User reviews

In Germany, the elder Frau Traude Krueger (Monica Bleibtreu) gives piano classes in a prison for a few prisoners and the security guard Mütze (Sven Pippig). When she sees the rebel and aggressive Jenny Von Loeben (Hannah Herzsprung) playing piano, she immediately identifies her potential and offers to teach her for a competition. Frau Krueger finds that Jenny was a prodigy when she was a child; abused when she was a teenager and has been imprisoned for murdering and decapitating a man. Along the period they work together preparing for the exhibition, Frau Krueger discloses secrets about her love in World War II while the self-destructive Jenny has four minutes of glory and recognition of her talent.

"Vier Minuten" is another powerful and engaging German movie, disclosing the story of two women having nothing in common but their passion for music and tormented souls. The non-linear beginning is quite confused, but provocative and intriguing (I saw this movie on DVD and I watched the first chapters again to get a better understanding); however, after ten minutes, the story becomes intelligible with the development of the characters, supported by magnificent performances and wonderful cinematography. The story is deep and touching, and viewers that enjoy superficial Hollywoodian fairy tales may not like this dense drama developed in low-pace. Monica Bleibtreu and the lovely Hannah Herzsprung have top-notch performances that deserved nomination to the Oscar. The conclusion is thrilling and heartbreaking, and will probably make the eyes of sensitive viewers wet. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Quatro Minutos" ("Four Minutes")

I am still feeling quite spellbound, after seeing the film "Vier Minuten" this evening! The director's

opening sequence, with skillful use of silence and a relatively slow pace, immediately caught my attention. The photography was excellent and the acting superb. The story, although slightly contrived, was engaging. I feel that the subplot was not really connected to the main story and could have been developed further. The music was most enjoyable, but I feel that, although music features to a large extent in the film, it is not meant to be a showcase for the music, but rather as a tool to explore the relationship between Frau Krueger and Jenny. This is exceptionally well depicted and the acting absolutely brilliant!

I feel that there is a great depth to this film, which probably needs more analysis than I have had time to give it. I should like to see the film again and wish I could see a version without sub-titles. It is so tempting to peek, thereby missing all the nuances of the wonderful characterizations.

I would recommend this film to anyone interested in intelligent acting and who wants to be able to reflect on a film's deeper meaning, rather than just be superficially entertained. I enjoyed "Vier Minuten" and although it was set in a rather grim environment, I found it uplifting, rather than depressing!

Vier Minuten left me admiring a young actress, respecting our cultural achievements, and pondering freedom and what part music and literature plays in dividing us from the animal kingdom. Yes, I think this movie is a statement of cultural development in relationship to physical, mental, and emotional stress, anger, hatred, cruelty, and violence.

That is the Conflict theory of social progress.

It reminds me of all the rebellious youth who had something shocking, abrasive, antisocial, and yet astonishing to say in a new format. Hail, hail, rock and roll, Hip-Hop, Punk, Goth, New Wave, Rap, Swing, Jive, Big Band, and even Classical. We have come a long way since the days of Turlough O'Carolan or Steven Foster.

The plot is not as simple as you might think. Two women, both gifted, both abused and injured as youths, both driven. A father seeking redemption at the end of his life... a vast array of opponents meaning to deter hope and subdue expression. Movies have been built on oppression and hardship for a long time. It makes for a great story (like Purple Rain, for example).

Beauty and the beast... continuance, salvation, rebirth, dignity... you could ponder the factors of this movie for some time. The music itself is meant only to be representative, not sterling, and you must remember the settings. I found the opening hard rock song of the piano being transported to the prison absolutely fantastic, and the finale innovative, and yet reminiscent of the "Acid Freak Concerts" of the late 60s, oddly enough. Listen to The Rolling Stones - "Their Satanic Majesties Request", 1967. Maybe they even used the same piano and the strings in the same way. However, I won't tell you how this one ends....

Nevertheless, make no mistake: Hannah Herzsprung's performance throughout the movie is absolutely stunning, for lack of a better word. You will not forget it.

I had a great deal of trouble tracking down a copy of this movie, since DVD copies are hard to find. In the end, I was really glad I took the time, and now, I am tracking down the CD soundtrack as well... yes, I think it is well worth seeing the movie, and owning the music too.

If it only reminds us how to curtsey, and rebel at the same time....

I saw this last year at a screening by the Desert Film Society. Director/writer Chris Keaus shows promise in this, only his second film. The film is set in a German penitentiary and revolves around two central characters, Traude Krüger (Monica Bleibtreau), an elderly spinster who is a piano teacher at the prison and working long past her retirement age and Jenny Von Loeben (Hannah Herzsprung). a young woman serving time on a murder conviction. Jenny is also a a naturally gifted pianist under her gruff demeanor who Krüger wants to tame long enough to enter her in a piano competition to give a four minuter recital in a prestigious concert hall before an affluent audience. Krüger lives and teaches order and conformity and comes from a past where the Nazi's were about order and conformity in their world of fascism and she had to adapt to that world while suppressing her the non-conformity of her lesbianism. Jenny has a violent temper and comes from a world of childhood abuse and has lived a life of disorder and non-conformity while suppressing the order and conformity of her protégé talent. Jenny likes modern music and the modern rhythms and passion of the street and experimental music scene while Krüger hates modern music. Ironically the piece Krüger has chosen for Jenny's recital is by German composer Robert Schumann who's own approach to music incorporated rhythm that was considered daring for it's day. Director/writer Kraus may have thrown in another little ironic tie-in to Schumann where a guard at the prison has a young daughter named Clara who Krüger had no patience with because she wouldn't curtsy. Schumann's wife and great love of his life was named Clara. This is a film that keeps your interest throughout but the screenplay has lots of gaps and implausible scenarios and runs a little long but despite its flaws, the two fine acting performances by Bleibtreu and Herzsprung are certainly noteworthy and I would recommend the film and give it a 7.0 out of 10.

Really excellent film - the two leading ladies give stella performance as an elderly piano teacher (with some interesting secrets left over from German war times) and as a young, brilliant, but disturbed, pianist.

The backdrop of a women's prison and its local dramas and characters is a fascinating stage as their relationship develops their pasts come influence their actions and trust is built. (And no, it is not one of those touchy, feely Hollywood set-ups, this has real depth).

The "4 minutes" the title refers to, is a film sequence which I personally found incredible, I still get gooseflesh down my back when I think back to it. The audience in the cinema I saw it spontaneously burst in to applause at the end of the 4 minutes.

All in all a thoroughly worthwhile film, although there is quite a bit of German history, some knowledge of this would be of use and I am not sure how it would translate from the original German. Some excellent comedy intersperses the intensity of the drama – but all credit must go to the main actors. Really good – go see it..

4 Minutes (2006)

This is the German "Four Minutes" and it's an intense look at a woman's prison and a prisoner who has a gift for playing piano. And then about an older woman who had some undisclosed issues in her past (during WWII) and is now steadfastly teaching piano in the prison. Music contests come along, and the inmate fights all the odds to compete.

That's the surface. Deeper and more interesting are the troubled psyches of the two leads, the younger woman vitriolic and intense (and quite believable), the older woman steely and cold and almost cruel. That they come to terms with one another is a given, sort of (that's what movies typically do), but how that turns on a couple of spectacular (and a little sensationalist) twists at the ends is pretty rousing.

There is great music, conflicts with Nazi and racist overtones, lesbianism, and of course, a rough and tumble prison world in contemporary Germany. That's enough for any good film. It makes it moving and the high stakes are somehow justified by the intense acting. It breaks conventions within a larger cliché of the heroine struggling against the odds. It has an odd and disturbing element about innocence, and this leads further into the psychology of the inmate, but it isn't quite resolved.

But it's all really interesting and provocative. You will probably cheer a little by the end, too.

An elderly spinster piano teacher in a womens prison,Mrs.Kruger, takes one of the inmates,Jenny,under her wing.The teacher loves music but can't connect with people.Jenny is young and absolutely gifted,but hates playing because it brings back a personal trauma from her past.The teacher tries to teach the student about respect,whilst the student reminds the teacher what it's like to be young and emotional.

There are sub plots concerning both of their respective past personal lives but basically,it is just about two characters from vastly different generations and backgrounds who form an uneasy alliance in a harsh environment,and both of them benefit from the experience.

Keep a box of tissues handy because the film is an emotional roller-coaster.I have no doubt that if they remade this in Hollywood with A-list stars, (which they probably eventually will),that it would clean up at the Oscars.But I guarantee that it would not be as good as this movie.

Four Minutes (Vier Minuten) is actually about 110 minutes,and pretty much every one of them is worthy.A must see movie.

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......

The women's prison in Germany in which this film is set is a place of bullying and beatings, of despair and suicide, of boredom, football and ping-pong. In these grim surroundings an elderly visiting piano teacher collides with a wild inmate serving a life sentence for murder and harbouring an extraordinary talent for piano. Traude and Jenny are polarised personalities from the moment that they meet; again and again their differences boil up and threaten Jenny's entry into a young pianist competition. Their path is troubled further by the hostility of prison inmates and staff alike, including Kowalski, an emasculated prison guard played by Richy Muller, and the reappearance of Jenny's father, which dredges up terrible memories.

Through confrontation of demons past and present, both Traude and Jenny begin to delve into the other's background, revealing the reality beyond the ossified teacher and the abominable student. Traude's history is illuminated through flashbacks to the Second World War, but although these scenes are well choreographed and filmed, they fit awkwardly at best into the main narrative and encroach upon a sterling performance by Monica Bleidbtrau. The details of Jenny's life are left scarce and tantalising, which plays to Hannah Herzsprung's performance, by turns angry and beautiful, scary and charming.

This film is graced by some excellent pieces of classical music, at least from my standpoint as a layperson in the classical music world. The musical and dramatic highlight comes at the film's climax – the Four Minutes of the film's title, which features a stunningly original composition, encapsulating the turmoil of the previous two hours and leaving a vivid and lasting impression.

I first saw Hannah Herzsprung in The Reader. It was a nice filler part. I saw her recently in The Baader-Meinhoff Komplex. It was a brief part, but very emotionally powerful. In Vier Minuten I found her performance astounding. It reminded me of Klaus Kinsi's performance in his Jesus Erloeser monologue. Hannah expresses a performance in Vier Minuten that completely makes me believe the frustration of a young woman permanently placed in prison. She has been convicted of murder. I was able to see the sorrow of being in that place, and found compassion for the circumstances. I did experience a sense of apprehension as I viewed the film. It comes down to the energy of the performance Hannah expresses. Don't take this film lightly. It is straight forward and brutally honest.

This movie was suggested to me by my colleague. It is a German movie made by a former journalist and illustrator Chris Kraus.

The story is about a young girl Jenny von Loeben (Hannah Herzsprung) who is a genius piano player but convicted of killing his abusive father and hardened to emotional attachments. Her only contact to life is music. Traude Kruger (Monica Bleibtreu) takes up the job of teaching the unruly Jenny by strict methods. The story is about how both of them find a bond with each other through small trivia of conflicts, fights and lots of emotional scenes. There is a flashback of Truade's mysterious past that associates her emotional bond with Jenny. (I would not reveal much of that to keep the suspense) There is a usual prison villain who stops Jenny from achieving her dream, but Jenny is motivated by Traude to perform on stage for four minutes (the title of the movie) a brilliant piece of solo music with African folk-music touch.

Debutant Hannah has performed very well as psychotic young convict and Monica fits perfectly in the strict and severe teacher's role. There are too many dramatic scenes that I personally found a bit clichéd in the narration and emotions too.

The music is fantastic by Annette Focks. The last four minutes musical piece though brilliant is not extremely memorable as I had expected.

The Writer and Director Chris Kraus has done a commendable job in framing the script that has right notes of emotions, cinematography and music.

The movie has already won 15 awards and I think would win a few more.

A good movie.

(Stars 6.5 out of 10)

I won't bore you with many words on this film: just go and see it. it is incredible. when I saw it at the cinema, at the end people clapped hands like in a theater. DON'T MISS IT.

the old and very severe Traude Krueger gives piano lessons in a prison and happens to notice the solitary, violent and rebellious but extremely talented Jenny and decides to make her participate (and surely win) in a piano competition facing all the problems of jenny's state as a prisoner and of their relationship (passing from indifference and not-liking each other to appreciation and a sort of friendship). the film alternates the present events and scenes from the also tormented past of the old teacher during the Nazi period. it shows the importance of not only punishing prisoners but the need of rehabilitation, of giving them a target, a dream in their otherwise useless lives.

'Four Minutes' tells the story of the clash of two women of iron will: one a convicted murderer, the other an aged piano teacher. There's a lot to like in the premise, but the film never completely transcends it; and there's a certain quantity of pointless time-shifting (two scenes shown in a scrambled chronological order) which failed, from my perspective, to add anything to the film. What I did like was the absence of easy answers: two damaged people connect, but only a little, and never well enough to wholly bridge the gulf between them; and although there's a conventional, contest-focused storyline, the film is never just about who will win, even if it never truly reaches the depths it aspires to.

What a great movie ! I almost cried in the end . A must watch ! A must must watch. FANTASTIC LAST FOUR MINUTES

This movie just left me dizzy for two days after seeing it - I did not know how to really feel about it or its morale (if there was indeed any), I could not pinpoint what touched be so strongly, all I can say that this movie had really heavy impact on me. There is something incredibly charming about the main characters and their extreme circumstances is what gives the film the force to punch through all your shells and find the right strings of your soul to play on.

Frankly, this movie actually has several major weak points - especially the script is full of so many gaping holes and the scenes fit together just barely for the plot to roughly work on the global scale. But this is the kind of movie where you just don't really care how believable the story is as long as you can follow it through: you just want to embrace yourself in the massively dark atmosphere built by excellent visuals and unforgettable music. I guess the only superlative left to describe the acting of the two main actresses is "awesome"...

This movie makes for a very dark watch, with few quite violent scenes - but if you think you can handle it, be sure to go for it if you get your hands on it. Normally, with so problematic script I wouldn't give a movie more than 6/10, but here the rest works together so well that I can't make myself to give less than 9.

I guess this movie is specially interesting for people who love music, good acting and intelligent stories. Two women, and old piano teacher and a young prodigy girl (the girl happens to be in prison and she is in a very, very bad mood, as you could expect) got involved in a relationship of teaching and learning. But this is not the typical movie about how music could save souls and make everybody happy and cheerful at the end, against all odds: complicated people and complicated problems remains complicated, of course, and music is a window to our tormented souls, not a sleeping pill or a wonderful happiness-tonic. Highly recommended. Specially the young actress who plays Jenny, a wild beauty with incredible eyes and full of passion.

Tic Tac, Tic Tac, Tic Tac, Tic Tac…The clock is ticking and you are about to spend the next four minutes reading this text. what is the importance of four minutes? For some people is perhaps a short break at work, a quick lunch or some demonstration of love. But for Jenny von Loeben it is the whole world. Four minutes where she demonstrates what is an artist made of, that the mind of a genius know no bounds and that passion is the most valuable fuel that on earth you can find.

When madness and creativity collides, when violence flirts with talent, you get a human being that is raw and real as it gets. You can perceive by yourself how each piano key touch hides behind the deepest feelings a human could have inside. You notice with each sound how your body starts to levitate and your soul shines brighter tan the sun.

If a masterpiece should contain the elements to change your perception of reality, you only need four minutes to make that happen. So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading and get ready for 112 minutes that are going to twist your world inside out.

I don't say it's a masterpiece, but I guess you don't disagree if I affirm it's a movie presented to disturb, to throw into confusion stereotypes and clichés: it declare that someone who has passion and aptitude must be encouraged and help to cultivate his own skills; it also shows an important thing, too often forgotten: as a paradox, you can be obstruct by someone (here her father) who wants to all costs you will be a successful artist. In Monica's mind are produced several lacks of balance: at the age of twelve, she decides to not continue playing the piano, her relationship with her father is cracked, and through some happenings she is imprisoned (unfairly?) in a female prison, where a talented lady gives piano lessons to the prisoners. The two woman will share a piece of their lives, until discovering they are not so different... I've found a bit simple dialogues, perhaps too artful but it is a well-made story which let a bitter taste in one's mouth. Inuseful any comment about musics: Beethoven, Bach don't need introduction, but bad recorded unfortunately.