Wir sind die Nacht

Germans tried to create their own Vampire franchise with "We are the Night" with mixed results. Compared with any of the TWILIGHT movies; this looks like a masterpiece; but with really great movies like NOSFERATU (in any of its version) this is just a clichéd movie with a few original ideas.

The most interesting things are dialogs which based on my very limited German and subtitles seemed really smart. Another is that even when vampires are only women and there is a lot of lesbian innuendo; the movie is far from exploitative. There is no feminine nudity, no sexual scenes and a very PC moral message (here, nobody is happy to be a vampire). Even violence in the movie is more suggested than shown (there are a few brief strong scenes ; but mostly for the surprise effect ) . Lena, a minor delinquent is converted by Lena; an old bored vampire looking for her great love. Louise has two other vampires girlfriends; all living like "Sex and the City" in Berlin. An excess of glamour and luxury just to cover their empty lives. Lena is not very happy with her unwanted changes; particularly because she has a certain interest in a policeman; something forbidden by Louise for two reasons; he does not want men and even less policemen. There is not much more happening. The first act is strong but after Lena conversion, the second act looks extracted from "SEX AND THE CITY". The drama could have been really interesting if we knew something about each woman; but aside from a few dialogs and little back story about one of them; the others are pretty much a mysteries nobody cares to solve. The third act is more action driven and it is very effective with just the necessary amount of special effects in order to get things realistic. In brief; it is not a bad movie; but considering it comes for the country that re-invented cinema and the vampire genre; it is below expectations.

As a film, it's a nice one. As a genre - a modern vampire - flick, it might easily deserve a full tenner. It's one of the most intelligent, mature (no pun intended on the ladies, who have had about 300 years to ripe), technically apt movies about the life of a vampire in the modern world. The story might be only so-so, but the solid actors, the production values, the direction and the overall classy look of the outcome more than compensates for the (very slight) shortcomings of the structure. Basically a lesbian love (or lust) story, it never gets sappy or lame, whether dealing with girl-on-girl or straight passion. It's quite different from American vamp flicks (True Blood bares similarities in the overall mood), especially those vamp flicks, which pretend to be European. Wie sind die Nacht is a solid piece of good entertainment without most of the clichés of a traditional 'I suck your blood' romp. It's a vampire film, which never once mentions the word 'vampire'. My only negative complaint would be the appearance of Charlotte (the utterly gorgeous Jennifer Ulrich): why do we always assume, that a vampire sort of gets stuck to the fashion of the era he/she was actually young in? Look at Tom Cruise in The Vampire Chronicles: the guy has been around for - what? 250 years? And he NEVER gets tired of ruffs, laces and buckled shoes? Never once ventures to try out jeans, fishnet shirts, disco boots, zoot suits --- no?! I mean come on! - a vampire, if anyone, should be willing to always change its appearance, for the sake of sheer boredom! Yet, Charlotte, who was made a vampire in 1923, never outgrows the Charleston dress, even though she is a remarkably pretty dish. Hard to believe. But hey, the ladies have killed off all the male vampires in the world, so they may very well wear what ever they desire. Enjoyable!

In We Are The Night, a girl, Lena, living on the street and stealing catches the eye of a vampire queen, Louise. Louise is always looking for her soulmate and thinks she can identify her by looking at her eyes. Her previous conquests were Nora a fun young girl and Charlotte a classy girl.

Also catching the eye of Lena is a cop looking to arrest her. But Lena outsmarted him and he fell for her. One night Lena is turned into a vampire by Louise and joins the group. The girls, immortal and rich, just live a life of fun, pleasure, and games. They race exotic cars in the city at night, go shopping in a mall all for themselves, dance in their club. Despite this life of opulence, Lena isn't all that thrilled about consuming blood and killing people. She does enjoy the powers of a vampire- super strength and the ability to defy gravity. But the cop doesn't give up and tries somewhat successfully to seduce her.

This will lead to the cops getting on the trail of the vampire clan, which was responsible for massacring some mobsters.

We Are The Night is a great title for a vampire movie, and the movie is also great. Unlike 95% of vampire movies in the last 15 years, it's not offensive to fans of the genre. It's a real cool, very stylish, and erotic vampire movie full of fantastic actions scenes. This day and age it's harder and harder to impress with action scenes but this movie does it. And the vampires, crawling, walking, and fighting on walls and ceilings looks excellent. The cast is outstanding. Nina Hoss' Louise in particular is very interesting, she's mature but attractive and has something animalistic about her. Anna Fischer's Nora is innocent, fun, playful, yet vicious. Jennifer Ulrich's Charlotte is distinguished and classy, she likes to smoke using cigarette holders and read books but is very deadly when necessary. This movie features the nastiest paper cut ever. Direction is first rate and the locations in and around new and old Berlin are quite unique.

But unfortunately, We Are The Night has to take the moralistic turn 3/4 of the way into it. That's when the "good" guys catch up with the "bad" guys and you know the outcome. The editing cold have been better. The ending still is surprising and interesting but vampires have always been the more interesting and sympathetic characters than the regular and boring humans. This movie should turn into a franchise, not sure how, but fans of vampire movies deserve a We Are The Night II.

The vampires Louise (Nina Hoss), Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) and Nora (Anna Fischer) arrive in Berlin after attacking the passengers and crew of an airplane in a flight to Paris. The leader Louise has been looking for centuries for her missed love and Charlotte misses her daughter that she saw in 1923 for the last time. Meanwhile, the smalltime pickpocket Lena (Karoline Herfurth) steals a Russian mobster and is chased by Detective Tom (Max Riemelt).

When Lena goes to a nightclub, the lesbian Louise believes that Lena is the love of her life and transforms her into a vampire. Lena initially feels lost with the transformation, but sooner she joins the trio of vampires in their nightlife. When the pack of vampires attacks a group of criminals, the police department investigates the case and hunts the women without knowing the risks that they are taking. Meanwhile the lonely Tom and the Lena fall in love with each other; but the unrequited love of Lena for Louise jeopardizes the couple.

"Wir Sind die Nacht" is a pleasant vampire movie, with action, humor, drama and romance. The beginning is a sort of tribute to Nosferatu and Dracula of Bram Stoker, with the female vampires killing the passengers and crew of an airplane the same way Nosferatu and Dracula do with the crew of the ship that arrives at Wismar without any living soul.

The plot is very well constructed and actually dramatic and mature, on the contrary of most of the American films of the genre. The actresses are very beautiful and talented; the cinematography and the camera work are magnificent and in the end, I loved this film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "As Donas da Noite" ("The Owners of the Night")

Note: On 26 January 2015, I saw this movie again on Blu-Ray.

Before I begin I will have address the fact that this film has been compared to Twilight a lot in reviews. This is film has very little to do with Twilight. Just because a vampire film has teenagers and vampires in it does not make it a Twilight rip. There where romantic teen- vampire flicks before Twilight( The Lost Boys, Near Dark). It's not an invention of Twilight.

The plot revolves around three decadent and wealthy vampire girls. They move around in Berlin at night in search for blood and pleasure. Their leader Louise(Nina Hoss), is also looking for that special lady, the one you want to spend your entire life together with. This special lady turns about to be dysfunctional youth criminal Lena(Karoline Herfurth).

Louise turns Lena into a vampire and introduces her to the life as a vampire, a life Lena enjoys at first until she has to deal with the disturbing side effects.

First I want to bring up the good things about this movie. The atmosphere is great and the cinematography in simple gorgeous. It's a real treat for the eye and we get lots of very slick and beautiful visuals. The most beautiful scene is Lena's transformation into a vampire when her inner beauty is set free.

Another thing this movie does well is the portrait of vampire life. It often happens in modern vampire films that you get to much of the good side of vice versa, but in best Interview with the Vampire style we get a balanced portrayal. Sure, immortality is great, you can party all night and never grow old and die but all the people you love will grow old and die while you stay the same. If you find a mortal that you really love you can't be with him because of risk you might kill him in the heat of the moment. This is portrayed very well through vampires Charlotte( the very talented Jenny Ulrich) and Nora( the lovely Anna Fischer) who are most well written and well acted characters in the film. Both of them have very heartbreaking scenes in the second half of the movie but I won't tell you more than that.

Other than that, the special effects are done well and the music is great. The soundtrack is filled with great songs that not only add to the atmosphere but works as a Greek chorus, commenting on the plot and the feelings of the characters.

Gansel's directing is outstanding. Following the "show, don't tell" principle he allows his actors to often do the most emotional scenes without dialog. Instead, the looks on the actors faces tells the emotional turmoil behind them. The effect is wonderful. One strange result however is that the word "vampire" is never mentioned. The movie is so good at making us understand that is does not have to.

The negative parts on the other hand is the romance between Lena and Officer Tom(Max Riemelt) I could buy that these people care for one another cause the film builds it up to that in a fine way, but that they fall in love? No, I don't buy that. It douse not feel like there is any hint at romance. As I said, it's oblivious they could and should care for each other but a romance seemed to be forced in by the producers. The relationship between Lena and Tom is to undeveloped for that.

Also, without spoiling anything, the ending was a bit rushed and could have lasted a little longer. It comes off as much weaker than the rest of the film. But it does not destroy the rest of the film.

There is not much violence. Most of it is off-screen deaths and dead, bloody bodies. There is a not graphic bite, but there is also one very graphic scene where Charlotte takes paper cut to a new level. That will sure to satisfy the gore hounds and is the best death in a vampire-movie since the lawn gnome-scene in Frostbitten.

Wir sind die Nacht does not really add anything to the vampire mythology, but has it's fair place within it. The vampires are beautiful, but deadly as it should be. Don't ask for originality( the only one you get is the fact that the girl vampires of the world have killed off all the vampire men), but expect a nice and great looking thrill ride. Wir sind die Nacht also has a great re-watch value which is always a huge plus.

The cinematography reflects the damaged characters. Just as they may appear glamorous they are really hurt inside.Torsten Breuer films the night scenes in vivid and spectacular color while the day scenes are shoot in a way that makes the light of the sun seem cold and the city of Berlin look dirty and not glamorous at all. When brought into light, we see what how tragic these characters are. There are no villains, just damaged people who needs love, but that is denied from them.

In 1979, Werner Herzog showed that Germany knew their vampires, and in 2010 Dennis Gansel shows they still does.