"Die Blumen von gestern" or "The Bloom of Yesterday" is a German film from last year (2016) and this one is the most recent work by writer and director Chris Kraus. His most known work so far is "4 Minuten" and I believe this one to be pretty overrated, so my expectations for this one here weren't too big, but overall it was a successful watch I'd say. Nicely done. It is a pretty long film, makes it past the 2-hour mark and yet it never drags at all. While I don't mind Lars Eidinger as an actor, this is the first time he really impressed me and he is certainly deserving of his Best Lead Actor at the German Film Awards. The late Sigrid Marquardt was nominated for Supporting Actress, but I am not really on par with her nomination. I guess it may have had to do with her death and because of the character's background, but performance-wise it wasn't anything too special I would say. It's not that she was bad or anything, but the one who really deserved the nomination, even if she was probably lead is Adèle Haenel who breezes so much life into this movie. I read former Bond girl Eva Green was also considered for the part and I'd be curious about what her portrayal would have looked like, but I must say Haenel was close to perfect in here. Admittedly her looks don't hurt either.
The subject in this film is once again like in so many other German movies the Holocaust. And still the movie proves that if your approach and execution is competent and creative enough, then it is still possible, after all these years and movies, to add something new and valuable to the subject. Of course, the competent performances are helping the matter too. This probably excludes Hannah Herzsprung who also starred in 4 Minutes and has a supporting part in this one, namely playing the main character's (not so) significant other. Her character adds very little to the story and could have been left out completely. Even a limited actor like Jan Josef Liefers made a bigger impact here than she did and that says quite something. Anyway, back to the positive: With a reference to the title of my review, I believe that this film is an excellent example of how to combine comedy, romance and relevance in one movie. This is something that the likes of Schweighöfer (and maybe M'Barek) and some others have been trying for years and have failed gloriously every single attempt. They can really learn a whole lot from these 120 minutes here, but I doubt they will because they prefer making films that are for the easily entertained masses that don't understand depth even if it hits them right in the very face. This film here has a great deal of depth and it pretty much delivers in terms of everything it tries to be. I was certainly way closer to giving this one a ****/***** than to a **/*****, but eventually 3 stars out of 5 is enough as not all the dramatic moments are really working 100%. Most of them are though. The film gets a lot more serious at the one-hour mark while everything before that is mostly comedy. That's a bit surprising as the film also focuses more on romance in the second half. So it is not a romantic comedy then. More of a romantic drama perhaps. And a really strong character study when it comes to Eidinger and Haenel, who without a doubt are among the best their countries have to offer from their respective age groups. This film is the evidence. And the ending is the obvious evidence too that this is not another generic German stupid comedy with a happy ending. It is all about authenticity instead and that's all you can ask for. Go see it as this one is deserving of all the awards attention it received. And the final (and maybe biggest) thumbs-up goes to the excellent Carla Bruni song used on several occasions and I just can't stop listening to it.
The subject in this film is once again like in so many other German movies the Holocaust. And still the movie proves that if your approach and execution is competent and creative enough, then it is still possible, after all these years and movies, to add something new and valuable to the subject. Of course, the competent performances are helping the matter too. This probably excludes Hannah Herzsprung who also starred in 4 Minutes and has a supporting part in this one, namely playing the main character's (not so) significant other. Her character adds very little to the story and could have been left out completely. Even a limited actor like Jan Josef Liefers made a bigger impact here than she did and that says quite something. Anyway, back to the positive: With a reference to the title of my review, I believe that this film is an excellent example of how to combine comedy, romance and relevance in one movie. This is something that the likes of Schweighöfer (and maybe M'Barek) and some others have been trying for years and have failed gloriously every single attempt. They can really learn a whole lot from these 120 minutes here, but I doubt they will because they prefer making films that are for the easily entertained masses that don't understand depth even if it hits them right in the very face. This film here has a great deal of depth and it pretty much delivers in terms of everything it tries to be. I was certainly way closer to giving this one a ****/***** than to a **/*****, but eventually 3 stars out of 5 is enough as not all the dramatic moments are really working 100%. Most of them are though. The film gets a lot more serious at the one-hour mark while everything before that is mostly comedy. That's a bit surprising as the film also focuses more on romance in the second half. So it is not a romantic comedy then. More of a romantic drama perhaps. And a really strong character study when it comes to Eidinger and Haenel, who without a doubt are among the best their countries have to offer from their respective age groups. This film is the evidence. And the ending is the obvious evidence too that this is not another generic German stupid comedy with a happy ending. It is all about authenticity instead and that's all you can ask for. Go see it as this one is deserving of all the awards attention it received. And the final (and maybe biggest) thumbs-up goes to the excellent Carla Bruni song used on several occasions and I just can't stop listening to it.