The Princess and the Warrior
Released 2000
Stars Franka Potente, Benno Furmann, Joachim Król, Marita Breuer, Lars
Rudolph, Melchior Beslon, Jürgen Tarrach
Directed by Tom Tykwer
"The Princess and the Warrior" is one astonishment after another. It uses coincidence with reckless abandon to argue that deep patterns in life connect some people. It uses thriller elements--not to thrill us, but to set up moral challenges for its characters. It is about a woman convinced she has met the one great love of her life, and a man convinced he is not that person. It is about a traffic accident, a bank robbery, an insane asylum, and it does not use any of those elements as they have been used before. Above all, it loves its characters too much to entrap them in a mediocre plot.
Tykwer uses the elements of genre in his film, but evades generic simplicities. He is using the conventions of a bank heist movie, not to make a bank heist movie, but to lay down a narrative map so that we can clearly see how the characters wander off of it--lose their way in the tangle of their lives and emotions. He looks at his characters a little harder than most directors; he isn't content with one level of writing to describe them, but needs many. Consider an opening sequence in which Bodo is working as a gravedigger and laborer at a funeral home, and is fired for--what would you guess? Do you have an idea? He is fired for crying.
Summary by Roger Ebert
This is a great film. It's ambiguous and open-ended, and each person will take something different away from it. One of its themes is about mental illness. What separates the sane from those who are institutionalized? We've seen this topic in several other movies, but this one is different in its subtlety. Bodo is a mere step away from needing institutionalization, and by the end of the movie that may be just what he needs. It could potentially be a way for him to hide, but it may also be a way for him to come to grips with his grief. The script is subtle enough that it doesn't try to show the mental hospital's inmates as colorful silly characters. They're deeply disturbed people who pose a threat to themselves and others, and Bodo isn't far behind. As the story peels the onion of Bodo's story, we find out why he's so disturbed. Guilt is one of the most powerful emotions, and I think it's the most difficult to overcome. --Bill Alward, February 23, 2002