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Winter
Sleepers is based on Anne-Francoise Pyszora's novel
Expense of Spirit.
In addition
to Run Lola Run, Tykwer also directed 1993's Deadly
Maria and wrote the screenplay for Life Is All You
Get.
"Duration
is the problem with love: that awful intimacy which we cannot
bear and yet always seek," says Tykwer. "I can only accept
a love relationship as a passionate entanglement."
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Winter
Sleepers
Not
Rated
Cinema
21
616 NW
21st Ave., 223-4515
7 pm Friday-Thursday,
June
9-15. Additional showings Saturday and Sunday,
1:45 and 4:15 pm.
For those of us who saw last year's Run Lola Run,
the prospect of another film from German Wunderkind
Tom Tykwer is irresistible. Previously unknown in America,
the 34-year-old writer-director-musician made 1999's most
devilishly fun picture--and one of the most thought-provoking--by
depicting one simple caper three times with three different
outcomes. (It was the first time I'd compared a movie to
a video game and meant it as a compliment.) Some derided
Lola as mere gimmickry set to techno music, but they
missed the point: By repeatedly rewinding Lola's life, Tykwer
not only let us play God with her fate, he also showed how
fleeting moments can change the future in a flash.
So what happens when you take the gimmick away? The answer
lies in Winter Sleepers, a film Tykwer actually made
before Lola but couldn't get distributed stateside
until that film made him famous. Chronicling a cross-section
of twentysomethings in a remote alpine town, Winter Sleepers
is a novel to Lola's comic book, dropping the frenetic
pace and clever artifice for a more conventionally structured
narrative drama. Yet, while the style and circumstances
differ, Tykwer's sensibility remains remarkably intact.
It all begins with a car accident. René (Ulrich
Matthes), a projectionist at the local movie house, happens
upon a sports car with the keys inside and impulsively takes
it for a joyride. Soon he encounters another car swerving
across the icy road. René goes flying off the embankment
into a pillowy snow bank, but the other driver, a destitute
farmer named Theo (Josef Bierbichler), is not so lucky.
Trapped in a toppled Volvo with his daughter and her horse
slowly dying in the trailer behind, Theo watches René
mysteriously walk away without lending a hand.
In the wake of the crash, while Theo sits at his comatose
daughter's bedside, René starts dating a local nurse
(Marie-Lou Sellem) and gets to know her roommates, Rebecca
(Floriane Daniel) and Marco (Heino Ferch), a couple of spoiled
brats who bicker and screw in equal measure. Just days after
he's left a father and daughter for dead, René's
lonely life is looking up. He's luckier--and guiltier--than
he'll ever know.
At first glance, Winter Sleepers is easily overshadowed
by the flashier, craftier Run Lola Run. Tykwer no
longer acts the magician, and one is left wondering where
the tricks have gone. But then some familiar ideas creep
into view. In Tykwer's world, young Germans seek love and
expect justice, but they're ruled by disillusionment as
their fates are determined at millisecond intervals--too
quickly to control. Once full of ambitious plans, these
twentysomethings are now just happy to survive.
Tykwer is sure to encounter some Lola fans disappointed
by this more sober, straightforward storytelling technique,
but in reality Winter Sleepers only confirms his
grasp: Now we know he's more than just clever.
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 10,
2000
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