| Four Minutes | |
|---|---|
The German theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | Chris Kraus |
| Produced by | Alexandra Kordes, Meike Kordes |
| Written by | Chris Kraus |
| Starring | Monica Bleibtreu Hannah Herzsprung Sven Pippig Richy Müller |
| Cinematography | Judith Kaufmann |
| Distributed by |
EuropaCorp Distribution Senator International |
| Release date(s) | 1 February 2006 April 18, 2008 |
| Running time | 112 min. |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Budget | €1,400,000 |
Four Minutes (German: Vier Minuten), is a 2006 drama film directed by Chris Kraus starring Monica Bleibtreu, Hannah Herzsprung, Sven Pippig, and Richy Müller.
Traude Krueger (Bleibtreu) is working as a piano teacher in a women's prison. While selecting new students, she meets Jenny Von Loeben (Herzsprung). When she tells her she can't follow any lessons because her hands are too rough, Jenny becomes enraged and almost beats the present prison guard, Mütze (Pippig), who is also one of Krueger's students, to death. After doing so, while the other guards are rushing in, she starts playing the piano. Krueger listens from the hallway and, impressed by her talent, later offers Jenny to give her lessons after all. She does however tell Jenny never to play 'that kind of negro-music' again.
It is revealed that Jenny's adoptive father wanted to turn her into a Mozart-like child prodigy when she was young but when she resisted to going to further contests, he started raping her. She is still incredibly talented though and Krueger plans to start playing in competitions again. While practicing, some other inmates become increasingly jealous of Jenny, who doesn't seem to get punished for beating up the guard. Some of the other prison personnel also heavily oppose giving her the freedom to play the piano. However, the prison director sees in this a perfect opportunity to get some positive media attention for his prison, which does ensue.
Against all odds, Jenny manages to reach the finals of a grand piano-concours for players of maximum 21 years of age. During events preceding the competition, she was transferred by Mütze to the cell of her rival inmates. One night, they strap her hands to the bed with some cloth and set them on fire. In a furious reaction, Jenny severely wounds one of the culprits. This leads to her being forbidden to enter the competition. Krueger however learns that Mütze deliberately turned a blind eye so to let Jenny get burned and plays on his conscience. He finally decides to aid her in letting Jenny escape from prison to go play at the competition.
When, after her escape, Krueger and Jenny arrive at Krueger's apartment to get themselves dressed, Jenny learns that Kruger has had contact with her adoptive father. Thinking he arranged all of it, and that Krueger was just being bribed into teaching her, she falls into a fury once more. It is now that Krueger tells her about her own past, how she lost her great love, another woman, during the second world war because she was a communist, and how she also taught her to play the piano.
Krueger is able to convince Jenny to play at the concours where, because the police have come to take her back to jail, she has only four minutes to convince the crowd. She diverts from the original plan of playing a piece of Schumann by playing a unique piece of her beloved "negro-music". When she is finished, the crowd erupts in a standing ovation.
2006
2007