A Princesa e o Guerreiro

Now, there was a pleasant Sunday evening.

I never got around to seeing it in the theaters, but just caught it by accident on tele, and even from the start. And it works perfectly on that media as well.

It is a rarely beautiful tale told in so few words, that tell so much. It is little wonder that Tykwer got to make Heaven (a script left by Kieslowski). Few has ever described the love between man and woman so catchingly and so real in so not so extraordinary circumstances. And these are the stories that sticks.

And Tykwer also always seems to get the music right, notice the elegance of the end-title number "You can't find peace" by Pale 3 feat. Skin. Thankfully they still show end-titles now and then on danish television.

There's lot more to write, but the morning a another day at work grows frightfully close.

This will be a fond memory.

Perhaps Tom Tykwer took himself too seriously after "Lola Rennt", so he handles the romance between a nurse and a bank-robber as if he were a young Michelangelo Antonioni taking Psychology 101 and doing his first film. Overlong but somehow still fascinating, thanks mainly to the dark character of the "warrior" and Franka Potente, who is always good to watch.

This is a modern fairy tale, treat and appreciate it as so. The characters are bold, and their actions are representative of who they are than what actual people do. I say this because I noticed every negative review of this film was caught up in looking for realism- there isn't any. The setting may be proposed as so but the method through which the story is told unfolds like a performance piece.

This film is brilliant- stark personalities, dynamic relationships, and a mix of modern, classical, and fanciful direction. The allegorical context is brilliant when mulled over. I would compare it to `Last Tango in Paris'.

Only a fool would expect this to be a second Run Lola Run. But unfortunately, there will be a lot of fools out there: This won't be the hit that Tykwer's former film was. And, just to say that: Run Lola Run still plays in a higher league.

But that's, of course, not to say that The Princess And The Warrior is a bad movie. Quite the contrary: there should be more films like this one. It's slow at times, yes, but to the ones with keen eyes it's meditative. It's metaphysical, in the end even surreal, it's down-to-earth, but at the same time very outlandish, it's a love story, but without the usual assets: there's no kissing, let alone sex; yes, even holding hands just occurs for a second. It's about a spiritual love, something epic, as the title suggests.

Many people won't like it; far too few people will love it. And I'm somewhere in between: It's a bold movie to make, especially in the dull (to be polite) movie scene of Germany, and a good one, too. Something refreshingly different (and wonderfully written, directed, shot and acted, I might add...). But somehow, you can't help feeling just a little disappointed after the milestone of modern film making that Tom Tykwer released two years ago.

8 out of 10.

Having loved Tykwer's impressively energetic RUN, LOLA, RUN (1998), I was really looking forward to watching his follow-up feature but, somehow, I never managed it until now (I did get to watch his subsequent film, HEAVEN [2002]). Thankfully, it was worth the wait and the result is almost as good. While the film is long and often rambles on rather aimlessly, it is never boring and, at times, disarmingly inventive and emotional; the leading players, especially the enchanting Franka Potente, have a lot to do with the latter quality. THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR's main themes are matters of chance and fate but it also features an elaborate bank robbery and a long stretch of it takes place in an insane asylum (where Potente practices some unorthodox therapy on a couple of her patients) which is not too far removed from the one seen in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975).