Les rêveurs

This movie pictures the life of five characters connect by a car accident in a snowing road, provoked by the projectionist Rene (Ulrich Matthes) and the broken farmer Theo (Josef Bierbichler). Rene is a kind of melancholic intellectual, who has amnesia problem and takes picture of the most important events of his life to recall them. One night he drinks too much and steals the car of the ski trainer Marco (Heino Ferch) just for fun. Due to a lack of attention of Theo on the road, there is a dreadful accident, when his young daughter is seriously hurt in the head. She is sent to a hospital without the necessary resources for such a case, but she is unable to be transferred to another suitable place due to the bad weather and her conditions. The nurse in charge of the young girl is Laura (Marie-Lou Sellen), an anorexic woman full of problems and inferiority complex due to her body, who lives in a house inherited from her grandmother with her friend Rebecca (the delicious and sexy Floriane Daniel). Rebecca works in translation, usually wears red colored clothes and has a kind of engagement (indeed their relationship is limited to sex) with Marco. He is a typical unfaithful male man, sexually chasing the women trained by him and being an empty person. The story is a kind of metaphor with the cycle of life, through the lives of five persons with different attitudes and behavior, who are linked by an incident, having death and birth but with life going on. The direction and the performance of the cast are excellent and the photography is wonderful. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Winter Sleepers – Inverno Quente' (`Winter Sleepers – Hot Winter')

An absolutely stylish movie! If style is what counts for you, go watch it and start praising Tom Tykwer for his wonderful way of making movies. Tykwer has a respectable sense of colours and he is a master of conveying moods and a notion of drama to his audience. The reason why I do not like his movies is that there is nothing about them which gives them the right to be stylishly dramatic. The stories are simple and not particularly interesting but Tykwer makes us believe they are something special. The moment you realize this is not true marks a rather big disappointment.

Winterschläfer has some greatly filmed scenes and pictures, particularly when it comes to combining the beautiful white snow with the very full colours of the characters' cars or clothes. But it's a real pity that these scenes and pictures appear in such a third-rate, meaningless film. The background bears no relation to the magnitude of the pictures. It's the same as with Tykwer's next movie, the world-wide blockbuster Run Lola Run.

Admittedly, Tykwer has chosen good actors for this film. Some of them, like Josef Bierbichler, struggle with the terrible screenplay but others, especially Marie-Lou Sellem interprete it in a convincing and fascinating way.

This is the first I have seen of Tom Tykwer's work. In a word, outstanding. This movie has all the necessary elements for a successful production and ensures a completely entertaining evening. The opening (and what an opening!) sets the mood..... A chilly landscape of deep snow with helicopter shots racing across treetops heavily weighed down with a recent fall.....And the music with its tremulous monotone suggests impending drama. I wait expectantly.....

Into the picture comes Rene. At first glance an odd-looking guy who suffers from a kind of amnesia. He knows his name and where he lives but can't remember anything else. That's why he photographs every little incident to jog his memory. Laura who works as a hospital nurse agrees he's a bit weird but is fascinated just the same. You get the feeling he's up to something.

Her friend Rebecca, an attractive blond who works as a translator is having trouble with her boy friend Marco. He's so possessive. They congregate in Laura's house where much of the dialogue takes place. Rebecca and Marco are continually arguing, falling in and out of love. These scenes are exceptional.

In some strange coincidence these four characters are in one way or another involved in the aftermath of a serious accident involving two cars swerving on the slippery highway. In one of the cars a farmer who is taking his horse float to the vet. is knocked unconscious. Later he is unable to convince the police that a second car was involved. So he sets out on a mission to find the other car and the man responsible for the death of his daughter who died in hospital as a result of the accident.

Marco the skiing instructor has an eye for the girls and there are some exciting scenes on the ski slopes as they engage the treacherous terrain. It's a matter of "Hold tight!" as the skiers disappear into the foggy atmosphere.

The snow bound landscape is for me a most unusual setting for the drama and I enjoyed every exciting minute. The ending left me almost open-mouthed! And I'm not telling!

I have to disagree with the other rather lengthy comment made by a viewer in Germany. This film is hypnotic, powerful and satisfying. One has to be in the right mood for this film. It takes it's time. It is surrounded by snow and muted colors (except one character, Rebecca, is always in red - even her car is red). In a dreamlike state, this film will take you into four different people's lives and see how they intersect through the tragedy of a car accident. I think Twyker is extremely gifted with how he tells a story visually and I was a big fan of his Run Lola Run. He obviously has an attraction to stories about destiny and fate and how life is full of little decisions and moments that mold us or damage us in a blink of the eye. Very well acted film also.

Winter Sleepers, a film Tom Tykwer made before his brilliant Run Lola Run, shows some of his development. A few of the more dramatic shots were things he tried here first. From a technical point of view, the work is excellent: editing, photography, lighting, music, sets and locations were all beautifully delivered. At times, that's enough, but this is both an unrelentingly down story and it's probably about 25 minutes too long...a rough combination. I'm glad to have seen it; I enjoy Tykwer's vision and technical crispness; he knows how to grab your attention powerfully without resorting to cloying tricks like Spielberg. On the other hand, there aren't many people I would recommend Winter Sleepers to. Great work, so-so outcome.