User Reviews

"First Love" is in English, but is officially a West German/Swiss/Hungarian co-production, made by an Austrian director (Maximilian Schell) with a multi-national cast including British, French, Italian, Austrian and German actors. It is therefore an example of what might be called the pan-European school of film-making. The story is taken from Ivan Turgenev's 1860 novella, but the action appears to be taking place several decades after that date. Indeed, references to electric light and the radio would suggest a date in the twenties or thirties, implying that the film is set in an alternative reality in which the Russian ancien regime did not collapse in 1917. Assuming, that is, that the action really is supposed to be taking place in Russia. All the characters have Russian names (although Turgenev's hero Vladimir is here renamed Alexander), but when one character uses a typewriter the keys bear Roman rather than Cyrillic letters, and Alexander's father is seen reading an English newspaper.

The 16-year-old Alexander and his family are spending the summer on their country estate when he meets and falls in love with the 21-year-old Zinaida, the daughter of a neighbour. And there isn't really much more plot than that, apart from the final shocking revelation that Zinaida is in fact the mistress of Alexander's own father. So why was so slight a story selected as the basis for a feature film?

Good question. Turgenev's story does not really have enough plot to serve as the basis for a feature film; it might have worked better as a television drama of around an hour (or possibly less) in length. Schell's solution is to try for a "poetic" style, stretching the thin plot out longer with lengthy silences, moody shots of some rather featureless countryside, more silences and attempts to claim some social relevance by vague references in the outside world. It doesn't work. In the cinema, as in literature, there can be bad as well as good poetry. This was Schell's first film as director, and must be accounted a failure, a dull unmemorable move which never stays in the memory. Since 1970 it has largely faded from view. I am not surprised that mine is only the fourth review it has received. 4/10.

"Erste Liebe" or "First Love" is a co-production between West Germany, Switzerland and Hungary from 1970, so this one will soon have its 50th anniversary. It is one of the directorial efforts by Oscar-winning actor Maximilian Schell and he (together with John Gould) he also adapted the Ivan Turgenev novel for the screen here. This was only the second time Switzerland submitted a film for the Foreign Language Oscar and actually this one here managed the nomination, but lost eventually to the Italian entry. I guess the fact that it did get nominated also has a lot to do with Schell's involvement here. He is also an actor in this relatively short German-language film. It only runs for 85 minutes approximately and depicts the first love of the character of Alexander when he falls for a slightly older (but still pretty young) woman, who has all kinds of suitors, some even pretty close to Alexander.

So yeah, I think this started in a pretty decent way and the scenes between the two protagonists were somewhat okay to watch, even if the girl's attraction(?) and the way it was portrayed and depicted did not always ring true. But the longer the film goes, the weaker it got. At some point it juts felt as if it sacrificed all kinds of convincing plot telling and character development because of the artistic impact it was trying so hard to make. Quite disappointing as there was certainly more potential in here. I have not seen the literary work it is based on, so I am not sure who is to blame the most for the outcome here. I just think as a film it wasn't working out at all for the most part and as a consequence I cannot agree with all the awards attention it received. Seriously, German Film Awards? I know you like Schell and so do I, at least as an actor, but come on. There is nothing impressive about this film at all. Watch something else instead.