Daily Archives: January 31, 2008
The Princess and the Warrior (2000)
NETFLIX SYNOPSIS: German director Tom Tykwer reunites with Run Lola Run star Franka Potente in a darkly skewed heist movie with obsession at its core. Sissi (Potente) is a nurse in a mental ward who gets run over in the street by a truck. Quick-thinking Bodo (Benno Furmann), a bank robber by trade, saves her life — not knowing that, in gratitude, Sissi would haunt his every move like a lovesick puppy!
REVIEW: This film tries to be too many things – part romance, part exploration of mental illness – it does neither entirely well. I feel that if it had focused on one aspect, it would have been a better movie. It definitely would have cut down on the running time, as certain scenes I felt dragged and should have wound up on the cutting room floor. I’ve always liked Franka Potente and think she did a convincing job here as the woman who falls in love with a man who saved her life in an accident. Bodo does a decent job as the man who resists her, but the back-and-forth began to be a little tiresome to me.
Sissi’s dogged pursuit of her suitor brought to mind better movies, like Audrey Tautou in He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (stellar film!). The scenes in the mental ward (where Sissi works as a nurse) brought to mind scenes that were better done, like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. At 133 minutes, I realize Twyker was doing the best he could to fit in both of these themes, but he doesn’t tie them together well.
That said, the production value of the film was very high, and there was some cool music in the background to assuage me, along with some beautiful location sites. There are even some Run Lola Run-esque sped-up shots, though unfortunately that just reminded me of Twyker’s more superior film.
3 stars
Audrey
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
NETFLIX SYNOPSIS: Director R.W. Fassbinder helmed this powerful film, winner of the International Critics’ Prize at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, about an unlikely love affair between Emmi (Brigitte Mira), an elderly German cleaning lady, and Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a Moroccan boxer. When they decide to marry, the underlying prejudice that first reared its ugly head when they were dating wreaks havoc in their lives.
REVIEW: How can such a simple movie be so profound? Maybe because the issues discussed are still prevalent in society today, though perhaps less overt than in post-WWII Germany.
One of Ebert’s Great Movies, the opening scene immediately depicts the us-against-them theme that runs throughout the film when elderly Emmi, a German woman, walks into a local bar run by and patroned by Arab ex- pats, or what the native Germans call “foreign workers” (which brought to my mind the parallels in the immigrant situation here in the U.S.). She steps in to get out of the rain, but the camera exaggerates the distance between Emmi and the bar patrons and owner (a chesty blonde) and, as they all stare daggers at her, she quietly takes the chair closest to the door. The bar patrons and owner jokingly dare one of them to go ask the woman to dance and one of them takes up the dare.
To everyone’s astonishment, Ali (he says his real name in the film, but tells Emmi to call him Ali because the Moroccan name is too long so the Germans call all the dark-skinned workers Ali), strikes up a genuine conversation with Emmi and says she is “nice lady.” As their relationship strikes up (a very touching scene in which two lonely people find each other), racism rears its ugly head, from the ladies who live in the same apartment complex as Emmi, to the local market owner who’s always liked Emmi, to Emmi’s own children. Ali tells her not to worry, and in Morocco there is a local saying that “fear eats the soul.” The reactions of Emmi’s children to her marriage to Ali was the most memorable scene to me. I don’t want to spoil it, but it just hit home for me how ashamed they were of their mother, one of them calling her a “filthy whore.”
The toxicity of the society they live in begins to take its toll and they leave on vacation. When they return, the situation has calmed down and people begin to be more open-minded. Fassbinder’s film takes another turn, this time with Emmi reflecting some of the same racial superiority and prejudgments that she would not tolerate in others, including her exclusion of a Yugoslav woman who is the newest member of her cleaning team and who is being paid less than the Germans (and thus, fueling fears of the immigrants lowering wages for the locals).
The art direction is beautiful and the colors on screen pop – from the bold aquamarine blues to the red interiors of the bar to the leopard and hot pink ensembles of the bar owner. The story is touching, succinctly yet brilliantly told, and universal.
5 stars
Audrey
The Hunting Party (2007)
NETFLIX SYNOPSIS: Richard Gere stars as a struggling journalist who sets out with a fellow reporter (Jesse Eisenberg) and cameraman (Terrence Howard) to locate Bosnia’s most notorious war criminal, known as “the Fox.” But when their target mistakes them for CIA assassins, they become the hunted. Written and directed by Richard Shepard, this tense thriller with a comic twist also stars Diane Kruger, Goran Kostic and James Brolin.
REVIEW: Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg all turn in terrific performances in a movie that has a lot of unrealized potential but is ultimately crushed by its own maudlin weight. Although the murdered pregnant girlfriend motivation provides Gere with ample opportunity to flex his considerable acting muscle, in the end, this picture would have been much better if it had stuck more closely to the Esquire article upon which it was based and become a buddy film with some sharp political teeth. In any case, the politics are thought-provoking, and the buddy banter works well, so I can give it a mild recommendation. But, sadly, it could have been so much better if we didn’t have to deal with dredging the depths of one character’s tragically wounded psyche.
3 stars
Lori
Netflix Cinemajig 