The best Rolf Becker’s romance movies

Budapest in the thirties. The restaurant owner Laszlo hires the pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody triggers off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans goes and falls in love with Ilona as well.

Hans calls his girlfriend Heinz, which tells you everything you need to know about their relationship. They're a typical couple who're stuck in a rut after eight years. Hans works at a copy shop and Heinz is an actress relegated to voicing a cartoon stoplight. On their anniversary, they go to the movies. It's a romance. But the spark on screen just doesn't strike them. When Hans gives Heinz's ex her phone number instead of putting up a fight over her, Heinz' alarm bells go off: How can this be love? They decided to make a list of everything than makes up a real love: Romance, desire, passion, jealousy, drama – deep feelings, in other words. Hans and Heinz methodically start checking off their list and realize: Real life is nothing like the movies.

Hanna, who works with her husband Martin at a Hamburg shipyard, is to be promoted to Deputy Managing Director. Enthusiastically, she accepts the job. But her boss Bernd Möller aims at closing the yard and uses Hanna for his perfidious plans. It must enforce unpopular decisions that affect Martin's work. It does not take long for her private and family life to be seriously harmed by the workload. Not only the future of the company, but also the marriage of Hanna and Martin is at stake

This quiet comedy by screenwriter Arndt Stüwe - reminiscent in style and tone of Billy Wilders "The Apartment" - Rolf Schübel staged emotionally and attractively with Bernadette Heerwagen and Wotan Wilke Möhring: a heart-warming Christmas love.