The Berlin Affair (1985)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I purchased this DVD because of its German star, the beautiful and soft-spoken Gudrun Landgrebe, who portrayed a tender and warm-hearted young woman so convincingly in the German TV series "Heimat". In the German version of this movie, she dubs her own part with near perfection and makes all the right faces all the time, but is condemned to play the silliest society woman one may ever encounter on the proverbial celluloid: falling "lesbianly" (so to speak) for a sour-faced, lying and manipulative Japanese woman, even though she is happily married to a successful diplomat in the German government. After the viewer becomes convinced to have seen the peak of cinematic stupidity, he is in for yet further astonishment when said happily married diplomat too falls for the Japanese and, in this state, becomes even jealous of his wife. Now, this male reviewer may not be able to judge correctly the authenticity of a lesbian infatuation, but he can assert that, as a man's sex object, the Japanese is so low on the totem pole to be below ground. Those fake sexual encounters, during which the participants never shed any of their clothing, do not exactly contribute to the credibility of the story either. Only Gudrun's 1930's Mercedes looks genuine.

This may not be as good as "The Night Porter", but it's a great film, and a pure Cavani: twisted plot, psychological dramas, attractions with no limits, and the characters trying to balance their lives between the beautiful and the ugly, the duties and the crimes... Once again the plot is complex and interesting; every twist of it kept me guessing - 'till the very end.The actors are not as famous as in some of her other films, but play their roles quite well and are naturally belivable.A film noir that may not be for everyone, but is a must for anyone who liked other works by Cavani.

In 1938, in Berlin, Louise von Hollendorf (Gudrun Landgrebe) is a well married woman frequenting art classes. Her husband Heinz von Hollendorf (Kevin McNally) is a successful politician in a pre-war German and they have an excellent relationship. During the class, Louise meets Mitsuko Matsugae (Mio Takaki), an exotica and very discreet Japanese young woman, daughter of the Ambassador of Japan in Berlin. They start a friendship that is followed by a lesbian love between them. Mitsuko indeed is a very seductive and amoral bisexual woman and seduces also Heinz. This relationship ends in a tragedy. This dark and heavy romance has a wonderful photography, and a beautiful reconstitution of a pre-war period. The cast has a great performance and this movie is really very underrated, maybe because of the polemical and excellent director Liliana Cavani. She had the courage of making the magnificent 'Night Porter', which offended many persons, and since them certain cinema critics have decided to crucifixe her work. The manipulated public opinion, based on these unfair critics, sometimes is induced to 'not-like' any of her films. 'Berlin Affair' is a film not recommended for all audience. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): 'Berlin Affair'

It's simply one of the best darkest movie I've ever seen in my life. Very well told story. And the performance of Mio Takaki (Mitsuko Matsugae) is just exceptional. Perhaps is what Liliana Calvani use to do when she makes any film: to put her particular seal in each of them. And she put a huge one in "The Berlin Affair". Excellent!