By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Benno Fürmann | Franka Potenta | Joachim Król
Original language title: Der Krieger und die Kaiserin
Country: germany
Year: 2001
Running time: 129
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0203632
Corinne says: “I loved PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR! I hadn’t read about it so it was a complete surprise. Cinematography and Acting nomination for Potente I think for me- maybe more. I had to laugh at the button/glass slipper symbolism- and when she holds it up to the shirt hanging on the clothesline & it fits!”
Diane says: “I liked it very much. I was afraid that Potente would be playing LOLA again; glad to see that’s not true. She does a nice turn as a driven naif. That Tykwer is a romantic, isn’t he? I found the film poetic and evocative, bringing up feelings in me about my own life. It has a good score, good cinematography (I liked the glow that existed in most scenes).
Scot made a comment about how choice and destiny co-exist in this story. Sissi talks a lot about fate, but what differentiates Sissi and Bodo from the psychiatric patients is their capacity to make choices. As one of the patients sits on the roof threatening to jump, Sissi tells him that he can’t/won’t. The patients are stuck. Sissi and Bodo heal each other and help each other move out of their emotional ruts. But what really is it about Sissi and Bodo that makes them different? What is Tykwer saying about mentally ill people? (Have you ever seen a less effective psych unit?)” 4 cats.
Ellen says: “I don’t think I was as crazy about this film as some of the other Chlotrudis members. Just as Marilyn commented on Billy Bob’s sudden transition in MONSTER’S BALL, I didn’t understand what drove the sudden transition of Bodo in this film. I also couldn’t understand Sissi’s obsession with Bodo even though he repeatedly turned her away. Still, the acting was good.” 3 cats
Esme says: “I loved this film. I am a huge Franka Potente fan. She plays such a different role in this ethereal, unusal and beautiful movie.”
Laura says: “Mix together RUN, LOLA, RUN with ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST and pull the result out slowly light salt water taffy and you’ve got THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR. Once again, Tykwer examines fate from the height of his extreme overhead shots and his own self-importance. LOLA was a fun piece of pop filmmaking, but while THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR contains some beautiful imagery, in the end it covers no new ground.” 3 cats
For Laura’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/theprincessandthewarrior.htm”
Michael says: “Director Tom Tykwer and Actor Franka Potente join forces again after the superb RUN, LOLA, RUN for another tale of outlaw lovers wrestling with fate. THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR is the story of Sissi, beloved staff person at a psychiatric ward whose life is saved after a tragic accident by Bodo, a young man struggling with depression and despair while planning a heist with his brother.
Their story unfolds slowly, in marked contrast to LOLA, but no less compellingly. The sequence where Sissi is run over by a truck early in the movie, setting up the situation where she will be saved by Bodo, is intense and riveting. Tykwer and his cinematographer Frank Gribe (who won the Best Cinemtagraphy Chlotrudis Award a couple years ago for LOLA) are visual stylists on par with Aronofsky and Libatique. Colors, long-shots, editing, close-ups… all are manipulated with finesse to augment an already powerful story. The icing on the cake is the naturalism and charisma Potente imbues her characters with. Sissi is both ethereal and down-to-earth as she simultaneously believes fate controls her life while actively shedding her old life to follow a new path.
“THE PRINCESS & THE WARRIOR is a movie I’ll want to see again, and is sure to be in my top 10 of the year.” 5 cats
Nathaniel says: “First things first: I love Franka Potente. She has riveting screen presence and I enjoyed her somnambulistic performance in this -especially as it was so diametrically opposed to her work in RUN LOLA RUN. I also thought Benno Fürmann was good (and hot hot hot -but that’s beside the point.) Tom Twykver kept me gripping my seat… but the film itself. I don’t know?
“Pros: All the technical aspects: Cinematography, Editing, Score, Sound Work (some really fascinating stuff there -it reminded me a lot of THE INSIDER in how important the sound elements were in heightening the rest of the film…) Top notch work across the board.
“Cons: I think the most significant problem I had was the script. While I enjoy Twykver’s sensibility and find the chance/fate/destiny stuff interesting or at least amusing -I just think it was a bit much to swallow here. LOLA was a fun pop culture narrative exercise/experiment (and much better than MEMENTO in transcending its gimmick.) but THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR film I felt unravelled as it went along. It was layer upon layer upon layer of chance and flukes and mysterious encounters/coincidences. I just got overwhelmed until I didn’t really feel anything was at stake. It all felt so random. Particularly after they returned to the asylum. The last half hour of the film was sort of wasted on me. I just lost interest. And the films denouement in the car (I won’t go into details here for those who haven’t seen it) I really loved in concept but not in execution.
“So I know that that doesn’t seem like a positive review but I would still recommend it. It was a worthy effort and far superior to your typical Hollywood effort. Plus I would NEVER want to influence anyone into missing the lengthy ‘accident/under the truck’ sequence which is definitely one of the highlights of the cinematic year thus far.”
Scot says: “I agree that this was a fantastic film and I want to see it again to catch what I may have missed. I really enjoyed all the performances and was never able to accurately guess the outcome of any scene. Tykwer repeatedly has his characters behaving in unexpected ways. When the intentions behind the actions are revealed, we learn a great deal about each of them. Odd for a film, but exactly how we learn about people in real life. It’s ironic in a film about fate that the characters have so much control over their destiny.
“One caveat: It isn’t apparent from the trailer, but there are several scenes that are difficult to watch and there is some blood in them. They aren’t what I’d call violent, but I did cringe and that doesn’t happen too often.”
Tim says: “This was a fabulous film. Franka Potente was excellent, the story totally grabbed my attention the whole way through. Besides, there was just the right amount of symbolism for my mind to grasp :)” 4 1/2 cats
Bruce says: THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR illustrates Tom Tykwer’s strengths and weaknesses. His great strength is his ability to tell a fascinating story and keep the viewer in the dark about where things are going. He knows how to construction action and capture it from all sorts of angles. He casts his films well and loves his actors; one does not get the feeling he is ever at odds with them, a feeling that sometimes seeps through in other directors’ work. The weakness of this film is that it lacks cohesiveness. Tykwer’s plot seems to be a series of ideas strewn together as opposed to thoroughly thought out. The result is a certain ambiguity of character, the muddled sort not the mysterious kind.
“Sissi (Franka Potente) is a nurse who was born in the psychiatric hospital where her mother worked. We are led to believe her father is one of the inmates. She tends lovingly to the patients needs, in fact a little too much so since her efforts cross the boundaries of propriety as she holds hands with one male inmate and masturbates another. She considers it all a day’s work.
“Bodo (Benno Fürmann) is a guilt ridden young man who lost is wife as she smoked while filling the gas tank of their car. He was in the men’s room at the gas station when the explosion occurred. Did he let the disaster happen? Could he have done anything to prevent it? Bodo lives with his brother Walter (Joachim Król) on top of a hill overlooking Wuppertal, a German town nestled in the mountains and famous for its trains suspended from an overhead monorail track. Walter works for a large bank and has hatched a scheme to rob the bank and run off to Australia.
“A letter from a friend in Cornwall sets the action in motion. A friend of Sissi’s has asked her to go to the bank and get something her aunt has left her which is still in the safe deposit box. En route to the bank Sissi gets hit by a truck. Bodo crawls under the truck and saves her life by performing an emergency tracheotomy. Once Sissi is released from hospital she is sure that the series of events was some sort of sign and that she must find Bodo to discover whether this is the man of her dreams. All this leads to a botched bank robbery and a bizarre asylum in the psychiatric ward for Sissi and Bodo.
“Benno Fürmann plays Bodo with such fierce intensity it is often difficult to focus on the other characters. It is nearly impossible to conceive that Franka Potente was really Lola in RUN LOLA RUN. Here she is mousy and introverted. Both Sissi and Bodo are driven by inner voices and both actors do a terrific job of relating that to the audience.
“The film’s title is unfortunately confusing for it implies a romantic costume drama rather than a complicated contemporary psychological thriller. Perhaps that it why it was only about 1/10 as successful as Tykwer’s prior film, RUN LOLA RUN. 4 cats”