3 (2010)

A Berlin-set drama centered on a 40-something couple who, separately, fall in love with the same man.

Director:

Tom Tykwer

Writer:

Tom Tykwer

Stars:

Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper, Devid Striesow

8 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sophie Rois	...	Hanna
Sebastian Schipper	...	Simon
Devid Striesow	...	Adam
Angela Winkler	...	Hildegard
Annedore Kleist	...	Lotte
Alexander Hörbe	...	Dirk
Winnie Böwe	...	Petra
Hans-Uwe Bauer	...	Dr. Wissmer
Carina Wiese	...	Schwester Ruth
Dominique Chiout	...	Clara
Marita Hueber	...	Martha
Michael Gerber	...	Vorsitzender Ethikrat
Thomas Neumann	...	Wissenschaftler Ethikrat
Cornelius Schwalm	...	Volker Müller
Edgar M. Böhlke	...	Simons Vater

Storyline

A Berlin-set drama centered on a 40-something couple who, separately, fall in love with the same man.

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Plot Keywords:

homosexual relationship | homosexual subtext | male female relationship | romantic triangle | female nudity | 

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Taglines:

Imagine the possibilities.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English

Release Date:

23 December 2010 (Germany)

Also Known As:

3

Filming Locations:

Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,821, 18 September 2011, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$59,774, 18 December 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

X-Filme Creative Pool, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), ARD Degeto Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

During the break of the play, Adam joins Hanna outside. He brings 2 bottles of mineral water, hands one to Hanna and both take a sip while talking. Both bottles are already half-empty, presumably due to previous takes.

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Quotes

Adam: Austrians are strange to me.
Hanna: [who has admitted being Austrian] To me, too. They're really strange people.
Adam: My grandma always said you were the best Nazis of all.
Hanna: [pause] Everybody's good at something.

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Connections

References The Birds (1963)

User Reviews

Assured Filmmaking from a Mature Director

Tom Tykwer has come of age as a director with this film, and has dropped his sparkling visual flair in favor of straightforward yet sophisticated storytelling. His camera and editing are spot-on yet smart, as he carefully weaves a layered tale of two lost adults who rediscover and remake themselves through their relationship with another man.

His nuanced trio of characters deliberately play against gender types: Simon, the husband, is passive, quiet, artistic, and metaphorically female; Hanna, the wife, is assertive, successful, opinionated, and symbolically male; Adam, their paramour, a fertilization specialist who "brings life" to their dull routine, has both male and female sides.

The way their lives intertwine is both surprising and entertaining, and Tykwer not only explores their raw cores of emotional and physical need, but deftly and expertly exposes the humor in Hanna and Simon's awkward fumbling for new purpose.

What Woody Allen does for New York, Tykwer does for Berlin, showcasing the city as a vibrant center of art, culture, and yes, sexuality, filled with creative inhabitants who have gone there to remake themselves.

His intermittent visual collages of the character's lives inject new vitality to the stale montages we've all seen a million times; it's not that the screen has never been subdivided this way before, but that Tykwer's method of visual construction is meticulous and succinct -- like every frame of this film.

The result is an engaging, truthful, and non-traditional romance that leaves you feeling hopeful that love can tear down our seemingly permanent walls; yet another reason to set it in Berlin!

Highly recommended.