"Dwie milosci" or "Brücken der Liebe" is a co-production between Germany and Poland from 2002, so this one is really getting closer now to its 20th anniversary. A little over 1.5 years to go. There are many, many German television releases from the last 20 years that had terrible quality like this one here, but one thing that is indeed pretty unusual is that this film is actually a foreign co-production from a foreign director. Otherwise, they are always entirely German, even if they are set partially abroad. And also that, as a consequence, the main title here is not German. Of course, the film had the German title when it was on television today. This is really for the easily influenced, so a foreign title definitely would have been too much for them. I applaud everybody though who sees through this charade. Especially the women because they are the ones that this film is made for. These films are made for. The rest is really similar anyway. The lead actress for example has been in many films like this. Sadly. The running time is also the exact same as always with slightly under 1.5 hours. Good thing these films are rather short. Director is Miroslaw Bork and I cannot say too much about him. He has worked in recent years too, but for a long time he has not directed anything if his body of work here on imdb is complete. Which I kinda doubt. But judging from the quality to this movie (or lack thereof), I certainly won't have any sleepless nights about him having to work in less influential positions. The writer is Marlies Ewald and for her body of work I really have no words at all: Traumschiff, lots of ARD Degeto films, even more Rosamunde Pilcher movies. She may have started writing around the time I was born, but I have no respect at all for her as an artist. She does not fit the description. Zero talent apparently and it is good she is retired for a long time now.
Let's move on to the cast: The lead actress here is Julia Richter. Not entirely easy to be harsh on her because in terms of looks, she is exactly my type, but having seen her on other projects just like this movie, also frequently in the lead, makes it very clear that she is not a remotely talented actress. She could always have rejected these parts, but it seems money counts much more for her compared to integrity and actually I cannot even blame her. I mean she really made a nice sum I'm sure despite almost complete absence of talent. The rest of the cast are mostly people from Poland. There is even an older actress who appeared in "Sophie's Choice" earlier. Also a bit sad if they have to go from Oscar-winning films to movies like this one here. In any case, I cannot say anything really on the Polish actors because I am not familiar at all with them, but of course you can check out their bodies of work if you care. Certainly also unusual because frequently they took Germans to play foreign parts too, but this is from very early if we are looking at when these hundreds of German (Degeto) television films started, so maybe they were still looking for the right approach there. But there are still German actors here. Take Heikko Deutschmann. can't say too much about him either, but about two females I can. Elena Uhlig almost always plays female best friend characters in these films and she already did so almost two decades ago. She is in this film only briefly, early on if I remember correctly, but the two or three lines there show us her utter absence of talent. So cringe. Ursula Karusseit (with her feet up the wall at times) had a lot more screen time. I know you should not speak poorly of the dead, but I think she was terrible. Felt so unauthentic with her line delivery and that is especially bad news because at times she feels like a second lead. Compared to her, Richter looks almost talented.
As for the next three paragraphs, I will simply focus on some brainstorming to emphasize why I think this was an utterly terrible watch. The soundtrack was pretty poor just like it always is with these films and it seems very much that, through frequency and volume, they try to distract people from the fact that there is no talented writing or depth in this film altogether. It starts right away the moment the film begins with the loud music. Something many of these films have in common is really the anti-male component. You can see it's a movie for women. The best example is that the protagonist here is not single, but her partner does not want kids (at that point) and this is a bit of a justification for the female protagonist to wander off and start something with another dude. The pole. By the way, this film is set in Masuria and it's not the only cringeworthy romance drama I have seen that is set in Masuria. Seems like a common location for those. But it was shameful how they did not even depict Masuria as a stunning travel destination. It lookes all so bland. Failure from every perspective. Anyway, back to the misandry: So yeah, if a male starts somethhing with a female in these films, he is almost always despicable and a main antagonist and cold-blooded. If women do, then it is because they found their true love this time (obviously!) and because their original significant others did not treat them the way they should have. I don't even talk stuff like beating, but basically treat them like princesses day in, day out. But it's not just the key aspects that felt very weak here. Also the small moments, like the joke she makes about the car to get his attention and then the next scene, the car is really gone. That's where Karusseit's character comes into play and we find out that her man was not the one she truly loved. That one would be another and what happens there? She finds him eventually after all these years (of course!) and he has a deadly heart attack, but still recognizes her when taken to the ambulance. I don't even. The pseudo drama and poorly crafted emotional aspect was just bad beyond belief here. And Karusseit made it way worse with her performance. You can also look at the "funny" scene with the old guy complaining about young people very early on.
Something you also see so often in these films is that the protagonists are not off to a good start at all. Also the case here with the arguments and bit of banter between them. Of course, he almost causes a car crash early on with her. What a coincidence. I mean this is not a small village or anything. But at the same time, he is a photographer, a creative fella and we also see how he for example won over Karusseit's character quickly. So he must be a good dude because the old lady is certainly picked. And also good enough for Richter's character. And he treates her a bit disrespectfully. Won't shake her hand because his is allegedly dirty. Or how he says during this first meeting that this time he did not succeed yet in running her over. Banter is real haha. Good God such unwatchable dialogue writing really. I mean we have to understand they got great chemistry right? Too bad the writer here did not have great talent. Let alone mediocre talent. And no minimal talent either by the way. Like take a look at how he talks about how he also has a more important matter to work on etc. It is just so poor honestly. And yet, only a few minutes later, they randomly (of course!) run into Karusseit's character and are off to drive her to a place that is connected to precious memories. This scene inside the house as Karusseit's character talks about the kitchen, the other rooms was really the epitome of unauthentic. She would have sucked it all in mostly quietly in real life, but here it must all be spoken out to tell the audience. It is just so embarrassing. I almost felt as if the quality was so poor that it was really disrespectful to people actually living back then, real prisoners of war etc. Let's keep in mind that, even if the years was 2002 already too, WWII and the Nazi years were almost 20 years closer than they are now. So they really included some important issues here and relevant historic references and they should be ashamed for getting it all wrong. Highly ashamed.
So many other examples I could mention here honestly when it came to scenes and quotes where this film hit rock bottom. The simple ways of make-believe mostly. Take the romantic scene with the horses (again with the annoyingly loud playful music), take one guy happily jumping around like a kid, take the scenes in the hay, take the other guy at home and his skepticism. The latter was especially embarrassing when he made a phone call and the older woman (Karusseit trying to be an actor's actor here unreal to watch) mentions handsome Marek. Charming really. But hey, we can only like Karusseit's character here for who she is and the dude at home deserves all the negative coming his way. Let's not even talk about how we would (have to) see him if he had started something with another woman at the same time. Of course, as always in these movies, the original boyfriend comes to look out for his partner eventually and the scene when the two men meet each other and talk to each other briefly is extremely cringeworthy. But not because it feels as awkward as they wanted it to be. Instead, because it is so awkward because there is no writing talent here present at all. Not one bit. Okay, that is it I guess. I could go on and on and on, especially about Karusseit's character here being a bit of a higher authority on life experience and her pretentious words of wisdom. This is sometimes so bad that it was even funny. The shocking thing is they were really serious with all of this. The thing I am most serious with here is to maky myself clear that what we got here is a film you must skip no matter what. Absolutely unwatchable and it is truly disgraceful that this is still on national television after this incredibly long time. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens with your GEZ money. Stand up. That is it. Highly not recommended.
Let's move on to the cast: The lead actress here is Julia Richter. Not entirely easy to be harsh on her because in terms of looks, she is exactly my type, but having seen her on other projects just like this movie, also frequently in the lead, makes it very clear that she is not a remotely talented actress. She could always have rejected these parts, but it seems money counts much more for her compared to integrity and actually I cannot even blame her. I mean she really made a nice sum I'm sure despite almost complete absence of talent. The rest of the cast are mostly people from Poland. There is even an older actress who appeared in "Sophie's Choice" earlier. Also a bit sad if they have to go from Oscar-winning films to movies like this one here. In any case, I cannot say anything really on the Polish actors because I am not familiar at all with them, but of course you can check out their bodies of work if you care. Certainly also unusual because frequently they took Germans to play foreign parts too, but this is from very early if we are looking at when these hundreds of German (Degeto) television films started, so maybe they were still looking for the right approach there. But there are still German actors here. Take Heikko Deutschmann. can't say too much about him either, but about two females I can. Elena Uhlig almost always plays female best friend characters in these films and she already did so almost two decades ago. She is in this film only briefly, early on if I remember correctly, but the two or three lines there show us her utter absence of talent. So cringe. Ursula Karusseit (with her feet up the wall at times) had a lot more screen time. I know you should not speak poorly of the dead, but I think she was terrible. Felt so unauthentic with her line delivery and that is especially bad news because at times she feels like a second lead. Compared to her, Richter looks almost talented.
As for the next three paragraphs, I will simply focus on some brainstorming to emphasize why I think this was an utterly terrible watch. The soundtrack was pretty poor just like it always is with these films and it seems very much that, through frequency and volume, they try to distract people from the fact that there is no talented writing or depth in this film altogether. It starts right away the moment the film begins with the loud music. Something many of these films have in common is really the anti-male component. You can see it's a movie for women. The best example is that the protagonist here is not single, but her partner does not want kids (at that point) and this is a bit of a justification for the female protagonist to wander off and start something with another dude. The pole. By the way, this film is set in Masuria and it's not the only cringeworthy romance drama I have seen that is set in Masuria. Seems like a common location for those. But it was shameful how they did not even depict Masuria as a stunning travel destination. It lookes all so bland. Failure from every perspective. Anyway, back to the misandry: So yeah, if a male starts somethhing with a female in these films, he is almost always despicable and a main antagonist and cold-blooded. If women do, then it is because they found their true love this time (obviously!) and because their original significant others did not treat them the way they should have. I don't even talk stuff like beating, but basically treat them like princesses day in, day out. But it's not just the key aspects that felt very weak here. Also the small moments, like the joke she makes about the car to get his attention and then the next scene, the car is really gone. That's where Karusseit's character comes into play and we find out that her man was not the one she truly loved. That one would be another and what happens there? She finds him eventually after all these years (of course!) and he has a deadly heart attack, but still recognizes her when taken to the ambulance. I don't even. The pseudo drama and poorly crafted emotional aspect was just bad beyond belief here. And Karusseit made it way worse with her performance. You can also look at the "funny" scene with the old guy complaining about young people very early on.
Something you also see so often in these films is that the protagonists are not off to a good start at all. Also the case here with the arguments and bit of banter between them. Of course, he almost causes a car crash early on with her. What a coincidence. I mean this is not a small village or anything. But at the same time, he is a photographer, a creative fella and we also see how he for example won over Karusseit's character quickly. So he must be a good dude because the old lady is certainly picked. And also good enough for Richter's character. And he treates her a bit disrespectfully. Won't shake her hand because his is allegedly dirty. Or how he says during this first meeting that this time he did not succeed yet in running her over. Banter is real haha. Good God such unwatchable dialogue writing really. I mean we have to understand they got great chemistry right? Too bad the writer here did not have great talent. Let alone mediocre talent. And no minimal talent either by the way. Like take a look at how he talks about how he also has a more important matter to work on etc. It is just so poor honestly. And yet, only a few minutes later, they randomly (of course!) run into Karusseit's character and are off to drive her to a place that is connected to precious memories. This scene inside the house as Karusseit's character talks about the kitchen, the other rooms was really the epitome of unauthentic. She would have sucked it all in mostly quietly in real life, but here it must all be spoken out to tell the audience. It is just so embarrassing. I almost felt as if the quality was so poor that it was really disrespectful to people actually living back then, real prisoners of war etc. Let's keep in mind that, even if the years was 2002 already too, WWII and the Nazi years were almost 20 years closer than they are now. So they really included some important issues here and relevant historic references and they should be ashamed for getting it all wrong. Highly ashamed.
So many other examples I could mention here honestly when it came to scenes and quotes where this film hit rock bottom. The simple ways of make-believe mostly. Take the romantic scene with the horses (again with the annoyingly loud playful music), take one guy happily jumping around like a kid, take the scenes in the hay, take the other guy at home and his skepticism. The latter was especially embarrassing when he made a phone call and the older woman (Karusseit trying to be an actor's actor here unreal to watch) mentions handsome Marek. Charming really. But hey, we can only like Karusseit's character here for who she is and the dude at home deserves all the negative coming his way. Let's not even talk about how we would (have to) see him if he had started something with another woman at the same time. Of course, as always in these movies, the original boyfriend comes to look out for his partner eventually and the scene when the two men meet each other and talk to each other briefly is extremely cringeworthy. But not because it feels as awkward as they wanted it to be. Instead, because it is so awkward because there is no writing talent here present at all. Not one bit. Okay, that is it I guess. I could go on and on and on, especially about Karusseit's character here being a bit of a higher authority on life experience and her pretentious words of wisdom. This is sometimes so bad that it was even funny. The shocking thing is they were really serious with all of this. The thing I am most serious with here is to maky myself clear that what we got here is a film you must skip no matter what. Absolutely unwatchable and it is truly disgraceful that this is still on national television after this incredibly long time. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens with your GEZ money. Stand up. That is it. Highly not recommended.
