Reviews (422)

one of the best foreign films!
"Run Lola Run" is a magnificent movie set in modern day Germany. It is easily one of the best foreign films I have ever seen. It is entertaining and thoughtful and constantly keeps you visually engaged.
Lola's boyfriend, Manni, has lost 100,000 marks that he was ordered to deliver to his boss (an unforgiving gangster) in 20 minutes. If the money is not recovered and delivered within the time allotted, Manni will suffer a terrible fate. He desperately asks Lola for help in this race against time. She jumps around from one disaster to another desperately trying to help. We see three different scenarios of Lola running to save her boyfriend giving us a play on the chaos effect. Tiny details in Lola's quest for the money ultimately change the result of the situation. As things change so do their fates, momentarily touched by her presence running by. The film is a visual display of Tykwer's collaboration of camera, music, and story creating a display of cinematic emotion.
The film illustrates a very different kind of female role that strays from the stereotypical portrayal of women. Lola takes on more of a male role as she desperately tries to be the hero in this situation. Her boyfriend is the one who seems incapable and asks for her help. The gender roles are essentially flipped and the stereotypes disappear from the female gender as we see classic beauty and attitude disappear as Lola runs through Germany. But surprisingly, at the end of the story, the female role is present and given to Lola as we see that Manni did not need her after all. They walk away together with Lola being the dependant female pretending that the chaotic journey never happened.

Sliding Doors Meets Trainspotting - Five Stars isn't enough!
Catch this superb German film before Hollywood decides to remake it (and believe me, they will). This is cinema in its purest, most kinetic form.

The plot is simple: Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 marks that her boyfriend Manni owes to drug dealers, otherwise he's going to have to rob a store to get it. And that's it, basically. Only, ingeniously, we are treated to 3 versions of her run (or perhaps alternative universes), events unfolding differently depending on how long it takes her and the choices she makes. The attention to detail is stunning, and every little image and incident is relevant to the taut plotting. A wonderfully choreographed study of time and space.

What we have is a kind of Sliding Doors (or Fowles' French Lieutenant's Woman) meets Pulp Fiction with all the energy and modernity of Trainspotting, mixing drama, tragedy and dark humour. Run Lola Run is a whirlwind race against time as our flame-haired heroine pounds the sidewalks of Berlin, unknowingly initiating traffic accidents, bank heists, uncovering dark family secrets, and changing the lives of the people she encounters on her way (beautifully executed in a series of Polaroid montages) in a complex web of cause and effect.

Furiously paced, and edited, Twyker's masterpiece of Chance bombards us with an entire catalogue of camera tricks, techniques and mediums; split screen, time lapse, animation (in the cartoon sense), anything to grab our attention and immerse us in the situation, and is enhance by an excellent techno soundtrack (composed by Twyker).

Presented on DVD with a decent extras package, Run Lola Run is a rush - in every sense of the word - from start to finish. (Watch it in German with the English subtitles, however, as the dubbed English soundtrack is dire.)

QUIRKY, ENERGETIC, BLAZING PULSE-POUNDER
To the beat of an incessant techno/deephouse soundtrack, Lola runs, and then runs some more. I couldn't possibly think of another movie with such sheer cinematic buzz, it's cut like an MTV video: blink and you may miss a visual gag.

The theme is doozy but interesting -- a slicing of the same reality in time into three perspectives. Blending an innovative mix of animation, still photography, slow motion, and normal cinematography, it illustrates how the smallest change in what a person does can alter the rest of their life, not to mention the lives of others, including complete strangers they pass on the street.

Ironic, creative, and simply riveting -- a fabulous kinetic pleasure of a rental. The breathless high-octane soundtrack should be in your dance collections too.

she never stops running
ok, so u want to know what a bad film is like. yea well dnt watch this one cause u will just fall asleep and still not know the film is about her running and runninga and running and running and u get the picture

Curious what-if game
I don't think this movie was really so much about the untypical heroine versus hero. I think it was more about the what-ifs situations.

This movie is an interesting take on public perception with a heavy emphasis on the Butterfly effect. Lola has 20 minutes to produce 100,000 Marks or her boyfriend Manni gets killed. As she's running through the streets of Berlin figuring out how to come up with the cash, she bumps into people along the way who see this red-headed stranger in a hurry. No one really knows why she's in such a hurry nor is she aware of what's going on in their lives. Lola bumps into a woman with a baby carriage; what little importance she has for this woman as she struggles to save another life. The feelings are mutal from the woman, yet, three times we get a glimpse into her three possible futures. The uniqueness of the movie is depicted in three alternate endings based on different choices Lola makes in her desparation to get the cash for her boyfriend.

Lola doesn't make discoveries about people until she stops for more than a minute to realize what is going on around her, and vice versa. Had she never gone to her father for money, she never would have found out he was having an affair. Had she stopped to talk to the woman with the baby carriage she might have found out she was buying a lottery ticket she would later win or was beaten or which ever scenario panned out. But then she would have missed the chance to meet her father. Etc. Etc. Etc. Questions leading to more questions to more questions.

The butterfly effect is seen throughout the movie even in the beginning when Manni blames the loss of the money on Lola not showing up on time to pick him up after the drug deal which caused him to take the train to bump into the homeless man who distracted him from the sack of money he was supposed deliver and leaving it on the train. At first you scoff at the boyfriend's irresponsibility for blaming Lola for his own mess up, but that's where the butterfly effect really begins and, like it or not, Lola started it all.

In the final scenario, Lola makes a different choice...she stops running lon enought to spend a few minutes with a dying man in an ambulance as he recovers. In the end, the running was for nought. Her boyfriend ends up solving his own problem. Lola wass useful in one man's life but useless in helping another. Is it all inconsequential? Just a passer by? Probably not.

If you're not into alternative films then this might not be for you. Even I was left a little confused. Yet, it's a worthwhile movie taking on a curious angle on how in some form or another our actions affect others just in the nature of our being. ... Read more

Reviews (83)

This movie is deliciously German
I now love Tom Tykwer! He created 2 amazingly complex and believable characters and then spun them into a world so spellbinding and original that I don't even know where to start...

First of all the cinematography is breathtaking. I've been to the city of Wuppertal, but I NEVER saw it like this. The shots of the Schweberbahn were otherworldly. And the heartbreaking shots of Sissi in her yellow raincoat, the psychiatric hospital she lives in, Bodo's messed up life, etc.

Second of all the pacing. As with Run Lola Run, Tykwer creates an original pace unique to this movie. This one is much slower and calmer than Run Lola Run, but never lags or becomes dull. Tykwer creates a realer than real-life, postmodern esthetic--simultaneously drawing the viewer into a mesmerizingly believable, deliciously dark German fictional world and at the same time using all kinds of cool, surprising film techniques to create an itching sense of Verfremdung (aka alienation) and the uneasy awareness that you're watching a freaky posthuman fairy tale.

Third of all, although neither Sissi nor Bodo are the kind of people I normally hang out with, Tykwer made me love them. Hats off to him for creating characters who are so flawed and, in some ways, scary and at the same time making them endearing.

I can't wait to gluttonously feast on all the other Tykwer films I can get my hands on!

Better than Run Lola Run
Before I saw The Princess and the Warrior I had certain expectations because I had been a fan of director Tom Tykwer's masterpiece Run Lola Run. But this is a totally different bird. While Tykwer wrote The Princess and the Warrior with actress Franka Potente in mind, the film focuses on not only her character Sissy but also her set-up-by-fate love interest -- the troubled ex-military man Bodo (portrayed by Benno Furmann).

Set in the beautiful German town Wuppertal, The Princess and the Warrior tells the story of how Sissy, a nurse in a mental institution going through the motions of her life and living more for those around her than for herself, escapes her reality and tries to find love with a mysterious man named Bodo, a man who is so wrapped up in troubles of his own life and who is in so much pain over the loss of his wife that he cannot even begin to emotionally deal with Sissy's affections.

Without going into much more detail, this may sound like your average girl-meets-boy love story... but it's not. Like Tykwer's Heaven -- and even, in some ways, like Run Lola Run -- Tykwer's characters are written so that they appear to be destined to be together he always adds plot twists to make sure their relationship doesn't run smoothly, or even traditionally for that matter.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Run Lola Run would be a hard act to follow, but German actress Franka Potente has out done herself again. She potrays a young nurse at a mental hospital, whose life is semi dull until she gets in an accident, and meets her soul mate. She then goes on a journey looking for her savior, hoping it will change her boring life. Together they struggle through many situations, while overcoming there own personal demons.

If you liked Run Lola Run, or just looking for a deep movie buy The Princess and the Warrior. I am a German major in college, and have watched many German movies, this is by far the best!

One of my favourite sentimental movies in the whole world.
This is an excellen movie from Tom Tykwer after the Run lola movie. Franka and Benno Fuermann are very good actors and make the watcher believe every part they play. The story is very deep and very great filmed. I love also the music. The main title is sung by skin (skunk anansie) and to hear at the end of the film, called "you can't find peace".

Not just another heist movie. [4.5+ stars]
Two individuals cross paths in a most unlikely manner: after Sissi, a psych ward nurse, gets struck down by a truck Bodo, a disturbed and violent man, runs to her safety and saves her life. From this point in time both of their lives become forever intertwined, although not always in a healthy and positive manner. While Bodo just wants to let events rest in the past Sissi becomes obsessed with him and won't leave him alone. She frequently ponders whether her rescue of Bodo was an act of fate or coincidence, and as the events of this film unravel the audience is also perplexed at the true meaning.

Meanwhile Bodo and his brother are planning a bank heist and desperately wish that Sissi would leave them both alone, even to the point of throwing her out in the middle of a rain storm. But Sissi is relentless to reach out to the disturbed Bobo and the demons that lay in his head.

There is little doubt that this is a dark and twisted film -- but at the same time it is entertaining and engrossing. The character development is finely executed resulting in a finely tuned film full of action, emotion, and depth. It's a shame that I never heard of this DVD only until recently. Why? It truly deserves more publicity and praise. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (32)

A.H.
I'm not sure. I like Tom Tykwer's work, Winter Sleepers, Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior, I would recommend them all, but I'm not sure this is his kind of film. Much like Spielberg rescued A.I. after Kubrick passed away, Tykwer took on this project after famed director Krzysztof Kieslowski (The Decalogue, Red, White, Blue) died. And like Spielberg, I think Tykwer was over his head. Now I'm not saying this film is bad, on the contrary, I thought it was good, but flawed.

Cate Blanchett plays an English woman teaching in Italy who decides after seeing her husband and several students die from drug addiction she is going to take out the drug dealer. She plants a bomb in his office, but a cleaning lady removes it and consequently four innocent people are killed. She confesses to the crime, but she does not know the outcome of her attack. Giovanni Ribisi comes in as an interpreter and decides to help her.

This is thoughtful film, as Kieslowski's films are. The characters are similar, their names are similar, eventually they look similar, and they are both fighting for similar causes. They try to do right by doing wrong. Blanchett never claims she is innocent, and she is devastated by what she has done. She just wants closure. She wants to do the right thing. Tykwer handles this well. Additionally, like all of Tykwer's films, it is beautifully shot.

This was all good, but it didn't play out. For several reasons I guess. The pacing was off. Where Lola was the hare, Heaven is the tortoise, although in this comparison the hare wins. What I mean by this is that Heaven is not the kind of story that brings out the best of Tykwer's talents. Ribisi and Blanchett are both quite good, especially Blanchett, but their characters sort of run out of gas by the end of the film. I'm not really sure who to point a finger at for this so I won't.

There is some good stuff in Heaven. It is a sad film, not really my taste, but it is sincere. A good outing, but not everything it could have been. Who knows?

two films about fugitives
I can easily give this film 4 stars despite the fact that it has achieved relative obscurity compared to its "bigger brothers" ("Master and Commander" or "Cold Mountain");it does deserve the rating on artistic merits and bears comparison to another current film "The Statement" with which it shares a similar theme--2 fugitives from justice. The Blanchett film begins with a teacher's arrest for a "terrorist" act that misfires (she in fact wants to kill a drug lord with a bomb and eventually succeeds in doing so with a gun, with her lover's help), and her interrogation by the Italian police for 4 murders she in fact was responsible for. The second half concerns her escape from prison and subsequent love affair with Ribisi, who plays an interrogating cop who falls in love with her and her plight, and assists in her escape. The first part of the film is set in Torino, Italy, an urban architectural wonder, like most of Europe. The second half is mainly about these 2 fugitives from justice and their narrow escapes from the law,hiding out in vans, travelling by train across the Italian countryside,assisted by Ribisi's younger brother and by an old friend, culminating in a dramatic escape in an ascending helicopter while the carbonieri fill the air with a hail of gunshots skyward,hence the title, "Heaven". The question of how they morally resolve the 4 deaths they in fact were responsible for is not dealt with. Blanchett is strikingly beautiful both in this film and in 2003's "Veronica Guerin."

"The Statement" is also about a fugitive from justice, in this case an officer in the French Vichy government accused of killing 7 Jews during World War II and hiding out in the South of France ever since. Based on a novel by Brian Moore, this film has rather subtle dramatic tension as Caine moves from French abbey to abbey,always on the run, shielded by the right-wing clergy for unknown reasons, while being chased by various French bounty hunters with different motives. There are scenes in the cafes of Provence,by the Marseilles harbor, and in numerous French abbeys which add cinematically to the film's style. Caine as Broussart commits 2 murders of would-be vigilantes by being quicker on the draw, and performs a
number of other escape acts, including one across the rooftops of Nice. All and all it adds up to a rather low-key thriller, with Caine in charge of his role as the former Vichy executioner, now a tired but devout Catholic,who just wants his life to end "in saving grace." Unfortunately, it doesn't work out quite that way. "The Statement" may not be a thrillride quite in the same vein as a James Bond movie, but it does have its moments and likewise deserves 4 stars, though some might find it boring.

a lot of subtitles kinda gets boring after awhile
The beginning is the most shocking thing in the movie. Giovanni Ribisi and Cate Blanchett share nice chemistry but enough with the subtitles already. I just cant stand that, it numbs my brain. It was alright in The Passion Of The Christ but this movie it just doesnt pass. I had a hard time keeping up with the subtitles as they went along and it confused me even more, but that's just me and Blanchett bald is not that attractive

Not Bad !
Good acting, good story but too many coincidences maybe.Enjoy a great Cate Blanchett, the great Italian landscapes. The plot is working well and even if sometimes slow and seems long, make this movie enjoyable enough.

wonderful cross between crime thriller and arthouse film
I think the strength of this film lies in its cross between a crime thriller and an arthouse-style love story. The pace is slow, but still flows along smoothly and doesn't drag down the sense of action. Heaven opens in a very modern, technological setting of helicopters, bombs, drugs and terrorists, yet manages to close perfectly at the end with a sense of 'a state of grace' that should not usually be found in an action flick. It's a perfect transition from thriller to something more than a love story.

Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi are outstanding in their acting. In looks and small gestures, they subtly convey the entire sense of their characters. The camera work is fantastic too, the most memorable scene being the one where the camera pans 360 degrees around the tree on Philippa's friend's farm, night turning to day turning to dusk again as the Philippa and Filippo wander underneath. The accompanying music score, though minimalistic and simple, suits the atmosphere perfectly with the strains of violin and piano chords.

The only lamentable flaw is in the film is that there is no resolution to Philippa's pain at having caused the death of 4 innocents. Early on she tells Filippo that she agreed to escape not because she wanted to escape punishment, and later she says she will never be able to live with what she has done. These seem to indicate that some form of 'punishment' is in order, but at the end of the film nothing more is said about that and we have to assume she has decided she can very well live happily ever after with Filippo, neglecting her guilt at having killed innocents in her quest for justice. Since the impact of the film is based Phillipa's moral decision to take justice into her own hands and the terrible consequences, it is an unforgivable oversight to so blithely ignore her guilt -even if she never intended for the bombing to go awry- in favour of love, no matter how beautiful or touching that love is. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Tom Tykwer, writer-director of the international hit Run LolaRun, shows a more pensive side with Winter Sleepers. The film examines the lives of five characters in the aftermath of an auto accident. As with Run Lola Run, Tykwer's main concern is with chance and coincidence, and the ways people unwittingly influence the course of each other's lives. Theo, a farmer, sets off to take his horse to the vet, unaware that his daughter is hidden in the trailer. Momentarily distracted, Theo swerves to avoid a sports car coming the other way and crashes into a mountain slope, critically injuring his daughter. The sports car is covered by snow, and René, the driver, digs his way out and leaves the scene. Meanwhile translator Rebecca negotiates a stormy-but-sexy relationship with loutish ski instructor Marco, both of them unaware that Marco's stolen car was involved in the crash, and Rebecca's roommate Laura nurses the young accident victim by day and begins a tentative relationship with René by night. While Winter Sleepers doesn't have the same manic pace as Lola, Tykwer's visual style is very much in evidence--he makes beautiful images of everything from the snow-covered Bavarian mountains to a cut finger. As it moves through a series of tiny but crucial events to a trulyhaunting ending, Winter Sleepers is in many ways reminiscent of Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, both in its central plot device and in its melancholy atmosphere of fatal inevitability. --Ali Davis ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Enigmatic and endearing, too
Many movies, most of them made in the wake of David Lynch's erratic career, are usually tagged as "mysterious" or "enigmatic" (think of some of Atom Egoyan's films). Tykwer's "Winter Sleepers", made just before "Run Lola Run", not only deserves the accolate but ennobles it. Set in the bleak, wintry German Alps, it intertwines several stories -- a failing farmer, a translator of romance novels, an amnesiac photographer -- in a story that shows how their lives intersected one day when a terrible accident befell two of them.

Tykwer takes his audience's intelligence for granted and does not spill all the beans at once. He lets us be participants in the puzzle instead of passive recipients, and the result is a movie that's rich, strange, and endearing all at the same time.

Not Just Another Lola
I have to start by saying that Tom Tykwer is my new hero. All three of his movies (Winter Sleepers, Lola and Princess) are centered around the same basic themes (love, fate, death, you know the drill) but still manage to be wonderfully unique and interesting.

This is not the movie for someone who wants to see Run Lola Run Redux. Maybe not the movie for someone who thinks this is a followup to Lola (yeesh). But this IS a lovely film, filled with memorable characters, GORGEOUS cinematography and an interesting plot. These aspects alone put it head and shoulders above a lot of what is being produced these days anyhow.

I guess the bottom line would be: buy the movie on its own merits, and not on expectations. There is a beautiful yet unsettling calm at the center of Winter Sleepers that sucks you in, but only if you give it a chance to.

Twists of fate
Before Tom Tykwer created international hit "Run Lola Run" (or "Lola Rennt"), he created the ponderous "Winter Sleepers" (or "Winterschläfer"). Like Tykwer's later films, this one deals with fate, destiny, death, and love. It's an interesting execution, with a flawed climax and the occasional question of "where is this going?"

Laura (Marie-Lou Sellem) arrives at her little country cottage, where her pretty friend Rebecca (Floriane Daniel) lives. Things are complicated after the first evening: while handsome but loutish Marco (Heino Ferch) is in bed with Rebecca, a strange man (Ulrich Matthes) wanders over and takes Marco's car. But when he is driving, he causes an accident that puts a child in a life-threatening coma.

The child's father (Josef Bierbichler), stricken with grief, goes on the hunt for the man who accidently killed his daughter. That man, Rene, is now in love with Laura, but can't remember anything about the accident. Rene is also inadvertantly causing cracks in Laura and Marco's fragile, tempestuous relationship. One person will die -- two will find happiness -- and one will find freedom.

"Winter Sleepers" has a lot of the same themes and feel of Tykwer's later films, but more unpolished and loosely knit together. Though we know the fates of all these people are interconnected, much of the screen time is devoted to Laura and Rene's blossoming romance, or Marco and Rebecca's deteriorating one, and not to the central theme of the movie.

The cinematography is breathtaking, with a lot of Tykwer's signatures like a camera panning in a complete circle around Rene, and a character death never being shown except by a thud and darkness. As he often does, Tykwer filmed many scenes in a portentous manner, as if every tiny event could start off something important. Perhaps the biggest problem is the conclusion. While beautifully filmed, it seems out-of-character and a bit of an easy way out, as if Tykwer wasn't entirely sure how to end the various interconnected storylines.

One thing that Tykwer does well is give humanity in subtle ways to the characters, even the stupid, cheating Marco, who is genuinely miserable and guilt-stricken after his girlfriend falls off a ledge. Matthes is instantly sympathetic as the sensitive, memory-impaired Rene. Daniel and Sellem are quite nice in their roles as, respectively, the sexpot and the quiet wannabe-actress nurse.

"Winter Sleepers" lacks the tightness and focus of Tykwer's later films, though his good directing style is still present. However, those looking for an interesting philosophical drama/romance might want to check it out.

Not another Run Lola Run? You bet...
...much better. No question that Lola is a great movie, but turn off the soundtrack and it might get boring. Reminds me one of O'Henry's stories. Winter Sleepers takes it from a different angle. Not how the things might come if we miss by a minute the train or the bus, or if we take right or left. Winter Sleepers is deep. It tells you of what happens to us,is a reflection of how we behave in life itself...And we strugle to remember things we've done, to find explanation,no wonder!

My Least Favorite Tykwer Film...and I'm a HUGE fan.
I don't know what it was, perhaps the copy I saw was horrible, it was a VHS and it looked horrible, even though it was an original it looked like a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. But this has to be my least favorite of his films. The shots were boring, the story was slow, and I suppose I was comparing it to much to "Run Lola Run" with all it's flare and beautiful color.
But by the time it ended, the story captured me. The ending (which I'll try not to give away too much) was great. I heard this was one of hte films that inspired Memento. Tykwer sure knows how ti find those intricite stories and bring them home.
SO if you love his work, you must watch, but make sure you have a DVD copy. If you didn't love "Princess and hte Warrior" you won't like this, if you are expecting another "Run Lola Run" I suggest you run the other way. ... Read more