"Der Campus" or just "Campus" is a German movie from 1998, so this one will have its 20th anniversary next year. The director is Sönke Wortmann, still a big name here in Germany and he is also among the writers who adapted the novel by Dietrich Schwanitz. The late Schwanitz also worked on the script himself in fact. The cast includes Heiner Lauterbach as the undisputed lead, who was probably still a bigger star back then here in Germany than what he is today. Add to tat a handful of semi-famous supporting players like Milberg, Rohde, Canonica, Rudnik, Jürgens, Kroymann, Franke, Schafmeister... Oh yeah, the most crucial female part is played by Sandra Speichert and I must say I see almost no appeal in her as an actress. looks may be solid to some, but it is very fitting that she ended up on garbage like "Rote Rosen" recently. Anyway, this film here is really long, over two hours, so unsurprisingly, there are a few lengths here and there, but it's not to an extent where it really hurts. It is about a university professor who has an affair with one of his students and when he ends the liaison, rumors about rape show up on the surface. Fittingly, the student also had a connection with a play at the very same time that also focuses on rape to some extent. I myself must say that I found it almost more interesting to watch the film because of the reactions to the scandal by all the important, high-profile university employees and the fact that a feminist got possibly elected almost at the very end into the highest office at the university says basically all about the hypocrisy of it all. Anyway, I frequently say that I don't think Lauterbach is a great actor, but scored more through masculinity and charisma, but here he somewhat won me over and carried the film nicely for the most part. It surely also helped that Speichert did not hardly have as much screen time as the film's poster here on IMDb would suggest. Anyway, the acting overall was pretty decent and it shows us how pretty much nothing on this level of society is real if you get a deeper insight into how it all works, but all make-believe. The script was fairly good too and there was a lot of attention to detail. I also liked the somewhat sociocritical written comments on the screen at the very end with what happened to the main characters after the film. I am sometimes not the greatest fan of Sönke Wortmann, but he did a decent effort here I think and it's probably among the best I have seen from him so far. That's also why I am pretty surprised the film has such a low rating here on IMDb. It may not be as scandalous and jolting as it attempts to be at times, but it is still a fairly good watch. The 1990s sure weren't a revelation when it comes to German films, but here we have one of the exceptions. I recommend seeing it.
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