Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I can't even begin to understand why these reviews are trying to compare the Princess and the Warrior with Run Lola Run. Those movies have two completely different story lines and are in two completely different genres. They are nothing alike and have nothing to do with each other. RLR is more of an action movie while TPW is more of a twisted romance if you will. That said, I thought this movie kept me interested. Instead of having your normal textbook romance movie, you have something that feels more realistic with a deeper connection between the couple. I've seen Franka and Benno in several movies, but I think this was their best performance to date. For people not understand his background to do a life saving procedure in the film, that's easy. His character was an ex soldier experienced in war and combat.

The Princess and the Warrior (2000): Dir: Tom Tykwer / Cast: Franka Potente, Benno Furmann, Joachim Krol, Lars Rudolph, Ludger Pistor: Provocative German film about the events that unite two people. It stars Franka Potente as a young nurse at a psychiatric clinic. Benno Furmann robs gas stations and is pursued by police. During the chaos Potente is struck by a truck and Furmann performs an emergency tracheotomy in a scene that is unnervingly graphic. She recovers and seeks his whereabouts and eventually tracks him down at a hideout with his brother. She is rejected but turns up again during a bank robbery where consequences are much more severe. Detailed screenplay that flashbacks to the fate Furmann's wife and the reason his brother awakens to find him caressing a hot furnace stove. Insightful directing by Tom Tykwer with a sympathetic performances by Potente who is intrigued and cares too much. Furmann plays off regret and grief. One wonders whether the conclusion is satisfactory with regards to the future of this relationship. Joachim Krol plays his brother who looks out for him until he can no longer. Lars Rudolph plays an overprotective patient who cannot maintain the focus sought for the situation. Conclusion is wayward yet it is an insightful analysis about mental instability and the consequences living in the edge. Score: 8 / 10

Tom Tykwer is certainly one of the most imaginative and creative film makers in the world today. He wrote and directed this one two years after his famous RUN LOLA RUN (1998) with the same star, the mesmerising Franka Potente. This one is set in his home town of Wuppertal, Germany. Miss Potente, as usual, is very potent indeed, so potent in fact that one is entirely spellbound just watching her to see what she will do next. This film is so unpredictable, so complex, so mysterious, that it might be described as 'Symbolist' (see Paul Valéry's essay 'The Existence of Symbolism' which he wrote in 1936). If I had been told it had a script by Stéphane Mallarmé, I would believe it. All the events are richly-textured, like a fine cheese which has just turned ripe. Who are all these people, and why do they behave as they do? Potente is a nurse at an insane asylum, but late in the story, when an exasperated Benno Fürmann says she is crazy, she answers with her eerie calmness: 'Natürlich' ('Certainly'). In fact, we discover that she has been working in the asylum for years because her father is an inmate there. What she discovers about the true cause of the death of her mother is part of the surprises. She has long since ceased to be part of the real world. She claims to have been born in the asylum, and it is possible that she was. In any case, the film demonstrates that there are degrees of sanity and insanity, and where you draw the line can be subjective. The film consists of one shocking dramatic moment after another, and there are some frenetic running scenes as well, reminiscent of RUN LOLA RUN. Tykwer seems to love people who run. He also likes people who get soaked in the rain, nearly drown in ponds, get unexpectedly socked in the jaw, chew on glass, get strapped in to stop them committing murder because they have been ordered to do so by a voice which is 'ganz oben' ('of the highest'), and who continually encounter as many extreme situations as possible. Early in the film, Potente is knocked over by a bus and Fürmann saves her life by giving her a tracheotomy, grabbing a straw from a blind man, and inserting it into her chest so she can breathe. She then becomes 'imprinted' on him like a baby duck who thinks he is her mama. This leads to her insistently following him around until he accepts the dictates of Fate that they must be together. To say that all the characters in the film are strange would be an understatement. Underlying the action we have themes like the true nature of love, guilt, fear, redemption, salvation, sanity and insanity, and other 'meaning of life' issues. It makes for a heady mix of surrealist philosophy and action as frantic as that of a Dada manifestation. The directing and cinematography are superb. Everything about this film is utterly fascinating. Tom Tykwer must be even more so.

Tom Tykwer is a director whose movie Run Lola run made him famous around the world.Run Lola run is a very dynamic movie which had some innovative things which made it better than a lot of action films.It would have been very easy if Tykwer made more movies like Run Lola run,but he decided to take another way with serious movies like The princess and the warrior(the movie I'll talk about on this commentary),Heaven and Perfume.The best thing about The princess and the warrior is the excellent photography it has.The photography gives aspects about the characters.Franka Potente and Benno Furmann give excellent performances.The expressions these two actors make are simply phenomenal.The movie has a slow development but it's never boring.The princess and the warrior is a very good movie with honest emotions and great performances.Tom Tykwer is a very interesting director.