The poet Friedrich Schiller may be the best-known of the three sides of the 18th century love triangle in Dominik Graf’s historic drama, but he is certainly not the most important. That honour goes to the aristocratic sisters for whom he falls: Charlotte and Caroline von Lengefeld, the women of the title. They made a pact to endure life together before meeting Schiller and entering into a ménage à trois. It’s their relationship that forms the skeleton for the drama, also after Charlotte marries Schiller. While the relationship is partly based on historical sources, much of it is invented. It is barely credible that the independent and headstrong Caroline could have existed at that time. Graf also avoids turning it into a stuffy costume drama, but injects a large dose of modernism into the film. The writings exchanged by the three shape the form: Graf makes a very cinematographic version of an epistolary novel.
