"Bleib bei mir" or "Stay with me" is a German television film that premiered back in 2009, so this one is already over a decade old. I am not sure what is worse here, the pretentious pseudo-cute working title "Dritte Sonnenblume links" (Third sunflower on the left) or the actual title they went with here. The latter sure has almost no relevance to the story. No clue why they would pick it other than that it sounds so tense and dramatic and trick people into watching this complete garbage movie. There is no existing romance relationship early on that could be a justification for the title. The only slight relevance I can think of is the friendship with the older neighbor and her deteriorating health. However, hers was only a subplot, so I don't think that is it either. Then again, I have no clue why I am even wondering because the film lacks realism and attention to detail on so many occasions that the title is absolutely not an exception. The director here is Dirk Regel, who has been working as a filmmaker since the 1990s and is still active nowadays. However, I wonder why as his body of work really consists of nothing but crappy projects on the same level like this one here. Sure, I believe the writer is always more to blame because story is key, but if a filmography like Regel's is really entirely void of quality whatsoever, then he should not be signed anymore because apparently his inclusion is an absolutely negative deal-breaker. The writer is Gabriele Herzog. She has been active since the 1970s already and this film here is from close to the end of her career. Pretty embarrassing always if you have worked for decades in the industry and you still cannot come up with something better than this travesty of a film. Shows that she is/was as well completely void of talent. There is nothing positive I can say here.
The cast is just as much of a mess. Saskia Vester is the best example. When I see her, I actually always think that she is the German look-alike of successful American actress Martha Plimpton. I am not even a fan of the latter, but I am probably still doing her injustice because Vester is honestly so so bad, such a terrible actress, who could not perform a convincing scene if her life depended on it. This may sound harsh, but it is the truth. The sooner she retires, the better. However, as much as she is to blame for this film here being a total abomination, so are the people who cast her to blame as well. How could they. And the worst is that Vester is really in almost every scene, which makes it even worse. The two male protagonists are played by Helmut Berger (not the famous one) and Peter Sattmann. Maybe German film audiences have come across those. They are noth fairly prolific. For Eva Pflug this was the last performance of her career and life. What a way to go out. I am not really familiar with the actress, but you gotta feel bad for that. I probably shouldn't though because nobody forced her to act in here and also she starred in other garbage films right before that if I see it correctly. Her character also dies at the end, which is more drama than you usually get in these films shown here in Germany in the afternoon, so bold move there, but also ridiclously bad move how they executed it exactly. Like she says bye to Vester's character and her daughter and then boom her heart stops beating. Are you kidding me? Ridiculous. Now we are also deep into the scenes that really sucked from this movie. There are so so many, so I will just mention a handful to make clear how much of an abomination this film is. All the more serious moments like the protagonist's daughter being pregnant and a scammer being on the loose are so poorly executed that you wanna slap the filmmakers. Absolutely no attention to detail. No talent. Just take the moment when the scammer runs away. Sure she manages to knock out the two men and Vester's character and then she stops outside because the latter's daughter shows up with a shovel? Ooookay. And a minute afterwards, she stands behind the scammer with the shovel in her hand ready to knock her out if necessary? What the heck. What were they thinking. Annd these horrible scenes are the efrom beginning to end. Just take the scene early on at the department store when that detective is hitting on Vester's character. So cringeworthy, also how she is honest and says she is not interest. Vester at her worst again. And yeah how realistic that 10 seconds later her own daughter steals from the store and Vester does what she can to stop the detective from getting her. What the heck? This was such nonsense. This never would have stopped him. Or the scene afterwards in the dark Oh yeah, nice symbolism. The light is out because she is ashamed of her daughter being a thief. You know what is the worst about all that? That they were actually really serious with it. And we also get another little side story with the daughter being pregnant after a ONS. Charming girl. Ever heard of birth control? There's more. Wait and see. The guy that the female protagonist starts working at his house is a famous singer in fact. Of course, you just randomly run into him and he employs you as his housekeeper. Makes total sense. And of course he as well as the man's manager or whatever his position may be develop a romantic interest in our stunning housekeeper. Men really love her, also the classy men, not just the store detective. Which is pretty hilarious because Vester is really the absolute opposite of attractive. Oh, she shines all through her character I forgot. Yeah, right. More lack of realism: The scene when the old ladies show up at the singer's house and they are starstruck. In their car. And one scene later, they are already in touching all his stuff. How did they even get in. Vester's character simply should not have opened the door. But yeah, it's open door day at celebs' houses I get it. But hey, the old ladies are charming, so let's not be mad at them.
More to come: The key scene. Another prime example of Vester overacting in an unbearably manner. Yeah her daughter lost her own key and her mother's key within days and less than half a year ago she lost her key already too. Is this a running gag? No. It is highly cringeworthy and does not make any sense because even the most forgetful person would not lose their keys so many times within such a short period of time. But at least the daughter is acreative genius and our star musician has nothingbetter to do than turn the girl's emotional writing into his next song and the two will also work on his new album. Guess what. The only accurate thing in this movie was the scammer's face expression when she heard that he is collaborating with his housekeeper's daughter on his new album. Utter disbelief. Enough said. Also, there is another moment that was kinda funny because of how unreal it was. When the daughter talks about this to her mother and the old neighbor, then the neighbor says someting like "Awesome". It was not ment that way, but the way she said it felt almost like an ironic statement about how her last film has to be such a stupid mess. And have you ever had somebody being diagnosed as cometose before the ambulance arrives? No? Me neither. But the filmmakers have apparently because this is what the characters are telling the scammer and of course she believes it. But luckily, Plimton's errr. Vester's character takes out the tension by moving her head in a way that we know it is not the truth. What a good mother. Luckily, her daughter knows now it is not the case. Who cares if the scammer could have seen this too. And if the old lady has to die even, she at least gets a drinkk dedicated to her at the end and for the super stupid audience members, there is also more unrealistic happiness coming their way with talk about a potential upcoming marriage. Sigh. Oh yeah, of course we also get to see the beautiful Vester in bed post-sex with her sweetheart. What a "beautiful" sight. Just like this film as a whole. I shall stop now. I genuinely wonder what the original writer of the book this is based on, Christine Vogeley, thought of the outcome here. It seems this is her second book that got turned into a movie, but seeing the title of the first, it feels to me as if you will not find as much quality in her books either, although for her own sake I hope that they are not as horrible as this film based on her work. No hesitation in calling this 100% failure. Also no respect for penguin Plasberg. What was up with that? Disgusting. Highly not recommended and it is shocking they are showing this crap still more than ten years after its original release. Boo!
The cast is just as much of a mess. Saskia Vester is the best example. When I see her, I actually always think that she is the German look-alike of successful American actress Martha Plimpton. I am not even a fan of the latter, but I am probably still doing her injustice because Vester is honestly so so bad, such a terrible actress, who could not perform a convincing scene if her life depended on it. This may sound harsh, but it is the truth. The sooner she retires, the better. However, as much as she is to blame for this film here being a total abomination, so are the people who cast her to blame as well. How could they. And the worst is that Vester is really in almost every scene, which makes it even worse. The two male protagonists are played by Helmut Berger (not the famous one) and Peter Sattmann. Maybe German film audiences have come across those. They are noth fairly prolific. For Eva Pflug this was the last performance of her career and life. What a way to go out. I am not really familiar with the actress, but you gotta feel bad for that. I probably shouldn't though because nobody forced her to act in here and also she starred in other garbage films right before that if I see it correctly. Her character also dies at the end, which is more drama than you usually get in these films shown here in Germany in the afternoon, so bold move there, but also ridiclously bad move how they executed it exactly. Like she says bye to Vester's character and her daughter and then boom her heart stops beating. Are you kidding me? Ridiculous. Now we are also deep into the scenes that really sucked from this movie. There are so so many, so I will just mention a handful to make clear how much of an abomination this film is. All the more serious moments like the protagonist's daughter being pregnant and a scammer being on the loose are so poorly executed that you wanna slap the filmmakers. Absolutely no attention to detail. No talent. Just take the moment when the scammer runs away. Sure she manages to knock out the two men and Vester's character and then she stops outside because the latter's daughter shows up with a shovel? Ooookay. And a minute afterwards, she stands behind the scammer with the shovel in her hand ready to knock her out if necessary? What the heck. What were they thinking. Annd these horrible scenes are the efrom beginning to end. Just take the scene early on at the department store when that detective is hitting on Vester's character. So cringeworthy, also how she is honest and says she is not interest. Vester at her worst again. And yeah how realistic that 10 seconds later her own daughter steals from the store and Vester does what she can to stop the detective from getting her. What the heck? This was such nonsense. This never would have stopped him. Or the scene afterwards in the dark Oh yeah, nice symbolism. The light is out because she is ashamed of her daughter being a thief. You know what is the worst about all that? That they were actually really serious with it. And we also get another little side story with the daughter being pregnant after a ONS. Charming girl. Ever heard of birth control? There's more. Wait and see. The guy that the female protagonist starts working at his house is a famous singer in fact. Of course, you just randomly run into him and he employs you as his housekeeper. Makes total sense. And of course he as well as the man's manager or whatever his position may be develop a romantic interest in our stunning housekeeper. Men really love her, also the classy men, not just the store detective. Which is pretty hilarious because Vester is really the absolute opposite of attractive. Oh, she shines all through her character I forgot. Yeah, right. More lack of realism: The scene when the old ladies show up at the singer's house and they are starstruck. In their car. And one scene later, they are already in touching all his stuff. How did they even get in. Vester's character simply should not have opened the door. But yeah, it's open door day at celebs' houses I get it. But hey, the old ladies are charming, so let's not be mad at them.
More to come: The key scene. Another prime example of Vester overacting in an unbearably manner. Yeah her daughter lost her own key and her mother's key within days and less than half a year ago she lost her key already too. Is this a running gag? No. It is highly cringeworthy and does not make any sense because even the most forgetful person would not lose their keys so many times within such a short period of time. But at least the daughter is acreative genius and our star musician has nothingbetter to do than turn the girl's emotional writing into his next song and the two will also work on his new album. Guess what. The only accurate thing in this movie was the scammer's face expression when she heard that he is collaborating with his housekeeper's daughter on his new album. Utter disbelief. Enough said. Also, there is another moment that was kinda funny because of how unreal it was. When the daughter talks about this to her mother and the old neighbor, then the neighbor says someting like "Awesome". It was not ment that way, but the way she said it felt almost like an ironic statement about how her last film has to be such a stupid mess. And have you ever had somebody being diagnosed as cometose before the ambulance arrives? No? Me neither. But the filmmakers have apparently because this is what the characters are telling the scammer and of course she believes it. But luckily, Plimton's errr. Vester's character takes out the tension by moving her head in a way that we know it is not the truth. What a good mother. Luckily, her daughter knows now it is not the case. Who cares if the scammer could have seen this too. And if the old lady has to die even, she at least gets a drinkk dedicated to her at the end and for the super stupid audience members, there is also more unrealistic happiness coming their way with talk about a potential upcoming marriage. Sigh. Oh yeah, of course we also get to see the beautiful Vester in bed post-sex with her sweetheart. What a "beautiful" sight. Just like this film as a whole. I shall stop now. I genuinely wonder what the original writer of the book this is based on, Christine Vogeley, thought of the outcome here. It seems this is her second book that got turned into a movie, but seeing the title of the first, it feels to me as if you will not find as much quality in her books either, although for her own sake I hope that they are not as horrible as this film based on her work. No hesitation in calling this 100% failure. Also no respect for penguin Plasberg. What was up with that? Disgusting. Highly not recommended and it is shocking they are showing this crap still more than ten years after its original release. Boo!