Customer Reviews

Four Minutes

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not cheerful, and neither of the two main characters are particularly likeable. But, as you find out more about their past, the characters' actions are understandable. We really enjoyed it, and my daughter, who plays piano, was truly inspired by the piano in the movie. I'm not the first to write this, but the four-minute contest piece at the end is incredible. The acting is great. I'm more of a happy-ending type person, and even I have to admit this was a very good movie.
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I'm adding something to my initial review. After I reviewed this film, I noticed that my amazon.com recommendations were full of movies with a lesbian theme. This surprised me, because though one character in "Four Minutes" is lesbian, it's not a theme of the movie as we saw it. It would be too bad if you didn't watch this movie because of pigeonholing by amazon or anyone else. It's a well acted movie with two female leads, one who supresses her pain and rage, the other who lets the rage take over, and the music that brings them together. I very much recommend this movie for the raw emotion and exceptionally well-drawn characters.

What a masterly film! What a shock! The viewer is taken to trippes at heart and shaken in all directions. This film is exceptional. To let be yourself more engrossed by such a film would probably be too much for the nerves, both the intensity is violent, acute, sharp.

How to succeed in giving birth to a prison friendship between two women who have nothing in common except a true passion for the piano with a lot of patience, tenacity and tolerance is btilliantly shown in this film ? What a superb story!

The viewer is not indemn from such a projection. The final "four minutes" of the film is dazzling.

It is a great film issued by the German cinema that never ceases to surprise us with happiness ( "Good-bye Lenin!" Good Bye, Lenin!, "The Lives of Others" The Lives of Others).

Traude Kruger taught piano at a women's prison for more than sixty years. But her inmate Jenny, a convicted killer with a history of beating people for simple amusement, is unique. Once a great musical talent she could be trained to participate in and wine a prestigious piano contest -- despite her prison sentence. Traude's problem is how to inspire Jenny to act out with her music rather than her fists. "Four Minutes" is a riveting story, superbly performed, and the conclusion is truly memorable. The German with subtitles DVD format is enhanced with such bonus features as the Theatrical Trailer, a Widescreen Presentation, Dolby 2.0 Audio sound. Total Running Time: 112 minutes; full color.

12 minutes for me, as I had to hear the ending 3 times.

A beautiful ribbon runs through this film, connecting the beginning to the end. Much is lost in translation, but you don't need the words. Stunning finale.

This is a very nuanced character study of an angry, abused young woman of great talent, and the old woman who tries to help her. Very interesting representation of German society, prison life, abuse and how it turns the abused person against self and others and a deeply felt, if not profound, idea regarding the ultimate meaning of life. Thought provoking. Highly recommended.

So many of the tags are related to sexual identity. This is a very limited focus. The older woman was able to look at the younger objectively as a creative being with some choices that could give her life great meaning. Others, unfortunately mostly men, had all seen her as something to be used. The teachers effort is not a matter of "lesbianism" but of her ability to help her student move forward. To provide her with a vision.

"Four Minutes" may have been based, in part, upon the real person to whom the film is dedicated, one Gertrud Krüger, who passed away in 2004, at 87, and who would have been about the same age as the principal character, the music teacher, "Traude Krüger," at the time her female lover in the story was set to be executed in a Nazi prison near the end of WWII.

The cover picture on the DVD is a misleading, sex-sells, studio redressing, an exaggeration of the story setting and characters. The film, winner of many international awards, is set in contemporary Germany (English subtitles), with flashbacks to the war, and the emphasis is certainly not on sex or the war-time, lesbian love affair of the piano teacher's youth, but rather, how that love and the loss of it shaped her purpose through the rest of her life, and how she saw, in her piano student, Jenny, a unique opportunity to fulfill that purpose: the celebration and cultivation of beauty, proclaimed as she scolded Jenny at a turning point in their relationship, late in the story, rhetorically asking her, "What else are we here for?"

The story centers on the relationship of the spinster piano teacher (Monica Bleibtreu) with her troubled student, Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung), a prison inmate who would be a poster girl for Gothic if she could choose her wardrobe, a victim of child abuse, convicted of a brutal murder, but who, throughout most of her childhood, cultivated her natural gift for music, specifically, playing piano. The two come together as flame to the fuse when the teacher takes her on as one of only four students in the prison's "piano program."

There are few light moments, but they are all-the-more striking for their sparseness. And the story poses questions, unfolds the answers, and invests the viewer in the characters sufficiently to hold interest into the climax, where statements, subtle and bold, of both lead characters are gestured and acted-out with consummate skill, Jenny's musical piece at the final competition, played before a packed concert hall, intended to be "Schumann's Concert in A Minor," turning into a classic-rock mix that is as remarkable for its style as the way it speaks for Jenny, her final bow to her teacher in the audience wrapping up the concert and their relationship, conveying an understanding that is reached between the two with an expression on Jenny's face that lingers in the mind along with the story as the credits roll.

Four minutes is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The story is very close to the reality of prison life today.It is tragic that so many lives are wasted in torturous conditions we think are keeping us "safe".

I usually don't enjoy this type of film but it kept my interest. "Women in prison" are not my forte. The characters were very well done. Not glamorous or pretty but difficult women even for their jailers. Wonderful music. Clever ending. Watch it and enjoy.

I saw this movie just a few minutes ago. American viewers need to keep in mind that there is very little of Hollywood and special effects in this movie. Actually, it is a clear example of how it is still possible to make a movie without a trillion dollar budget. It is an excellent movie from start to finish. The music is exquisite, the camera work is skillful and sufficient given the complexity of the theme and the acting is remarkable. Unlike most German films, this one moves fast and keeps you interested. A must see!
I disagree with the one star critique, although I respect his/her viewpoint. The movie is about a gifted person who has been forced to keep an unusual and complex talent bottled up. Since I am a teacher, I know that a person with these characteristics sometimes only needs a word at the right moment to let her creativity explode.

A story about she-psycho musical talent jailed for love crime a girl had not committed, her family and a music teacher supporting and inspiring young inmate to win a music competition.

Nice music, nice performing and rather a fairytale of lives wasted with gloomy ending of unrealistic actions.

Highly recommended special work.