Beloved Sisters

German filmmaker Dominik Graf speculates—at length—about the 18th-century love triangle between nerd-stud playwright Friedrich Schiller (Florian Stetter) and two gorgeous sisters (Hannah Herzsprung and Henriette Confurius). Graf has a knack for the zoom lens, which recalls Kubrick’s ironic Barry Lyndon, but he walks so carefully through the minefield of melodrama that when an occasional blast of purple dialogue is triggered (such as ”Save me from my passion!”), it only makes you wish for the unintellectual bodice ripper that the movie should have been. C+