities. When she meets what seems to be a decent man, the three of them get caught in between addiction, dreams and desire.

In many ways the movie manages pretty good to describe this non-ideal mother-daughter relationship formed by two very different characters that have a certain influence on each other. It is made easy to emphasize with the main charakter and her struggles. However, it is hard to see how she is more or less abused by all of the adults in her life in one way or another and maybe this point could have been depicted more outspoken. As it is, the strength of this film are the more quiet passages and moments.

All in all this is a film that is definitely worth a watch. Even when there are similar films with topics that are not too far from this one, it is empathically filmed and written and leaves you behind with a few valuable questions in mind.