Horst_In_Translation Review of Das Jahr der ersten Küsse

Das Jahr der ersten Küsse (2002)

A solid film that deserves a more accurate title

[6/10 · 28 July 2018]

"Das Jahr der ersten Küsse" or "The Year of the First Kiss" is a German German-language movie from 2002, so this one is already over 15 years old. Director is Kai Wessel, who is probably thanks to his longtime experience in the industry way more known than writer Sathyan Ramesh. The cast includes only 2 somewhat known names (as of today), namely Oliver Korittke who was a much bigger star back then than he is today and Max Mauff who it seems like managed to transition into becoming a successful actor now during the days of his adulthood and not just a child actor as we see him here. This cannot be said about most of the others in this one, some of them vanished completely from films, others ended up in weak daily soap operas. Anyway, their effort here isn't too shabby. The flashback sequences, which are almost the entire film, were good to watch and interesting and a nice little film about teenage school life and coming of age while struggling with attraction, love, sexuality and sujects like moving place, divorce or even domestic violence, not all of this only about the protagonist. It felt real. The drama was nothing bigger than all we experienced when we were Tristan's age, but it feels much more important and significant from his personal perspective and that is a good thing because it makes the film infinitely more interesting. The supporting characters and their (lack of) impact on Tristan's life feel authentic too. The one thing that did nothing for me, however, was the frame that is basically nothing than Korittke standing in front of a window and remembering his childhood. It should have been left out completely. The pseudo-tragic ending just did not feel right at all either I must say. This was never a film about selling us the girl as his true love as it tries to eventually, which is just wrong especially the comments on cheating and how she is perfectly fine with it almost. They should have done without the Korittke parts entirely and I may have given it an even higher rating. But this is a negative deal breaker absolutely. I guess they really wanted the big name actor on board and he did not fit in anywhere else in the film, certainly not as the girl's violent dad. the death at the very end tries to make clear to us that tragedy can always happen unexpectedly and make us mourn about this terrible loss right after they finally got together, but as for me it did not succeed at all from that perspective. I would say cut out the Korritke parts and watch everything else just, but this would be too complicated I guess. So you have to sit through these I'm afraid. But I hope you will be able to appreciate everything else as much as I did. There is some cult potential there and there is some nice charm and attention to detail in this movie if you look beyond the ridiculous references like a teenager masturbating 6 times a day. It's not really for the comedy, it's not a funny movie to be honest, but it's one that may bring you back to your childhood on some occasions. Also ignore the title, it has almost nothing to do with the film. See it.