I make it a habit to scan the Seattle International Film Festival titles for German language movies, and the one I saw yesterday afternoon — “Young Goethe in Love” (original title, Goethe!) drew a sell out crowd. Apparently the Saturday showing sold out as well.
The film captures the year 1772 admirably. I gobbled up the historic minutiae, the carriages and clothing and three-cornered hats. The acting is also terrific. In line before the film, I enjoyed meeting a University of Washington Germanic Languages major. In the theater, I sat next to a woman from Frankfurt who belongs to a German literature club. Before the film, the literature club woman expressed her surprise that so many people had heard of Goethe. She was also skeptical about whether or not they could make a film about “The Sorrows of Young Werther” that was not cliche or trite. Afterwards I asked her what she thought.
“They did very well, weaving the life of Goethe in with the themes of Werther, managing to bring out the irony.” Yes, indeed. I, too, give it a thumbs up.