Four Minutes (Vier Minuten) (2006)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Interviews-Cast-At The Movies Interview with Hannah Herzsprung Interviews-Cast-Australian Exclusive Interview with Hannah Herzsprung Theatrical Trailer-Four Minutes Teaser Trailer-Madman Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	110:33 (Case: 112)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Chris Kraus
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Monica Bleibtreu Hannah Herzsprung Sven Pippig Richy Müller Jasmin Tabatabai Stefan Kurt Vadim Glowna Nadja Uhl Peter Davor Edita Malovcic Kathrin Kestler Christian Koerner Amber Bongard
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Annette Focks

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	German Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

With his film, Four Minutes (Vier Minuten), writer/director Chris Kraus has created an engaging drama about two tormented lives that are seemingly distant, but actually have many parallels. While this formula is by no means unique to the world of cinema, Kraus' screenplay has an air of freshness that sustains audience curiosity.

Four Minutes has subsequently earned a solid reputation in its home country of Germany, where it has won major awards at the Bavarian Film Awards and the German Film Awards.

Performances from the entire cast are outstanding, but it's the two leading roles that really make this film shine. Monica Bleibtreu and Hannah Herzsprung (in her first feature) are both faultless in roles that demand authenticity. While the subplots in the film aren't entirely successful, the central focus in the narrative keeps the film on track. There are also moments of unexpected humour, which provides a welcome buffer to all the seriousness.

Eighty-year-old Traude Krüger (Monica Bleibtreu) has dedicated much of her life to teaching piano inside a women's prison. When her program is threatened by falling numbers, the word goes out to recruit a new batch of students. One of the applicants is a young convicted murderer, Jenny von Loeben (Hannah Herzsprung), who makes quite an impression on Miss Krüger in more ways than one.

It is soon revealed that Jenny was a child prodigy, winning many piano contests during her early childhood years. Her musical ability astonishes Miss Krüger , who encourages Jenny to compete in an upcoming national piano contest. The reluctant Jenny agrees and soon the prison hierarchy has the media involved to promote their methods of rehabilitation.

Although both women appear to be worlds apart, they have much in common. Aside from their musical abilities, both are battling inner demons from troubled pasts. This, combined with the volatility of Jenny's personality and a revenge seeking prison warden, prove to be a hindrance to any achievement.

A couple of days out from the competition, an unexpected act of violence grounds Jenny to the confines of the prison. Traude Krüger is now faced with a situation of an undignified failure or does she risk everything to give her student one final chance.

In an era of senseless Hollywood remakes, it would seem that Four Minutes might be a likely target for such treatment - let's hope not.

Video

Four Minutes is presented in the correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which is 16x9 enhanced.

The transfer delivers a reasonable degree of sharpness. Film grain was present in a few darker scenes, but this is almost certainly inherent in the source material. Blacks were clean and shadow detail was consistently good.

The colour palette used in Four Minutes was subdued, which accurately reflects the tone of the film. These colours were well balanced and appeared natural on screen.

There were no MPEG artefacts noticed in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts were well controlled. An instance of very minor aliasing and some edge enhancement was noticed, but this is being pedantic. Film artefacts were virtually non-existent.

The only available subtitles are English. They are easily legible in bold yellow and are also removable.

This DVD is a dual layer DVD 9 disc. The layer change is perfectly placed at 81:08 and was almost impossible to detect without the use of software.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

There is only one audio track on the disc, German Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded (224Kb/s).

Although my comprehension of the German language is next to zero, dialogue quality certainly seems excellent throughout.

There were no apparent problems with audio sync.

The original music score is credited to Annette Focks. Her music integrates well with the many non-original classical pieces used in the film.

Although this DVD edition is sadly lacking a 5.1 audio mix, the use of Pro Logic II provided the surround channels with some really nice effects. Some of the better examples include distant bomb explosions at 22:10 and rolling thunder at 95:54. Naturally, all musical passages also utilised the surround channels.

The subwoofer is reasonably active with bass elements in the music and the occasional effect.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

At The Movies Interview with Hannah Herzsprung (17:16)

This piece comes from the ABC program, At The Movies. It's an informative chat with Hannah, which gives us some insight into her experiences with the film. Of particular interest is how she lied about her ability to play the piano during her audition for the role of Jenny.

Australian Exclusive Interview with Hannah Herzsprung (13:17)

Another interview with Hannah, much of which is doubled up on the information in the first interview. This piece also features footage from the film, which is integrated with the discussion.

Original Theatrical Trailer

Four Minutes (2:13)

Madman Film Trailers

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall