User reviews

Hans Weingartner worked as production assistent on Richad Linklaters classic Before Sunrise. 303 is his variation on the theme. It is a subtle, slowpaced heartwarming film with two great actors. Especially Mala Emde gives a breakout performance. Two different characters slowly developing emotions while on a roadtrip through Europe. I really enjoyed the movie. My only critique is the running time of almost two an a half hours. Linklater does it shorter and that would have benefitted this gem also. Anyways, I would love to see part two nine years,later.

A German road trip movie that develops the tension between two characters during a journey from Berlin to Spain. The dialog is exploratory, with a wide range of topics touched-on, including religion, politics, philosophy, relationships and the development of human survival in history and modern times.

The characters depicted in the movie both explore each others view point without demanding acceptance of their own beliefs. Over time they reconcile each others differences and come to a common understanding.

This is a gentle film with no particular surprises. The acting is good and the characters become likeable for their openess and understanding on the many issues facing them.

Great cinematography with spectacular scenery and locations. Overall A good well made and enjoyable movie.

It's good, for me its very good. one of the most best roadtrip movie.

Jule and Jan succeed to delivered a very romantic relationship from the start. it doesn't feel to fast and to slow, their doing it just right. it should be like that when two person who have that condition of life should fallin to each other, just like that. somehow this movie gave us the reality of love step that other movie tend to be afraid to show it. this movie tell it in a very warm and in good phase.

the story it self was quite simple honestly, but the way it been told was make us feel that this movie still focus on the main two character with all the event that happened. i love the tone of this movie, the set, the music all of it was make this movie have a really strong sense of really fun adventure

This movie surprised me in the best way. You go on this beautiful trip with Jule and Jan, two people that are looking for answers. Wonderful landscapes, interesting conversations plus the incredible tension between the main characters. It felt as if I was there with them third wheeling the whole time. Chemistry, love, family, death, faith, friendships, heartbreak, all these topics are talked about by these two lost people that found in each other the comfort they both needed.

This is the type of movie you just want to watch again because it has everything you need to feel good.

The local cinematheque was host last night to the Austrian director Hans Weingartner, the author of the lovely film '303', who after the projection entertained a dialog with the film critic Yael Shuv. '303' is a movie of a kind that is not much made today - a romantic 'feel good' movie that also tells many smart things about the world around us, a movie about and with young people who are neither drugged, neither extremists, nor fallen into misery or crime, a combination between a 'road movie' in the style that Wim Wenders was making 40 years ago and romantic films like Arthur Hiller's 'Love Story' based upon Erich Segal's novel that delighted the generations that were young at about the same time.

At first it seems that we are dealing with the usual 'boy meets girl' recipe. The film's heroes are two young Germans who meet by chance and decide to go together on a trip from Germany to Portugal in a 30-year-old caravan. It's one of the 'retro' elements of the movie, there are a few more, but the truly 'retro' stuff is the relationship that emerges between them. The boy belongs to the category of those who are not able to maintain a relationship for more than a few months. The girl is in the middle of the complete disintegration of her previous relationship and on top of this, she is also pregnant and undecided whether or not to keep the baby. Both of them are students, intellectuals in making, and they talk a lot, enormously, theorizing everything from politics and ecology to their attitudes toward love and the hormonal analysis of caressing and kissing. Verbosity slows down their getting close, and as tension accumulates between them and in the minds of the audience, dialogues play the role of prelude (Yael Shuv used the term foreplay) to the love affair between the two. Intelligently, director Hans Weingartner focuses most of the time on the two heroes and the caravan that carries them from the north to the south of Europe. The surrounding landscapes almost do not exist, when filmed they are practically deserted, only the two characters, the boy and the girl count. It's a 'road movie' where the important road is the way the two of them progress in their relation.

I liked the two characters, and the way the interaction between them is described on screen. The director and the actors Mala Emde and Anton Spieker manage to create empathy between heroes and spectators. Hans Weingartner told the audience at the discussion after the screening that the actors were let very little freedom to improvise, being asked to strictly follow the written text for most of the time. That also means that the script is well built, and the actors have achieved remarkable performances, giving autenticity to a text that is not at all trivial or easy. The film is optimistic without being sweet. As long as there are young people who are discussing with the same seriousness and passion about the planet's problems and about kisses, and as long as there are directors who know how to make movies where a love story can create thrill just like an action movie, there is still hope. I mentioned 'Love Story' that I saw almost half a century ago. I do not remember many details, I have not seen the movie since then, but I remember my personal identification with the heroes. I had a similar sensation yesterday watching '303', although I'm now at a very different age than the characters.

303 is so beautiful and knows how to take its time, edit it all together nicely, use music effectively, and the subtlety of the direction works as well. The actors also are very good and give a sense of honesty to their characters. I wasn't sure if it could actually pull off a runtime of over two hours, but it could and it never got dull or uninteresting. Think Before trilogy, but German and with its own feeling to it.

By the way, I think it's pretty funny the director actually had a role in Before Sunrise as a cafe patron.

On a sidenote, 2018 seems to me like a unusually good year for German cinema from what I have seen so far.

Please give this film a chance if you are a fan of talky movies. I really love this one a lot.

Having for years a 303 in the van configuration for distribution of goods to customers I couldn,t help to be attracted by the caravan version....so I watched it....It evolves around a relatively common story of a chance meeting between two young people who have issues ......travelling across Europe,s west coast with great shots and attractive landscapes.....much honest talking no hollywood action which is strangely refreshing.....of course americans will not like it but who gives a dam....most of us who spent years in European Colleges Univercities and professional or recreation trips lived some part of this story ourselves ....also the characters are more into real life and not plastic breast bimbos or steroid filled squared jaw jerks...that are laughable stock when they express deep feelings.....allthough long for my taste I liked it

This is inevitably going to be compared to Before Sunrise, the 1995 Linklater film about a girl and boy who meet on the road and spend the film walking and talking about the inane, self-absorbed, philosophical things that young strangers in their 20s talk about. I loved Before Sunrise, but watching it again after decades I was struck by how heavy-handed and affected, albeit charming, it felt, how much the actors felt like movie stars rather than average people.

"303" feels utterly natural, unaffected. The leads are attractive (of course) but their portrayal of the frailties and warmth of two random strangers who find themselves unexpected travelling companions is believable and sympathetic. This is a film about two people in their 20s talking. The conversations are in turns inane, thoughtful, philosophical, naive, imbued with a sense of self-uniqueness and import that is the nature of being in your 20s. There is drama as well on this journey, but it is low key and ultimately isn't the point. The journey is the point.

Where "303" loses a star or two is that it never really pushes boundaries. It is what it seems to be, no more and no less. That's still pretty great.

"All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town." says Tolstoy while our story was starting just like this. A young woman goes on a journey and meets a hitchhiker.

Embarking on the trip conversations about human's relation with the nature, roots of our desires, why we love who we love unleash among the beautiful, pristine European scenery. Taking every mile they explore more about themselves and about each other.

The movie reminded me of Akin's Im Juli and Atay's Lemonade as all of them were sweet road movies.

If you wanna watch a warm road movie, see some beautiful coastal scenery and think a lil bit about life, here's your pick, don't miss it!

Not the classic romantic comedy. Much more deep and interesting whilst simple. Great European landscapes and believable acting. The conversations between the main characters are just wonderful, hence I applaud the script writers.

Many directors try to put out their take on Life what is good what is not into their films... but most of the time they end up making either a messed up movie which nobody understands or some boring documentary like film...

But Here the Directors put out his or rather smthg that everyboy know subconsciously into a very Beautiful film...

The Performance of both the actors was also so Intimate and it truly hits you esp jule...

Everything abt the film.. Cinematography, Music, Acting, Script and esp the conversations are pure Bliss to Watch...

There were many scenes where there is no cut for Minutes on and the actors speak their dialogue... true Film Making and pure Art...

Two brilliant young handsome German university students in a fresh romantic comedy + road movie.

They say if you really want to get to know someone, travel with them. You have to improvise, you are out of your comfort zone, you grow and get to know yourself and the other, elementally. That's what you really feel watching this film! It begins in university, setting the tone for truths discerned by intellect rather than experience, and as the film progresses, and the characters journey into the unknown, you see that transform, and the mind, melt into the heart. Central questions regarding human nature are begin as talk, but end in action, where the truth really lies. One of the things I took from this film - beneath every thinker is always a feeler. We can't help it! It is human. I love how the characters are bright university students entering their inner and outer adulthood. It is a time of great possibility and growth, and I wish more characters like this were shown on screen. Visually, it is lovely - a soft color palette and gorgeous natural light. If you are a nature lover, get ready to see some sights that will catalyse your wanderlust! An insightful and tender film - one for the mind and heart!

A heartwarming lovestory. Breathtaking landscapes. Witty dialogues. A captivating musical score.

It's a long time since I left a cinema so satisfied. Lifetime not wasted.

It's July. But the movie of the year is already fixed. And it has a simple name:

303.

This film by Hans Weingartner is everything without exaggeration: It's the soundtrack of this summer and all the summers we've experienced. It is the pulse beat of (at least) two generations. It is the life-philosophical debate that shoots directly into the veins and - of course - goes to the heart.

Roadmovie - that's what people in love with categories probably call what was premiered in Leipzig today. Or love story. But just because two 24-year-olds approach each other on a journey from Berlin to Portugal via Cologne, Belgium, France in a motorhome infinitely slowly, this is only a fraction of this - respect for undistorted pathos - cinematic masterpiece.

Here two young people act so relaxed and uninhibited (excellently embodied by Mala Emde and Anton Spieker) in front of the backdrop of questions of life so familiar to us (Cooperation or competition? Mono or polygamy? outsmart drugs or the annoying inner commentator in another way? Keep hoping and fighting or resigning? Abort or be parents? Fear or love? ) that it gets warmer and warmer with every minute.

In this film one develops untruthful feelings of being at home, while one is increasingly of the opinion that Jule, the main protagonist, must be the most beautiful fragile woman in the world and that the Europe open to borders and touring is a damn fine thing (...was?)

If you stand at the end of the film in a small Portuguese village in the middle of the night on the lantern-lit lonely street and hope with young Jan for the return of the motorhome with his wife, then you are right in the middle of it and are there yourself. This southern shimmer - on a lonely market place and in the lonely chambers of the heart - you have already felt it for yourself. And not only that. Everything else, too. It is a great cinematic comfort that there are people who perceive the world, which has not become as terribly simple as you do, with a similar view. But it's not all comfort. It is certainty that confidence makes sense.

303.

For fathers over 50 with their high school graduate daughters. For motorhomes. For sea enthusiasts. For students. For Mommy and Daddy.

Oh, nonsense: For everyone. Really for everyone.

Did get boring at times but overall, it was a wonderful experience.

303 is a road movie that takes one not only to a journey through Europe course South. It takes one also into a sweet new beginning relationship between the protagonists Jule and Jan, perfectly interpreted by Mala Emde and Anton Spieker. Two pure souls in their twenties, circling around and approaching each other in a very subtle way with conversations straight and deep. A beautiful movie, inside and outside.

The movie is one of those remarkable romantic movies that hit you with millions of questions just to come up with your own definition of love and all the liaisons around it. All the scenes were built purposefully and splendidly, enough to marks your mind with a wonderful Europe and all beautiful moments lovers can have with each other. And that creates a priceless lasting feeling of peacefulness and love that you can hardly find in any movie. A film to put your soul and mind in!

This is a romantique Movie that doesn't drop into Hamilton imagery or pathetic conversations. Young mindful life at its best. Discussions about meaning and sense of romantic liaisons that don't offer an answer but make a candid ground from which the own internal imagery can take off. Two actors taking your heart with no effort at all. If you liked Linklater's "Before.." then don't think twice. A film to enjoy.

This movie is maybe the best road movie ever made 2h30 of pure magic i loved it and i will se it again for sure