Das perfekte Geheimnis

The Italian Perfect Strangers has been such a hit that it has a remake from almost every country, something I have never seen before – France, Germany, Poland, Turkey, South Korea, Spain, and even the Czech Republic, but surprisingly the USA is missing. Anyway, the movie is 90% a literal copy with just different actors, and the Germans took a different approach in the end than the original, which surprised me. I was entertained very well throughout. Story****, Action>No, Humor****, Violence>No, Entertainment****, Music****, Visuals****, Atmosphere****, Tension****. 8/10. (26.11.2020)

The German version of the original Italian hit. The story is truly so well written that it can appeal to everyone if adapted appropriately. All national cinema can only gain by joining the phenomenon. I enjoyed this version, among other things thanks to the presence of the great Jessica Schwarz (Romy) and Karoline Herfurth (The Little Witch), and some of the points are really perfect and make you laugh. Several themes are explicitly funny and others are full of humanism. The perfect film. (22.03.2022)

The Perfect Secret is incredibly the sixth remake of the Italian film Perfetti sconosciuti, which was only just made in 2016. The Koreans, Poles, and Turks all have their own versions. If I can think of a similar case where the writers of the original can make a living just by renting out the rights, it's the Flemish Loft, which was identically remade by the Dutch and the Americans (the latter even under the direction of the director of the original) within a few years. Both The Perfect Secret and Loft share the same common factor – both films deal with the world of the upper middle class, but seek to elevate and satire it, while being made for an audience made up of its ranks. For no one else would be able to accept an idiot-plot about a bunch of bored rich kids and careerists reading the news of their disgustingly boring and fake lives over their plates, even though everyone knows it's going to be a disaster. We have learned to rise above Czech lifestyle comedies for their amorality, yet here we find ourselves in the very same world of spoiled losers, where the female and male worlds are built on a constant conflict with their own twisted yet understandable natures. The virtually identical and audience-successful translation of this plot into different cultural settings ultimately suggests how interchangeable the social class depicted is, no matter where the story is set. The apartments are all the same, the kitchens the same. If there's any cultural globalization to worry about, it's undoubtedly this one. PS: The German version, unlike the Italian version, still has an utterly insanely upbeat epilogue, which accurately references the exuberant tastelessness of contemporary romantic comedies about flamboyantly entrepreneurial forty-somethings, often utterly obscene acting, and incredibly caricatured characters, the benchmark being found in the character of the "alternative" girlfriend of one of the protagonists, whose first sentence in the film, which she says while sitting in the car, is: "I'd like to bake homemade bread." Shoot yourself immediately, and I mean immediately. (16.09.2020)

The German version has a lighter feel than the Italian original and all the other versions. And I don't think that was a drawback at all, because it was really fun. I thought the actors were likeable (except for the biggest villain). I was pleased that the Germans went their own way at the end that was original. It also made my jaw drop. I see that our version is coming, so I hope the Czech team will give it all they’ve got. 5 stars. (29.01.2021)

I only saw the original Perfect Strangers only a couple of months ago, so you could say it was perhaps too early for me to go to the cinema to watch one of the other remakes, but I was curious to see how the Germans handled the story. I was also tempted by the great cast, as almost half of the actors (+ director) are from my very favourite Goethe Institute. The German version is eighty percent faithful to the Italian original, so I was quite pleasantly surprised by the slight deviations. However, while Perfect Strangers has a rather chilling ending, The Perfect Secret offers a somewhat more positive denouement, though it doesn't prick the moral conscience as much, on the other hand, I praise the screenwriting variation. The German version is overall more light-hearted, but there’s still that one disturbing question that pops into your mind several times during the film: How much do we really want to know about our friends? A weaker four stars! (21.06.2020)