"Aszendent Liebe", which means of course "Ascendent Love", is a German television film from 2001, so this one has its 20th anniversary this year in fact and as it is of course another ARD Degeto production, it runs for the usual under 1.5 hours. So you could say this film was a bit of the shape to come back then when the new millennium was indeed really new still because Degeto dished out hundreds if not thousands of movies since then and the vast majority is pretty much unwatchable. Maybe one out of a hundred is somewhere between mediocre and decent. But let's focus on this one here now: The director is Helmut Metzger and I have rarely seen a filmmaker with such an embarrassing body of work. Over 20 Katie Fforde movies, over 30 Um Himmels Willen episodes, a little bit of Rosamunde Pilcher and Traumschiff and that is by far not everything. If you take a look at all everything he directed in the first decade of the new millennium, you will be embarrassed and this film is a perfect example for his lack of talent really. All quantity over quality. Not that his 90s stuff was good or anything. He never really writes the screenplays for his movies, so the one to blame there is David Ungureit this time. His filmography is nowhere near as poor as Metzger's, but still nothing exactly to be proud of. I will not go any further into detail about stuff he has been a part of. Feel free to check it out for yourself if you care.
If we take a look at the cast, we still find names that are slightly known today, partially for different reasons, even if I think most of them were more famous back then 20 years ago compared to today. Let me elaborate a bit on the performers here. The female central character is played by Anica Dobra. She may have a bit of a likable aura in most her movies. She was born in Yugoslavia, so not too surprising that lately she ha also been part of man Yugoslavian programs and not just German stuff. The male lead is Peter Sattmann and he has been in many of these pretty terrible ARD Degeto films, often playing central characters, so no excuse for him from me. He also has two or three moments in here where his acting felt really off with how over the top he went. Gonna talk about this a little later perhaps. One key supporting character is Sonja Kirchenberger. What was her defining movie? "Die Venusfalle" I think or at least it was her first and breakthrough movie back in the late 1980s. I wouldn't say she is a particularly gifted actress, on the contrary really, but she has decent recognition value and I always thought she was a bit of a stunner. Then again, she is exactly my type. And Brigitte Mira must be mentioned too. Her inclusion here is truly sad. She was one of Fassbinder's girls of course and seeing her in nonsense films like this one that were doomed from the very beginning feels all kinds of false. She was 90 here already and pretty much at the end of her career and life as well. I think you say that, even if she lived a few more years afterwards. More about her later on too. As for the rest of the bunch, there is not too much to say. They may have been prolific, but quality did not happen too often. The exception is Udo Kroschwald. He deserves a mention for those international projects he appeared in. Worked with Clooney, Polanski, Brody, Damon and most can only dream of that obviously. This happened after this movie here though, which should give some hope to actors who appear in stuff like this. There's always a way out. Always a path to quality.
So what is so wrong with this film? Everything basically. But the key aspect is once again the romance between two people who initially cannot stant each other. Or at least the guy cannot stand the girl as we find out right away during (or after) the man's presentation early on. Or also later on when he talks about Dobra's character to Kirchberger's and how she messes everything up. That first speech scene I just mentioned was all kinds of nonsense though. Look at how Dobra's character is too late (true professional), look at how fast the audience applauds there. They could not even know he was finished. And why would he not know one bit about his new colleague? Why is he exposed like this in front of the crowd. And then there is the idea of rushing in an astrologist with an astronomy body. They tried their best to make it seem somewhat believable, but it is just utter nonsense really and never made any sense. The only connection is stars, everything else is different. But it's also the minor moments here when the film is a joke. This refers mostly to Dobra's character. Take a look at how she gives that rose quartz to the teenage boy, so he does something for her and what she says bout said quartz. And minutes later, we see him make out with a young girl. I don't even. Also how he then throws it back to her. Sigh. Next moment would be the ridiculous scene in which Dobra's character climbs up a wall and the girl inside sees her. The mother does not. This got especially bad at the end too when the protagonist waves at the girl. So many moments I could mention here. One that definitely must in is when the two have a date or something, already around the 60-minute mark and Dobra's character has her moment when she falls for him. You will know exactly what I mean when you see it, but the way we see him through her perspective and don't even understand what he says felt so weird. And again, don't think this was rock bottom. Only seconds later, we have the male protagonist sniff on her hair like some animal. Not gonna lie, I laughed so hard there. This was one moment during which Sattmann was really bad, even if the writing was pathetic too. Another would be near the end when he gets slapped by Kirchberger's character. No excuse for that. That was all him messing up.
Now I want to say a few words about the two female supporting players I mentioned earlier. Kirchberger I already talked a bit about and she has so many weak scenes sadly. She is rarely to blame though. Take the introduction when she meets Sattmann's character for the first time, the way she sits there and how the camera catches her legs. And even if she is the other woman, she is never really an antagonist. Nothing new here. Men are the evil ones with Degeto forever and for always and if Sattmann's character isn't for once, then it is one we do not know anything about, namely the one who is married and Kirchberger's character is his lover as we find out when she ends things with him on the phone. Sure thing. In the end, she also gets a little pep talk from Mira's character and then there is her final scene in the elevator during which it is implied that the guy next to her could be the right one. This was embarrassing too, especially when the camera cot to her completely and her bright smile we see there. No words for that. The other one I want to talk about is Mira. As I said, it is very sad that such an established actress is in a film like this. But her material makes it even worse. When she apologizes for her nephew early on, it is already pretty bad, but when she is there and asks a question during Dobra's character's presentation and they start talking about her sexuality, things get truly bad. Like truly. Of course, Sattmann's character is there (what a coincidence) to listen to this mess. The second very embarrassing scene for Mira's character is when she makes a reference about how her nephew could get married to Kirchberger's character. So much cringe there. You could think she is actually a bad actress too, but let's just blame it on her really high age there. Oh and as for the two younger women, speaking of age, probably not too many would have guessed that Dobra is/was actually slightly older than Kirchberger here. The former looks younger than she was for sure and that also made the age difference between her and the male protagonist seem mich higher than it actually was.
There are many other scenes and moments I could mention where this film was pretty much unwatchable. Take the moment when the male protagonist interferes during the presentation to these kids. And how he may be correct in terms of the contents, but not one bit in terms of the style. And they were so proud of this mess that they included a similar sequence later on where we see how he has changed in the meantime. That was pathetic already and the dancing was definitely not helping either. The constant talk about zodiac signs was highly annoying as well. Look at how Kirchberger's and Sattmann's characters end up in bed. Look at how enthusiastic the latter is when the former tries all she can to spend time with him. Look at the parallel between stamps and humans. So funny! Look at the shaving scene in the car. Look at how Dobra goes even over the top when saying hello on the phone. Look at the heart she randomly draws on one occasion during her presentation. That was NOT cute. Look at the pseudo dramatic fire scene. Not even the dog added anything and his inclusion and how he kept barking loudly was supposed to be funny. Look at how quality set decoration seems to mean to the people here to put some stuff from physics class on the male protagonist's table. Sattmann was truly the worst here, how he went shamelessly over the top in showing us how much of a renowned scientist he was as he kept rambling about all kinds of stuff and you could easily see the man had no clue what he was saying and it was all pretense and make-believe. Oh yeah, as always with Degeto, the soundtrack is also pretty poor. This shall really be enough, even if there are more terrible moments to mention. The fact that the planetarium shown in here is really close to my home did not make it any more interesting. Worst possible rating from me for this abysmal movie. Highly not recommended and it's an utter travesty this film is still on national television 20 years later, even if it's at midnight. This is where your GEZ money goes, folks.
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