TIFF 2010 - Three (Drei)

Three (2010) dir. Tom Tykwer
Starring: Devid Striesow, Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper, Senta Dorothea Kirschner, Karl Alexander Seidel

***

By Alan Bacchus

Tom Tykwer returns with a wholly German film, a distinct change of pace. Equal parts comedy, romance and drama but not a romantic comedy, about three people who form a sexual threesome as complicated as it gets in cinema, or in life.

Hanna (Rois) is with Simon (Schipper), a long relationship, yet they remain unmarried and certainly without the sexual spark of old. Hanna meets Adam at a conference on stem cell research, one thing leads to another and well you know. Then Simon meets Adam, by chance, shortly after he has surgery for testicular cancer. In one of the most audacious love scenes of late Tykwer shows Adam court Simon in the change room of the fitness club using Simon’s surgery scar as the first move/icebreaker, then ends the scene with the yuckiest money shot since Crash.

A farsical and supremely entertaining series of deceptions betwen Simon, Hanna and Adam ensue - like a German comedy of errors, which is probably an oxymoron.

I can’t believe this story hasn’t been done before, particularly as a Hollywood romcom. Under Tykwer’s direction he’s constantly battling between taking his characters seriously and exploiting the ridiculousness of the absurd concept. As such the potential of the concept is never quite reached. Other than the coincidental meeting between Adam and Simon, it’s a tight screenplay. Each of the characters act and react as we’d expect considering how complex their knotting situation is.

As usual it’s sharp looking and beautiful images on screen. Tykwer's compositions, camera movement, lighting are pristine and gorgeous. He doesn’t fully abandon the visual or narrative flourishes. There’s extensive split screen usage in a few montage scenes, sequences I could have lived without, but not enough to distract from the core emotions.

The finale is typical of Tykwer and doesn’t disappoint. Tykwer evens the scales on each of his characters, each has equal narrative weight, each one is wrong, each is right. No one’s really to blame for their own action. A perfect circle of accountability. There’s a philosophical completeness to this threesome as well, like three pieces of a puzzle which is incomplete unless all three are together. And in the final glorious scene, Tykwer hits home this metaphor with pure cinematic delight, like only he can.

And as far the rating goes - three stars. could it have been anything else??

THE INTERNATIONAL

The International (2009) dir. Tom Tykwer
Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Ulrich Thomsen, Armin Mueller-Stahl

***

Tom Tykwer is one of cinema's most original and adaptive directors. We all know his visual acuity from "Run Lola Run", but his underrated "Perfume", "Heaven" and even his "Paris Je T'Aime" segment show he has some underused talents screaming to break out into the mainstream. Is The International his break out film?

With little exposition, Tykwer parachutes the audience into the middle of a battle to take down a corrupt international bank. When we meet our hero, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen), he's about to secure a key whistleblower for the case. Unfortunately, within 24 hours the man dies under mysterious circumstances — just the latest setback after years of toil for Salinger.

As Salinger and his lovely partner, NY District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), obsessively investigate the murder of their informant they get closer than ever to breaking the case. But when the fat cats prove to be untouchable it will take actions beyond the law for Salinger to find justice.

Tykwer makes the best of what he's got here. His images are remarkably pristine. His grey and black colour scheme and high-key, high-resolution frames are as sharp as the bankers' Armani suits. And his traditional, locked-off, classically composed shots reminds us that handheld action isn't all that. Suck it, Bourne!

On the page though it's a run-of-the-mill, dime-a-dozen corporate thriller script barely rising above an episode of primetime television. With the timely presence of a bank as the megalomaniacal evil empire in this story, metaphors and relevant political commentaries are ripe for the taking. But aside from Ulrich Thomsen's unintentionally funny line, "you control debt, you control everything," it's all about arms dealing, which makes it feel out of date.

Tykwer's investigation and forensic efforts all seem perfunctory actions to get to the set piece everyone will be talking about: the Guggenheim gunfight. And it's a doozy. A slow but tense walking chase through the streets of NY is capped off when Salinger and his colleagues tail an assassin to the Guggenheim Museum. A breathtaking gunfight ensues reminiscent of Michael Mann's L.A. shoot out in "Heat".

Shortly after, with the audience's adrenaline still pumping, Tykwer converts a marvellous second act turn when he forces Salinger to make a life-changing decision, setting up what should be an intense third act. Unfortunately Tykwer's wrap-up is sloppy, cheating the audience from the rip-roaring climax this film deserves.

The International feels like part two of a trilogy. We yearn to know more about our angst-ridden hero, his back-story with Whitman and the mob story that emerges in the third act. While the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts, Tykwer's skills and Owen's obsessively intense performance trump its scripts failings. I'm ready for a sequel.

The International | Movie Trailers

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) dir. Tom Tykwer
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman

****

WOW. Perfume is an awesome film. Released at the tail end of 2006, it received mixed reviews and didn’t last too long in theatres. With it's DVD release this week, now is the time to discover the film. It’s macabre, amoral, disturbing but engrossing and thoroughly satisfying. It follows the life of a serial killer motivated by his highly sensitive sense of smell. The film is based on Patrick Susskind’s 1985 novel, which was labeled ‘unfilmable’ (by Stanley Kubrick no less). Enter Tom Tykwer, German director of “Run Lola Run” and the beautiful film “Heaven”. Tykwer and his German key creatives have created a masterpiece of genre, horror, and period. It’s an extraordinary experience and a must see.

It’s the mid 1700’s France. Narrator John Hurt describes to us the story of a most unusual child born in the dirty, smelly slums of Paris. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, unwanted from conception, we see him being birthed under a table at a fish market, umbilical cord cut with a skinning knife and kicked aside by his mother assuming it’s a still birth. This scene sets the tone for the film. It’s a dark, surreal fable told with a morbid wink of humour to the audience.

Jean-Baptiste discovers he has the most extraordinary sense of smell. He can smell as good as people can see, discerning shape, size, movement of people and objects. In his teens Baptiste is sold to a Paris tannery where he experiences Parisian life for the first time. The key moment in his life is his first meeting with a woman. The smell of her is so intoxicating he spends the rest of his life in pursuit of capturing the smell. This is where I’ll end the synopsis, because the less you know the better. But I can say that the film gets better and better all the way to the end – especially the end. WOW!

The story unfolds masterfully. Along the way we meet the surprisingly interesting character of Guiseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), Baptiste’s perfuming mentor, who teaches him the trade of recreating and constructing scents from oils and herbs. The challenge of portraying the sense of smell on screen is daunting. Where Susskind could use words to describe the sensation, Tykwer has to rely on sight, sound and performance to make the connection. Tykwer pulls it off thanks in part to the wonderful performance of Dustin Hoffman.

Ben Whishaw is a revelation as the disturbed protagonist. He murders and kills people for his own personal gain yet he’s engaging and likeable. Tykwer effectively sets up his character as damaged, broken down and a product of his environment. So in the most morbid way you sympathize with him. And since the film always retains the wink to the audience you actually want to see him complete his grand plan no matter how high the body count.

Period films are not my bag and though it’s set in 18th century France, “Perfume” is no costume drama. It bristles with pace and energy. But that’s no surprise. “Run Lola Run” set the bar for pace. But don’t get me wrong, the film isn’t style over substance. It’s stylish, but not flashy. Tykwer composes his music effectively as well. He channels the deep gothic murmurs of Richard Wagner performed by the Berlin Philharmonic to great effect.

“Perfume” is very dark and obsessive, but so very satisfying. The most awesome moment is the build up and climax at the end – it reminded me of the finale of “Seven”. Like John Doe’s masterplan, Grenoiulle’s finale hurrah is a sight to behold and is definitely worth the price of admission. Enjoy.

Buy it here: Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer