"Vier Minuten" is probably the most known work from German writer and director Chris Kraus. At the German Film Awards, it won Best Picture (over Academy award winner "Die Fälscher), gave the late Monica Bleibtreu (Moritz' mother) a Best Actress win and scored nominations for Kraus' writing and directing as well as Herzsprung's acting. She lost to Bleibtreu, but won in the supporting category for another movie. I thought Herzsprung played very well here, so I am a bit surprised and disappointed about the fact that she played mostly cheesy parts in weak romance movies in recent years. Time for something more challenging again.
There were a few issues I had with this movie, like that Bleibtreu's character does not want to help initially, but after Herzsprung's character violently assaults a police officer she suddenly wants? Also I felt that Lesbian reference came out of nowhere a bit only to make the movie maybe more interesting. Also the whole Nazi past and alcoholism references were maybe a bit too much. It seems as if they tried to include so many baity aspects and then did not entirely elaborate on these. It's certainly not a film as important as it sees itself. The female prison inmates struggling with each other was solid, one of the better parts of the film. Tabatabai does a good job with her minor character.
Near the end of the movie, all the smaller characters are pretty much out of the picture and it's all about the two protagonists which I liked, even if the late Sven Pippig plays an interesting character who is actually a nice person, but gets drawn a bit towards the dark side due to the back lash he keeps experiencing in his job and even on national television. The film ends with the four minutes described int he title which are the big piano performance from Herzsprung's character before she gets arrested on stage.
As a whole, I felt this was a decent movie, but nowhere near as good as all the awards it won and was nominated for would make you think. It's a bit predictable (prison girl becomes music superstar despite all the obstacles) and the final piano scene felt like an extract from a weak American Idol episode to me where everybody is silent after the performance and then breaks into loud applause. The whole piano performance did not feel as emotional and free-breaking to me as I wished it could have been to be the true highlight of the movie as the makers intended it to. Nonetheless, it's slightly under two hours of solid entertainment and I recommend it, especially if you are interested in German cinema. On a random final side-note, I felt this movie looked a lot older than from 2006, maybe 90s or even 80s, but that helped the prison atmosphere maybe.
There were a few issues I had with this movie, like that Bleibtreu's character does not want to help initially, but after Herzsprung's character violently assaults a police officer she suddenly wants? Also I felt that Lesbian reference came out of nowhere a bit only to make the movie maybe more interesting. Also the whole Nazi past and alcoholism references were maybe a bit too much. It seems as if they tried to include so many baity aspects and then did not entirely elaborate on these. It's certainly not a film as important as it sees itself. The female prison inmates struggling with each other was solid, one of the better parts of the film. Tabatabai does a good job with her minor character.
Near the end of the movie, all the smaller characters are pretty much out of the picture and it's all about the two protagonists which I liked, even if the late Sven Pippig plays an interesting character who is actually a nice person, but gets drawn a bit towards the dark side due to the back lash he keeps experiencing in his job and even on national television. The film ends with the four minutes described int he title which are the big piano performance from Herzsprung's character before she gets arrested on stage.
As a whole, I felt this was a decent movie, but nowhere near as good as all the awards it won and was nominated for would make you think. It's a bit predictable (prison girl becomes music superstar despite all the obstacles) and the final piano scene felt like an extract from a weak American Idol episode to me where everybody is silent after the performance and then breaks into loud applause. The whole piano performance did not feel as emotional and free-breaking to me as I wished it could have been to be the true highlight of the movie as the makers intended it to. Nonetheless, it's slightly under two hours of solid entertainment and I recommend it, especially if you are interested in German cinema. On a random final side-note, I felt this movie looked a lot older than from 2006, maybe 90s or even 80s, but that helped the prison atmosphere maybe.