Vier Minuten (2006)

Director:

Chris Kraus

Writer:

Chris Kraus (writer)

Release Date:

18 April 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Tagline:

The next German film sensation after The Lives of Others

Plot:

An elderly piano teacher trains a young convict at a women's penitentiary.

Plot Keywords:

Piano | Prison | Lesbian Interest | Gay Interest

Awards:

21 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Monica Bleibtreu	...	Traude
Hannah Herzsprung	...	Jenny
Sven Pippig	...	Mütze
Richy Müller	...	Kowalski
Jasmin Tabatabai	...	Ayse
Stefan Kurt	...	Direktor Meyerbeer
Vadim Glowna	...	Gerhard von Loeben
Nadja Uhl	...	Nadine Hoffmann
Peter Davor	...	Journalist Wahrig
Edita Malovcic	...	Traude - jung
Christian Koerner	...	SS-Sturmbannführer
Kathrin Kestler	...	Hannah
Amber Bongard	...	Clara Mütze
Dietrich Hollinderbäumer	...	Pater Vincens
Dieter Moor	...	TV-Moderator

Also Known As:

4 Minutes (International: English title)
Four Minutes (International: English title)
Nur für Mozart (Germany) (working title)

Runtime:

112 min | Canada:112 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Technicolor) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo

Certification:

Germany:12 | Argentina:13 | South Korea:12 | Czech Republic:12 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R13

Filming Locations:

Luckau, Brandenburg, Germany

Company:

Arte

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: In several sequences where we see Jenny playing the piano, the notes we hear do not correspond to the keys she plays.

Movie Connections:

References The Blues Brothers (1980)

Nice film

Vier Minuten is a nice film. It has a great story and very good actors. Its milieu is near perfect and the movie doesn't try too hard to compel. But maybe there could have been something more to it. Yes, I shall elaborate a little better, but further on.

An old lady we meet see at the beginning is a piano teacher in a women's jail. She is curt, strict and laconic. She is intolerant of bad manners, therefore she refuses to teach a new prisoner, an angry and violent young girl. The story unfold as the pianist realises this girl is probably the most talented pianists she has come across, and she begins to prepare her for an upcoming talent competition. The girl on the other hand has had a troubled past which reflects in her everyday anger and oblivion, and prefers playing 'negro' music as opposed to her teacher's taste for refined classical stuff. Yet,the conflict between them blooms into a witty friendship.

Further on, we get to see the pasts of these two women, and why they are what they are. I wish they had established a better connection of the old pianist's past with her present. It would have made things much clearer. This makes the film, a story...a great story which fails to reason itself.

Yet I shall recommend this movie to all film lovers. You never know what new experience you find in a film and there is something to find in here......