Der Seerosenteich is a historical drama in two parts which premiered on German television (ARD) in 2003. The topic is the world of fashion.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** English title: The Pond with the Water Lilies
** Director: Johannes Fabrick
** Writers: Johannes Fabrick and Gabriela Sperl
** Based on a novel by Christian Pfannenschmidt
** Musical score composed by Annette Focks
** Language: German – no English subtitles!
** Released on DVD in 2010
** Run time: 2 x 89 minutes = 178 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Natalie Wörmer as Isabelle “Belle” Corthen
** Tim Bergman as Jon Rix
** Anja Kling as Vivien Trakenberg – Carl’s daughter
** Kai Scheve as Peter Ansaldi
** Dietrich Hollinderbäumer (born 1942) as Carl Trakenberg – Vivien’s father
** Hannelore Elsner (1942-2019) as Puppe Mandel – a famous fashion designer
** Antje Hagen (born 1938) as Gretel Burmönken – Trakenberg’s housekeeper
Christian Pfannenschmidt is a German author, who was born in 1953. His book Der Seerosenteich was published in 1999.
As stated above, this is a historical drama, a fictional story placed in a historical context.
In this case, the context is Germany, France, and the United States from 1967 to 2002.
The leading character is Isabelle, who was born around 1960. We follow her life during more than three decades, from 1967 to 2002.
Jon is a childhood friend. Another friend is Vivien, who is the daughter of Carl Trakenberg, a rich businessman.
Isabelle grows up in the Trakenberg house, but she is not a member of the family. She is the daughter of the housekeeper, who commits suicide in 1979, when Isabella is 19.
In 1980, Carl Trakenberg holds a dinner party for a close friend Puppe Mandel, who is a famous fashion designer. On that occasion, Isabelle realizes that she wants to have a life in the world of fashion. But it is not easy to become a famous fashion designer. In this drama, we follow her life and her career, which includes failure as well as success.
The story flips back and forth between the present (2002) and the past. The oldest clip is set in 1967, when Isabelle is around seven years old. From this point in time the clips from the past move forward, step by step, until they catch up with the present (2002).
The story also flips back and forth between the three locations: Germany, France, and New York.
A painting by the famous French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) plays an important and symbolic role in the story.
The painting, which shows a pond with water lilies, is on sale at an auction held by Christie’s in New York. Isabelle shows up at the auction.
She wants to buy this painting, because it reminds her of her past in Germany when Jon was her boyfriend and they were swimming in a pond full of water lilies.
During the final years of his life, Monet painted several paintings of water lilies. The painting shown in the drama is not painted by Monet, but it looks very much like one of his later paintings. It could be a Monet, but it is not.
I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. This is why I am not going to say more than this. If you want to know what happens to Isabelle and the people around her, you will have to watch the drama (or read the book) all the way to the end.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
On IMDb it has a rating of 60 per cent, which corresponds to three stars on Amazon.
On Amazon Germany there are at the moment 10 ratings of this product.
The average rating is 4.8 stars which corresponds to a rating of 96 percent.
If you ask me, the rating on Amazon is too high, while the rating on IMDb is very appropriate. Why do I say this? Because this drama has some flaws. Let me explain:
# 1. The first flaw concerns the language. When the story is set in Germany, it is obviously OK for the characters to speak German with each other. But when Isabelle is in Paris, the language spoken is still German. We are in France, but nobody speaks French. And not only that. The German that the French characters speak is perfect. They never have to search for the words. They know exactly how to say what they want to say in German.
The same thing happens when Isabelle is in the US. The language spoken is still German. Nobody speaks English. The auction held by Christie’s in New York is conducted in German!
This is totally unrealistic. Because of the German language the scenes which are set in Paris and New York are not convincing.
German television likes to maintain this fiction: people all over the world speak German. It is not even necessary to ask them if they speak German. They just do it. The very first word they utter is in German. Why? Because they are in a German movie!
# 2. The second flaw concerns the structure of the drama. The flipping back and forth between the past and the present as well as the flipping back and forth between the three locations.
This happens too often and some scenes are way too short. It is confusing that the story constantly flips back and forth between the past and the present, and between the three locations.
The story is constantly interrupted!
This is not a good way to tell a story!
# 3. The third flaw concerns the main character Isabelle who is not very likeable. She is supposed to be the hero or rather the heroine in this drama, but she is often nasty to the people around her, whether they work for her or they are her friends.
# 4. Finally, there are some loose ends. For instance, we are not told what happens to Vivien and Peter. I know they are secondary characters, but we see them several times. I would like to know what happens to them as well. But there is no information. Why?
As you can see, there are some flaws - some of them quite serious - which cannot be ignored. I have to remove two stars because of these flaws. This is why I think this product deserves a rating of three stars (60 percent).
PS. Anja Kling, who was born in Potsdam (East Germany) in 1970, is a famous German actress.
When she is in a movie, she usually plays the leading character, as she did in the mini-series Hagedorns Tochter from 1994 or in the drama Es ist nicht vorbei from 2011. But in this drama, she plays a secondary role.
In most cases, she plays a character, who is very likeable, but in this drama, she is not a nice person.
*****
a historical novel
by the German author
Christian Pfannenschmidt
(1999)
*****
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