Verführung für Anfänger (2005)

Ever since the rather clumsy, unmarried teacher Jakob Neuhaus was hit on the head by his doctoral thesis—a thick book that was a biography of Giacomo Casanova—the Venetian writer, who became particularly famous for his many love affairs, has often appeared before his eyes. Casanova gives him various pieces of advice on how to manage his life. At first, Jakob listens to this figure with great interest. But since Casanova appears only to him and is invisible to everyone else, Jakob makes a deal with him: Casanova will teach Jakob the secret art of seducing women, and in return Jakob promises to correct, at one of his upcoming exhibitions, the widespread image of Casanova as merely a womanizer, explaining that he was, in fact, a respected scientist and philosopher of his time. However, it turns out that Jakob is now completely overwhelmed by this new situation, because his virtual companion is constantly whispering things in his ear. Sometimes Jakob repeats these words verbatim when meeting women, and in the circumstances of today they come across to the person he is speaking to as entirely inappropriate and incomprehensible. He also initially puts off his one true love, the teacher Marie Winter, through an awkward mishap. But Jakob realizes just in time that the arrogant, prejudiced, self-assured behavior his companion constantly prompts him to display is completely out of place in the modern day. In front of a group of journalists, all pointing their microphones at him, Jakob admits that he is incapable of starting a relationship with a woman and publicly apologizes to Marie for his own misconduct toward her, just as she happens to come through the door. When he declares his boundless love for her, the journalists give him a big round of applause, and Marie also seems to forgive him for his past sins. At that moment, Casanova appears before Jakob once again. Jakob decides to rid himself for good of the companion he has grown to dislike. A showdown ensues: Jakob fights Casanova with swords and everyday objects such as chandeliers, which he tries to throw at him. As Jakob is about to lose to the overwhelmingly powerful Casanova, who knows how to handle a sword, Casanova hits him on the head with a thick book to end the fight and emerge victorious. This second blow to Jakob’s head, however, causes him to lose the hallucinations in which Casanova had accompanied him the whole time. Jakob is now completely normal in the head again, Marie rushes to him, and the story has a happy ending, with the two becoming a couple.