Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" or "The Princess and the Warrior" is a German movie from over 15 years ago written and directed by Tom Tykwer. He made this one 2 years after "Lola rennt" and once again cast Franka Potente, the rising star of German cinema, as the lead character. Tykwer and Potente were still a couple at this point. But this strong relationship did not necessarily result in a good movie this time. I cannot blame Potente though, I would even say she was better in here than in the overrated "Lola rennt". In terms of Benno Fürmann, I am a bit biased as he is far from one of my favorite actors and I don't think he is particularly talented. He cannot convince me otherwise here either. Also I am confused by the film's title. Not only is it fairly pretentious, but it has Fürmann's character first and he is really just a supporting player. It is all about Potente's character from start to finish. "Start to finish" means a massive 125 minutes here, this film makes it past the 2-hour mark, but it is not even close to having the material for this runtime and sadly, this is true for several Tykwer fans. I saw that in his newest film, he worked with Tom Hanks (again). I am genuinely baffled that he is still considered one of Germany's best filmmakers abroad. I have yet to see a movie where he really wows me, especially as a writer.But back to this one here: The story is about a nurse who has a serious accident and a stranger saves her life. As a consequence, she keeps searching for him and when she has found him, she somewhat confesses her affection for him. This is already pretty strange. Can he not just be a good Samaritan without her developing feelings right away. And equally strange is his reaction. He is more interested in committing a crime (Lola reference) than in going on a date with the girl despite how stunning she is. So yeah, he has not much interest, but of course this changes at some point as they had to include a pretty bizarre love story in here too next to the bizarre crime story. This film felt like a weaker version of the Schweiger/Wokalek movie "Barfuss". Tykwer proves again that he struggles a lot with character elaboration and his films are in so many cases examples of style over substance, sometimes hidden between pompous costumes or impressive special effects. But the story-telling comes short and when he really tries it, then the outcome is frequently disappointing. Just like here. Thumbs down for this movie, I do not recommend it and it lacks realism in pretty much all areas. This is nothing that could have happened in real life whatsoever. Not even close.
Olivia Holmes (Peechy)
I was excited about this film having enjoyed 'Run, Lola, Run' but was left with an unsatisfied and rather unpleasant taste.As in Run, Lola, Run the characters are somewhat flat and unexplained. But unlike the directors previous film The Warrior and The Princess fails to capture a viewers attention with an exciting frenetic style and plot, lifting the need for character development. This failure only serves to highlight the films shallowness of writing and characterisation. This is a shame as the opening hour of the film show real promise of depth and meaning. However from half way through the film slowly meanders through the rest of It's rather long running time, eventually becoming sludgy and stretched.It is the lack of any real explanation of the characters actions and reactions that brings this sense of loss. While Run, Lola, Run did not require such in-depth explanation, the slow pace of The Princess and the Warrior lends a viewer much more time for reflection on events. However there is little explanation of events to reflect on.The film is beautifully and obviously very expensively shot. The cinematography, along with strong direction and a barrel load of powerful performances might just save this film for some. However, I ended the viewing with a sense of wasted time, distaste and mild disappointment.
Claudio Carvalho
The lonely nurse Simone "Sissi" Schmidt (Franka Potente) spends her life with the interns and colleagues at the Birkenhof mental institution where she works. One day, a friend of Sissi from overseas asks her to go the bank to check her inheritance that is in a safe and Sissi goes to the city with a blind patient. Meanwhile the smalltime crook Bodo Riemer (Benno Fürmann) is chased by two men that he had robbed and he provokes an accident. Consequently a truck runs over Sissi while she is crossing the street and Sissi lies under the truck, but she can not breathe. Bodo helps her with a tracheotomy and she becomes infatuated with the guy. Fifty-three days later, she is discharged from the hospital and she seeks out Bodo. However Bodo has a severe trauma from the past and rejects Sissi. Further, Bodo and his brother Walter Riemer (Joachim Król) are planning heist the bank where Walter works. However their lives entwine again when Sissi arrives at the bank where Bodo and Walter are robbing. "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" is a weird romance, with an unconventional love story and bizarre characters. However, Bodo is an unlikable character; the shallow screenplay has many flaws and is too long; and the film is boring in many moments. The masturbation scene is silly; there is no explanation why Bodo had background to perform a tracheotomy; the insistence of Sissi in visiting Bodo is annoying; and the participation of Sissi in the heist is ridiculous, and to open a safe in the bank she should have provided her personal data to the clerk. The camera work and the soundtrack are excellent. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "A Princesa e o Guerreiro" ("The Princess and the Warrior")
Asa_Nisi_Masa2
Apologies to fans of this movie, but I really, really disliked it. A successful, poetic-existential-symbolic-lushly photographed romantic drama thingie allegedly à la Kieslowski should not feature two unintentionally funny suicide attempt scenes. Plot holes of cavernous proportions, inconsistencies and cringe-worthy, cheesy, pretentious dialogue hit a peak during the last third of the movie. Since I mentioned Kieslowski, would someone please explain why this movie is compared with anything made by the late Polish master? It's like comparing rabbit pellets to chocolate drops.The first 15 minutes may even trick you into believing you're watching something potentially good, despite an inclination towards the use of gimmicky visual tricks right from the beginning (though I did like the sequence of the letter going through various bits of machinery inside the post office). Franka Potente as asylum nurse Sissi is very aptly named indeed – her character is a wet rag, a sissy. However, you first get a sense of just how dodgy this movie may truly become when about 20 minutes in, you're treated to Benno Fürmann kick-boxing in a vest for no apparent reason, which I assume was supposed to appeal to an abstract demographic of female viewers aged 13 to 21 (very dim 21-year-olds, may I add). The movie contains yet more clichés, cheese and affectedness with every passing scene. Unlikely coincidences masquerading as "fate" abound. Kieslowski it really is not! Cliché number one: the wounded hunk who won't let another woman near his heart anytime soon, because he still hasn't elaborated the tragic death of his wife (if this had been a period drama, she would have died in child-birth). This kind of male "hero" is clearly meant to appeal to the sacrifice-prone Florence Nightengale that allegedly inhabits every woman – and funnily enough, the "heroine" here is literally a nurse, not to mention a masochist without a rational bone in her body. Cliché number two: The bank heist gone wrong. Oh, please. Cliché number three: the "colourful" assortment of loonies in the loony bin, uncomfortably reminiscent of another movie I abhor: The Million Dollar Hotel (why, Wim, why?!). All that was missing was a loony dwarf. In a moment of crisis, one of the loonies starts chewing glass because everyone's favourite nurse (you guessed it: Sissi!) isn't paying him enough attention. Another one of the loonies, who mysteriously has free access to the asylum's roof top at night, threatens to jump for the same reason, naturally forcing the selfless heroine to make a difficult choice. Cliché number four: a "shocking", "cathartic" (not!), faux-Thelma and Louise-type scene towards the end. Cliché number five (***SPOILER***): During the above-mentioned, botched bank heist, the "ugly" brother dies, the handsome one doesn't.I can turn a blind eye to the odd plot hole, but there's a limit to everything. Example: Sissi is delegated to pick up a friend's inheritance from the bank. Naturally, before being handed a key to the safe containing said inheritance, Sissi would have had to fill in her personal details - name, address, the works. Straight after having opened the safe, Sissi participates in the above-mentioned bank heist, and is even caught on camera doing it. In normal circumstances, the police would have been on her doorstep within hours, since they had her address and all the evidence they needed. In the movie, Tykwer preferred to have the TV set playing in the asylum show a news report the following day, providing only vague information about her (approximate height, etc), because she was wanted for having taken part in the heist! I wonder if Tykwer thinks all police agents (not to mention ambulance drivers!) are required to ingest a handful of barbiturates with their morning breakfast.Another example of Tykwerian script sloppiness: why should the audience accept that Bodo could do a tracheotomy without being offered any background on how he learnt to do one? The irony is that I was actually still enjoying the movie during and straight after the tracheotomy scene, feeling confident that we would be given a plausible background for what was happening sooner or later. The movie only took a downward trajectory for me from the infamous, kick-boxing-in-a-vest scene and what followed it: absolute nonsense that got worse with every passing scene. By the bank heist scene, I was mentally parodying everything I saw, unfortunately.The "get out of the toilet" line and the tear duct defect that Bodo had may seem deep and poetic to some, but to me they were just elements ripe for parodying. "Get out of the toilet" wasn't deep, nor clever in an ironic, "it's meant to pretend it's deep but it's actually Tykwer winking at the audience in a post-modern kind of way." Maybe my sense of the ridiculous is too developed or just misplaced, but so much about this movie seemed unintentionally funny to me. It was also the very first time in my life that I wanted to shout "Put your clothes back on, you fool!" to a fit young man who was constantly required to run around in his birthday suit in melodramatic moments, or in revealing, "macho" attire. Like all the other characters, he was irritating, but aside from that he was also unintentionally comical. Oh, and let's be really honest: can Benno Fürmann actually act? At least with Franka Potente, I could see her undeniable charm, feminine yet androgynous, and her potential as an actress through that horrible, hickuppy performance that Tykwer got out of her! Still, I think Tykwer might do well directing an episode of CSI or two. He's very good at doing the particle-swooshing-through-a-tight-internal-space kind of sequence you see in such TV series, when we're shown, say, a speck of a toxic substance travelling through the victim's lungs, or whatever.
