Dominik Graf’s three-hour love story is based on the novel of the same name by the poet and novelist Erich Kästner. Although the story set in Dresden, Germany, 1931, the film has a great deal with the specifically French settings of François Truffaut’s Jules and Jim (1962) rather than the original novel. Fabian works for a newspaper, Labude writes his dissertation, and actress Cornelia tries to become a star. The stories of these three people are set in the final days of the Weimar Republic, leaving themselves in the frenzy of decadence and indulgence. The film is a collage of various techniques: it opens with black and white footage, and later shifts into 8mm cinematography, and eventually evolves into split screens. With the rise of the Nazis, each of the three experiences a kind of tragedy, as the tone of the film shifts from light and airy, to ponderous and oppressive. (CHUNG Sung-il)