Four Minutes

When someone uses the word “original” to describe a movie, they are talking about movies like Four Minutes. Set in a German women’s prison, this powerful and award-winning film tells the story of the relationship between Jenny, a rebellious and temperamental musical prodigy in jail for murder, and Traude, her 80-year-old piano instructor. It is the complexity of Traude, however – learned through her painful past told in flashbacks and her obvious lonely and depressed current existence - that makes Four Minutes such a unique and moving film.

When we first meet Jenny, it is clear that she is angry about her imprisonment and possibly wrongly accused of her crime. The other inmates treat her terribly and she doesn’t even react when her cellmate commits suicide (other than to steal a cigarette from the corpse). Traude, whom we are introduced to when she arrives at the prison with a new piano for the prisoners, seems equally unhappy and equally cold to those around her. Traude and Jenny meet when Jenny is chosen as one of the piano students. Traude is immediately made aware of Jenny’s hostile instability as she brutally beats a guard who tries to control her but, because of Jenny’s enormous talent at the piano, Traude decides to take her on as a student anyway and enter her in a prestigious competition.  From there the two develop a close and extremely complicated relationship that has moments of warmth, humor (Traude in leather pants is perhaps the best scene in the movie), frustration and often, anger.

The development of the relationship between the two women and their journey together to win the contest takes a backseat, however, when we are given glimpses of Traude’s past. Through periodic flashbacks we learn that she has been at the prison since she was young, and was a nurse and piano instructor there during World War II. We also learn that she had a romantic relationship with a prisoner there, a young woman who was being punished for her ties to a communist group. It is that relationship, and the many controversial aspects of it, that seems to affect Traude in every area of her life and personality. She is an incredibly interesting and thought provoking character who manages to elicit a wide spectrum of emotions from the viewer.

Four Minutes is a very dark but extremely well made film that can be greatly appreciated for its moving performances, its strong character development, and its powerful depictions of the relationships between women - both romantic and those that are much more complex. Overall Cherrygrrl.com gives this film 3.5 cherries.

This film is available through Wolfe Video by clicking here.

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