We don’t get nearly enough German films in this country, in my opinion, especially movies that are nearly three hours long about people who lived more than two centuries ago. But don’t let the length or the setting of this gorgeous film dissuade you from seeing it in the theater or on VOD — I was riveted from the first frame and never once looked at my watch during the 170-minute running time.
Dominik Graf’s Beloved Sisters (Die Geliebten Schwestern) depicts the extremely unconventional romance between two aristocratic sisters and a rebellious poet who took the European literary world by storm in the late 18th century. As the German Enlightenment flourished in Weimar, the gifted Caroline von Beulwitz (Hannah Herszsprung) finds herself in an unhappy marriage in order to provide financial security for her mother and younger sister Charlotte von Lengefeld (Henriette Confurius). When both sisters fall for outspoken writer Friedrich Schiller (Florian Stetter), their desire ignites a journey of shared passion and creativity. Charlotte and Schiller marry so that the lovers may pursue their ménage-à-trois under the guise of convention, but as Caroline reveals herself to be a talented author in her own right, the trio’s fragile equilibrium is threatened and the sisters’ once unbreakable bond is irrevocably changed. I spoke to writer/director Dominik Graf about this fascinating film.
Danny Miller: How did you first get interested in this story?
Dominik Graf: My producer, Uschi Reich, had done a film about Schiller in his early years and while making that film had learned about the triangle that Schiller was involved with later on in his life. She thought that would make a great movie and asked me if I were interested. I got so involved in the story that I begged her to let me write the script by myself even though I have never done that in my other movies. I was astonished at how quickly the script flew out of me. What gripped me from the first moment was the honesty and the frankness of these three people. I was fascinated by how they handled their emotions and how they were so sure that they could manage this kind of utopian threesome at the end of the 18th Century. This was still a very strict time just before the French Revolution but their passion about each other really moved me. The letters that they left behind are very frank and open — quite modern, in a way.
I thought a lot of the letters were lost.
Shortly before she died, Caroline got very Catholic. This was a common reaction after the Congress of Vienna in 1814 when a lot of things went back to the conventional to get far away from any revolutionary feelings. So then Caroline was ashamed of all the things that happened. She ended up writing a biography of Schiller herself and muted everything that really happened between them. And unfortunately, she threw many of the letters she got from him into the fireplace. But some remained.
This film made me want to go back and read more of Friedrich Schiller’s work. But I noticed there’s not a lot of that in the movie. Did you consider showing scenes from his plays or including lines of his poetry?
No, not really, because for me he wasn’t the main character — this was never meant to be a biography of Schiller, even though he was a fascinating person. I was more concerned with the two sisters who sadly had a very typical fate for the talented, sophisticated women of that time. Many had to marry much older men for financial reasons and had to suppress their own talents and genius.
Do you think Caroline eventually got her due as a writer?
To some extent. But the tragedy is that during her life she wasn’t at all convinced that she had talent — she was constantly battling with herself and had a real inferiority complex about her writing. Schiller had to finish that novel that we see her writing in the film. I think she’s the most torn person in this triangle, the one who is most in conflict with herself.
That moment early on when Schiller professes his love for both sisters right in front of them is one of the most moving scenes I’ve ever seen. Did you see that as a pivotal moment in the film?
Yes, I did, and thank you for saying that. That scene bothers some people because the emotions are so strong and it makes some viewers uncomfortable. Different times had different emotional ways of expressing. At that time, manners at court were so strict for people like this. You couldn’t talk loudly or really show any emotions at all. Plus, everyone had to talk French, not their actual language. So this complete openness when he says that he loves them both really blows them away with happiness and also a little bit of horror. It’s so out of the ordinary that it’s kind of chilling for them.
It seemed like the high point of the purity for their threesome — they never seemed to reach that peak again.
That’s true. But maybe you can say that about a lot of love stories — that there is one moment when everything is clean and honest and straight and on the table and from then on it gets more and more complicated.
I was so engaged with these characters that the three hours seemed more like 30 minutes to me. Did you get any pressure to cut the film down?
Yes, contractually, I had to make a shorter version, too. I’m very pleased that it’s the 170-minute version that’s opening in the U.S.
Oh, wow, what are your feelings about the shorter version?
Honestly? I’m not happy with it. It’s not even like I had to cut a lot of the scenes, but rhythmically, it just isn’t as good. I really wanted to convey the slowness of the time — how long it takes a carriage from one place to another, the slowness of the letters, you never know when they are going to arrive. And then the contrast to the quickness of their minds, I just feel that contrast is stronger in the longer version.
Was it difficult to recreate late 18th-Century Germany?
There are still a lot of buildings standing, more in the east of Germany because they didn’t have a lot of money to destroy all of their great architecture from the past! But more than the look of the film, what really thrilled me was recreating the verbal expression of people at that time — to find a way for the audience to feels that there is a real connection between the brain and the heart. I was also very keen in showing how words were printed at that time and how that was changing everything. We searched for a working printing press of the period and couldn’t find one in all of Europe so we had to build one ourselves!
I hope we get more of your films here in the future. Can you imagine ever working in the American film industry?
To be honest, when I see my colleagues going from Germany to America, I’m not very envious, even if they have great success here. I’m completely dependent on language when I’m directing a film. I have to feel the language all over. I can express myself in English and I certainly understand everything you’re saying, but it’s very different. I’m afraid I will have to stay here in Germany!