"Das merkwürdige Verhalten geschlechtsreifer Großstädter zur Paarungszeit" or "Love Scenes from Planet Earth" (an entirely different translation) is a German movie in the German language by director Marc Rothemund. It was actually his very first full feature film, so i am not really too surprised that he is still far far away from his best here, namely from his Oscar-nominated work. Anyway, the script is by Peter Gersina and looking at the latter's other works, this certainly is not helping Rothemund at all. Neither does it help the actors. The lead actor is played by Austrian Christoph Waltz quite a while before his Oscar glories. And it shows that not even everything he touches turns to gold. The cast list includes many many names that in my opinion do not have the talent that justifies the careers they are having. This applies to Hagen, Kramer, Korittke, Dobra, Landgrebe, Landuris, Schenke, Hörbiger and probably more. Some of them scored through charisma during their careers, but hardly anybody has put on display that he has actually convincing range and talent.
Now with this weak cast and script, the film was bound to become a disappointment and so it did. It is a mix of romance and comedy and the drama aspects (with central characters dying apparently) are never to be taken seriously. So this is one of the very few pros that the film does not try to be really relevant. At times, it works as a bit of a guilty pleasure perhaps, but at other times, it all just feels so extremely absurd and over the top in the most desperate attempt you could imagine to actually make a difference and entertain the audience. So yeah, this film's semi-popularity can probably explained by the title and that it was enough to get several people to theaters and also with the successes of Rothemund and Waltz that many people still watch it today. Including myself. But does it deserve the attention? I personally would not say so. I never thought that it was a genuinely entertaining work and give it a thumbs-down. Not even Waltz's opening monologue was good enough to get anyone interested about what happened and why it happened. Luckily this thing stays comfortably under the 90-minute mark. Watch something else.
Now with this weak cast and script, the film was bound to become a disappointment and so it did. It is a mix of romance and comedy and the drama aspects (with central characters dying apparently) are never to be taken seriously. So this is one of the very few pros that the film does not try to be really relevant. At times, it works as a bit of a guilty pleasure perhaps, but at other times, it all just feels so extremely absurd and over the top in the most desperate attempt you could imagine to actually make a difference and entertain the audience. So yeah, this film's semi-popularity can probably explained by the title and that it was enough to get several people to theaters and also with the successes of Rothemund and Waltz that many people still watch it today. Including myself. But does it deserve the attention? I personally would not say so. I never thought that it was a genuinely entertaining work and give it a thumbs-down. Not even Waltz's opening monologue was good enough to get anyone interested about what happened and why it happened. Luckily this thing stays comfortably under the 90-minute mark. Watch something else.