German director Andreas Dresen has made an oddly buoyant little film about loneliness: Part Sex in der City, part Dogme doldrums, Summer in Berlin is most affecting as a character study of two women in their late thirties.
Summer in Berlin(Sommer vorm Balkon)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Germany · 2005
1h 45m
Director Andreas Dresen
Starring Inka Friedrich, Nadja Uhl, Andreas Schmidt, Vincent Redetzki
Genre Comedy, Drama
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When you read the title ‘Summer on the Balcony’ you probably think it will be a light Berlin summer comedy but it’s not. This film is an intimate study of two women friends who come to each other because of troubles with everyday life and with men and thus try to enjoy a life based on their ideas.
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What are critics saying?
Chicago Reader by Andrea Gronvall
Nothing much is original in this soggy tale of two German women whose friendship persists despite adversity and their own bad choices.
The modest splash made by Andreas Dresen's Dogme-styled 2002 drama "Grill Point" raised expectations his projects since haven't quite met, including the new Summer in Berlin.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
The movie tends to wander between story lines and characters without any real sense of purpose.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The low-key realism is so meticulously maintained that Summer in Berlin feels somewhat trivial. There is nothing larger here than meets the eye. It is "Sex and the City" on a stringent budget with fewer characters.
The result is entertaining but hardly memorable.
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