Rating: 
Summary: "Get off the toilet!" said the man.
Review: Sissi works as a nurse at a mental hospital and encounters a depressive army veteran, Bodo, when he saves her life during a traffic accident that he himself caused. When Sissi is released from the hospital, nearly 2 months later, she is obsessed with Bodo and tracks him down. However, Bodo is battling some inner demons and wants nothing to do with her. It would be best if Sissi could leave it at that and walk away, since Bodo and his brother are planning a dangerous heist. But, of course, Sissi and Bodo's fates are now inseparable, and they must walk their joint path to the end.
"The Princess and the Warrior" is director Tom Tykwer's fourth feature and follows the great international success of "Run Lola Run." With the current film, Tykwer turns away from the visceral, kinetic energy of "Lola" and attempts to pull off an urban epic. Unfortunately, the film moves at the pace of a glacier and lacks any sort of emotional or narrative focus. The main characters spend most of their time wandering around in a confused daze, somehow managing to cause more problems than they solve. Also, the story is built on two ridiculous coincidences, leaves numerous loose ends, and climaxes with a dramatic twist that is one big cheat on the audience--a sort of gutless, faux "Thelma and Louise" moment.
And what is the message of the film? What is the line that will haunt you for hours afterward, possibly causing indigestion? "Get off the toilet!" Well, there's nothing like scatological sentimentality to bring a truly cathartic end to a failed epic.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: Tom Tykwer follows up Run Lola Run with a film that tales a back-seat from the fast pace of Lola and focuses on the beauty of the filmmaking. The story is impossible to summarize, but it is about a woman (Franka Potente) who falls in love with a man who saves her life (Benno Furrman.) From there, the film follows twist after turn to come to an incredible ending. I reccommend this to anyone who apprecites true filmmaking.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: The Princess and The Warrior is less of an audience film than Tykwer's previous success, Run Lola Run. It is more in tune with the mood of his previous film, Winter Sleepers. It is very much a filmmaker's film, in that the pacing is in no hurry to please the audience with instant gratification. To truly enjoy this film, you must sit through every slow but beautiful shot. There are some truly astounding crane shots and the story is haunting, frustrating and beautiful. There is a visual effects scene not to be missed at the climax. If you like real films, go see this, NOW. I saw it at it's US Premiere at the San Francisco Intl' Film Festival and got to shake Franka Potente's hand. It was great, along with Memento, Snatch and Blow, one of the best films of 2001.
Rating:
Summary: Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Review: Run Lola Run would be a hard act to follow, but German actress Franka Potente has out done herself again. She potrays a young nurse at a mental hospital, whose life is semi dull until she gets in an accident, and meets her soul mate. She then goes on a journey looking for her savior, hoping it will change her boring life. Together they struggle through many situations, while overcoming there own personal demons. If you liked Run Lola Run, or just looking for a deep movie buy The Princess and the Warrior. I am a German major in college, and have watched many German movies, this is by far the best!
Rating: 
Summary: Moving Drama of Life and Fate
Review: This is the story of saving lives -- physically and spiritually. Sissi is a nurse in a psychiatric hospital who is fated to connect, on several occasions, with Benno, a "warrior" (actually, a former soldier) with a dead soul. As the film progresses, the lives of these characters and even other, more minor characters intersect. The plot weaves together the various individual threads of the characters' lives. The characters fall into each others lives seemingly by coincidence, but one senses that there is a guiding hand putting each character in the right place at the right time. This is a much more thoughtful film than "Love, Actually," which uses the same device of connecting seeimingly unrelated characters.
While this film has correctly been criticized by viewers as slow moving, there is a lot to like here. There are some incredible scenes. The manner in which Sissi's life is saved, and the place, is unforgettable -- it is something I've never seen before in any film. The patients in the psychiatric hospital accurately reflect their love for Sissi through the prism of their various illnesses. At bottom, though, this film is about escape (from empty, soul-destroying lives) and redemption (through love).
After watching the film, be sure to listen to the audio commentaries, which provide a great deal of insight into the making of various scenes and what Tykwer was attempting to accomplish.
Rating: 
Summary: Very imaginitive, very slow.
Review: This movie has got to be one of THE slowest moving films I have ever seen. It has more meaningful glances than The Lord of the Rings, which really is what takes up the majority of the time. It was beautifully shot and has an interesting storyline, but also almost had me falling asleep.
Now, I certainly do not dislike movies where there is not copius action. I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Girl with a Pearl Earring. When the non action does nothing to develop the storyline, I have a problem. There is not a lot of character development in this movie, despite how much time there is to do it. I didn't really end up understanding or knowing the charcter of Sissi by the end. Bodo was more well done because we ended up actually seeing more fragments of his past life. With Sissi we only see her mother speaking to her once.
There is an air of mystique and magic around this film, and I do appreciate that. It was beautiful and over all not bad. I just did not feel that I ended up knowing the main character. Because of the title, one could presume that there does not to be too much character development because these people are supposed to be archetypes, but with the way the storyline played out I felt that it was important.
Rating:
Summary: What a mess!
Review: Very disappointing, esp. compared to the director's previous film, "Run Lola Run."
This one is slow and tediously artsy/psychological, requiring monumental suspension of disbelief throughout...full of simply preposterous things like security guards who are unable to shoot and in fact are disarmed by the protagonists calmly approaching them with a "you couldn't really kill a human being, could you?" rap. This is like the kind of egregiously bad film you'd expect from someone in their first semester of film school and devoid of a decent producer and film editor to trim off all the suffocating fat. Methinks Tykwer may've gotten a bit too cocky after the success of "Run Lola Run."
The camera work and cinematography is arresting from time to time, but there are way too many lingering closeup shots of the main characters looking troubled, experiencing DEEP EMOTIONS, pondering and pondering (what? their next bowel movement, perhaps---in classical European style their expressions certainly have a please-somebody-give-me-some-ExLax quality to them).
Franka Potente plays the most popular nurse in a mental hospital who spends most of the movie trying to get to the mysterious man who saved her life after an accident that he caused, and like her Mystery Man also has plenty of deep dark secrets of her own but not quite as Byronic as Mystery Man's own of course.
In the end we see the redeeming and transformative power of love do its work on the poor guy but not really---the character development is very very thin which makes the characters' actions even less believable than the story already is.
I suppose what the old saw that every writing teacher loves is also apropos to film-making: SHOW, not tell. This film only does the latter, despite it being a very SHOW-friendly medium, hence as a film it is a complete dud. It self-consciously aims for mythic signficance (see the title) but achieves the entertainment level of a mediocre made-for-TV movie at best.
Rating:
Summary: Windows to the Soul
Review: "Endlessly imaginative and unpredictable...A dazzling fable of love, destiny and redemption." Kevin Thomas / Los Angeles Times. There are many terrific reviews about this movie that I deeply appreciate. (Cdset's review was the reason I bought this.) I'm happy how it touches people. TPATW is one of the best films I've ever seen in many regards. The artistry and symbolism (especially in the scenes with water--notice how Tykwer opens and closes the film with water, plus many more times it is used as if to punctuate a unforgettable moment in time such as in the falling rain); the music that always encapsulates the many moods of the film but most of all, is how much is expressed without words by the eyes of the actors. It is extremely impressive and profoundly amazing to me how much the viewer can interpret through the eyes of the actors. TPATW is an accomplishment to Tykwer, such a visionary director and a man of details that understands the eyes are windows to the soul. If only more movies were like this with so much expression in the eyes and body movements. Also the camera work is amazing. I love one of the opening scenes at the bridge with an upside down shot that rotates 180 degrees on Benno Furmann.
The Princess and the Warrior is one of my all-time favorite movies for countless reasons, too many to name here, but I wanted to highly recommend it. It has English subtitles but they don't speak fast so you can read the short lines and still thoroughly enjoy the film.
* What I take from this movie is that Anything can happen if it is Meant to be and it reminds me that often choices are right even though they may appear wrong to others because no one knows my heart but myself and God, and most of all, as Sissi says in the movie, "Nothing's meaningless."
Please, don't miss this movie.
Soar!
Rating:
Summary: "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" an edgy journey
Review: "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" (the literal translation is The Empress and the Warrior, but the director preferred "princess" for the English version) is the sixth film from young German director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run). I'd looked at the DVD several times before, curious, but when I finally watched it, I was disturbed by several gory scenes and the dark tone of the picture. However, like driving by a brutal accident, you can't help but look. This film was the same way for me...it haunted me for days until I sat down and watched it again with a new appreciation for Mr. Tykver's craft.
Instead of giving away any of the plot, you have to see the film for yourself to make sense of the multiple storylines. I will say that fate and destiny are at the heart of the film. "The Princess and the Warrior" runs a little over two hours, and does feel like it could have benefited from tighter editing in spots. There are several disturbing sequences (a sexual act between a nurse and a patient, an emergency tracheotomy, suicide attempts, murder) that are definitely not for the faint of heart (hence the R rating).
The story is slow to unfold, but ultimately rewarding. Instead of the intense energy that bathed Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior is more subdued; a downward spiral of depression, dark desires, painful secrets, and finally, redemption by love. The haunting music (composed by Tykwer) perfectly complements the melancholic tension onscreen---single heavy piano notes fading into silence, bells, and the eerie theme song "You Can't Find Peace" (the music video is included on the DVD).
The DVD transfer deserves an A+. Great care was taken in terms of menu design (although the chapter menu can be a bit confusing at first) and extras (making of, numerous deleted scenes, music video, cast (Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann) and director's commentary, filmographies, trailers and more). The making of, like most making ofs, includes more shots from the actual film than behind-the-scenes (and is entirely in German to boot). If you want to hear the real scoop, be sure to listen to the various audio commentaries. The commentaries are generally fun and interesting (all the cast and crew speak near-native English), and the actors talk about scene motivation, grueling shoots, and funny memories from the set. I would recommend renting this movie before purchasing it, as it will only appeal to a certain audience.
Rating:
Summary: Another masterpiece of Tom Twyker
Review: Within the beginning of the movie, you can obviously see Tom Tykwer `s fingerprint over every single frame. It is very RUN LOLA RUN alike, thou totally different as a movie plot. What I didn't like about this movie, was its pace. Very slow, but maybe my sympathy for Franka Potente ( Sissi ) , made me decide whether or not I am going to see this movie until the end. Interesting cinematography, a must see for every filmmaker. I was "so and so" about the movie until the end, the very last 10 minutes of it, which were AMAZING. So if you get bored during it, it's OK, but please wait and see its ending. It is really a work of art. Tom Tykwer made the German cinema a bigger giant. By far, the best performance of Franka Potente ever since RUN LOLA RUN. This movie also reminded me of "Happenstance" the one with Audry Tattoo (Amelie). Because of the "coincidences" in it. You really have to put this movie on the "MUST SEE LIST".
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