Rising Stars With New Film Tykwer, Potente at Forefront Of New German Cinema by Ky N. Nguyen German film director Tom Tykwer and actress Franka Potente were thrust into the international limelight with the worldwide sensation "Run Lola Run," a lightning-paced thriller illustrating multiple "Rashomon"-like possibilities. "The Princess and the Warrior," like the stories of other Tykwer films, deals with interconnected characters meeting by chance. Potenteís acting career began in such a fabled manner. She was discovered in a bathroom. "Six years ago, I was studying acting in Munich," Potente said in an interview. "I went to a bar. There was a casting agent who stared at me for a while and then followed me to the bathroom. While washing our hands, she asked me, ëHow would you describe yourself?í I said, ëWhat do you mean?í Then all of a sudden, thereís a violin [figuratively playing]. She said, ëI would like to audition you.í I went there. I never heard from her again for months because that project fell apart. But then, by coincidence, a friend of hers, a young director [Hans Christian Schmid], tripped over my tape. Well, I ended up in his movie. That led to Tom seeing the movie and keeping me in mind for ëLolaí which happened two years later. Itís a nice chain reaction because it leads up to the present day." Tykwer called this "one of my favorite stories." "We always say if it had rained, she wouldnít have come to the bar," he said. "It seems now that weíre together, there would have been a million opportunities to find each other. But actually thereís also some truth to the saying that if it had rained, we might not be sitting here. There might not be a ëLolaí movie. I might be bankrupt and frustrated." The success of "Lola" enabled Tykwerís prior film "Wintersleepers" to receive a belated U.S. commercial release. In Germany, Tykwer has gained an almost godlike status. For better or for worse, many have anointed him as the messiah of new German cinema. Potente is fast becoming a crossover English-language star, with roles in the recent American release "Blow" (directed by Ted Demme) and in the upcoming "Storytelling" (directed by Todd Solondz) and "The Bourne Identity" (directed by Doug Liman, whose "Go" was compared with "Lola" because of their structural similarities). After Tykwer and Potente met for the production of "Lola," they became romantically involved. Their latest collaboration, "The Princess and the Warrior," has just opened in Washington, D.C. Potente plays Sissi, a naÔve nurse who becomes injured in a freak accident. Bodo (Benno F¸rmann), an ex-soldier who inadvertently caused the accident, saves her life. Sissi believes Bodo is the man of her destiny, but he has other plans for the moment. Filmfest DC had previously screened "Wintersleepers" and Tykwerís debut, "Deadly Maria." Tykwer and Potente are surprised to learn that Iíve seen "Deadly Maria" and Potenteís performance in "Am I Beautiful?" (directed by Dorris D^rrie, whose "Enlightenment Guaranteed" played theatrically at Visions in February). I explain that local festivals such as Filmfest DC, the Washington Jewish Film Festival, and the Goethe-Institutís New Films from Germany provide decent, if fleeting, exposure of modern German cinema to DC audiences. Tykwer remarked pleasingly, "You know that thereís something happening." Like Tykwerís earlier films, the pacing of "The Princess and the Warrior" is much more relaxed than the frantic "Lola." He noted, "Itís not that you sit down and say, ëLetís make something else other than what weíve done before.í It really happens when you develop something and also when thereís a character that seems to be very much influencing your film. I have a strong belief that the film should definitely be looking for all possibilities to interpret subjectivity. The subjectivity of Sissi is definitely not fast. Youíre kept in a mood where you never know what happens next, so itís never really very slow. We wanted to create something like a slow-motion roller-coaster. Itís moving with a strange, moody feeling that Sissi transports. She takes us into her perspective of how to look at the world. Her perspective is first this, then this miracle, then this fairy-tale forestópursuing things in a dreamy way." According to Tykwer, "Run Lola Run" moves quickly primarily for character development rather than as an aesthetic preference. "Dreams are very fluid while ëLolaí is electroshock therapy. Of course, thatís only inspired by the character. Lola receives this phone call, gets this hysteria, and becomes filled with total adrenaline. Itís not that I wanted to first make a film with high adrenaline, then I made the character like that." During the production of "The Princess and the Warrior," Potente embraced the mind-set of her character Sissi to cope with the difficulties of shooting. "Okay, how high is the wall today that I have to climb? I tried not to think about whatís going to happen next. There were so many challengesófrom jumping off rooftops to lying under a truck for days." Tykwer praises Potenteís endurance: "Yes, she had a tough time in that film. Just look at the physical things she had to go through." Except for one shot with a stunt double, "she did it all by herself." Unlike the character of Lola, Tykwer wrote the part of Sissi specifically for Potente. He says that parts of her personality made it into Sissiís character: "The decisiveness. Thereís a moment when I think Franke can be absolutely, totally determined about something. Usually, it has to be something about which sheís passionate, especially ice cream," and then he laughs. Because of their personal relationship, Tykwer and Potente had a unique professional relationship during the development of "The Princess and the Warrior." "The up side is that youíre around with each other more," Tykwer noted. "During the writing of the screenplay, itís really great to exchange ideas about the character. Itís not so much developed in dialogue but in body language that Sissi expresses." "I think a part of it is probably a greater trust that you have with this person.," Potente pointed out. "Actually, it helped a lot for the movie because I had to do a lot of things that I was scared of and that I knew would probably look very extreme or not necessarily beautiful. I really had a lot of trust. Even if we had not been going out, heís so convincing as a director. Heís just my type of director. He supplies you with everything that you need in a way that doesnít make you suspicious. It was really about the work. It wasnít about anything private really. Benno, who played the Warrior, said the same thing." "The Princess and the Warrior" is set in the hill-and-valley landscape of Wuppertal, Tykwerís hometown, which has rarely been shown on screen besides Wim Wendersís "Alice in the Cities." Tykwer says, "I was really fed up with this idea that German cinema is always represented by Munich, Berlin, Hamburg. Period. Itís like every American film that starts off with a skyline." Most of the population has "had different places to grow up. These places are really interesting. They have the potential for being more personal in the film." Tykwer and Potente join forces again for "Heaven," which is currently being edited. Itís anticipated for release next winter. Ky Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.