THREE DEGREES COLDER (3º GRAD KAELTER)

Germany, 2005, 112 minutes, Colour.
Bibiana Beglau, Sebastian Blomberg, Johann von Bulow, Meret Beyer, Katherina Schuettler, Florian David Fitz.
Directed by Florian Hoffmeister.

Three Degrees Colder is a rather grim German film, insightful in its portrait of young adults, in relationships, out of relationships, in desperate search for lost people, identities. The film shows a period of five years in which key characters are happy together, one disappears, later reappears and transforms the relationships from the past.

The film was a first feature by director Florian Hoffmeister and it won a Silver Leopard at Locarno in 2005 for a best first or second feature. A portrait of Germany at the beginning of the 21st century.

1. A film of the German film industry? German preoccupations? German life at the beginning of the 21st century? A film about adults, relationships? The European perspective? Universal perspective?

2. The Nuremberg setting, the city and its atmosphere, the clubs and homes? The contrast with the sequences by the sea? The musical score?

3. The title, its reference to temperatures near the railway stations and railway lines – the relevance for realism and symbolism of this story?

4. The prologue and the credits, the search for Jan? The futility of the search, the three, driving the car, the seaside? Frank seeing Johann in the water, his going into the sea, running along the beach? Did Frank actually see him or was that his wish that Jan would disappear? His telling the other two that he did not find him?

5. Five years later, the change in experiences for the central characters, Frank and Marie and their marriage, Steini and Jenny and their marriage, their son? Jan’s brother? His girlfriend? The change of atmosphere from the 20s to the 30s? The absence of Jan and its effect? Marie and her voice-over, the intimate and existential comments about Jan and her life, her love? The letter that she writes to him?

6. The scene of the moving, introducing all the characters after the five years, talk together, helping, the spirit of friendship between them?

7. The film’s focus on Marie, her search for Jan, their relationship in the past, her working in the law form for Jan’s father, her being hurt by his disappearance? Remembering him, writing the letter in the early hours of the morning, throwing it away? Her marriage to Frank, love for him? Her working in the nursery, seeing Jan’s mother? Jenny as her best friend and being hurt by Steini having the affair with the woman next door? Frank and his work, his trouble with his ear, going to the hospital with him? Hearing of Jan’s reappearance, her not answering the door to him? Meeting him by chance, at first not talking, going to have a drink with him in the café? The effect on her – and her relationship with Frank, her memories of the past? What it would have been like had Jan not left? Possibly having a daughter (and the motif of the young girl appearing, especially at the swimming pool when she was there with Jenny)? Her succumbing to Jan, going out, the club, dancing with him? Her antagonism towards Frank? Following him? The kiss with Jan and her getting out of the car, her decision? Her search for her ring? Frank and his being absent when she returned? His coming home, her decision and her love for him, letting Jan go?

8. Frank, his not telling Marie about seeing Jan? Their marriage, his skilled work, love for Marie, the scenes at home, finding the letter, his decision to post it to Jan? His anger at the meal with Jan? His giving Jan permission to see Marie? The damage to his ear, the hospital? His anger at Marie, following her to the club? At the club? His seeming to leave home – his return, glad that she was there?

9. Jenny, the relationship with Steini, their son? Her continued anger with Steini? Yet loving him? Referring to him as an open door because of his infidelities? At the club, dancing, her eventually befriending the woman next door? The woman herself, the affair, brazen, travelling with Steini? At the club, meeting Jenny? Their discussion, going home with her, their becoming friends? The possibilities for the future? A threesome or not? Steini, his personality, work? Meeting Jan, giving him the news? His letting Olly’s girlfriend stay in the room? His affair with the woman next door, his treatment of his wife? At the club, the final night, his standing at a distance watching the two women? The future?

10. Jan, his disappearance, his saying that he just didn't come back? Seeing him at the airport, with the flight attendant, the one-night stand? Indicating his character? His arrival, in the house, the cat getting out, meeting Olly, preparing to meet his mother? His mother’s fondness and preference for him? Her phone call to his father, his eventually coming home, the formal meal together, the tensions? The girlfriend and her not wanting to come? Going to the club, drinking, with Steini, his leaving again, packing his back? Leaving the watch for Olly? Meeting with Marie, the effect on him, callous, wanting her to leave with him, not being able to answer her questions? The kiss, her rejection? His leaving again – lying on the beach, the little girl, his getting up? What future? What did he learn by his return?

11. Olly, a good man, working with the dolphins, his girlfriend, her music, his being shy, the bond between the two, his hesitance in picking her up, listening to the music? Their night together? A future? The character of the girl, her love for Olly?

12. Jan’s parents, the dirty mother, her prescriptions, wanting people to go to the pharmacy? The irony of Jan going and meeting Jenny? Jenny giving the news? Her devotion to Jan instead of Olly? Organising her husband’s return, the meal, the formality at the restaurant? Vacuuming the house in the middle of the night? Her relationship with her husband, the final scene in bed, her husband’s comments to Jan about it was good to have him, her quietly listening?

13. The themes for thirty-year-olds, problems, their twenties having passed, changes in life, meanings in life, relationships and love, loyalties?