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The Princess and the Warrior

The Princess and the Warrior

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Long, disgusting and boring...
Review: this movie is about the opposite of Run Lola Run. It features not only some of the worst, most amatuer attempts at symbolism you will ever see, but also a very disgusting tracheotomy scene, a kid eating glass and so much more (maybe even incest!) all done rather realistically. Really, this movie repulses me. I wanted to like it, but... I give it 2 stars (instead of 1) only because it at least tried to be interesting (though it fails miserably) and even that is something compared to most American movies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best films of 2001....
Review: ...and I did see a lot of movies that year.

I would put "The Princess and the Warrior" right up there with "Monster's Ball," "Together," "Shrek," "No Man's Land," and "Faithless."

Both Franka Potente ("Sissi") and Benno Furmann ("Bodo") are talented actors. Potente works best with her facial expressions, and Furmann works best with his physical movements. (I noticed Bodo took a lot of baths in "Princess." This behavior reminded me of Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Just as Blanche was trying to cleanse herself from the guilt that she felt towards her late boyfriend, Bodo similarly does the same thing.) I also liked the chemistry between Sissi and Bodo in the movie.

Finally, what can I say about the brilliant director, Tom Tykwer. For right now, I would put him right up there with David O. Russell, Ang Lee, Sam Mendes, and Spike Jonze. He's smart to do close-up shots of Potente's expressive face. As a matter of fact, I noticed a lot of close-up shots in "Princess"--moreso than "Lola." In this way, he reminded me of Ingmar Bergman. The themes of guilt and redemption that Tykwer put into "Princess" also reminded me of Bergman.

I know Tykwer's next film will be in English, starring Cate Blanchett and Giovania Rabisi. I hope he continues to make films with both Franka Potente and Benno Furmann--all 3 of them work well together. Much like Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, etc.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Those who said this was their favorite movie of the year have obviously not seen many good films. It's cinematography was quite mundane. The story had the potential to be interesting, but there was definately something lacking. I was very bored by this movie, though I kept watching with the hope that something cool would happen. It never did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Feast For the Eyes, Mind and Heart
Review: Like Fellini and Hitchcock, director Tom Tykwer creates films that are both visually and intellectually striking. No exception is his exhilirating and mystical "The Princess and the Warrior", a film about fate, karma, soulmates and healing.

The main characters, Sissy and Bobo, are two lost souls who discover that their destinies are utterly intertwined, and that each is the key to solving thr other's dilemma. With each other's support and assistance, both are able to begin the healing process, leave behind their painful histories, and start anew.

Tykwer masterfully sprinkles the mystical clues throughout this visually dazzling film. Like Fellini, who began and ended many of his films by the seashore, Tykwer understands the mystical and healing properties of water and begins and ends this film by the sea and has both of the main characters holding and using ice cubes. In addition, Sissy's dream about her and Bobo's many lifetimes connections as husband/wife, brother/sister, etc. reiforces the theme of working out karmic dramas.

Like Fellini, who used his brilliant actress wife, Gulietta Masina as his muse or Hitchcock who used Jimmy Stewart as his alter ego, Tykwer makes use of the extraordinary talents of Franka Potente. As in "Run Lola Run", Potente displays an uncanny combination of strength and vulnerability. Like Gulietta Masina, Potente communicates much with her expressive face. Potente, and the rest of the brilliant cast, make this film truly affecting and haunting.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MASTERPIECE!!!
Review: Beautifully made movie. The actors are wonderful. It's an amazing love story about two people meeting because of an accident. It's sort of slow paced, but does have some intense scenes. This is a very gripping movie. It really just kind of pulled me in the second I started watching it. It is also a very dramatic movie, a lot of emotions flying around. It's a German film so it has english subtitles, but I'm glad they did it that way instead of dubbing the voices over because I think that would have ruined the beauty in it. One of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I was hoping for another "Run Lola Run"
Review: A disappointment, sorry Franka. I didn't like the story or really anything about the movie. Also, I found Franka's hair and makeup to be very distracting. It just didn't look good on her at all. The only thing that I really liked was at the end with the alter ego. A psychologically artistic ending.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This movie is deliciously German
Review: 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 Wuppertal but I NEVER saw it like this. The shots of the Schweberbahn were otherworldly. And many a heartbreaking shot 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 Lola Rennt, Tykwer creates an original pace unique to this movie. This one is much slower and calmer than Lola Rennt, 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 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!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful...
Review: I never saw the thrill of 'Run Lola Run.' To me, it was trying a little too hard to be hip, and not really succeeding.

'Princess and the Warrior,' however, is a different story. Both visually breathtaking and thought provoking, the film brings up questions about love, death, and destiny. Franka Potente is absolutely stunning in her role as a sheltered nurse who pursues the man who saved her life . . . and who appears in her dreams.

Many people are reluctant to watch a foreign film, uneasy with having to read and watch at the same time. Yet when the foreign film is excellent, something magical happens. You forget that you're reading at all.

'Princess and Warrior' is one of those films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best movie of 2001
Review: I love this film. This is by far the best film I've seen for a long, long time. The leads were superb. Benno Furmann is a great actor. I hope I can see more of his work here in the States. The extra feature are very nice. The director goes over a lot of details that I'd missed. Get this dvd, you will love it!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Who says a movie can't do "big themes?"
Review: Is an insane asylum a valid metaphor for one's birth family? When a life-changing event takes place, how can one determine whether it is significant fate or random chance? How much courage is required to risk everything you have on a leap of faith? Does love have the power to redeem a lost and bitter soul? Whew...not exactly superficial stuff!

Treating any one of these themes with a modicum of success might bring thunderous accolades raining upon a Hollywood production but, without so much as a fanfare, German director/writer Tom Tykwer succeeds in tackling all of them by use of coincidence as a plot device and thanks to a gutsy performance by amazing actress Franka Potente, whom he also directed in Run, Lola Run.

Such big questions are usually the stuff of classic novels, not hip cinema, but Tykwer is sui generis in many ways: for example, his inventive camera shots are brilliant, as is his success with the actors.

The final image in the movie has stayed with this viewer for a long time. A second viewing held up remarkably well, too. The Princess and the Warrior is exemplary cinema.


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