"Die Frau im roten Kleid", which means "The woman in the red dress", is a German television film from 2006, so this one has its 15th anniversary next year and depending on when you read this review of mine, perhaps it already happened. It runs for 1.5 hours and the director is Thomas Jacob. It was one of his later career efforts because he is almost 80 now and started working in the industry in the early 1980s and it is certainly kinda sad if, after such a long time, you still only come up with trash like this. Nonetheless, even if I feel embarrassed to have the same first name like him, the ones more to blame here than the director are the writers. Not too much to say about Fischer and Kosmann. Her bodies of work are not atrodicous, but pretty weak overall. Still their collaboration here really brought out the worst in each other and it shows that they apparently do no only have the slightest bit of talent when it comes to creating screenplays, but also when it comes to finding and correcting each other's mistakes. However, one who is maybe equally to blame is the original writer here as this film is based on a book. I am pretty sure that the outcome is not considerably worse than the base material. I have no respect for the original writer either. I only would have if she said that she does not want a version of her book released the way it happened here. But I'm sure she liked it all very much. After all, "star lead actress" Christiane Hörbiger takes care of the central character. Which people may think symbolizes quality, but the exact opposite is the case. She is a terrible actress. No range, no versatility and maybe one new face expression every 25 minutes. Enough said. It may sound harsh, but I have seen her in other stuff and it is the truth. There is no justification for her playing central characters, also none for her playing supporting characters because she simply does not have it at all. However, I would not even blame her. If she gets selcted for these roles despite the utter absence of talent, then good for her.The casting directors are the ones really to blame. The film is at its center never about anybody elese than her, but still the supporting players are a bunch of people you also find in the cast lists of many terrible films. Not only this one here,, although it stands out for being particularly bad. I never give one star because I rate out of five, but if I did, then here I would without hesitation. It's somewhat of a symbolic movie for Hörbiger with how bad she is and how bad the film is in constantly shoving into our faces that she is a grande dame as they say. It never feels even about the character.
Now a few words about the story. I could probably mention at least 50 moments where it all felt fake and sucked. I kid you not. I know that is approximately one every 100 seconds, but it is the truth. That's how horrible it is. However, eventually, the character limit then would get in the way for me, so I will just mention five or so. The one most embarrassing moment is really once again the connection with men for Hörbiger's character. Be it that she had a ONS with her daughter's boyfriend, who is half her age. Be it the doctor who maybe enjoys her presence a little more than he should. Be it her husband who turned out utter scum and left her back in the day. She is the one. Shhe can have every man and if it does not work out, then it is only because the man sucks. Simple as that. Also kinda "funny" how the daughter does not blame her mother one bit for what happened back then, but her fiancé gets the full share of frustration. Oh well, I should not be surprised at all. Regina Ziegler and Degeto are guarantees for movies that are strongly anti-male and if both are involved just like it is the case here, minus and minus certainly does not make it a plus. What else is there? Oh yes, while we're at it, let's also get in a stalker/threat story because our shining central character is as big of a star to have some confused lady (the doctor's wife) suspect she wants to take her man from her and she harrasses her. It was kinda funny when she was running around in the woods like a ninja. Honestly, this film could have been a hilarious parody, but sad truth is they are serious with all of it. By the way, the stalker also gets killed in a freak accident. You rarely see people die in these films because they do not want to threaten the harmony and stay harmless, but hey, if somebody goes up against somebody like Hörbiger, then they have to face the death penalty. Then there is the mother-daughter story. Very poor depiction with their apparent struggles. I mean they do not seem to be on best terms and yet, as I mentioned earlier, when we have that part where the mother slept with the man, the mother gets no blame whatsoever. Well, she did not get a role she wanted and she was drunk, so yeah, that explains. How is she not even getting not getting any roles? Ridiculous! Yeah right. Of course, she loves her daughter very much, so in the end, she takes the responsibility for the killing. Oh, by the way, as I just implied Hörbiger plays an actress here and they have to give us the superlatives for sure. We have one character say that they never saw somebody else who is as much of a natural. In the first scene, we have Hörbiger's character and a friend get a video tape that includes a new movie apparently and the friend is so delighted that she mistakes the trash you see on the tape for an actually touching film and performance. It's kinda priceless that they wnat to think us here that Hörbiger is good enough to star as an actress' actress while the truth is she does not even hhave 10% of the talent to only pull off her part convincingly in this movie we got here. But hey, she is as big enough a star luckily that the cop investigating the other woman's killing says to Hörbiger something along the lines she knows what is going on becaue she played a cop before too in the movies. So he is a fan too. It is not just all the core elements and central story of this film where it sucks, but just as much about the small moments. Sometimes it is so bad it is funny, just like when we see the mad woman arriving on a boat after the romantic talk between the protagonist's daughter and her man. Add to that the pseudo dramatic music, no actually dramatic right?, and you got great guilty pleasure potential. Oh, while we're at it, they also included a pregnancy story in addition. Just more significant events. And hey, the pregnant woman tells it a mother's friend first and then she tells it the father of the child. Charming. Anti-male like I said. All the conflicts seem like nonsense. Just take the scene with the friend who got paid for by the mother to arrive for the wedding. But Hörbiger's character is so kind and caring and active that she also made sure a university test gets postponed and so on. I think you get the message. The only suspense about this film is the question what is more embarrassing:: That it got made and released in the first place or that it is still on national television after all these years. Your GEZ money at work, ladies and gentlemen. Fat thumbs-down. Highly not recommended! This was truly an atrocious movie. Seeing Hörbiger dance (and the singer sing) at the beginning of the fateful sequence with the other woman made me physically sick already. Weak title too by the way. The only thing it implies is that Hörbiger('s character) wears a red dress on one occasion. It's all a joke honestly and, trust me, not a good one at all. Not a mediocre one either. Not a weak one either. A truly terrible one.
Now a few words about the story. I could probably mention at least 50 moments where it all felt fake and sucked. I kid you not. I know that is approximately one every 100 seconds, but it is the truth. That's how horrible it is. However, eventually, the character limit then would get in the way for me, so I will just mention five or so. The one most embarrassing moment is really once again the connection with men for Hörbiger's character. Be it that she had a ONS with her daughter's boyfriend, who is half her age. Be it the doctor who maybe enjoys her presence a little more than he should. Be it her husband who turned out utter scum and left her back in the day. She is the one. Shhe can have every man and if it does not work out, then it is only because the man sucks. Simple as that. Also kinda "funny" how the daughter does not blame her mother one bit for what happened back then, but her fiancé gets the full share of frustration. Oh well, I should not be surprised at all. Regina Ziegler and Degeto are guarantees for movies that are strongly anti-male and if both are involved just like it is the case here, minus and minus certainly does not make it a plus. What else is there? Oh yes, while we're at it, let's also get in a stalker/threat story because our shining central character is as big of a star to have some confused lady (the doctor's wife) suspect she wants to take her man from her and she harrasses her. It was kinda funny when she was running around in the woods like a ninja. Honestly, this film could have been a hilarious parody, but sad truth is they are serious with all of it. By the way, the stalker also gets killed in a freak accident. You rarely see people die in these films because they do not want to threaten the harmony and stay harmless, but hey, if somebody goes up against somebody like Hörbiger, then they have to face the death penalty. Then there is the mother-daughter story. Very poor depiction with their apparent struggles. I mean they do not seem to be on best terms and yet, as I mentioned earlier, when we have that part where the mother slept with the man, the mother gets no blame whatsoever. Well, she did not get a role she wanted and she was drunk, so yeah, that explains. How is she not even getting not getting any roles? Ridiculous! Yeah right. Of course, she loves her daughter very much, so in the end, she takes the responsibility for the killing. Oh, by the way, as I just implied Hörbiger plays an actress here and they have to give us the superlatives for sure. We have one character say that they never saw somebody else who is as much of a natural. In the first scene, we have Hörbiger's character and a friend get a video tape that includes a new movie apparently and the friend is so delighted that she mistakes the trash you see on the tape for an actually touching film and performance. It's kinda priceless that they wnat to think us here that Hörbiger is good enough to star as an actress' actress while the truth is she does not even hhave 10% of the talent to only pull off her part convincingly in this movie we got here. But hey, she is as big enough a star luckily that the cop investigating the other woman's killing says to Hörbiger something along the lines she knows what is going on becaue she played a cop before too in the movies. So he is a fan too. It is not just all the core elements and central story of this film where it sucks, but just as much about the small moments. Sometimes it is so bad it is funny, just like when we see the mad woman arriving on a boat after the romantic talk between the protagonist's daughter and her man. Add to that the pseudo dramatic music, no actually dramatic right?, and you got great guilty pleasure potential. Oh, while we're at it, they also included a pregnancy story in addition. Just more significant events. And hey, the pregnant woman tells it a mother's friend first and then she tells it the father of the child. Charming. Anti-male like I said. All the conflicts seem like nonsense. Just take the scene with the friend who got paid for by the mother to arrive for the wedding. But Hörbiger's character is so kind and caring and active that she also made sure a university test gets postponed and so on. I think you get the message. The only suspense about this film is the question what is more embarrassing:: That it got made and released in the first place or that it is still on national television after all these years. Your GEZ money at work, ladies and gentlemen. Fat thumbs-down. Highly not recommended! This was truly an atrocious movie. Seeing Hörbiger dance (and the singer sing) at the beginning of the fateful sequence with the other woman made me physically sick already. Weak title too by the way. The only thing it implies is that Hörbiger('s character) wears a red dress on one occasion. It's all a joke honestly and, trust me, not a good one at all. Not a mediocre one either. Not a weak one either. A truly terrible one.
