News archive

2000

12 November: I'd like to apologize for the long silence, but the Real Life [tm] is keeping me busy at the moment, so I simply don't know when I'll find the time for the next decent update.
29 October: On 7 November, the DVD (Region 1) and NTSC video of Winter Sleepers (with subtitles) will be released in the US (thanks to Yayoi for the info).

The German transcript of the chat with Tom at tripod.de is now online.
24 October: On Wednesday, 25 October, 7 pm, there will be another chat with Tom at tripod.de.
22 October: I added a new question to the FAQ, the one about Tom's address...

At spielfilm.de, there are two interviews with Tom and Franka Potente.

Tom was also a guest at the NDR Talk Show, it will be rebroadcast on several channels within the next week.
17 October: On 20 October (6-7 pm CEST, that's 12-1 pm EST) there will be a chat with Tom Tykwer, it will be in German, though.
13 October: Let's see if this works... I added a message board to my homepage. So from now on, you can discuss anything Tykwer related in the new, real forum so that the guestbook can finally become "just" a guestbook. :-) Have fun!

Also new: the very first steps of what will become the Princess And Warrior section of my homepage...

Tonight, Franka Potente can be seen in Downhill City (ZDF, 10.45 pm).
12 October: Today, The Princess And the Warrior is officially released in Germany! Woo-hoo!
10 October: As of yesterday, the Princess... soundtrack is available.

Thanks to Jens, here's a link to a report about the official premiere of The Princess And the Warrior in Wuppertal last Thursday.

Tonight, Franka Potente will be at Boulevard Bio (ARD, 11 pm) and on Wednesday night at the Harald Schmidt Show (Sat1, 0.15 am).

Tom will be at Johannes B. Kerner on Thursday night (ZDF, 11 pm).

On Monday, 16 October, Kinomagazin will show a report about Tom's films (10.25 pm, 3sat).
8 October: The book about The Princess And the Warrior is now available, alas, for the time being only in German. It costs DM 19,90 (ca US$9) and, just like Tom's book about Lola, contains the basic script of the film and an interview.

But speaking of which: If anyone knows about English-language books about Tom or his films, please let me know. :-)

Tomorrow, the soundtrack of The Princess And the Warrior will be finally released.
Tonight's Kulturreport (ARD, 10.45 pm) will show a report about Franka Potente and the Princess.

Warriors everywhere: Wednesday night (11 October, 0.35 am), the topic of Filmtipp on West 3 will be Tom's new film.

...maybe I should make things easier for me and just say that next week the film will be topic of probably every German-language tv show that is remotely connected to the cinema... :-)
4 October: Tonight on German tv channel West 3 (10.30 pm), Tom Tykwer, Franka Potente and Benno Fürmann will be guests at Nachtkultur mit Willemsen.
Also, Reinhold Heil and Benno Fürmann will be guests at Fast Forward on Viva 2 tonight at midnight. Tomorrow, Fast Forward's Charlotte Roche will be meeting Franka Potente (Viva2, 5 pm, rerun at midnight).
14 September: Hi, welcome to the same old page at a new URL! ;-)
Well, on this day in 1998, I started my webpage about Tom Tykwer. So after exactly two years, I thought it was about time to leave Geocities and "grow up" and have my own domain. :-) So yeah, welcome to www.tykwer-online.de! I hope to make some changes and additions soon, for the time being you can get used to the more comfortable URL...

And yet again, big thanks to Yayoi for these bits of news:
I'm by far not the only one who's already written a review of Tom's new film The Princess And the Warrior, here are some other reviews in several languages:

Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival II (scroll to right)
Filmspiegel
Günter H. Jekubzik's critique
...and even one in Italian:
caltanet review

(Note: I will not list all critiques that inevitably will show up within the next weeks and months, I merely provide these links because the film is not on general release yet and it's nice to give you a first impression of what people think of the film.)

And thanks to Andrea, here's a link to a little interview with Tom about the Princess....
4 September: After 11 1/2 months, I found the time to write another editorial. :-) In it you'll find my first impression and review of Tom's new film The Princess And the Warrior ! A more detailed analysis may follow within the next weeks.

The subtitled PAL video of Run Lola Run will be available from 16 October for ca £ 12.

The first single from the forthcoming soundtrack of The Princess And the Warrior, You Can't Find Peace, will be released on 11 September in Germany. The trio Tykwer/Klimek/Heil who already composed the Lola soundtrack decided to give themselves a name for the new soundtrack, :-) Pale 3. This first single features Skin, lead singer of Skunk Anansie.
Other performers on the soundtrack will include the Universal Studios Orchestra, British Industrial duo 12 Rounds, Franka Potente, Anita Lane (who worked with Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave) and last but not least Beth Hirsch, probably best known for her vocals on the last Air album ('All I Need').
27 August: German tv channel West 3 will show Life Is All You Get on Saturday, 2 September, at 10.15 p.m.
25 August: The Princess And the Warrior will be shown at this year's Toronto Film Festival in September.
24 August: Skin, lead singer of Skunk Anansie, teamed up with Pale 3 to record the song You can't find peace which is the first track taken from the forthcoming soundtrack of The Princess And the Warrior. The video can already be seen regularly on German music tv channel Viva 2.

Yayoi informs us that according to Variety Sony Pictures Classics has signed on to distribute The Princess and the Warrior. Sony (which also distributed Lola) acquired the North American, Latin American, New Zealand and Australian rights to the film after Miramax passed on the project.
21 August:   The Princess And the Warrior will be released in Germany on 12 October. On Sunday, 3 September, at 11 p.m. it will be shown at this year's Venice Film Festival in the "Dreams and Visions" section of the festival.

  Donald informs us that there is a commercial running in Canada for Labatt's blue (beer) that is an obvious rip-off of the look and feel of Lola. So maybe some lawyers will be busy again... :~)

Sebastian reports from the set of Heaven at the Warner Bros studios in Bottrop, Germany:

"They needed four big halls in which they built a whole Italian village with lots of houses. Another studio contains several lodgings. Additionally, an old rusty school bus can be seen on the grounds. Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth) and Giovanni Ribisi (Gone In 60 Seconds) will be in the leading roles."
  According to Spiegel Online, this project was offered to Tom by Miramax Films. It will not only be the first time Tom will make a film of a script he didn't write himself but also his first time he won't shoot a film in German: The love story between an assasin and a policeman will be shot in English and Italian.
The indoor takes in Bottrop, Germany, should be finished by 22 August, most of the outdoor takes will be shot in Naples afterwards. Heaven is said to be released at the end of next year.
25 July: Ok, so it's not the beginning of June but the end of July... But guess what, I found some time for an update! I'm really sorry that it took me so long, but things in the Real World [tm] got me busy. :-)
Lot's of things have happened since the last update, and while I'm aware some of these cannot even be considered "news" anymore, I still want to mention them, even if it's just to complete the picture. :-)

At the Chlotrudis Awards back in April, Frank Griebe won the award for Best Cinematography for Run Lola Run.

Run Lola Run however did not win at this year's BAFTA awards.

According to the IMDb, Wintersleepers was released in Argentina on 6 July.

As you may have noticed, the prices on the shop page for videos and DVDs of Lola et al were slightly outdated. :-) So I updated all links and prices (by the way, the Lola t-shirts and the watch at i-m-s.net are no longer available).

Also new: Some links on the links page to sites about Heino Ferch, Wintersleepers and the Princess.

And now the big news: according to German film magazine Cinema and the IMDb, Tom Tykwer will be directing a film called Heaven, based on a script by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski (Three colours: Red, White, Blue) and starring Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth)!! This is one of two scripts Kieslowski could finish before he died in March 1996.
11 May: Notes from outside the cyberspace:

Huge apologies to everyone I still owe an email !! And for the long silence on this page.
I'm currently living at a friend's flat where I don't have permanent access to the net, I hope things will be back to some level of normality by the beginning of June. I will try to answer the emails and work on the site but I can't promise anything at the moment.
9 April:   Big news: Wintersleepers has opened in the US in limited release! (Thanks to Molly for the info) According to the IMDb it is now showing in New York, Chicago and L.A. and will be released in Boston on 28 April.

  According to Yayoi (again thanks for all the info), Run Lola Run was a huge success in Japan: the film ran for 20 weeks in Tokyo and was ranked 5th in the top 10 list of artistic films in 1999.
  Japanese residents can now also buy the video (subtitled or dubbed, NTSC, widescreen) and the DVD (Region 2 encoding, Widescreen anamorphic, German with Japanese subtitles, DTS sound, NTSC) of Lola.

  I'd like to apologize for the long silence, but with a new semester at university and me moving house some time this month there isn't as much time left for my webpage as I'd loved to have... :-) But I promise I'll try to add new things soon.
4 March: Hey, enough with those prizes, alright! :-)
Run Lola Run has been nominated for the BAFTA Awards (the British equivalent of the Oscars) in the category for Best Foreign Film. It's got tough competition, though, with Festen, All About My Mother and even another German one: Buena Vista Social Club. The Awards ceremony will be held on 9 April.

And on 10 April, the code 2 DVD of Run Lola Run will be available in the UK, it will cost roundabout £18 (ca. 27 EU).

By the way, from 17 March, reel.com will be selling a used video copy of Lola (NTSC, English subtitles) for just $9.99. I don't know anything about its quality, though.

And there's also a new question in the general FAQ list.
2 March: Liam informs us that one episode of Seven Days (broadcast this year on 23 February in the US) apparently copied the idea and look of Run Lola Run with striking similarities concerning plot, music and cinematography. If you ask me this doesn't sound like just an hommage... But luckily enough I'm not the one to judge... ;-)

The Links page has been updated with new links to an all English Franka Potente fan page and Run Lola Run pages, and another question has been added to Lola's FAQ.

German pay-tv channel Premiere will start showing Run Lola Run on Saturday, 4 March, with several reruns to follow within the next days.
26 February: Quite a lot of changes on my homepage:

Newly designed navigation bar on the left and a new navigation bar for the Lola section.
The filmography is currently offline (I hope to put up the improved page again soon), but you can now access the Lola pages via the direct link on the left.
I added the introductory monologue to Lola's FAQ.
Bugfixes and additions on the Lyrics page in the Lola section.
I decided to change my policy concerning the texts section on my homepage: As of today, I will link to the original page instead of redisigning the text to fit my homepage design. Apart from the fact that it's simply easier for me, it also is a matter of respect and last but not least copyright infringement. Other sections on my homepage to follow soon.
25 February: Tom Tykwer, Franka Potente and Frank Griebe have each been nominated for a Clotrudis Award for Best Director, Best Actress and Best Cinematography respectively. You can use the electronic ballot to vote for them.
Chlotrudis Awards is a non-profit organization that honors, supports and educates about independent and non-mainstream movies. They hold an Award Ceremony each year, and this year it will be the first to be hold publicly, on April 8, at the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. (Thanks to Michael Colford for providing the information.)
20 February: A short report on Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (The Warrior And The Empress) can be found at the online music magazine DocRock Show .
It says that the pace of Krieger will be a bit slower in comparison to Lola and that the film will be given more 'room for melodrama', as it were. Also, Tom will select the featured music, just as he did with all his previous films. As a hint, he said that he listened a lot to Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Smashing Pumpkins while shooting the film...
5 February: Next Wednesday (9 February) German tv channel WDR will show Nachtkultur mit Willemsen with a special report entitled 'Twice: a new wave in German film - Wim Wenders meets Tom Tykwer." This is going to be interesting, IMHO. :-)

Minor bug fixes on the homepage (update of sitemap, news archive etc).
9 January 2000: An extraordinarily belated Happy New Year Everyone! :-)

  Wow, it's been two months since the last update of my homepage... But times have been pretty hectic, festive and stressing.
  So to get things going again, I finally translated the Shop page into, er, German.

  Also new: The FAQ page which I plan to become an FAQ that doesn't deal that much with Lola but with other questions that have been asked about this site and especially Tom, although I somehow can't help the feeling that this cool red-haired girl will go on playing an important role on this site for quite a while.... *g*
  So far the FAQ consists of just five questions, but I'm sure this will change within the next weeks and months. It also reveals the secret of the webmaster's identity, only if you're interested, of course...

Run Lola Run is now the most successful German film in the US since Das Boot back in 1981 and earned roundabout $7 million. Yay!

The DVD and the videos of Lola were released in December in the US. The videos are still extremely expensive, but the price for the DVD is still at $20, and I was told that it contains not only the subtitled but also the dubbed version... I'd be interested to hear what the English speaking world thinks of the dubbing? (hint, hint: Why not write about it in the guestbook? *g*)