The Philosopher (1989) User Reviews

Interesting, quirky film

[mhulbert · 7 March 2002]

In the absence of any other reviews or comments whatsoever, thought I should throw in my two cents worth.

Saw this movie in its first run in London around 1990. Must have been fairly good as I still remember scenes now, 12 years on. At the time, I was doing a Ph.D in philosophy so that may have been part of my reason for noticing the film. It's about a boring, nerdy academic type who publishes a text on Heraclitus and somehow attracts the attention of three attractive women who may or may not be actual muses. It's a little slow and humorless at times (it is German, you know), but overall a decent flick. Worth a viewing.

Not really bad, but a touch too absurd

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 23 May 2016]

"Der Philosoph" / "The Philosopher", also known as "Three Women in Love" is a West German movie from over 25 years ago and possibly the most known work by writer and director Rudolf Thome. The cast is not really too well-known and I must say the only cast member I have come across before so far is Adriana Altaras because of her recent autobiographical film. But back to this one here. It is about 4 people around the age of 30, one man and three woman, who live together in harmony and have sexual relationships with each other, at least the man with the women. And they are all perfectly fine with it. No bad feelings, such as jealousy, envy or greed exist in their world. It definitely has a touch of "Kommunenleben" attached to it from the days of hippie dominance. Peace, bro! But this is not really where this is set, as drugs and music do not play a role in here. In my opinion, this film was almost like a modern depiction of an old Greek tale. So if you have an interest in that very specific subject, then you will probably enjoy this film here.

To me, the best thing about this film is also the worst at the same time. There is absolutely no conflict in here and as a consequence also no character elaboration and I felt shades lacked completely, the three women were absolutely interchangeable and it is just a collection of atmospheric sequences without a real story. And from a really modern perspective, it makes no sense at all. 3 women are ready to sacrifice everything for a man who cannot drive a car, who cannot swim, who has never had sex with a woman. I do not think this would happen in the 21st century today. Or in the 20th as this is when this film came out. I believe there were a couple convincing moments and I like the whole harmony thing attached to it, but in terms of storytelling I cannot say I was satisfied. The performances also weren't that great. This is why my overall verdict here is negative. I do not recommend the watch.

Thinking Heads

[garwy · 8/10 · 25 July 2005]

Hardly an erotic film, but then real sex is often something different from 'sexy' (and rather better).

The plot is that an academic and socially inept philosophy student who is working on his thesis meets an attractive woman who may or may not be imaginary.

The woman is not only attractive, she has a personality. (How often do you see that in a film like this?). The philosopher and the woman become friends and then begin to have sex. (Not the way round things happen in most erotic films). He then meets her two friends who share her apartment, and when he has grown close to them, has sex with each of them in turn (and various other permutations).

The film shows a fair amount of flesh, but it has the undriven and exploratory quality of narrative of a real drama. One would need to be extremely blunt to manage to get through any sequence of this film without thinking about what is happening on-screen.

As with very few films (and hardly any English-language ones) this is a film about sex without being in any expected sense an erotic film.

I enjoy it more every time I watch it. But it leaves you with things to think about - not things to do.