Love, After All

Press Quotes

"Sometimes great cinema doesn't need much: an excellent screenplay, two magnificent actors and direction that puts itself at their service. And yet what the writing team of Laila Stieler and Andreas Dresen has achieved with their leads Dagmar Manzel, 68, and Joachim Król, 69, in 'Love, After All' is a rarity and a cinematic treasure: a melancholic, absurdly funny, at times briskly entertaining comedy about growing old. The duel and duet that Manzel and Król deliver is both delightful and moving. How strong this film's emotions are can be seen from how little music it needs to underscore them. 'Love, After All' goes deep without ever losing its lightness, not even in its sad moments. Whenever it threatens to become sentimental, it returns to the wise, laconic tone that defines it through and through. A great, warm-hearted work for people over 60 – and for everyone who hopes to get there."
DER SPIEGEL

"The film's great coup is the casting of Dagmar Manzel and Joachim Król. In a film conceived at heart as a chamber piece, in which essentially not much happens, they make every small gesture and facial expression count – all the little moments in which familiarity tips over into weariness."
EPD-FILM.DE

"Joachim Król and Dagmar Manzel play it with palpable familiarity. Above all, the way Manzel embodies Lore with never-ending curiosity and at the same time a seasoned nonchalance is a great joy. Dresen wrote the screenplay with Laila Stieler, and together they manage to tell this love story in a way that is clever, melancholic and humorous all at once."
ROLLING STONE

"Yet precisely in this setting, where the big questions of world politics resonate at most in the background, when Markus Lanz and his guests are debating on TV, the particular strengths of Dresen and Stieler come into their own: a fine feel for nuance, a keen gift for observation and, not least, a deep humanism that has long distinguished the work of this congenial duo.The strength of this film lies in its precise and loving observation of a long-tested relationship – a film that seems small, yet speaks of essential things."
FILMSTARTS

"Even the screenplay by director Andreas Dresen and Laila Stieler is a revelation: witty, thoughtful, sometimes sad – but always incredibly precise, in clear, believable language and full of emotion. Dagmar Manzel shines as a woman caught between all sides, painstakingly having to rearrange her life, and Joachim Król is simply stunning as a gruff creature of habit with a big heart and a stubborn streak. Andreas Dresen impressively demonstrates his skill here. These scenes from a marriage are not to be missed!"
CINEMA