Anatomie

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Rating 2¾


Written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky

Starring Franka Potente, Benno Furmann, Anna Loos and Sebastian Blomberg


This German horror film (British title, ‘Anatomy’) was written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, an Austrian, and stars Franka Potente. It was released into German cinemas in February 2000, two years after ‘Run Lola Run’ and two years before ‘The Bourne Identity’, which are probably Potente’s two best-known films outside of Germany. Potente won “German Actor/Actress of the Year” at the German Film Awards in consecutive years in 1999 and 2000.

The film had a production budget a little under DEM 8.5 million, which equates to approximately €4.3 million or $6.1 million. It grossed a little over $9,500 at the box office in America, having been released into eight movie theatres in September 2000. The gross in Germany was in the region of (the equivalent of) $10.5 million, based on a little over two million admissions.

Potente plays Paula Henning, a talented and ambitious but shy medical student, who is offered a place at the University of Heidelberg Medical School. This is a genuine university –- the oldest in Germany, having been established in 1386. When she questions the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the body of a young male for dissection she begins to unravel a sickening conspiracy dating back to the medical experimentation of doctors sponsored by the Third Reich.

Paula shares a dorm room with Gretchen, a medical student who has a genius IQ, but who seems interested only in sex, thinking about sex, talking about sex and having sex with male students with perfect physiques. Gretchen’s boyfriend Hein apparently keeps his brains in his biceps, although he gives Paula hints that he hides a more sensitive side. She, meanwhile, has attracted the attentions of Casper, whose behaviour veers back and forth between madcap, idiosyncratic and sinister.

I didn’t think the film was done especially well. The premise is very promising (the film it immediately put me in mind of is ‘Coma’) and Potente is great, but the pacing is odd and I didn’t feel any real sense of intrigue or uneasiness or creepiness. It all came across to me as a little disjointed.

At a couple of random points in the film pop songs are inserted into the soundtrack –- ‘Praise You’ by Fatboy Slim, for example –- but with no obvious purpose in mind, other than seemingly to mirror archetypical American horror stereotypes.

What unfolds as Paula investigates really isn’t much of a surprise. It is possible to guess what is coming almost as soon as she arrives at Heidelberg. She makes a big deal of being at university to study and she is disparaging of the frivolous and hedonistic behaviour of the others, but then when she has discovered the truth and her life is in deadly danger she chooses this moment to finally go to the is-he-or-isn’t-he-evil Casper to spend the night and have sex. Once again, the attempt to emulate the style of an American teen horror comes to mind, but the structure just seems wrong.

I struggled a little bit to stick with the film through to the end, but it received some good reviews, so I am inclined to think I might be missing something and I should give it a second chance.

“There’s none of that stale ‘Scream’ series mugging, other film referencing, or oh-so-clever self-referencing. And that’s truly refreshing. In this way, ‘Anatomy’ seems almost pre-‘Scream’ with its naïve ‘Halloween’-era sincerity. There’s nothing dishonourable about basking in the warmth of a good, professionally executed piece of schlock cinema. ‘Anatomy’ has blood, sharp instruments, people who jump out at you from dark corners, laughs and romance. It’s a near-flawless specimen.”
Jaime Christley, Apollo Guide

My problem with this review is that Christley appears to approach this film from a less cynical perspective simply because it isn’t an American horror film. It should be noted that earlier in his review he calls it, “A bad film – an insipid, pointless and occasionally ham-fisted schlockfest.”

Is it “near-flawless” or “ham-fisted”? I don’t think it’s either, but I’m not entirely convinced he can have it both ways.



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Run Lola Run

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Rating 3½


Written and directed by Tom Tykwer

Starring Franka Potente and Moritz Bleibtreu


Watching this film is rather like lying down in a dark room, putting on a pair of headphones, listening to the Yello album ‘Solid Pleasure’ at very loud volume, and allowing the music to generate the visual images in your mind. I have never actually done this, but it’s what I imagine would happen.

My reaction to this film could be as negative as it is positive. Were I to imagine a film made by a film student with an encyclopaedic knowledge of film and overweening pretensions to artistic independence and integrity which attempted to include references to every single film in history with “artistic” credibility, plus the “cutting-edge” feel of the now, this would be it.

I could easily have watched the film and hated it, dismissing it as pretentious film school twaddle – all style other substance. In fact, for the first five minutes or so I thought that was exactly what it was building up towards. So, what exactly happened to change my mind?

I read about ‘Run Lola Run’ (or ‘Lola rennt’ to give the film its proper title – direct translation, ‘Lola Runs’) some considerable time back and bought a copy on a whim. For various irrelevant reasons, I never got around to watching it after that – until now.

Very late into the night, with no particular plan in mind, I decided it was about time I watched the film. Any expectations I might have had were largely diffused by now. The one thing that probably influenced my decision to keep on watching after the first few minutes was Franka Potente, who I liked a lot in ‘Creep’ and ‘The Bourne Identity’.

‘Run Lola Run’ was written and directed by Tom Tykwer, who later went on to direct ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’ and is now set to direct ‘The International’, with Naomi Watts and Clive Owen heading up the cast. Tykwer wrote ‘Run Lola Run’ specifically for Potente. They also wrote and recorded much of the music together for the film.

I can’t really write too much about the film without giving away the story entirely, which would spoil it. In terms of the basic storyline, the clue is in the title. Potente’s character, Lola, spends most of the film’s short playing time (77 minutes) running. If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend checking out this film. You might love it or you might hate it, but I’m sure it will make an impact of some sort.

‘Run Lola Run’ has a 92% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It grossed just over $7 million in the US and just under £165,000 in the UK. I don’t have a gross for Germany, although the cinema admissions in that country were just fewer than 2.3 million, which is around 700,000 more than in the US. The production budget was DEM 3.5 million, which now would be around $2.5 million. The film was made in 1998.

The opening sequence of the ‘Buffy’ episode ‘Beneath You’ is very obviously intended to reference the film. There is also, apparently, an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ that pays homage to it, with Lisa in the role of Lola.



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Creep

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Rating 2¾


Written and directed by Christopher Smith

Starring Franka Potente, Vas Blackwood, Jeremy Sheffield and Ken Campbell


‘Creep’ seems to have very obvious similarities to a 1972 horror film called ‘Death Line’ (starring Donald Pleasance), although the writer/director Christopher Smith claims never to have seen that film.

It stars the German actress Franka Potente (‘Run Lola Run’ and ‘The Bourne Identity’) as a rather dislikeable society “party girl” who finds herself locked inside a deserted Charing Cross underground station after falling asleep on the platform while waiting for the last train. This set-up (and what happens immediately after she wakes up) is so utterly implausible that I initially found it quite hard to get past it and concentrate on the rest of the film.

Various characters find themselves trapped in the labyrinth of underground tunnels and are menaced by something unseen in the dark shadows. There is a suggestion that some kind of wartime genetic experimentation was carried out in a secret subterranean laboratory, but this is never explored in any detail and becomes somewhat irrelevant to the rather simplistic and gratuitously gory “get chased, get caught, get killed” storyline.

I have always been fascinated by the fact that the deep level London underground lines have a number of stations that closed during the early years of the development of the system. There is a labyrinth of tunnels down there that are no longer in use and are barely known about. At one point in the film, Franka Potente finds herself on a derelict platform at “Down Street” station. This was a genuine station on the Piccadilly line close to Hyde Park Corner and Dover Street (later renamed Green Park) stations. It was opened in 1907 and closed in 1932. I might be exhibiting all the behavioural patterns of a train-spotter, but I think better and more interesting use could have been made of this location. I suspect many people watching the film would be entirely oblivious to what it is.

The huge expanse of underground tunnels beneath London is a great setting for a horror film. I’m not convinced that ‘Creep’ makes the most of this setting or its interesting premise. However, Franka Potente is as terrific as ever and there is also a small role for Ken Campbell, which is a welcome bonus.

Christopher Smith also wrote and directed the comedy-horror ‘Severance’.



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