Winter Sleepers not rated 124 minutes WinStar Cinema In German with English subtitles Starring Ulrich Matthes, Marie-Lou Sellem, Floriane Daniel, Heino Ferch, Josepf Bierbichler, Laura Tonke Based on the novel "Expense Of Spirit" by Anne-Francoise Pyszora Written by Tom Tykwer and Francoise Pyszora Directed by Tom Tykwer
A Review by Akiva Gottlieb Anyone who saw last year's transcendent, action-packed "Run Lola Run" knows that German filmmaker Tom Tykwer is one of film's most exciting young auteurs. So it's a shame to note that excitement is what "Winter Sleepers", a film he made prior to "Lola" in 1997, is lacking most.
The film takes place in a German skiing village in the dead of winter. A pre-credit sequence introduces us to Rebecca (Floriane Daniel), a translator of romance novels, Marco (Heino Ferch), her ski-instructor boyfriend, Laura (Marie-Lou Sellem), a lonely nurse and fledgling actress, Rene (Ulrich Matthes), a lonely movie projectionist, and Theo (Josef Bierbichler), a farmer and loyal family man.
Being a Tom Tykwer film, "Winter Sleepers" is also an exploration of fate. One winter day, Rene steals a car belonging to Marco, and heads out on a slippery highway road. Theo is also driving down the road, with a horse in a trailer hitched onto his car. He is unaware that his young daughter is also in the trailer. When Theo swerves in order to not to crash into the projectionist in the stolen vehicle, his car and trailer flip over, leaving his daughter in critical condition. Theo is knocked unconscious, and Rene leaves the scene of the accident.
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Marco are contemplating the seriousness of their relationship. Rebecca is interested in little more than sex, and Marco is having an affair with another woman. Nevertheless, they move in together.
Laura and Theo, both lonely and single, also begin a relationship. He goes to see her in an awful community production of "A Streetcar Named Desire", and gives her free tickets to visit the local cinema. Like most of the film's characters, Theo begins as a less-than-admirable character, but we learn to understand his pressures, and when the film ends, he is a different person.
For the most part, "Winter Sleepers" is the polar opposite of "Run Lola Run". While its often unfair to compare two different films, it must be taken into consideration that "Lola" is 80 minutes long and fast-paced, while "Winter" runs a whopping 124 minutes at a slow pace. The film plays like an amateur "Sweet Hereafter", without the poetic grace or fine acting.
"Winter Sleepers" does not come without its merits. The mountain cinematography, by Frank Griebe, is both breathtaking and unpretentious, and the techno score (co-written by Tykwer) often gives the proceedings a temporary jolt of energy that is missing from the rest of the film.
Though you wouldn't know it from watching "Winter Sleepers", Tom Tykwer is responsible for what might be a new wave of German filmmaking. The newest German films, such as "Lola" and Katja Von Garnier's "Bandits", are kinetic, highly stylized and more than a bit of fun. Compared to those films, "Winter Sleepers" seems to be in hibernation.
C Akiva Gottlieb Critical66@yahoo.com http://pictureshow.8m.com
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