Anatomie

I had never seen Franka Potente before The Bourne identity, and I fell in love with her immediately. So far, I have only been able to get my hands on one film featuring her, and it's a real winner for those that like mystery/suspense with a little gruesomeness.

No, it doesn't feature her bod, nor that of the incredibly beautiful German TV Star Anna Loos. Anna was hilarious with her "naughty" comments throughout. (As an aside, she is supposedly the lead singer of, or a member of a band called Leck mich am Arsch, which is also the name of a Mozart composition. You can have a lot of fun googling that bit of German.) She does do a song in the movie soundtrack.

She is a doctor doing some research and stumbles on an old German medical society that does autopsies on people while they are still alive, using some sort of paralyzing drug. Lots of suspense as they discover she knows who they are and come after her - sort of like Extreme Measures.

Also stars Benno Fürmann, who was in the superb Joyeux Noël, and who I am sure many will see in next year's Speed racer. Yes, it's not just Frake and Anna; there are plenty of German hunks for the ladies.

I was very curious about Anatomy (aka Anatomie) and if I was going to see it, I was going to have to buy it since no video stores in my area carried the film. Since it was not a low-priced DVD, I did take a chance and thought I'd take a peek at other comments on IMDb. Many of the comments didn't give me enough hope of forking out lots of bucks for a film I had never seen nor had any clues about. I basically got the idea it was a sexy youth-oriented romp being compared to many cookie-cutter teen thrillers. Well, something in the back of my mind told me to ignore those types of comments and buy it! I did, and was I pleasantly surprised!

If it is going to be compared to any other films, I would say it's a variation of Coma and Extreme Measures. I couldn't see any comparison to films like Scream, Urban Legends, et al. Yes, the cast is young (that's because they're med students! At least they aren't the increasingly boring high school type characters), and yes, some are lusty (basically the character played by Anna Loos is, and it is handled quite tastefully in the German language version), but Anatomy is well constructed, there is a tense mood throughout, the sets are amazing, the makeup effects are a wow, and Franka Potente is very credible in her role. I found myself enjoying all of it despite a few gaping holes in the plot! The story of a student discovering a sort-of secret society doing autopsies on still-living patients is a rather creepy scenario and what happens to those patients afterwards is quite clever. Sure, you could ask why didn't she just GET OUT OF THAT TOWN? Okay, but then the film would be over within a half hour.

This was the first effort from the German part of Columbia Pictures, and it's actually quite an impressive one. There was a bit of care in the production and to actually offer some genuine thrills is an accomplishment. It is a bit mature in mind, as it doesn't resort to constant opportunities for sexual encounters(a breast fest) or juvenile drug jokes. Anna Loos' character, while often making sexual remarks and looking for some fun, was actually a nice touch--having a character that was a woman more intelligent than any of the men in the school. She found that sex was really just a distraction for her and the men rather lacking.

THE IMPORTANT STUFF: Watching this film in the original German language with English or French subtitles is the BEST way to enjoy it. I saw the theatrical trailers dubbed in English and was disgusted by the change it made in the film's tone. I have never seen a properly dubbed film in my life--they never can find voices that suit the film's actors or characters. Sure enough, I tried to watch some of Anatomy dubbed in English and the intelligence level of it dropped severely, making it seem more like a comedy. A good example is when one guy was freaked out at being cut open and screamed to be sewn back up--hearing it in German he sounded frantic, but dubbed in English he sounded like a comedian. Frankly, I'm sick of hearing people say they can't handle reading subtitles or watch a "letterboxed" film. Anatomy comes off as silly with dubbed voices that seem octaves too high for any of the people you see in the film, and Anna Loos' sexual comments then just sound like awful remarks right out of Fast Times At Ridgemont High. I wonder if the negative comments about Anatomy are from people who watched it dubbed, it just doesn't seem like the same film at all! This is not a cheap horror film and deserves to be viewed as it was created. Interesting to note that some of the English subtitles are different in scenes in the feature and the "making of" supplement.

As it turns out, I gambled and won with Anatomy. It's a competent thriller with likeable characters and doesn't try to go for cheap thrills.

ANATOMIE is a German horror thriller which main topic is an interesting issue: the ethic and the limits in medicine. The plot isn't very different from the typical horror flick but this specific thematic turns it a bit more interesting. In the film it's described a secret Masonic organization called A.A.A (Age Actabile Antihippocrate) - which I suppose to be fiction – that denies the Hippocrates's ideals of helping and healing. Medicine is a science, and it must be developed without caring about ethical thoughts they say. It's precisely this "implicit debate" what I found more attractive in this film and different from other flicks. I'm not telling it's completely original or brilliant, I just say it's a bit different, in good way... Apart from that it's a typical movie from the "psycho chasing victim type". It has nice suspense scenes, mainly in the last 15 minutes, but nothing outstanding... I score it 6/10.

Before Franka Potente became famous with the Bourne trilogy she made this German movie. As a student in, you guessed it, anatomy she has to go to the most important school to learn that but there is a secret. Some people joined a kind of mason. She notices that something is terrible wrong in the school and she starts to investigate. Wrong. What happens next isn't really horror it's more some kind of thriller but you really have to watch it for the effects. A few years ago it was a hype to see the exhibition Kopferwelten. What you saw there is what we have here only they didn't used real bodies but it was so nicely done that it could be used in classes. It never becomes gory or even bloody, it is really the atmosphere that creates the movie. But it is one that you must have seen because, some people fears that it could happen to you....

You know how (especially US) horror movies start off with quite the shocker? Something scary and most likely bloody? Well in this case we have the exact opposite happening ... we get a class and a lot of jokes about death and other stuff. After that character introduction we get the scary scene ... the scene that might haunt you.

With an actor by the way whom I've come to learn and love in a comedy series - movies based on books. And he plays quite the funny character in them. But here he only has a small (guest) role if you want to call it that. The main focus is on Franka Potentes character and her ... well adventures. Her story and her experience - her will to achieve something and to become somebody ... she will get sidetracked and lose focus of her studies (which says something considering she says she is here to learn and not have fun) ... but it makes sense in the overall scheme of things.

Well played by all involved and a german horror movie that actually is quite scary. It has its good and bad moments of course, but overall I'd say it is more than a decent "teen-movie" effort. It may not have aged great (especially to those understanding what is being said), but it stays a really good movie overall.