Beloved Sisters is the English title of a German historical drama which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** German title: Die geliebten Schwestern
** Writer and director: Dominik Graf
** Run time: 139 minutes
This drama is about the famous German poet Friedrich Schiller and his relationship with two sisters: Caroline and Charlotte von Lengefeld.
Eventually, the older sister, Charlotte,
married him (in 1790), while the younger sister, Caroline, wrote a biography about him (published in 1830).
This drama is a combination of historical fact and speculation. The characters are real persons, and most of what we see are solid facts, but the director has allowed himself to speculate about what happened between the poet and the two sisters. And his version may be true, even though it cannot be documented.
The cast includes the following:
The first group
** Florian Stetter
as Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) - a German poet
** Hannah Herzsprung as Caroline von Lengefeld (1763-1847) (nickname Line)
** Henriette Confurius as Charlotte von Lengefeld (1766-1826) (nickname Lollo)
** Claudia Messner as Louise von Lengefeld (1743-1823) (mother of the two sisters)
** Andreas Pietchmann as Friedrich von Beulwitz (1755-1829) (married to Caroline 1784-1794)
The second group
** Ronald Zehrfeld as Wilhelm von Wolzogen (1762-1809) (married to Caroline 1794-1809)
** Michael Wittenborn as Knebel
** Maja Maranow (1961-2016) as Charlotte von Stein (1742-1827) (for a while she had an affair with the German poet Goethe)
** Anne Schafer as Charlotte von Kalb (1761-1843) (for a while she had an affair with Schiller)
The Lengefeld family was part of the German nobility, but they had economic problems after the father of the family died.
In order to help her mother and her sister, Caroline agreed to marry Friedrich von Beulwitz in 1784, but the marriage was never happy, and it ended with a divorce ten years later (1794).
Meanwhile, Charlotte was sent to stay with her Godmother, Charlotte von Stein in Weimar. The mother’s hope was that she would meet a suitable husband while she was there.
The two sisters Caroline and Charlotte were very close. Caroline did not want Charlotte to marry for money or a title, as she had to. She wanted her to marry for love.
She urged her to marry Schiller. Charlotte was ready and when her mother finally accepted, they were married in 1790. When Caroline divorced von Beulwitz in 1794, she married Wilhelm von Wolzogen.
At the time when this drama takes place, there is no state called Germany; instead, there are several German states. A unified German state was not created until 1871.
The story begins in 1787 when Schiller meets the older sister (Charlotte) and later the younger sister (Caroline).
According to this film, both sisters fall in love with the young poet, who was just starting his career.
He was already well-known, but he was a commoner and he was not rich. In other words, he was not a suitable candidate to marry Charlotte.
According to this film, the trio makes a pact: they will always love each other, no matter what the rest of the world may say or think about it. At the time, this was a highly provocative idea in any German state.
In this film, we learn how the relationship between the poet and the two sisters develops. The story ends when Schiller dies in 1805, when he is only 45 years old.
The story moves from one location to another, from one time to another. An on-screen message informs us about the time and the place whenever a new chapter of the film begins. This is very helpful.
Since this is a German film, most of the dialogue is in German. However, there are some scenes where the dialogue is in French:
Louise Lengefeld speaks French with her daughters, so the servants cannot understand what they say. When the servants cannot understand, they will not be able to gossip about them.
Both the German and French dialogues are covered with English subtitles.
This is a long film. It runs for more than two hours; to be precise 139 minutes. Some viewers may feel this is too long, in particular if they feel that the film is too slow.
This is not an action movie. This is a drama about a passionate and complicated relationship between three people that took place more than two hundred years ago. This will not appeal to all viewers.
As stated above, this drama is a combination of fact and speculation. Is the speculation true?
This is difficult to say.
In the biography of Schiller that was published in 1830, Caroline does not reveal anything about this aspect, and before she died, she destroyed all correspondence between Schiller and herself.
Modern scholars do not agree on this: some say it is possible, even likely, while others reject the idea.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
Here are some results:
40 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
62 percent = IMDb
66 percent = Meta
72 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
As you can see, the ratings are mixed. The low point is 40 percent, while the high point is 72 percent.
On Amazon there are at the moment 288 ratings of this product, 271 with reviews.
The average rating is 3.6 stars which corresponds to a rating of 72 percent. Here are the details:
5 stars = 43 percent
4 stars = 14 percent
3 stars = 17 percent
2 stars = 16 percent
1 star = 10 percent
Most reviews are positive: 57 percent offer four or five stars. But a substantial minority is negative: 26 percent offer only one or two stars. A small group is in the middle:17 percent offer three stars.
I understand the positive reviews and I agree with them.
This film offers an interesting portrait of life in some of the German states around the year 1800.
While Schiller appears very often, this is not really a film about him. It is more a film about the two sisters Caroline and Charlotte and their relationship with him and with each other.
It is also a film about the world of writing and publishing. Schiller is a published poet. Later, he gets a professorship at the University of Jena where he has to teach history.
In the film, we follow him as he starts a literary journal for new ideas. Many famous German authors contribute to this journal, but also some who are not so famous.
One not-so-famous contributor is Caroline, whose work is published anonymously. For a while, the literary circles in the German states are trying to guess the identity of the author.
In my opinion, Beloved Sisters is a fascinating film. To me, it does not feel long.
It is interesting to meet Schiller, not as the famous poet, but as an ordinary man who has feelings and who has to deal with the problems of daily life.
If you are ready for a such a story, this historical drama is definitely something for you.
It is highly recommended.
PS # 1. The following item offers more information:
Schillers Doppelliebe:
Die Lengefeld-Schwestern Caroline und Charlotte
by Kirsten Jungling & Brigitte Rossbeck
(Hardcover 2005)
(Paperback 2006)
PS # 2. The following items are available online:
“Liebhaber Schiller:
Der Mann, dem eine Schwester nich genug war,”
Der Speigel,
10 November 2009
(This is a story in three parts)
Peter Ueling,
“Revolution, privat,”
Berliner Zeitung,
29 July 2014
*****
Die geliebten Schwestern
A historical drama which premiered
in 2014
*****
The famous German poet
Friedrich Schiller
(1759-1805)
*****
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