Winter Sleepers: Amazon.ca: Ulrich Matthes, Marie-Lou Sellem, Floriane Daniel, Heino Ferch, Josef Bierbichler, Laura Tonke, Agathe Taffertshofer, Sophia Dirscherl, Sebastian Schipper, Werner Schnitzer, Saskia Vester, Robert Meyer, Frank Griebe, Tom Tykwer, Katja Dringenberg, Maria K�pf, Stefan Arndt, Anne-Fran�oise Pyszora: DVD

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Tom Tykwer, writer-director of the international hit Run Lola Run, shows a more pensive side with Winter Sleepers. The film examines the lives of five characters in the aftermath of an auto accident. As with Run Lola Run, Tykwer's main concern is with chance and coincidence, and the ways people unwittingly influence the course of each other's lives. Theo, a farmer, sets off to take his horse to the vet, unaware that his daughter is hidden in the trailer. Momentarily distracted, Theo swerves to avoid a sports car coming the other way and crashes into a mountain slope, critically injuring his daughter. The sports car is covered by snow, and René, the driver, digs his way out and leaves the scene. Meanwhile translator Rebecca negotiates a stormy-but-sexy relationship with loutish ski instructor Marco, both of them unaware that Marco's stolen car was involved in the crash, and Rebecca's roommate Laura nurses the young accident victim by day and begins a tentative relationship with René by night. While Winter Sleepers doesn't have the same manic pace as Lola, Tykwer's visual style is very much in evidence--he makes beautiful images of everything from the snow-covered Bavarian mountains to a cut finger. As it moves through a series of tiny but crucial events to a truly haunting ending, Winter Sleepers is in many ways reminiscent of Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, both in its central plot device and in its melancholy atmosphere of fatal inevitability. --Ali Davis

Video Details

Tom Twyker's thriller Winter Sleepers is a haunting film about passion, emotions, love and death set in motion by a mysterious car accident. It opens with a terrible sense of foreboding, which envelopes the stillness of winter. Almost hallucinatory events begin to unfold and engulf four young people -- Laura, Marco, Rebecca and Rene -- who have little or nothing in common with each other. When local farmer Theo enters the picture, their lives change directions forever. Their paths cross only briefly, but this crossing gives new and unforeseen meaning to their lives.

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Not another Run Lola Run? You bet... Oct 18 2003

By K. Vuthi

Format:DVD

...much better. No question that Lola is a great movie, but turn off the soundtrack and it might get boring. Reminds me one of O'Henry's stories. Winter Sleepers takes it from a different angle. Not how the things might come if we miss by a minute the train or the bus, or if we take right or left. Winter Sleepers is deep. It tells you of what happens to us,is a reflection of how we behave in life itself...And we strugle to remember things we've done, to find explanation,no wonder!

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My Least Favorite Tykwer Film...and I'm a HUGE fan. July 8 2003

By T. Dansie

I don't know what it was, perhaps the copy I saw was horrible, it was a VHS and it looked horrible, even though it was an original it looked like a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. But this has to be my least favorite of his films. The shots were boring, the story was slow, and I suppose I was comparing it to much to "Run Lola Run" with all it's flare and beautiful color.
But by the time it ended, the story captured me. The ending (which I'll try not to give away too much) was great. I heard this was one of hte films that inspired Memento. Tykwer sure knows how ti find those intricite stories and bring them home.
SO if you love his work, you must watch, but make sure you have a DVD copy. If you didn't love "Princess and hte Warrior" you won't like this, if you are expecting another "Run Lola Run" I suggest you run the other way.

Beautiful Movie Mar 27 2003

By A Customer

Just for the use of colours alone, this movie is worth seeing. It's beautiful and thought provoking and shows another side to Tom Tykwer's work. If you've seen his latest film, admittedly a directorial takeover, Heaven. The cinematography is like that of Run Lola Run, but I'd say more thoughtful. I enjoyed this movie a lot!