Film Review: The Princess and the Warrior (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin, 2000)
Quarter of century ago German film maker Tom Tykwer caught attention of international audience with his fast, stylish and unconventional action film Run Lola Run, which also made Franka Potente into international cinema star. Two of them reunited in 2000 psychological drama The Princess and the Warrior.
Potente plays Simone a.k.a. “Sissi”, nurse who works in psychiatric hospital. She is very shy and spends almost all time at the hospital, a place where their parent have met. Monotonous routine of her life is interrupted when a truck runs her over while crosses the street. Her life is saved by impromptu tracheotomy performed by mysterious stranger called Bodo (played by Benno Fürmann). After she recovers few months later, Sissi is troubled not only by not knowing a single thing about her saviour, but also by the fact she has fallen in love with him. When she finds him, he rejects her company, and it appears that he has a good reason. Bodo is involved in all kinds of illegal activities with his brother Walter (played by Joachim Krol) and he still hasn’t gotten over the bizarre and tragic death of his beloved wife.
Anyone expecting “cool”, fast and energetic film like Run Lola Run is going to be very surprised. While his previous film used simple story and simple characters for the sake of exercise in style, The Princess and the Warrior actually tells much more complex story with unusual and multi-dimensional protagonists. Furthermore, The Princess of the Warrior has completely different style. Tykwer, instead of bombarding the audience with MTV-style rapid editing, here prefers very long shots with clear intention to slowly build atmosphere and allow character development. Tykwer goes slightly over the top with this approach, especially near the ending, which is quite drawn out and adds a lot to unusually long running time. General impression is, however, saved by Potente who uses opportunity to play much more interesting character in her previous film and thus display formidable acting skills. She has good interaction with Benno Fürmann, German film star with whom she worked in hit horror film Anatomy. Tykwer also uses very good cinematography by Frank Griebe, enhanced with some “cool” digital effects, as well as very effective soundtrack, partially composed himself. The general result is far from perfect, but The Princess and the Warrior is nevertheless very good film that would be remembered by those who watch it.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax y
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7