German director Dominik Graf tackles the story of two sisters’ romantic passion for 18th-century Romantic poet Friedrich Schiller. The short version of this long movie is that Schiller (Florian Stetter) yearns for the older, married Caroline (Hannah Herzsprung), but marries her younger sister Charlotte (Henriette Confurius).

Graf freshens the pretty period trappings with a headlong embrace of every old-fashioned detail: omniscient narration, characters directly addressing the camera, intertitles. Above all, he sticks to a leisurely pace that gives personalities time to breathe and develop.

There’s a closing speech by a supporting player that feels false, but otherwise Graf succeeds in drawing you into this triangle. When Schiller says “Only the pursuit of beauty can free us,” you believe him. This film loves its characters, but loves their ideals even more.