Lisa Martinek! Every time I see her, I fall in love with her again. Predictably, it was no different with "Die Zürcher Verlobung", an inspired remake of the 1957 classic. In the part of a girlish thirty-something dental-assistant-come-pulp-fiction-writer, she charms and dazzles viewers as both a graceful leading lady and a cheeky madcap. Thanks to Wolfgang Limmer's screenplay, she gets to say a lot of smart and funny lines along the way, and thanks to Vivien Schmitter's costume design, she gets to model some truly stunning outfits. Let me pick out no more than three and a half: As her ex barges in on her to crash at her place, she is clad all in white with thigh-high wool stockings, a circa 1940s lawn tennis skirt thing and a tunic top with floral embroidery. Very cute. As she hits the Alpine jet set, she wears a short beige overcoat spiced up by leather gloves and old-school high heels in bright red. Very classy. As she takes to the slopes, she sports a body-hugging saffron pantsuit in some sort of high-tech chintz. Very sexy. Take it as proof of my self-restraint that I am neither mentioning the tight short-sleeved pale green roll-neck top, nor the red bikini. By contrast with her character's on-screen look, Lisa Martinek showed up at the movie's festival opening in shiny black, head to tow, looking a lot more urban and sophisticated than her character: low-cut, knee-length cocktail dress, tailored overcoat, leather boots, darkly handsome date. Their kids will be smashing.
