User Reviews

"Sehnsucht" is a German movie from 2006, so this one had its 10th anniversary last year. It is one of the two works where female German filmmaker Valeska Grisebach was in charge of writing and directing and she recently rose to fame for contributing to the script of the Pscar-nominated "Toni Erdmann" and even if she was only in a smaller position there, you can see her talent with this movie we have here. This is the story of a man who is happily married, but ends up in bed with another women. He decides he wants to see her again and afterward an affair is the result. Both women are really crazy for him.I must say I enjoyed this film quite a bit. Almost all of it made sense and felt authentic and this authenticity is the biggest strength here. It all feels so normal and like everyday life that could actually happen to all of us really, all of us that do not lead a life in the limelight I mean. It's a bit of a simple plot and also a very bleak movie, but this does not mean something negative in this context. On the contrary really, more like something positive because I never felt like watching actors. This is especially important as many actors in here, also in core positions never played in other films before or after this one here. It is certainly a very essential film and at 80 minutes (without credits) it never drags for a bit in my opinion. There were minor criticisms like the shooting near the end which really did not fit at all in terms of the tone of the film and also it did not seem like something the character would do to be honest. But it was still executed with precision because the contrast between the shot and the harmony with the bunnies (and him calming himself before he does it) was done pretty nicely artistically. I also liked the very ending with the children talking about the entire thing. We may not get a solution of what happens afterward, but find out he lives, so again the ending is pretty much in tone with the entire film and does not go for cheap thrills that would have felt out of place. Besides, I kept wondering why after the possible one night stand, he kept returning to the other woman if he loved his wife so much. Another minor criticism. These two aspects perhaps keep me from being really enthusiastic about the movie, but there is no denying I enjoyed the watch for the most part and I definitely think you should check it out. Thumbs up for "Longing". I hope Girsebach makes more films in the future, she seems to be pretty good in depicting characters and relationships in a realistic way. Final note: I am a bit surprised that the IMDb title page calls the other woman attractive as I found the wife much better-looking.

Sehnsucht (Longing) is an interesting variation on the clichéd triangle romance, as its (female) writer-director stresses, for the most part, a grounding in the banal day-to-day realism of a small town. The movie is centered on the young husband, Markus, who we see doing his bit as a volunteer for the fire brigade and at his job as a metal worker focusing on locks. He seems happy with his wife (who is aggressive about how much she wants him) and son, but in the course of a brigade trip to another small town meets a waitress in a pub and suddenly wakes up in her bed, not sure what he's gotten into. Director Grisebach employs either rather close shots of the participants, often in steamy passion, or longer shots where we are distanced, which then take us out of the story aspect and let us look more at the surroundings. She has used some of the townspeople in the Brandenburg villages where it was shot to add a non-professional documentary dimension to the presentation. At several points though there are sudden,jolting lurches into melodrama such as when the waitress falls off her balcony after Markus has told her he wants to break up; or when Markus, who we see then back at work, tries to kill himself. The movie's highpoint is the charming epilogue in which a group of local children share the story of what we have just been through, try to understand it from their point of view, and leave us guessing as to what its resolution will be. If Grisebach, who has directed only one other feature, is not quite up there with Ida Lupino, who made a similar film, The Bigamist, about a man sharing two women, she shows at least with this scene that she has a talent to keep in mind for the future

I saw this film at the Palm Springs Film Festival and have to admit I might be too callous and jaded to rate this one fairly. This film is another story about an unfaithful man that is selfish and can't face the consequences for his actions. He is married to a good woman and travels out of town for a weekend training event and gets drunk and sleeps with another woman. Instead of ending it after one night he decides to continue to see this woman. After multiple times of seeing her he decides to stop and tells her he wants to end the relationship. The mistress falls from a balcony and presses charges against him for pushing her off when actually it looks like he was only moving forward towards her to comfort her and as she was pushing him away she lost her balance and fell. She decides to press charges against him for pushing her. The truth is you can't tell what really happens; I assume the film is deliberately left this way. Only because of this accident and charges being pressed against him he has to tell his wife what has happened. He is so overwhelmed with guilt he tries to kill himself and fails. The film also implies that either his wife or his mistress takes him back but does not state if this implication is true and if so which of the two women take him back. I would have to guess that the wife takes him back, just based on the background provided in the film. It was OK, but I would not recommend it as a must see, too many parts were predictable.