Winterschläfer-Wintersleepers (1997)

Directed by: Tom Tykwer | 122 minutes | drama, thriller, romance | Actors: Ulrich Matthes, Marie-Lou Sellem, Floriane Daniel, Heino Ferch, Josef Bierbichler, Agathe Taffertshofer, Sophia Dirscherl, Laura Tonke, Sebastian Schipper, Werner Schnitzer, Saskia Vester, Robert Meyer

‘Winterschläfer’ is a gripping film about five different people whose lives, sometimes without them realizing it, are connected by an accident. Rene (Ulrich Matthes), employee of the local cinema, steals a car and is involved in a car accident. The other involved, Theo (Josef Bierbichler), is a farmer taking his horse to the vet. His daughter has crawled into the trailer unnoticed by the horse and is in critical condition due to the accident. The stolen car turns out to belong to Marco, the partner of translator Rebecca. Marco is a ski instructor and very possessive towards Rebecca (Floriane Daniel), while he also has several affairs himself. Rebecca lives in Laura’s (Marie-Lou Sellem) house. Laura is a nurse at the hospital and is given the responsibility of nursing the injured in the accident. The above scenario sounds quite complicated, but while watching the story is not difficult to follow. The story is even quite flat and never manages to touch an emotional chord.

What ‘Winterschläfer’ is all about are the visual aspects. Your interpretation is played with by giving each character its own ‘color’ that matches their personality. The fiery Rebecca always wears red, the more even and peaceful Laura wears green and the egocentric and expressive Marco blue. Director Tom Tykwer later delivered two gems of films with ‘Lola Rennt’ and ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’, in which the story also came into its own. With ‘Winterschläfer’, however, he tells a very cool and unimpressive story in which fierce themes such as accidents, death, love and betrayal occur.

Still, ‘Winterschläfer’ is certainly an interesting film that will hold your attention. Because although the story lines at the end very easily come together under the heading of ‘coincidence’, the film continues to fascinate. Visually, the film stimulates your senses, the camera does not seem to stand still for a moment and appears from many surprising angles. In addition, the use of color is overwhelming and the images pop off the screen. These aspects, together with the compelling music, manage to create a dreamy atmosphere, which makes the film, despite the flat story, certainly fascinating to watch.