Obsession (1997)

Director:

Peter Sehr

Writers:

Marie Noelle (writer)
Peter Sehr (writer)

Release Date:

28 August 1997 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Romance

Tagline:

There Is No Easy Way Out

Plot:

Two men become entangled in a torrid love affair with the same woman. Pierre is Miriam's longtime lover...

Plot Keywords:

Love Triangle | Security Guard | Foot Pursuit | Vomit Scene | Subway Train

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Heike Makatsch	...	Miriam Auerbach
Charles Berling	...	Pierre Moulin
Daniel Craig	...	John MacHale
Seymour Cassel	...	Jacob Frischmuth
Allen Garfield	...	Simon Frischmuth
Marie-Christine Barrault	...	Ella Beckmann
Daniel Gélin	...	Xavier Favre
Inga Busch	...	Ise (Lead singer)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Katja Ackermann	...	Heike
Nick Benedict	...	Guy
Lydia Billiet	...	Florist in Metro
Anna Böttcher	...	Saleswoman
Hubertus Durek	...	Old Man
Lothar Förster	...	Mr. Jäger
Heinz-Werner Kraehkamp	...	Detective
Christian Lerch	...	Barman
Peter Lohmeyer	...	BMW Driver
Tilo Nest	...	Karl (as Thilo Nest)
Susanne Ockert	...	Sabine
Elisabeth Rambert	...	Paulette
Joachim Regelien	...	Portier
Maike Schell	...	Nora
Franz Viehmann	...	Judge
Markus Voellenklee	...	Defense Counsel (as Markus Völlenklee)
Frank Zimmermann	...	Grenzschutzbeamter

Also Known As:

Berlin Niagara (France)
Obsession - Besessene Seelen (Germany) (TV title)

Runtime:

Colombia:111 min | Denmark:114 min | France:104 min | Germany:114 min | USA:105 min

Country:

France | Germany

Language:

French | English | German

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

UK:15 | France:U | Germany:12 (w)

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

High Speed Films Paris

Really lost in translation

I happen to watch this German film because a friend of mine, who has an amazing knack of choosing bad films, happened to have a DVD of OBSESSION when I recently visited him. He asked me if I wanted to watch it and having suffered from his previous choices (THE FAMILY STONE, THE SKELETON KEY...), I wasn't about to say yes but then he gave me no other options and I had to sit through another miserable cinematic experience. And, wow, this one was bad! 40 minutes into the movie and my friend looked at me and said that he couldn't follow anything and nothing made sense. I couldn't agree more with him. The story and or direction rarely made any sense whatsoever. It tried to be eclectic and cute but ended up looking amateurish and confused. What was Daniel Craig thinking when he agreed to do this? Something was probably lost in translation here because the level of absurdity over the Daniel Craig character's obsession with the Niagara tightrope walkers was risible and not credible at all. We couldn't take any of it seriously, and that includes the dialogue, the acting, the flat direction and whatever story there was here. It is good hearted but that's not enough to make up for the absurdity of it all.

There's a love scene at the beginning which made both of us laugh out loud at the same time. We went "Well, that was fast".

Suffice to say, my friend was really bummed out after watching this inexplicably awful film, more than me because, knowing my friend's luck with movies, my expectations were already pretty low to begin with.