Die Mitte der Welt (2016) Online

What does cinema mean to you? To me it means emotions and stories, told with moving images, with music and with words. And, in my opinion, for cinema to be at its greatest it needs to brave and vulnerable.

Center of My World is exactly that: brave and vulnerable. And intimate. And true.

Its is the story of Phil, a standard teenager, who is just a little gayer than the rest. But him being gay is really not an important part of the story.

He struggles with his family, with deeply hidden secrets of the past and their effects in the present, which may break his family apart. And he falls in love for the first time. That's really it.

And while watching this in the cinema some people laughed at the film. Because it shows how love is, unironically and over-the-top. It dives deep into Phil's emotions and shows us not only the center of his world, but maybe even the center of THE world (hence the original German title "The Center of the World"). And most people can not let themselves dive into these depths.

And if you want to experience this small gem of a movie, you have to make yourself vulnerable, too. Leave your irony at home, just watch this movie as you are - naked and vulnerable.

Then you may see what cinema can do, what cinema is for.

To start with, I completely disagree with a previous 2/10 review.

"Center of my world" / "Die Mitte der Welt" was and is one of my most beloved novels I first read end of the 90ies shortly before it has been released. It's a wonderful book I always return to. I didn't know how it could be brought to screen - until now.

When I first saw the trailer I was already roped back into the world of Steinhöfels book. I needed to see this film and I did on the first weekend. While they removed several parallel and back stories of the book to create a better narration for the screen, they managed to keep the dreamy atmosphere of the book for the whole 2 hours. The main cast is more than perfect, from Louis Hofmann as Phil to Sabine Timeteo as his mother, to Jannik Schürmann as Nicholas. I fell in love with each of them. The setting in the small town and the enchanted home of the "different" family was a perfect match to the tone and style of the story. It was wonderful to live, laugh and cry with the characters throughout, a very emotional, dreamy, wonderful journey, accompanied with a beautiful soundtrack. The love story between the two main characters blew me away, so real, intimate and wonderful to watch.

I didn't see any other film this year that I embraced so much like "Die Mitte der Welt". Maybe I will see it a second time in the cinema but the Blu-ray will be on my shelves on day one. Go and watch it, it won't get better this year.

The German film Die Mitte der Welt was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Center of My World (2016). It was written and directed by Jakob M. Erwa.

This movie can be interpreted in many ways. It's a coming of age movie, a gay love story, and a melodrama with many twists and turns.

Louis Hofmann plays Phil, a gay young man, who is looking for a boyfriend-lover-partner. Jannik Schümann plays Nicholas, who is handsome and athletic, and becomes Phil's boyfriend and lover, if not partner. Both Hofman and Schümann are fine young actors, and they do admirable work in this film. Also involved in the plot is Phil's twin sister, who may or may not have some special powers.

For me, however, the acting honors go to Sabine Timoteo as Glass, Phil's mother. She brings men into the family, and then sends them away, with devastating results to her children. Timoteo brings acting skills that allow her to inhabit this role. You can't take your eyes off her as she lives--and messes up--her life and the lives of others. She always tells just enough of the story to make you aware that she knows more than she tells.

The film will work well on the small screen.

I saw this movie before i read the book and i have to say it was really really good.

At first i was a little bit annoyed about the half English - half German speaking mother, but when it came up she had an American heritage it wasn't so bad after all.

The characters in the movie were lovely and you could empathize with them in many ways. The main characters (Phi, Glass and Nicholas) were played very well. I loved the cut-scenes, which came up to show the emotions of Phil - and the music was also carefully chosen (Down by the River by Milky Chance).

The movie gives you a feel good vibe...lot of great pictures. The scenes from the childhood in a very nostalgic way.

The fact that it was a homosexual love story was, in my opinion, not the main setting of the movie. The homosexual setting was like every heterosexual setting in any other movie. It just was there. Was played beautifully. I recommend it to everyone! A high quality German/Austrian "young modern scenes" movie...wonderful and just as good as any American film.

I enjoyed it. I may be simple and I may be unable to understand the nuances that apparently abound, but for sheer entertainment for me, it was pleasing. So many of IMDb critics forget that they are watching a film that is designed to entertain. They go off on journey of esoteric criticisms that only the pompous and pretentious would understand. Sit back, open a beer and view it for what is was - just a film, and to me, an enjoyable one.

This film focuses on Phil, a teenager who returns to his (Austrian? German?) hometown after spending time away at a summer camp and is dismayed to find that in his absence something has happened to cause his twin sister Dianne and tediously non-conformist mother Glass to stop speaking to each other. But distracting him from that mystery is Nicholas, the sporty, handsome new classmate who quickly invites Phil to join him in the changing room showers...

This feels like two separate films. On the one hand we have the dark, threatening tone of the segments involving the mystery of Glass and Dianne's falling out; on the other the (at first) light-hearted romance (whose most amusing moment comes when Phil's two jolly, middle-aged lesbian friends congratulate him for having sex rather than, eg, counselling against carnal activity in public showers). As a result of this contradiction in tone the viewer at times wonders what kind of film he's watching. But there is no denying that within themselves the plots are well-handled: clues about the Glass/Dianne troubles are there for the taking (although this viewer missed the major one!); while the scenes between Phil and Nicholas are at times amusing and at other times pleasingly erotic.

As for the acting, lead Louis Hofmann makes Phil effeminate without being politically incorrect, and Jannik Schümann does what he can with the thankless role of seductive, muscular eye candy, treating Phil with thoughtless indifference (when not locking lips). Meanwhile, in the major 'adult' role, Sabine Timoteo makes the somewhat irresponsible and self-indulgent Glass a lot more likable than I should have found her!

The greatest strength of this coming-of-age story that centers on a young gay man is that his sexuality is established: being gay is not his discovery or central point of the film. He knows he's gay, as does his mom, sister, friends and neighbors. This film is about relationships -- an entire spectrum of them, and not just his interactions. Louis Hofmann as Phil turns in a stunning performance, a great deal of his best moments are unspoken and occur on his face and in his eyes. Jannick Schulmann as Nicholas is ferociously seductive and sweeps Phil and us onlookers off our feet. The surroundings feel natural and speak of each character beautifully. When elements begin coming together, the results are stunning, pointing to a strong script.

A film like a spring wind. warm, fresh, nice, refreshing. a story about love, life, teens, family. not perfect - to critic it becomes real temptanting - but having few good points - from atmosphere to actors. so, a nice film with few lovely scenes. sure, it could be better. but it is , from start, not the object of high expectations. for many reasons. first - it propose cut boys, eccentric feminine characters, a not awfull story and reasonable balancce between present and past. and something escaping from precise definition. a feeling, slices of pure, honest joy, memories and traits of storm, dialogues and relations who are pieces of a puzzle who could be more complex . but, it is a refreshing film. and this, for me, is the most important thing for me.

This movie is much anticipated breath of fresh air for German cinema, which has gone pretty stale with shitty romcoms starring Til Schweiger, and boring-ass Nazi-dramas, so I was all the more disappointed, when it got worse and worse after a somewhat promising start with a few good moments in between, and those few moments, which were way too few and far between made the clichéd melodrama, that consisted of entitled brats bitching about how hard their life is, all the more unbearable, and at a certain point, I just wished for the movie to start rolling the credits.

The director Jakob M. Erwa (Austrian) stated that his biggest influences include Pedro Almodovar and Xavier Dolan amongst others, and it really shows because the movie eerily mirrors the style of Dolan, sadly however this movie only manages to be an incoherent, self-involved, indulgent mess. Self-involved? indulgent? So, basically classic Dolan with the main difference being that Dolans films are much more competently put together and have much stronger tonal consistency.

So, in conclusion I would like to see more German films that take chances, like this one. And to be fair, this movie had some good stuff in it, and I would like to see what director Jakob M. Erwa does next. And I just wish for him to find his own voice, because the movie was best, when it wasn't trying to be Dolan.

I have watched this film twice, first when it came out and today. I must say that I enjoyed it immensely both times but today, on the second viewing, I was able to pick up even more nuances of the script, the plot, and the acting. It is very difficult for a film where there is translation involved to grasp the viewer unless the actors are able to convey the script through their emotions. This film manages to do that, at times I almost felt like I spoke German because I could feel what the characters were feeling.

I have seen a few comments from people that did not like this movie and I respect them. Personally, I think it was an extremely well made film, with good acting, a good script, an excellent plot that provided just enough of a happy ending without turning it into a fairy tale. This is one of those movies that left me feeling sad for some of the events that happened in it but at the same time made me feel happy for the hopefulness of the ending

Unbelievably brilliant! I can't imagine a better film than this

A movie adaptation of the popular German YA novel THE CENTER OF THE WORLD by Andreas Steinhöfel, published in 1998, CENTER OF MY WORLD, directed by Austrian filmmaker Jakob M. Erwa, his third feature, is a Bildungsroman about a 17-year-older Phil (Hofmann), who returns from his three-week summer camp, during which his hometown has been torpedoed by a storm, and is bemused to notice that his twin sister Dianne (Stappenbeck) and their single mother Glass (Timoteo) are barely on speaking terms. What happened between the mother-daughter pair? It must go back to their past, and the movie takes a fitful rhythm to juggle between the two time-lines of present and past.

Meantime, Phil has his own adolescent problem to cope with, his nascent attraction to the new boy in the class Nicholas (Schümann) would put a strain on the friendship with his best friend Kat (Jung), especially when Nicholas and him become an item. Little does he know (but for viewers, telling signs are everywhere), a double betrayal is laid in store. For a sensitive, romantic soul like Phil, who is perpetually looking for a sense of security in his one-sided infatuation, the school of hard knocks is a requisite rite of passage, and gladly, he will grow out of it and at the same time, solving the multifarious little hitches to a wholesome happy ending, topped off with a hard-earned decision to let go of the big question mark of his existence, who is his biological father?

While Erwa's narrative structure tends to be haphazard, more often than not, the dialogue is pure platitude (albeit benign to a fault), his visual flare also tallies with a televisual blandness, with a habit of dropping pop anthems in full impact, but the most peevish thing is that many potentially intriguing ingredients are unwisely downplayed, for example, Dianne's preternatural power of communing with animals, inherited from their unnamed father, is only exhibited once, and by focusing on Phil, the missing piece of Dianne's more dramatic and numinous arc feels short-changed.

Two outstanding performances emerge out of a patchy cast (to this reviewer's eyes, Schümann's jock allure is roundly undermined by his asymmetrical eyes, and both Stappenbeck and Jung feel miscast, the former doesn't continue a uniquely ethereal air of her younger counterpart, played by Sarah Fuhrer, and the latter is saddled with a very unsympathetic role who doesn't even have a chance to explain her improprieties), a fresh-faced Louis Hofmann beautifully interprets Phil's sensitivity and queer delicacy, and a lissom Sabine Tomoteo is indeed, a wonder-maker through inhabiting a fey, temperamental woman who lives with her two kids in a derelict mansion, and never for a split second, actually, goes off the deep end against all the seemingly impressions, albeit her troubled history riddled with frequent break-ups, bad reputation and a mysterious miscarriage that is created by and furthermore creates internal fiction, she makes Glass a hell of a woman and a darn good mother too, that is something only a real trouper manages to pull off.

Another film that ruins a good idea and materials. There are too many useless scenes / dialogues. For instance, who cares about whether the co-lead actor loves spaghetti or any other dish? Or seeing trivial actions such as walking, bicycling etc.. No one watches this movie for that purpose.

A lot of the scenes appear to exist only to justify and reach the nearly 2-hour film duration. But quantity is not quality.

The narrative process is often confusing and makes us wonder what the message is supposed to be. There is a lot of back and forth between scenes set at different times / showing totally different things, and the link between the two is unclear.

The co-lead (the non-manly one) does not appear empathic and friendly. When negative things happen to him, not only did I not feel sorry, but quite the opposite. This should not be the case...

Filming is also not that great, as often, the camera is slightly shaking. The focus on the characters' face to see their expressions is too often limited and short, preventing us from really connecting to the characters and understanding their feelings.

On the positive side, the co-lead (the manly guy) is really great to look at.

"Die Mitte der Welt" is a German-Austrian co-production from 2016, this year, and the language is predominantly German, with very few English phrases here and there because of one of the character's American origin. The writer and director is relatively young Austrian movie maker Erwa and it resulted in a movie that runs for almost two hours. And these were painful to sit through. Regardless of how much all the characters in this film may have suffered, you as an audience member with taste in movies suffer more while watching this and with this, of course, I don't mean that you feel for any of the characters, but I do mean you suffer because of how crappy this film is. Lets start with the gay-themed content in here. There are many many gay-themed short films and also some gay-themed full feature films out there and the problem there is often that they entirely rely on audiences caring for these films because of the story on sexuality. This is partially true for this one here. There are more than a few scenes where this film includes pointless sex scenes or nudity that adds nothing to the story, but was just included because the two characters in love were men. You would not see the same in the same quantity in a film about a heterosexual relationship. And besides I really object to the first quote of the film when the main character talks about being pretty much a normal regular guy, only that he is a bit more gay than the others. So, is he implying that his sexuality is not normal? That is actually truly offensive. And there were more quotes like these that I had a problem with.

Coompletely aside, from the sexual note here, this is an extremely pretentious film where ambition and actual talent are miles away from each other. The scenes about the characters' younger years/childhoods were still better than the scenes in the present, but these old scenes were completely destroyed by extremely pompously pretentious voice-overs in the most poetic language that did not work at all with what we saw. These voice-overs came from lead actor Hofmann and while he looked physically fine, I believe that he was a bad casting decision as it was painful to watch him try so hard, but yet he just did not have the talent to really make the character work. And this is extremely disappointing as Hofmann is in basically every non-flashback scene from start to finish of a long movie. In reference to his love interest, I must say that this actor was also miscast. The final plot development slightly justified his casting, but not that much. About the girls, the sister and best friend, I feel that they did not have as much to work with as one may think looking at their stories, but they weren't convincing either.

The only somewhat decent performances come from Timoteo who makes a character work sometimes at least and as her character is written in a horribly cringeworthy manner, this is a success. Actually her last scene on the bed with her son was possibly the best acting moment from anybody in the entire film. Gersak is also decent, even if he also does not have as much screen-time or as good material as I hoped he would. But these two cannot save this film from being a disaster. The story and, to a lesser extent, performances of the young actors are just so underwhelming that this film cannot be saved. I could list 20 quotes for example, but luckily I have forgotten most of these already, which is pretty amazing. Lucky me. But I remember cringing at least a dozen times while watching this film. The music/soundtrack is not particularly good either. Lets just give one example of where the film screwed up completely. When they take a break from the gay-themed story towards the end, they just randomly rush in a sub-plot which includes basically the sister admitting that she secretly gave a poison to her mother, so that she would lose her unborn child and not only this happened, but she almost died from it. But hey, the main character is, as he says, from a family/background that is fairly normal. How about mentioning that your sister is a complete sociopath. And then the filmmakers/writers try to justify it by including completely random a story about a coma patient that the sister visits every day. These moments were maybe when the movie hit rock-bottom.

Aside from that, looking at the general plot idea. We have a gay protagonist. Another boy comes to his class. They fall in love and have sex under the shower. Then they have sex again. And again. And again. And then the other guy has sex with the boy' best friend. The best friend that is so so close with our hero and they would never do that to each other. The best friend that our hero does not even tell her that he is an item with the new guy. There is so so much in this film that doesn't make sense and honestly looking at how garbage the script is, the performances are still somewhat okay I guess. As a whole I must say the one thing that got wrong probably the most is how Erwa wanted us so much to like the characters, but I really disliked almost all of them, actually except the ones we were supposed to dislike, namely the best friend and the lover because they just wanted everything to stay that way as they were happy like that. But hey, you need to show us Hofmann's character being so strong when he interacts (or not interacts) with his former best friend and boyfriend. Enough said. This film is a contender for worst film I have seen all year and I have seen really many. I recommend you to stay far far away.

First, about Phil. Just awesome and a truely dramatic guy. Love him so much. Second, about Nicholas. I can't imagine what hes going to do next. So, awesome too and will be more handsome if he doesn't cheat on Phil. Finally, about Kat. Sorry but when I've just watched it. I wanna kill her. Because i can't understand why did she do that ?? F. Sorry again and I don't like Kat. About the film, it is amazing and hope in the future there will be films like this.

This movie was recommended by a German friend and I am glad I watched it. The lead actors, Louis Hofmann and Jannik Schümann, were excellent in their roles, as were the supporting cast. The younger versions were just as adept as the older.

The only problem some viewers (myself included) may have are the flashbacks and the secondary plot involving Phil's twin sister. It took a second viewing for all the parts to fall into place.

But otherwise a well-crafted movie.

At the beginning I thought, good start, could become an interesting movie.. well, then I got disappointed over and over again. I like plots which are non-standard (blockbuster or cooked in the Hollywood kitchen) and thought it will be similar to "Closet Monster", which I really recommend at this point.

Technically I would say nice camera setting, with aesthetic atmosphere and the actors did a good job in my opinion. The pieces did not fit.. like you would mix 3 boxes with different puzzles. Some subtle effects were well placed like when he wrote on his lover's back with the finger. I cannot see the main thread of the plot. Like the wind would have blown the script own day and they stickt it together - anyhow. The music did not suit to the moments, sometimes missing, sometimes exaggerated..and it could have supported this nice scenes so well.

The worst scene was, when they were talking about poisoned Mama in any random hospital room. Theatrical in my opinion many scenes...the new guy enters the classroom, who collects lost things, the lover of the sister who never made it through the storm, the new lover of the mum, who will not give her up, the best girl friend who wants to wait forever.

Actually wanted to stop the movie several times but still hoped for a surprise..I had the feeling at several points, the characters and the plot got stuck. Sister and mother repeat that they do not want to talk...

For me the main character was not authentic enough - too "round" I'd say: the cute guy, innocent who is doing everything correctly and everybody's darling just suffering from the mistakes in his surroundings.

With better dialogues and even some cut scenes or elements from the plot would have brought more balance and focus in to this artwork.

I don't like most movies but I really did enjoy this one it has a very close human component that I believe many will relate to.

The only convincing moments are the one where nobody's talking.

Well, at first i must say i do not like the movie, unfortunetly too many negative points inside screenplay. If i say it is good, it means i agree with cheating, hating, and even lies. It shows bad events in life which make this movie stronger, but the writer did what ever he/she liked. It is completely Personal image, profligate and free living, it is ok but how many times do you want to loose?!! and with what price?!! If someone do sth wrong, he must wake up, coming back and getting it back, just closing eyes in events only bring one result. It means i am weak and like to loose. When you hear a lie, you must look around for a reason, not closing eyes!! This movie has some positive points, like rebuilding family! Trying to success, love, to have fun, kindness,... but the negative points are highlighted here, which i cannot give more than 5.

It was kind of boring & shallow... I feel many of the characters feel into cliche little caricatures of people. The mom is wild, hip, cool, can't keep a man. Sister is brooding, detached, depressed, aloof. The main guy is sweet, naieve, sensitive. These things are fine, but as an audience you should be able to ascertain these things without heavy-handed dialogue, exposition, clothing, etc. And how many times must we see the little sweet innocent gay boy that falls for the hot emotionless jock? There's also a scene where something pivotal is revealed that should have garnered a more powerful reaction. Like I waited to see the characters hot that peak in the plot and really show some emotion and range... but no, not there.

Side note: why in movies do people just walk in to people's home or gated private property????

This is a beautifully made film. Casting excellent, camerawork accomplished and a storyline guaranteed to warm the heart and perhaps produce a tear or two. Lost love...old story but still packs an emotional punch in the right hands.

I've read the book some years ago. I remember being fascinated by the almost fantasy-like world in which our hero and his family live. They are funny, warmhearted, easygoing and freewheeling -and there is some magic secret waiting to be uncovered. And the strange boy has secrets too and is shrouded in mysteries. In the film almost all of the females are shrill borderline cases, acting way over the top most of the time. Our hero is weak willed and confused (which is okay for a teenager coming of age) and must be constantly advised and be comforted by those females who can't master their own affairs. The other boy comes across as a blunt, sexy, needy and selfish guy without any mystery in his life. Being gay myself I appreciate the nicely filmed sex-scenes (guys have sex in the nude and are not covered in linen and shorts like their american brothers ). Louis Hofmann and Jannik Schümann are believable in their roles (as the director sees them) but the MAGIC which hovers about them in the book can't be felt here.