In the unforgiving terrain of survival thrillers, where humanity’s endurance is stretched to its limits, director and writer Maximilian Erlenwein’s The Dive ventures into treacherous waters with a mixture of commendable ambition and palpable shortcomings. While it treads the same waters as gripping classics like 127 Hours and 47 Meters Down, this tale of two sisters trapped in the cold embrace of the ocean falls somewhat short of making a lasting impact, often finding itself gasping for air. With a mixed bag of performances, a screenplay that occasionally springs leaks, and a submerged urgency that fails to fully surface, The Dive finds itself navigating the uncertain waters between tension and missed opportunities.
The film commences with a promise, painting a scenic yet foreboding picture of two sisters, May and Drew, venturing out for a diving expedition along Malta’s picturesque coastline. As the siblings embark on this ill-fated escapade,...
The film commences with a promise, painting a scenic yet foreboding picture of two sisters, May and Drew, venturing out for a diving expedition along Malta’s picturesque coastline. As the siblings embark on this ill-fated escapade,...
- 8/27/2023
- by Anjena Pillai
- Film Fugitives
One briny-deep thriller that does not have sharks, other aquatic predators or even human ones, German director Max Erlenwein’s English-language “The Dive” manages to work up considerable tension nonetheless. It’s closer in gist to “127 Hours” than most other underwater suspense films, hinging on a similar type of physical entrapment — only the survivable timespan here is of course much reduced, because the imperiled characters have a limited oxygen supply.
While perhaps not quite striking enough in style or incident to leave a lasting impression, this very well-crafted remake of co-writer Joachim Heden’s 2020 Norwegian feature “Breaking Surface” should particularly impress with its underwater photography on the big screen. Most viewers, however, are likely to catch it via home formats, as Rlje Films releases the film day-and-date to digital and theater screens on Aug. 25.
May (Louisa Krause) and younger sister Drew (Sophie Lowe) are tangibly at an awkward point in their relationship,...
While perhaps not quite striking enough in style or incident to leave a lasting impression, this very well-crafted remake of co-writer Joachim Heden’s 2020 Norwegian feature “Breaking Surface” should particularly impress with its underwater photography on the big screen. Most viewers, however, are likely to catch it via home formats, as Rlje Films releases the film day-and-date to digital and theater screens on Aug. 25.
May (Louisa Krause) and younger sister Drew (Sophie Lowe) are tangibly at an awkward point in their relationship,...
- 8/23/2023
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Crispin Glover, Sunnyi Melles, Fionnula Flanagan star in the film.
LevelK has boarded world sales on Dutch drama Mr. K starring Crispin Glover, which has wrapped filming and is now in post-production.
Back To The Future star Glover plays the eponymous character, a travelling magician who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of the hotel he just slept in. His attempts to get out only entangle him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.
LevelK has released a first look at the film, above. Paradiso will release the title in Belgium.
Written and directed by Tallulah Schwab,...
LevelK has boarded world sales on Dutch drama Mr. K starring Crispin Glover, which has wrapped filming and is now in post-production.
Back To The Future star Glover plays the eponymous character, a travelling magician who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of the hotel he just slept in. His attempts to get out only entangle him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.
LevelK has released a first look at the film, above. Paradiso will release the title in Belgium.
Written and directed by Tallulah Schwab,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The film stars Sophie Lowe and Louisa Krause and is directed by Maximilian Erlenwein.
UK sales agent Protagonist Pictures has closed deals for key international territories on survival thriller Dive.
The film stars Sophie Lowe (Medieval) and Louisa Krause (Billions), and is directed by Maximilian Erlenwein, who also wrote the screenplay alongside Joachim Hedén.
It has sold to Australia and New Zealand (Reset Collective), Latin America (CDC), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Benelux (Just Entertainment), Scandinavia (Mislabel), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Baltics (Acme), Middle East (Front Row), Turkey (Bir Film) and Airlines (Skeye Inflight Entertainment).
Other new sales are India (Asia Pictureworks...
UK sales agent Protagonist Pictures has closed deals for key international territories on survival thriller Dive.
The film stars Sophie Lowe (Medieval) and Louisa Krause (Billions), and is directed by Maximilian Erlenwein, who also wrote the screenplay alongside Joachim Hedén.
It has sold to Australia and New Zealand (Reset Collective), Latin America (CDC), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Benelux (Just Entertainment), Scandinavia (Mislabel), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Baltics (Acme), Middle East (Front Row), Turkey (Bir Film) and Airlines (Skeye Inflight Entertainment).
Other new sales are India (Asia Pictureworks...
- 2/14/2023
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: In an interesting international tie-up, UK sales firm Protagonist Pictures and Germany’s 7500 and Stowaway producer Augenschein are teaming up to co-represent worldwide rights on select English-language movies.
Protagonist will serve as executive producers on the films in the new partnership and work with Augenschein to source finance for the projects. The companies will invest a portion of the funds generated by the sales into the co-development of select projects, with the aim of building a co-production slate.
The strategic alliance is not fully exclusive and will not prevent either company from continuing to work with others.
This is a smart move to bolster prominence in a market in which the streamers are increasingly dominant. We’ve heard for a while about the potential for sellers and distributors teaming up to increase their pulling power and distribution footprints.
The first project under the new deal will be elevated survival...
Protagonist will serve as executive producers on the films in the new partnership and work with Augenschein to source finance for the projects. The companies will invest a portion of the funds generated by the sales into the co-development of select projects, with the aim of building a co-production slate.
The strategic alliance is not fully exclusive and will not prevent either company from continuing to work with others.
This is a smart move to bolster prominence in a market in which the streamers are increasingly dominant. We’ve heard for a while about the potential for sellers and distributors teaming up to increase their pulling power and distribution footprints.
The first project under the new deal will be elevated survival...
- 6/16/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Mubi is showing Tom Tykwer's Heaven (2002) in the United States from September 17 - October 16, 2016.Heaven floated around for a while. Krzysztofs Kieślowski and Piesiewicz were collaborating on the first screenplay of a planned trilogy riffing on the Divine Comedy when Kieślowski died. His long-time writing partner finished the triptych, though it's impossible to know how accurately 2002's Heaven presents the last word from the Polish poet of deviant religiosity. (Danis Tanović adapted Hell in 2005 as the almost totally unseen L’enfer, and Purgatory remains unproduced.) Tom Tykwer might have seemed a curious replacement. At the time, he was still most famous for 1998's techno-myth Run Lola Run, a film stripped to the core but narratively dizzying enough to introduce college first-years to foreign film. However, that film clearly displayed an affinity with Kieślowski's crocheted social networks over which the director played divinity.However, Tykwer followed Lola’s elemental morality...
- 9/17/2016
- MUBI
Usually when the Middle East shows up in modern films it’s the setting for dramas and thrillers. The troubled global “hot spot” has been the backdrop for “based on a true story” tales of the military with American Sniper and one of the first flicks to be released this year, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi. So it’s surprising that this region has been the setting for two comedies this year (Salmon Fishing In The Yeman tested the waters five years ago). And one big source of the humor is the culture clash when Americans arrive there. It’s the old “fish out of water” recipe for laughs. A couple of months ago, it was Tina Fey butting heads in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. And now arriving in Saudi Arabia is the affable everyman (really every-American-man) Tom Hanks, an actor familiar with that comedy trope, going back thirty years...
- 4/22/2016
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Being that I don’t enjoy — and, by extension, bother with — much contemporary TV, perhaps you should take it with a grain of salt when I say that Sense8 is my favorite series in at least a decade, if not longer. Still, that prerequisite shouldn’t dull the effect of the Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski‘s show — directed by the former pairing, Tom Tykwer, James McTeigue, and Dan Glass — which is immensely entertaining, always takes advantage of the endless number of possibilities its concept offers, and evinces a crucial understanding of the many opportunities afforded by long-form storytelling.
It’s also a formally accomplished bit of work, which is thanks in no small part to the helping hand of cinematographer John Toll. It might be surprising that the who shot The Thin Red Line, Braveheart, and Almost Famous would head to a conceptually bizarre sci-fi TV show, but his...
It’s also a formally accomplished bit of work, which is thanks in no small part to the helping hand of cinematographer John Toll. It might be surprising that the who shot The Thin Red Line, Braveheart, and Almost Famous would head to a conceptually bizarre sci-fi TV show, but his...
- 11/24/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
So David Mitchell's novel was filmable after all – but will you want to see it twice?
Dai Congrong's bestselling Chinese translation of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake and the film version of David Mitchell's 2004 Booker shortlisted novel, Cloud Atlas, both complex fictions about the cyclical nature of life, should warn us against calling anything unfilmable or untranslatable. They are not necessarily proof, however, that they're worth filming or translating.
In a charming introduction to the new paperback edition of his novel, Mitchell expresses his good fortune that it fell into such "capable hands" as Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, the film's co-directors and adaptors. The Wachowskis love intricate narratives and the world of ideas; their Matrix trilogy has, I believe, been used in introductory philosophy courses at American colleges. Tykwer's Run Lola Run, a German action movie telling the same story thrice, with events taking different courses,...
Dai Congrong's bestselling Chinese translation of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake and the film version of David Mitchell's 2004 Booker shortlisted novel, Cloud Atlas, both complex fictions about the cyclical nature of life, should warn us against calling anything unfilmable or untranslatable. They are not necessarily proof, however, that they're worth filming or translating.
In a charming introduction to the new paperback edition of his novel, Mitchell expresses his good fortune that it fell into such "capable hands" as Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, the film's co-directors and adaptors. The Wachowskis love intricate narratives and the world of ideas; their Matrix trilogy has, I believe, been used in introductory philosophy courses at American colleges. Tykwer's Run Lola Run, a German action movie telling the same story thrice, with events taking different courses,...
- 2/24/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The Berlin International Film Festival is celebrating its opening today, on February 7, 2013 at 7.30 pm. After a few words of greeting from Minister of State for Cultural and Media Affairs Bernd Neumann and Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, the Festival will be officially opened by Jury President Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong, China) and Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick. The International Jury – whose other members are Susanne Bier (Denmark), Andreas Dresen (Germany), Ellen Kuras (USA), Shirin Neshat (Iran), Tim Robbins (USA) and Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece) – will also be introduced during the gala. Anke Engelke will again host the evening. This year’s music will be provided by Ulrich Tukur & Die Rhythmus Boys. 3sat will be broadcasting the opening live. Ziyi Zhang in Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) by Wong Kar Wai Following the gala, Wong Kar Wai’s epic martial-arts drama The Grandmaster will have its international premiere. The director and his leading actors,...
- 2/7/2013
- by hnblog@hollywoodnews.com (Hollywood News Team)
- Hollywoodnews.com
Feature Cameron K McEwan Jan 11, 2013
Among the predictable movies among yesterday’s Oscar nominations, Cloud Atlas was conspicuously absent. Cameron wonders what happened...
When Seth McFarlane joked "breath of fresh air" after the well known list of nominees for Best Supporting Actor were read out at yesterday's Oscar nominations announcement, his remark could have been aimed at the whole bland list - in every category.
Regardless of the predictability we see each year (not a new phenomenon, by any means) and the safety of the nominations (that's not my argument here), surely the fact that last year's Cloud Atlas - one of the most bold, challenging and imaginative films of the 21st century - is an embarrassment to the Academy and what they stand for.
Cloud Atlas is proof that truly original, thought-provoking and intelligent blockbusters can be produced, and produced well. This is exactly the sort of work they...
Among the predictable movies among yesterday’s Oscar nominations, Cloud Atlas was conspicuously absent. Cameron wonders what happened...
When Seth McFarlane joked "breath of fresh air" after the well known list of nominees for Best Supporting Actor were read out at yesterday's Oscar nominations announcement, his remark could have been aimed at the whole bland list - in every category.
Regardless of the predictability we see each year (not a new phenomenon, by any means) and the safety of the nominations (that's not my argument here), surely the fact that last year's Cloud Atlas - one of the most bold, challenging and imaginative films of the 21st century - is an embarrassment to the Academy and what they stand for.
Cloud Atlas is proof that truly original, thought-provoking and intelligent blockbusters can be produced, and produced well. This is exactly the sort of work they...
- 1/10/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
As usual, the Oscar race for Best Cinematography presents an embarrassment of riches this year. Contending directors of photography have offered exemplary work, whether highlighting fantasy or history, focusing on land or water, displaying composed and gorgeous widescreen shots or gripping action and dynamic camera movement. One film managed to do all of these things, and used two DPs to do it. I'm referring, of course, to “Cloud Atlas,” where John Toll and Frank Griebe collaborated with the Wachowskis and Tom Twyker on what is widely considered one of the most ambitious films of the year. Toll, a back-to-back Oscar winner...
- 1/4/2013
- by Gerard Kennedy
- Hitfix
No one will say Cloud Atlas isn't ambitious. In fact, I use some variation of the word at least four times in this very review. The writer/director teaming of Lana and Andy Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) have adapted David Mitchell's 2004 novel into a sprawling, fractured narrative that spans over 400 years of human existence, beginning in 1849 and moving beyond 2250. The message is clear and even uttered by one of the characters, "Why do we keep making the same mistakes?" To hammer that point home, each of the six separate stories told throughout are all essentially telling a slightly different variation of the same story, and not only that, a story we've heard throughout the ages. This is to say, for as ambitious as Cloud Atlas is, very few "new" ideas are brought to the table outside of its agile storytelling. At nearly three...
- 10/26/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Matt Patches over at Hollywood.com asked for my opinion on what kind of chance The Dark Knight Rises has at the Oscars this year and has since posted my comments. Problem is, those comments are 12 days old and wow what a change 12 days makes. As opinions on The Dark Knight Rises begin to settle in and we remove ourselves from the hype machine that led up to the film's July 20 release, the comments I emailed Matt on July 19 seem to be a bit dated. Here's how I initially responded: Dark Knight Rises is gonna be interesting and I don't know what you're thinking, but I think this is one the people will actually put in the race more than anything else (well, maybe Django too). Ebert's review didn't help but Dargis loving it is pretty big. I think Turan was big on it as well. It's probably a no-brainer for a Best Pic nom,...
- 7/31/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
In 3, a man and a woman, married for twenty years, both fall into extramarital affairs. Seems like a fairly straight forward premise to a movie. But this is Tom Tykwer, the man who directed Run Lola Run and is teaming up with the Wachowskis [1] to make Cloud Atlas. There's gotta be a catch. In 3, this husband and wife both end up having an affair with the same man. An official selection at last year's Venice and Toronto Film Festivals as well as winner of awards at Outfest 2011 and the German Film Awards, Tom Tykwer's 3 opens in New York and Los Angeles on September 16. Check out the trailer and where else you can see it after the jump. Here's the official Us trailer for 3. And before I throw in some thoughts, a reading of the official plot description is essential: From the director of Run, Lola, Run and The International...
- 9/2/2011
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
Release Date: Feb. 13
Director: Tom Tykwer
Writers: Eric Singer
Cinematographer: Frank Griebe
Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Studio/Run Time: Columbia, 118 mins.
Confused global thriller pivots on Owen's star turn
Given another week of routine front-page reports of the nation’s top bankers flayed in front of Congress, moody global thriller The International appears to arrive at an opportune time. On paper, the film casts Clive Owen as the everyman redeemer of a culture of amorality at one of the world’s largest banks, where murder for hire and arms deals are business as usual. In a more perfect Hollywood union, the movie would invite us to a collective throwdown of that destitute system of needless wealth and excess, one very well-appointed gun battle at a time.
Director: Tom Tykwer
Writers: Eric Singer
Cinematographer: Frank Griebe
Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Studio/Run Time: Columbia, 118 mins.
Confused global thriller pivots on Owen's star turn
Given another week of routine front-page reports of the nation’s top bankers flayed in front of Congress, moody global thriller The International appears to arrive at an opportune time. On paper, the film casts Clive Owen as the everyman redeemer of a culture of amorality at one of the world’s largest banks, where murder for hire and arms deals are business as usual. In a more perfect Hollywood union, the movie would invite us to a collective throwdown of that destitute system of needless wealth and excess, one very well-appointed gun battle at a time.
- 2/13/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
COLOGNE, Germany -- Tom Tykwer's espionage thriller The International received an additional funding boost on Wednesday, when Germany's Federal Film Fund approved a further 1.8 million ($2.4 million) in tax credit relief for the Clive Owen/Naomi Watts starrer.
In total the fund will pay out 5.8 million ($7.9 million) to back The International, a co-production between Columbia Pictures' Rose Line Productions and Studio Babelsberg's Babelsberg Film.
The fund's board argued the funding increase was justified because "two thirds" of the film's production would take place in Germany and The International crew includes a wealth of German talent including actors Armin Mueller-Stahl and Axel Milberg, cinematographer Frank Griebe and production designer Uli Hanisch.
The International is set to begin production this month in Berlin.
In total the fund will pay out 5.8 million ($7.9 million) to back The International, a co-production between Columbia Pictures' Rose Line Productions and Studio Babelsberg's Babelsberg Film.
The fund's board argued the funding increase was justified because "two thirds" of the film's production would take place in Germany and The International crew includes a wealth of German talent including actors Armin Mueller-Stahl and Axel Milberg, cinematographer Frank Griebe and production designer Uli Hanisch.
The International is set to begin production this month in Berlin.
BERLIN -- Chris Kraus' "Four Minutes" was the surprise winner of the Lola for best film at the 2007 German Film Awards, held Friday night in Berlin.
The story of an elderly piano teacher who trains a young convict at a women's penitentiary, "Four Minutes" beat out Tom Tykwer's opulent epic "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" for the top prize.
Veteran actress Monica Bleibtreu won the Lola for her tour-de-force performance as the piano teacher in "Four Minutes". Bleibtreu accepted the prize on her 63rd birthday and to a standing ovation from the crowd of German film professionals.
The other big surprise Friday night was "Grave Decisions".
A small, low-budget comedy shot in an almost-incomprehensible Bavarian dialect, "Grave Decisions" won four Lolas, including best director for first-timer Marcus H. Rosenmueller and the runner-up Silver Lola for best film.
"Perfume" also won a Silver Lola, but it was in the technical categories where Tykwer's tale of a scent-obsessed serial killer sniffed at the competition.
"Perfume" swept the technical awards, taking Lolas for Frank Griebe's cinematography, Alexander Brenner's editing, Pierre-Yves Gayraud's costume design and Uli Hanisch's sets as well as the golden statuette for best sound design.
The story of an elderly piano teacher who trains a young convict at a women's penitentiary, "Four Minutes" beat out Tom Tykwer's opulent epic "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" for the top prize.
Veteran actress Monica Bleibtreu won the Lola for her tour-de-force performance as the piano teacher in "Four Minutes". Bleibtreu accepted the prize on her 63rd birthday and to a standing ovation from the crowd of German film professionals.
The other big surprise Friday night was "Grave Decisions".
A small, low-budget comedy shot in an almost-incomprehensible Bavarian dialect, "Grave Decisions" won four Lolas, including best director for first-timer Marcus H. Rosenmueller and the runner-up Silver Lola for best film.
"Perfume" also won a Silver Lola, but it was in the technical categories where Tykwer's tale of a scent-obsessed serial killer sniffed at the competition.
"Perfume" swept the technical awards, taking Lolas for Frank Griebe's cinematography, Alexander Brenner's editing, Pierre-Yves Gayraud's costume design and Uli Hanisch's sets as well as the golden statuette for best sound design.
Director Tom Tykwer's international success with "Run Lola Run" has inspired distributors to rummage through his earlier films, looking for anything to release with his name above the title. "Winter Sleepers", made in 1997, makes its way into U.S. theaters under these circumstances.
While clues to Tykwer's considerable talent are to be found, they get buried in an avalanche of self-absorbed, maddeningly obtuse characters whose lives interest one not in the least.
The film will undoubtedly draw some fans of "Lola", but forget about the wildfire word-of-mouth that propelled that film into an art house wonder.
What will captivate Tykwer's admirers in "Winter Sleepers" is the knockout camerawork. Tykwer, working in Cinemascope with director of photography Frank Griebe, lets the camera restlessly prowl the snowy peaks and mountain passages of a German skiing village. He uses his camera to edit, to move from one shot to another without a cut. And the film ends with a breathtaking sequence -- a death plunge by a skier filmed with several cameras, including a helmet-mounted one worn by a stuntman.
It is also clear that Tykwer is a fine director of young actors. Here he coaxes performances from a small cast that capture something of the young generation's malaise and dissatisfaction with contemporary life and their intense focus on themselves.
These are not necessarily the kind of individuals you want to spend a two-hour movie with, however. Tykwer's roaming camera can distract one from such mundane lives only so much.
The script by Tykwer and Anne-Francoise Pyszora, based on her novel "Expense of Spirit", concentrates on two men and two women holed up for winter in a ski resort. Rebecca (Floriane Daniel), a beautiful translator of romance novels, is involved with dumb-blonde ski instructor Marco (Heino Ferch). But other than his well-sculpted body, her attraction to this man with little intellectual curiosity or sense of morals is hard to fathom.
Laura (Marie-Lou Sellem), a nurse and amateur actress, is sufficiently bored to drift into a relationship with the town's reclusive movie projectionist, Rene (Ulrich Matthes). It turns out that an army accident has left him with a lack of short-term memory, which he compensates for by taking endless photos, simply to remind himself of what he did the day before.
The film pivots around a terrible road accident on an icy mountain passage, an incident that apparently was not in the novel but does introduce the Tykwerian theme of fate and the role it plays in people's lives. This accident has put the daughter of a local farmer Theo (Josef Bierbichler) into a coma. Both of the main male characters are linked to this accident, but one doesn't remember it and the other is unaware of the involvement of his stolen car.
Despite the mobile camera, this movie crawls at a snail's pace, seemingly in the thrall of characters whose lives cannot bare such scrutiny. Few movies achieve the urgency Tykwer injected into "Lola". But here, in the film he made directly before "Lola", Tykwer keeps the narrative gears in neutral for virtually the entire movie.
The production itself is highly sophisticated. Along with the sterling camerawork, Aphrodite Kondos' costumes are on-the-button, and production designer Alexander Manasse's cozy alpine lodge and cabins serve as a refuge from the snowy landscape.
One almost senses Tykwer's impatience with this small and static tale, with his need to run with a character determined to take her life in her own hands. Lola obviously rescued him.
WINTER SLEEPERS
WinStar Cinema
Bavaria Films International presents
an X-Filme Creative Pool GmbH. production
Producer: Stefan Arndt
Director: Tom Tykwer
Writers: Tom Tykwer, Anne-Francoise Pyszora
Based on the novel "Expense of Spirit" by: Anne-Francoise Pyszora
Director of photography: Frank Griebe
Production designer: Alexander Manasse
Music: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil
Costume designer: Aphrodite Kondos
Editor: Katja Dringenberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rene: Ulrich Matthes
Laura: Marie-Lou Sellem
Rebecca: Floriane Daniel
Marco: Heino Ferch
Theo: Josef Bierbichler
Running time -- 124 minutes
No MPAA rating...
While clues to Tykwer's considerable talent are to be found, they get buried in an avalanche of self-absorbed, maddeningly obtuse characters whose lives interest one not in the least.
The film will undoubtedly draw some fans of "Lola", but forget about the wildfire word-of-mouth that propelled that film into an art house wonder.
What will captivate Tykwer's admirers in "Winter Sleepers" is the knockout camerawork. Tykwer, working in Cinemascope with director of photography Frank Griebe, lets the camera restlessly prowl the snowy peaks and mountain passages of a German skiing village. He uses his camera to edit, to move from one shot to another without a cut. And the film ends with a breathtaking sequence -- a death plunge by a skier filmed with several cameras, including a helmet-mounted one worn by a stuntman.
It is also clear that Tykwer is a fine director of young actors. Here he coaxes performances from a small cast that capture something of the young generation's malaise and dissatisfaction with contemporary life and their intense focus on themselves.
These are not necessarily the kind of individuals you want to spend a two-hour movie with, however. Tykwer's roaming camera can distract one from such mundane lives only so much.
The script by Tykwer and Anne-Francoise Pyszora, based on her novel "Expense of Spirit", concentrates on two men and two women holed up for winter in a ski resort. Rebecca (Floriane Daniel), a beautiful translator of romance novels, is involved with dumb-blonde ski instructor Marco (Heino Ferch). But other than his well-sculpted body, her attraction to this man with little intellectual curiosity or sense of morals is hard to fathom.
Laura (Marie-Lou Sellem), a nurse and amateur actress, is sufficiently bored to drift into a relationship with the town's reclusive movie projectionist, Rene (Ulrich Matthes). It turns out that an army accident has left him with a lack of short-term memory, which he compensates for by taking endless photos, simply to remind himself of what he did the day before.
The film pivots around a terrible road accident on an icy mountain passage, an incident that apparently was not in the novel but does introduce the Tykwerian theme of fate and the role it plays in people's lives. This accident has put the daughter of a local farmer Theo (Josef Bierbichler) into a coma. Both of the main male characters are linked to this accident, but one doesn't remember it and the other is unaware of the involvement of his stolen car.
Despite the mobile camera, this movie crawls at a snail's pace, seemingly in the thrall of characters whose lives cannot bare such scrutiny. Few movies achieve the urgency Tykwer injected into "Lola". But here, in the film he made directly before "Lola", Tykwer keeps the narrative gears in neutral for virtually the entire movie.
The production itself is highly sophisticated. Along with the sterling camerawork, Aphrodite Kondos' costumes are on-the-button, and production designer Alexander Manasse's cozy alpine lodge and cabins serve as a refuge from the snowy landscape.
One almost senses Tykwer's impatience with this small and static tale, with his need to run with a character determined to take her life in her own hands. Lola obviously rescued him.
WINTER SLEEPERS
WinStar Cinema
Bavaria Films International presents
an X-Filme Creative Pool GmbH. production
Producer: Stefan Arndt
Director: Tom Tykwer
Writers: Tom Tykwer, Anne-Francoise Pyszora
Based on the novel "Expense of Spirit" by: Anne-Francoise Pyszora
Director of photography: Frank Griebe
Production designer: Alexander Manasse
Music: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil
Costume designer: Aphrodite Kondos
Editor: Katja Dringenberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rene: Ulrich Matthes
Laura: Marie-Lou Sellem
Rebecca: Floriane Daniel
Marco: Heino Ferch
Theo: Josef Bierbichler
Running time -- 124 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/17/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tom Tykwer's "Run Lola Run" burst onto the international scene last year with the pop sensibilities of Quentin Tarantino and a restless artistic energy. The German film dashed through a number of festivals -- including Venice, Toronto and Sundance -- gaining critical cheers with every step.
"Lola" now arrives in a white heat in U.S. movie houses. With proper promotion by Sony Pictures Classics, it could achieve the kind of success few German films have enjoyed since the days of Fassbinder and Herzog.
"Lola" is an adventure in space and time in the company of a heroine who is running out of both. The setup is simple: Her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), has lost a bag containing DM100,000 belonging to his unforgiving gangster boss. Lola (Franka Potente), a red-haired punk, has 20 minutes to save him.
She takes off in a dead run, knowing that within that time frame she must not only reach him at a telephone booth across town but have a plan of action firmly in place.
Writer-director Tykwer imagines three distinct ways this could all go down -- three entirely different scenarios even though Lola races through the same streets, over the same bridges, into the same offices and past the same collection of nuns, thieves, adulterers, babies and bank guards.
In Potente, his lithe and beautiful actress, Tykwer has a great collaborator. With each stride, she conveys Lola's determination and passion. Her breathless dash is the very essence of heroism -- she will save her man no matter what.
And by reversing the old Hollywood equation of the strong man racing to save his hapless woman, Tykwer and Potente deliver a new heroine, one that has broken free of the constraints of cinematic convention.
Tykwer fractures time into tiny segments. Then he speculates on how a second lost here or a moment gained there might alter the fates of his characters. Tykwer also divides Lola's world into disparate levels of reality -- creating her dash down a flight of stairs with animation, filming scenes with her and Manni in 35mm but capturing scenes involving other characters in video.
Throughout the three runs, he and editor Mathilde Bonnefoy play mischievous games to see if audiences can catch the ways in which time gets manipulated. This all sounds horribly artificial. But with seconds ticking off the clock and the music's techno-pop beat (by Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil) driving the action, the movie has audiences gasping.
Or laughing. "Lola" is full of buoyant wit. The choices characters make -- or don't make -- in one scenario reverberate in the others. Every action creates humorous counterparts elsewhere in the film.
"Lola" is by design a shallow movie, full of speed and motion and reversals of fortune. With constant tracking and crane shots, cinematographer Frank Griebe sustains a fluid momentum. Then Tykwer will suddenly apply the brakes for an emotional shock.
Yes, "Lola" is a bit of a gimmick. But it's a fun one, and by playfully exploring the medium of movies, Tykwer has proved himself a moviemaker to watch.
RUN LOLA RUN
Sony Pictures Classics
X Filme
Producer: Stefan Arndt
Writer-director: Tom Tykwer
Director of photography: Frank Griebe
Set design: Alexander Manasse
Music: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil
Editor: Mathilde Bonnefoy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lola: Franka Potente
Manni: Moritz Bleibtreu
Lola's father: Herbert Knaup
Mr. Schuster: Armin Rohde
Tramp: Joachim Krol
Mrs. Hanson: Nina Petri
Running time -- 81 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
"Lola" now arrives in a white heat in U.S. movie houses. With proper promotion by Sony Pictures Classics, it could achieve the kind of success few German films have enjoyed since the days of Fassbinder and Herzog.
"Lola" is an adventure in space and time in the company of a heroine who is running out of both. The setup is simple: Her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), has lost a bag containing DM100,000 belonging to his unforgiving gangster boss. Lola (Franka Potente), a red-haired punk, has 20 minutes to save him.
She takes off in a dead run, knowing that within that time frame she must not only reach him at a telephone booth across town but have a plan of action firmly in place.
Writer-director Tykwer imagines three distinct ways this could all go down -- three entirely different scenarios even though Lola races through the same streets, over the same bridges, into the same offices and past the same collection of nuns, thieves, adulterers, babies and bank guards.
In Potente, his lithe and beautiful actress, Tykwer has a great collaborator. With each stride, she conveys Lola's determination and passion. Her breathless dash is the very essence of heroism -- she will save her man no matter what.
And by reversing the old Hollywood equation of the strong man racing to save his hapless woman, Tykwer and Potente deliver a new heroine, one that has broken free of the constraints of cinematic convention.
Tykwer fractures time into tiny segments. Then he speculates on how a second lost here or a moment gained there might alter the fates of his characters. Tykwer also divides Lola's world into disparate levels of reality -- creating her dash down a flight of stairs with animation, filming scenes with her and Manni in 35mm but capturing scenes involving other characters in video.
Throughout the three runs, he and editor Mathilde Bonnefoy play mischievous games to see if audiences can catch the ways in which time gets manipulated. This all sounds horribly artificial. But with seconds ticking off the clock and the music's techno-pop beat (by Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil) driving the action, the movie has audiences gasping.
Or laughing. "Lola" is full of buoyant wit. The choices characters make -- or don't make -- in one scenario reverberate in the others. Every action creates humorous counterparts elsewhere in the film.
"Lola" is by design a shallow movie, full of speed and motion and reversals of fortune. With constant tracking and crane shots, cinematographer Frank Griebe sustains a fluid momentum. Then Tykwer will suddenly apply the brakes for an emotional shock.
Yes, "Lola" is a bit of a gimmick. But it's a fun one, and by playfully exploring the medium of movies, Tykwer has proved himself a moviemaker to watch.
RUN LOLA RUN
Sony Pictures Classics
X Filme
Producer: Stefan Arndt
Writer-director: Tom Tykwer
Director of photography: Frank Griebe
Set design: Alexander Manasse
Music: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil
Editor: Mathilde Bonnefoy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lola: Franka Potente
Manni: Moritz Bleibtreu
Lola's father: Herbert Knaup
Mr. Schuster: Armin Rohde
Tramp: Joachim Krol
Mrs. Hanson: Nina Petri
Running time -- 81 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 6/18/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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