Two cuts of the movie that is. There is the shorter cinema version and the Directors cut, which obviously is longer. And therefor more conclusive, which also makes more sense than. If you only watched the shorter version you probably won't get that. Not that this means it's a sure thing you will like the longer version.One thing is for sure, there went a lot of thought into the design(s) of the movie. Again you might not like what you see, but the effort is there. Also our male lead has a way of speaking that fits more with a period piece like this than contemporary cinema. If you see it favorable you'll call it sophisticated. Acting in general is good, though not up to par with things Natalie Portman did of course. Still a refreshing look (with some artistic freedom/choices) back at time/history

"Die geliebten Schwestern" or "Beloved Sisters" was written and directed by Dominik Graf, a man in his 60s with a long career in TV and film industry who has worked with pretty much every big German name in terms of acting. Recently, he was responsible for the very much lauded German TV series "Im Angesicht des Verbrechens".The three lead actors in "Beloved Sisters" come from Henriette Confurius as Charlotte von Lengefeld, Hannah Herzsprung as Caroline von Lengefeld and Florian Stetter as famous poet Friedrich Schiller. It is basically all about their triangle relationship and the other men and women in their (love) lives. The result is like a huge colorful and beautifully decorated package with a sparkling twisted bow. And without anything inside. The costumes and art directions/set decorations are all fine as far as I can be a judge of that, but that is pretty much it. The acting is forgettable, sometimes cringeworthy. The writing is shoddy from start to finish. One example: Of course the husband to the older sister had to come the very moment she was in bed with Schiller. This film is the epitome of a mediocre period piece with no memorable features at all. Confurius and Stetter did not have a single scene that wowed me and Herzsprung was the negative standout, just like in her previous schmaltzy romance movie "Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen".I really wonder what the German Film academy was thinking when they chose this movie as the official German submission to the 2015 Academy Awards. Now this stands in line with "The Lives of Others", "The White Ribbon", "When We Leave" and, most recently, "Two Lives"? Pretty ridiculous. I am fairly certain there are 25-30 better German movies this year and looking at the shortlist ambitious projects such as Edgar Reitz' newest "Heimat" movie or "Wolfskinder" are just another league completely in terms of quality. "Beloved Sisters" is the epitome of shallow and superficial and would even be a disappointment for a movie shown on German television at 8:15 pm. Another weakness I found with the movie was the narration (coming from director Graf himself), which added nothing really. Those scenes where the protagonists were speaking with the camera (i.e. the audience) felt completely out of place and truly hurt the movie as they were thrown in so randomly and their monologues were utterly pretentious. So were the overblown dialogs. Yes people were speaking differently at that point in time, but not like that. The movie takes itself far more seriously than it has any justification to do so.I can't even call the film a guilty pleasure as the intrigues between the sisters themselves and Charlotte von Kalb for example were simply not interesting enough to keep the audience glued to the screen, especially for a film that crosses the two-hour mark considerably. still, if you liked this, let me recommend you another recent German period piece "Young Goethe in Love", which is not a masterpiece either, but clearly superior to "Die geliebten Schwestern". I hope there will soon be a film that does Schiller's art justice as this piece of tripe certainly does not. However, in order to end the review on a more positive note, I would like to say that Claudia Messner, who played the mother of the two girls, gave a good performance and stole all of her scenes, really the only positive highlight here. Still her role is not big enough to make up for everything else that is wrong with this very flawed film and I certainly would not recommend watching it.

To be fair, it was beautifully filmed, the landscapes, the colours, etc... everything was right and set to make a perfect film. The original music not so much, I like the fact they used Rameau's Zaïs overture for some scenes (just in case you were wondering what that was) but except that, the soundtrack was dull.Since we don't see so many German period dramas (unless you do count the every year film about the Nazis' era), it was worth at least to give it a chance; we watched this film with a friend as part of the annual German FILM FESTIVAL in Buenos Aires (otherwise this would have never even get to a DVD here): to say the least I fell asleep twice (maybe three times, I'm not sure), and that didn't affect the overall opinion I might have over the film or the story (if there was any), so did my friend, we were nudging each other in order to avoid falling sleep... and yet we both failed.It is too slow: nothing actually happens and when the film ends you do have the feeling you lost a lot of your time, the whole audience was trying to awake themselves by the end of it, I saw a lot of people yawning and there was an utter silence except for the relief most of them felt on leaving the room in order to get some coffee.This could have been an excellent story, the cast is great, the filming might almost get good but there is no story behind and that's the main trouble here. If you can, don't watch this on a cinema, do it at home, with a cup of coffee and consider the idea of pressing FAST FORWARD from time to time for it won't affect the final result.

I saw this at the CPH PIX film festival in Copenhagen, and was very impressed. Although much of the story that is shown is speculative, it appears to be highly qualified speculation. Whether it reflects historical reality or not, it worked exceedingly well as an epic cinema drama.As the title says, "The Beloved Sisters" is about the two sisters who loved Friedrich Schiller. Schiller himself is a kind of supporting character, as seen through the eyes of the sisters. The actresses who play the sisters are very good indeed, esp. the older one (Caroline), and it is expertly illustrated how they actually love each other more than they love Schiller.Highlights include the scene where the sisters sit by Schiller's sickbed in the dark, and (as I interpret it) he can't tell them apart, and the reconciliation scene towards the end where Schiller stands between the sisters, and then discreetly moves away, allowing them to reconnect. Very powerful stuff.I enjoyed this 171 minute movie immensely and can't wait to watch it again. Definitely one of the best experiences at the film festival.My rating: 9 stars out of 10.