Director Andreas Dresen and author Laila Stieler like to deal with big topics. Their previous three films together were about dealing with the Stasi past (“Gundermann”), false accusations of Islamic terrorism (“Rabiye Kurnaz against George W. Bush”) and resistance in the Third Reich (“In Love, Your Hilde”). “Alte Liebe”, on the other hand, is “just” about an older couple who have been married for decades and know each other inside and out. It seems small and intimate, especially since the film, like a chamber play, is almost entirely set in the couple’s house and garden.
But it is precisely in this context, where the major global political questions only resonate in the background when Markus Lanz and his guests discuss on television, that the specific strengths of Dresen and Stieler come into their own particularly well: a fine sense of nuance, a precise ability to observe and, last but not least, a deep humanism that has long characterized the collaboration of this congenial duo.
Harry (Joachim Król) and Lore (Dagmar Manzel) don’t agree on everything – but that still can’t affect their love.
Somewhere on the outskirts of Berlin, one can assume that it is the former eastern part of the city, Harry (Joachim Król) and Lore (Dagmar Manzel) have created a small empire that looks like a castle. The living room of the family home looks inviting and spacious, Lore works in the kitchen, but the garden is Harry’s territory. Since his retirement, the man in his late sixties has been trying to cultivate plants that are closer to the Grantler than most people. He only leaves the house when he cannot avoid it.
Lore, on the other hand, needs more. She works in a small local library, organizes readings, and sometimes raves about the German literary greats who become part of her little world for a moment (including great guest appearances by authors Christoph Hein and Clemens Meyer, whose novels “Willenbrock” and “As We Dreamed”) have already been filmed by Dresen. The couple has been married for decades now, knows and bickers with each other, is annoyed by each other’s quirks, but also happy to know that they have someone who knows them so well. Old love never rusts…
A hit novel as a basis
Andreas Dresen and Laila Stieler have already worked together on nine films – moving between original material and literary adaptations. “Alte Liebe” was based on a bestseller by Elke Heidenreich and Bernd Schroeder. The co-authors were married for years themselves, but continued to work together even after their separation. In 2009, the joint novel was created, which Laila Stieler has now carefully adapted. However, the focus was slightly changed, because while Heidenreich and Schroeder grew up in West Germany, Stieler and Dresen come from the former East – an influence that can always be felt in their films, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Especially with Harry – certainly to emphasize the universality of the whole thing, with Joachim Król from the Ruhr area – a displeasure with German-German sensitivities shines through again and again. For example, in the form of a certain envy of the West Germans and of the money, which was often inherited or acquired through excessively predatory capitalist behavior. But the daughter married exactly such a Wessi capitalist in Leipzig – not her first marriage and she already has a spoiled daughter who immediately disappears behind the PlayStation when she visits her grandparents. As they marvel at their granddaughter and their newlyweds, Harry and Lore sit together in the garden and laugh at the world, which is developing in directions they don’t understand. Then again there are heated arguments – Harry’s unwillingness to open up to new things in particular irritates Lore to the point of rage.
The optimistic answer to Ingmar Bergman
So “Scenes from a Marriage”, but even if you sometimes inevitably have to think of the classic by Ingmar Bergman: Things are never as hard and merciless here as in Sweden, Dresen and Stieler believe too much in the good in people. Like “Rabiye Kurnaz against George W. Bush” or “In Love, Your Hilde,” “Alte Liebe” also uses a then-and-then-and-then dramaturgy that, at first glance, seems monotonous and deliberately avoids dramatic climaxes.
The force of the story here also develops from the unshakable foundation: Just as Rabiye Kurnaz continues to fight for her wrongfully imprisoned son despite all the obstacles, the decades of living together form the basis of Harry and Lore’s relationship, which even conflicts that appear dramatic at times cannot harm. The strength of a film that seems small but still tells of something essential lies in the precise, loving observation of a proven relationship.
Conclusion: At first glance, “Alte Liebe” may seem like a minor work that does not deal with major topics, but “only” with a tried and tested relationship. But in the long run, the special class of Andreas Dresen and Laila Stieler shows once again, who, with fine observations, manage to show a couple who know each other so well and respect each other so much that even major arguments do not let this love rust through.