The Princess And The Warrior

In 1999 Tom Tykwer came out of nowhere with an explosive new movie called Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run to us Americans). It turned conventions on their heads and cause a sensation in a year that was full of great unconventional films. This is very strange considering the fact that, from what I hear, all of his movies before this were pretty mediocre, formulaic films. Now with his follow-up to that masterpiece he has re-teamed with its star, Franka Potente (who is also his girlfriend–watch for other familiar faces from Lola, too) and decided to not try to top himself in terms of destroying film conventions. Instead he tells a fairly straight forward story with a lot of hidden corners and dark secrets.

Sissi (Potente) is a nurse in an asylum whose life is so normal as to be boring. She never really gets out of the asylum and is almost as much of a prisoner as the people who are committed there. And she seems perfectly happy with her sad little life.

Until the day she meets Bodo (Benno Furmann). He’s a petty thief who, while running away from a couple of store clerks (I think that’s what they were), causes Sissi to be hit by a truck. His ignorance of the accident turns out to be bliss when he ends up hiding under the same truck Sissi was hit by. He saves her life and she falls in love with this mysterious man who cried while he breathed into her trachea. His pain was so obvious to her that she couldn’t help but want to help him the way he helped her.

After she recovers she goes in search of her savior. What she finds is not exactly to her (or anyone else’s) liking.

Tykwer seems to think that life is ruled by coincidence, fate and pain. Not a single character is unscathed in this film, but it all goes into making them into complete human beings. There are so many shocking scenes where someone just suddenly lashes out at themselves or at others that, after a while, we almost start to expect them. Almost. But he never loses us because it’s all so real.

And this time, like I said before, it’s all pretty conventionally filmed. There’s hardly anything tying it to Run Lola Run. Except for two things: 1) the enigmatic lead actress and 2) a strong desire for the main characters to control their lives. Sissi and Bodo’s lives are so out of control that they think there is no way to reign them in. Little by little they start to realize that they are the masters of their fates. And, while Lola was the ultimate master of her fate and was allowed to try, try again, Sissi and Bodo aren’t given that freedom. They have to work at it even after things happen to put them right back where they started at emotionally.

And I guess that’s the real moral of this story: We all seal our own fates.

And I think that Tom and Franka have done that with this movie. They are now known as a team that can do no wrong. This is a great film that is every bit as good (if not better) as its predecessor in all areas. I don’t know if it’ll be eligible for an Oscar because it came out last year in Germany. But it should be up for at least Best Foreign Film. Maybe even Best Picture since not much over here is this good. Go see it if you get a chance.

One complaint, though. Why is it that Sony Picture Classics felt the need to switch the title around? Maybe because the “Princess” was more recognizable over here? Who knows? Whatever the reason I guess it doesn’t really matter too much, but it’s the principle of the thing.