Four Minutes

You guys remember Whiplash? That was a pretty good movie. Not very gay, though. Well luckily, Four Minutes is sort of just Whiplash except German and with women and a lesbian and also some flashback Nazis. Okay, maybe it’s only similar to Whiplash in that they’re both movies about music that make me anxious.

The two lead characters in Four Minutes are Gertrude who goes by Traude and Jenny. Traude is a piano teacher at a prison. She is very precise and strict with her teaching. In flashbacks, it’s also revealed that she lived through the second world war and is a lesbian who saw her lover killed. Traude begins teaching Jenny, who is imprisoned for killing her father. Jenny’s father wanted her to be a piano prodigy when she was younger. When Jenny got older and started to rebel, he raped her. Jenny has a great deal of talent but is volatile and angry. Traude is eager to teach this talented young woman though they often clash due to Jenny’s volatility and Traude’s control issues.

The star of Four Minutes is the directing. There’s some really great camera work here. I especially liked the transitions between shots. Fluid as the camerawork and transitions are, it pairs nicely with Four Minutes’ focus on music.

There’s probably whole essays to write about the use of music in this movie. But frankly, I’m not an expert in music or sounds in general so that’s not going to happen here. The use of music and sound was definitely good, though. There’s a few particularly excellent scenes in which bad things are happening visually but beautiful piano music plays over them. This gives the scenes, violent as they are, a sense of beauty. Then, the music cuts out and the audience is jarred back to reality and all its unpleasant violence.

As much as I do think the directing is the best thing here, Four Minutes also has a well constructed story. I’ve seen a lot of bad and obvious movies lately so it was a nice change to see a movie that had confidence in its story and in its audience understanding the story without spoon feeding them exposition. The movie’s build up of tension over time is exceptional. After two acts of set up, Four Minutes ends with a spectacular, emotionally charged and brilliantly acted final act.

What’s interesting about Four Minutes is that there’s basically no romance. If you are hoping Traude and Jenny will kiss, expect disappointment. Indeed, Traude’s lesbianism isn’t revealed until the third act and doesn’t really impact the story. That she loved women during a time it was particularly bad to love women adds some depth to her character but it’s by no means the focus. Personally, I really like this. I always enjoy seeing lesbian characters allowed to do things other than specifically lesbian activities in film. It’s like they’re normal, actual people or something.

Four Minutes is a very successful movie. It has some radical ideas such as Nazis were bad, maybe prisoners should be treated like people and lesbians over the age of 40 exist. Four Minutes is a well-crafted drama with excellent directing and good character work. Don’t go into it expecting and laughs or romance, though.

Overall rating: 8.2/10

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