Putting talent or gift for music expression apart from individuality is Granny Kruger's justification for her own life. She loved that communist woman as a beauty, as that beautiful, harmonic music, apart from her spirit and her convictions. She takes up teaching Jenny the same way: takes charge of training a musician, not a human being.The Truth the old lady has to learn is one CANNOT separate art and personality. And here the real teacher is Jenny - who plays the piercing 'african' music every time she's got a chance to express herself, the kind of beat and musical chaos that Frau Kruger, a lover of harmony and ethics, can't stand. Both have wounds to heal. The old teacher cannot forgive herself for the death of a beautiful person based on her convictions and faith, which were her insides. So she tries to separate beauty and insides. Jenny was send by God to her to heal her out of this painful justification and to give someone a chance to express himself (=to live) before death.While old woman is stoned in her pain, Jenny is skinless, alive and burning. Being truthful to herself is the only thing that matters for her. She'll smash herself against unbreakable glass to death instead of trying to survive in a lies of reality. That makes her talent a genius, unlike her teacher's very experienced and skilled master-hood.Frau Kruger is prevented from the mad levels of genius talent but wants to establish it's supremacy (to herself and the world) by letting a genius play. That's her atonement.Jenny's outstanding cacophony at the end is what Kruger's soul actually wanted! It's triumphantly right! She's all worried, but actually celebrates (!), drinking glass after glass. THESE 4 MINUTES OF FREEDOM is something which gives sense to her life and something she is now ready to sacrifice anything for.Hats off in revered appreciation and gratefulness before the authors and makers of the film!

Tic Tac, Tic Tac, Tic Tac, Tic Tac…The clock is ticking and you are about to spend the next four minutes reading this text. what is the importance of four minutes? For some people is perhaps a short break at work, a quick lunch or some demonstration of love. But for Jenny von Loeben it is the whole world. Four minutes where she demonstrates what is an artist made of, that the mind of a genius know no bounds and that passion is the most valuable fuel that on earth you can find.When madness and creativity collides, when violence flirts with talent, you get a human being that is raw and real as it gets. You can perceive by yourself how each piano key touch hides behind the deepest feelings a human could have inside. You notice with each sound how your body starts to levitate and your soul shines brighter tan the sun.If a masterpiece should contain the elements to change your perception of reality, you only need four minutes to make that happen. So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading and get ready for 112 minutes that are going to twist your world inside out.

This movie truly grew on me. Not only do I enjoy foreign movies, but movies set (this one partially) in Nazi Germany, with a dose of lesbianism (nothing graphic), humor, and with well- developed characters with inner turmoil make this a true "must see" work!There are three stories, all centered around an elderly piano teacher: 1) She works in a women's detention center, teaching classic piano playing to the inmates, 2) a young "prodigy" shows-up and the teacher takes to her skills, remembers her lost love through her), and attempts to put her in a competition, and 3) a prison guard, who sees the old woman as a sort of protégé, is bitter about his "replacement" and the fact that he is humiliated by the girl having kicked his behind! What the filmmakers do best in the narrative is develop their characters, with pathos and dramatic tension as well as humor and reality. It is superb storytelling, and many in Hollywood should take heed! This is why most of the great movies of the past decade or so have been those made abroad! The audience is switched from the past (Nazi era) to the present. Love lost in the past is love gained in the present (although physical love is out of the question). The audience understands each character and their motivations for their behavior. You truly identify with these characters and their sufferings.I don't want to give away the movie's plot, so I will stop here.I consider the movie a near-masterpiece, and I can't give it enough accolades. SUPERB PERFORMANCES ALL AROUND, from behind the camera to in front of it!!!This is what "Aimee and Jaguar" should have been (see that review)!9 of 10. ------- E.

I saw this last year at a screening by the Desert Film Society. Director/writer Chris Keaus shows promise in this, only his second film. The film is set in a German penitentiary and revolves around two central characters, Traude Krüger (Monica Bleibtreau), an elderly spinster who is a piano teacher at the prison and working long past her retirement age and Jenny Von Loeben (Hannah Herzsprung). a young woman serving time on a murder conviction. Jenny is also a a naturally gifted pianist under her gruff demeanor who Krüger wants to tame long enough to enter her in a piano competition to give a four minuter recital in a prestigious concert hall before an affluent audience. Krüger lives and teaches order and conformity and comes from a past where the Nazi's were about order and conformity in their world of fascism and she had to adapt to that world while suppressing her the non-conformity of her lesbianism. Jenny has a violent temper and comes from a world of childhood abuse and has lived a life of disorder and non-conformity while suppressing the order and conformity of her protégé talent. Jenny likes modern music and the modern rhythms and passion of the street and experimental music scene while Krüger hates modern music. Ironically the piece Krüger has chosen for Jenny's recital is by German composer Robert Schumann who's own approach to music incorporated rhythm that was considered daring for it's day. Director/writer Kraus may have thrown in another little ironic tie-in to Schumann where a guard at the prison has a young daughter named Clara who Krüger had no patience with because she wouldn't curtsy. Schumann's wife and great love of his life was named Clara. This is a film that keeps your interest throughout but the screenplay has lots of gaps and implausible scenarios and runs a little long but despite its flaws, the two fine acting performances by Bleibtreu and Herzsprung are certainly noteworthy and I would recommend the film and give it a 7.0 out of 10.