The Girl at the Bottom of the Sea - DVD

Film: Lotte (Yvonne Catterfeld) dreams of finally escaping her dreary life in Vienna and working as a photo reporter. A job with the respected diving filmmaker Hans Hass (Benjamin Sadler) seems to be the perfect opportunity. However, Lotte soon realizes that even an adventurer like Hans Hass still thinks in antiquated patterns and simply cannot imagine a woman joining his expedition. But Lotte does not give up. She wants to be more than just the secretary trapped in an office, while her boss embarks on the very big adventure with his crew, becoming the first person ever to attempt to film a great white shark. When the project can only be financed on the condition that the film also features a beautiful woman, Hass is persuaded to take Lotte along. And indeed, he quickly realizes that Lotte is not only beautiful, but also extremely talented. And so the adventure could also turn into quite a romance - if it weren't for Lotte's jealous fiancé, who is a diver on board the expedition.

With The Girl at the Bottom of the Sea, director Ben Verbong (The Sams, Mr. Bello) has made a romantic adventure film against a wonderful backdrop, which only suffers a little from the fact that its TV origins are a little too obvious. Sure, especially the underwater shots are very nice and also the equipment, especially on the barren expedition ship, can also be seen. But dialogues and the entire dramaturgy sometimes seem a bit too stiff, too loaded with clichés and - in contrast to the vastness of the sea - kept rather small.

While this story based on true events is really beautiful in itself. And when at the end the real couple Lotte and Hans Hass smiles into the camera and the viewer learns that the passionate diver still pursued his vocation until old age, then this also provides a certain pleasant goose bumps. But the film doesn't really succeed in doing justice to the greatness of this story. Given the underlying potential, that's actually quite a shame.

In light of this, the actors do a very decent job. Yvonne Catterfeld actually varies her previous roles only imperceptibly, but is as charming as ever. Benjamin Sattler, on the other hand, is a well-chosen foil as the initially rough-around-the-edges, buttoned-up and almost callous underwater filmmaker. It's clear from the beginning that the two will end up as a married couple. But the way to get there is traced by the two entertainingly and also believably.

Beautiful shots and good actors can thus hold their own overall against a somewhat arguably conventional TV production. If you like TV entertainment of the romantic kind, can do without big surprises and don't mind the one or other cliché, you can definitely enjoy this film. Certainly not a work for great cineastes, but as pure entertainment definitely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: Technically, the DVD is on a good level. Especially in the underwater shots can convince overall sharpness and especially the coloring. Otherwise, the TV character of the production is also noticeable in the audiovisual implementation again and again by minor weaknesses. Overall, however, the sound with the coherently mixed dialogues and well used ambient sounds, such as the creaking on the ship, is quite convincing. Good!

Extras: Except for a trailer show of the provider, there are unfortunately no other extras.

Conclusion: The Girl at the Bottom of the Sea is a decent TV production that tells the story of diving pioneers Lotte and Hans Hass in sometimes very beautiful pictures. Although dramaturgy and play of the good actors sometimes seem a little wooden, but who likes ZDF-typical love stories in a beautiful setting with a touch of adventure romance, which can access here confidently

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp