The Princess and The Warrior
2000 ‘Der Krieger + die Kaiserin’ Directed by Tom Tykwer
Synopsis
Young nurse Sissi lives a secluded life entirely devoted to her patients at Birkenhof asylum. Her first encounter with ex-soldier and drifter Bodo has a lasting impact. He causes an accident in which he provides first aid, Sissi wonders if he may be the man of her dreams. But when she finds him weeks later she is rejected, as Bodo is stuck somewhere between a traumatic past and a criminal future.
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Flawed, but at times offers an interesting insight into the themes at play. It swings and misses more than Run Lola Run but at its best I'd say it was better. The scene under the lorry, and the jumping sequence, are wonderful.
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Here, Tykwer sidesteps the melodramatic, half realized touches which made Winter Sleepers such a mess. He replaces them with a kinetic energy, a magic realism that works so well it almost begs a second viewing to justify your astonished disbelief. Potente is gleefully likable as Sissi, the protagonist whose life is saved in an act of courage and compassion that turns out to be innate, but deeply repressed within Bodo, her knight in shining armor, played with a gruff attractiveness by Benno Furmann.This genuinely feels like progression from the territory Tykwer occupied in Run Lola Run.
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She's really both and he's just a gruff German guy who is neither a princess or a warrior. Luckily, the movie makes perfect sense, connecting each and every plot strand in such hyper convenient ways, Tykwer delivers one of the more pure meditations on fate I've seen.
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Really enjoyed this movie. Unique story.
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Some stunning visual poetry from Tykwer as usual but the story is messy and doesn't always work to sustain itself.