THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR (Krieger und die Kaiserin, Der)
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Sony Pictures Classics Director: Tom Tykwer Writer: Tom Tykwer Cast: Franka Potente, Benno Furmann, Joachim Krol, Marita Breuer, Lars Rudolph, Melchior Beslon
Did you ever see two people in love, folks who looks as though they were made for each other, and you said, "This is a match made in heaven"? Sure you have. Now think. Do you really believe this, because if you think a sec about it, you're saying that the meeting of this happy couple is not an accident at all, not a coincidence, but was destined by a higher power. Could be, could be. This could be idle speculation or a bull session you engage in while on a lunch break during your sophomore year in college, but not in the hands of the unpredictable Tom Tykwer, whose visually arresting and stylish "Run, Lola Run," about a woman who has 20 minutes to raise 100,000 marks to save her boyfriend from mobsters brought far more than the usual arthouse denizens to the theaters in '98. If style outstripped substance in that fast-paced work, the reverse is true in Tykwer's current gem. "The Princess and the Warrior" is a rumination about love, dealing thematically with the question of whether fate or coincidence brings people together, the attraction of opposites, and the sometimes thin line between psychosis and sanity. With only a single, brief scene-- one of cars moving rapidly from the view of a camera stationed on a roof--that reminds us "Run, Lola, Run," "The Princess and the Warrior," or in the more alliterative German, "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin," is a potent testament to the healing power of love.
Featuring Tykwer's favorite actress, Franka Potente in the role of Sissi, "Princess" hones in the shy, twenty-something nurse in the psychiatric facility of a medium-sized German town. Sissi was actually born in the institution, as her mother was also on the staff, and Sissi apparently knows little about love. One day she is hit by a truck and, while lying motionless and short of breath under the wheels, she is saved by Bodo (Benno Furmann), who uses his army training to restore her breathing and quickly disappears. Little does Sissi know that the accident was a result of Bodo's being chased after a small-town robbery he botched or that he and his brother Walter (Joachim Krol) are small-time crooks who plan to make one big haul and leave the country. When Sissi heals after two months in the hospital,she is determined to find her savior not so much to thank him but to fulfill what she believes to be her destiny: to affiliate herself for the long term with this heroic gentleman--except that Bodo, fighting vigorously against his own feelings, wants nothing to do with her.
As the plot unfolds we learn more about why Bodo acts not such coldly toward the pursuing woman (who is not at all unattractive) but literally throws her out on at least two occasions when she has chased after him. In fact, on of the great merits of this picture is that unlike a Hollywood director who signals us from almost the start about its characters, virtually telling us whom to like and whom to hiss, Tywker takes his time to let his audience get to know the people. "The Princess and the Warrior" does not outlast its 130-minute length.
Unlike popcorn movies such as "Swordfish" which are intent on providing nice-sized explosions from the start and upping the ante until the conclusion, "Princess" surprises us by sudden reversals. A session of group therapy in the hospital is followed by a violent outburst of a patient responding to a voice in his head. An extended period of talk and meditation is followed by an explosively violent scene involving a frenzied bank robbery, the violence making its impression by its very contrast with the unobtrusive and the dormant. The surreal conclusion is a reflection on life, on how our existence could have been different if only chance happenings occurred which might have caused major changes in our entire development.
Tykwer is well served by Johnny Kilmek and Reinhold Heil's astonishing good and appropriate music while Frank Griebe's camera gives us a good image of the touristic German town of Wuppertal, with its steep hills and slopes, a place eminently suited to people who want to hide out from the world. Tom Tykwer obviously believes in the power of love to heal and restore our vitality, but happily eschews the insipidly sentimental ways that Hollywood regularly chooses to make that all-important point.
Rated R. Running time: 130 minutes. (C)2001, Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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