Notes

Sapphire blue

Film


No beginning and no end: the middle section of a trilogy poses special challenges for filmmakers, after all, the second part, which often only comes to the cinemas several years after the series has started, should work on its own if possible. Regardless of whether it is a literary film adaptation or an original material, it is therefore important to create something independent that also satisfies new viewers, while at the same time the film must be meaningfully embedded in the overall narrative. In “Saphirblau”, the film adaptation of the second volume of the same name from Kerstin Gier's successful trilogy “Love goes through all times”, the directing duo Felix Fuchssteiner and Katharina Schöde do not quite succeed in this balancing act. The plot of their mixture of fantasy adventure and teenage romance is clearly overloaded: The plot is indeed understandable even for those who are not familiar with the predecessor "Rubinrot" and the books, but at least the newcomers will find it with the wealth of events and topics Difficult to understand the individual conflicts emotionally.


Since Gwendolyn Shepherd (Maria Ehrich) found out that she inherited a time travel gene and can jump into the past, her whole life has been turned upside down. On behalf of a mysterious secret box, she and her friend Gideon de Villiers (Jannis Niewöhner) are sent through the centuries, but the intentions of the powerful men around the sly Count of St. Germain (Peter Simonischek) remain dubious. Cousin Lucy (Josefine Preuss), also a time traveler, has stolen one of the two chronographs that are used to guide the leaps into the past and warns Gwen about the count's plans. Gideon meanwhile stands firmly by the lodge and receives from St. Germain the order to travel with her to a soirée in the year 1783 to fight enemies of the lodge. Gwen, in turn, is soon no longer sure whether Gideon's feelings for her are real and that is not the only crisis she has to overcome ...





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After an opening scene in 1609 with William Shakespeare personally, there is an explanatory flashback in which the time travel topic as well as the most important characters and contexts are brought to mind, which also works wonderfully as a concise introduction. In the further course, the love story initiated in “Ruby Red” gets significantly more space than there, there are also other small accent shifts, and there are some new characters. What sounds like a successful mixture of the familiar and the new on paper actually gets out of balance quickly and again and again. Too much happens here until the almost naturally unsatisfactory end and hardly anything can develop in the long run. The numerous (and often very short) time travel scenes have for the most part no added value that goes beyond their dramaturgical function, despite the unchanged considerable technical standard. The lack of a sense of time is noticeable in a double sense, because a feeling for the different historical epochs can hardly be spoken of - rather, the differences are additionally leveled by the underlay of time travel with hip-hop music and the like. And when the “Time Warp” from the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” is suddenly started in the 18th century, then it's not only narrative quite arbitrary, but also weakly choreographed.


The abundance of events and the striving for more dynamism clearly comes at the expense of the narrative depth, which even lively fencing fights and motorcycle rides cannot compensate for. For example, the clashes between Gwen and her young grandfather Lucas (Bastian Trost) are full of obvious, but nevertheless fascinating paradoxes that are hardly more than hinted at (instead, the supposed uptightness of the 50s is supposed to provide amusement), and when the protagonist finally literally If you get caught in an identity crisis, then the dramatic potential of the situation is not nearly exhausted. The central love story also suffers from the constant pressure of having to push the plot forward. The crisis of trust between Gwen and Gideon, and especially his being torn, are not conveyed really convincingly. The fact that the romance invites you to languish is due to the neat main characters, who are joined by refreshing supporting characters such as Gwen's girlfriend Leslie (Jennifer Lotsi) and, for the first time, Gideon's brother Raphael (Lion Wasczyk). The (computer-animated) mythical creature Xemerius (voice: Rufus Beck) also provides for cheer up in between. The newly introduced gargoyle can only be seen by Gwen and therefore always causes confusion. Perhaps it will succeed in “emerald green” with which the trilogy


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