Friday, January 20, 2012

I highly recommend WE ARE THE NIGHT (2010)...one rippingly good vampire film


Leave it to Germany to produce one of the best vampire films in recent memory called We Are The Night. A trio of all female vampires live like rock stars in Berlin. Led by the eldest, Louise (a striking and impressive Nina Hoss) who is looking for her soul-mate. One who she will immediately know by the eyes of said soul-mate. The other two vampires are Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) a 1920's silent film star who was turned by Louise and who loves to read books and Nora (Anna Fischer) a woman who acts very child like. Check out their opening scene as they are flying back from a Paris shopping spree and kill everyone on board..passengers, stewardesses and even the pilots. So as the jet flies out of control, the women bail from high above the city in one of the wildest pre-credit sequences on film ever.
Louise seducing Lena


Next day, a young thief named Lena (Karoline Herfurth, looking very much like an even grungier Noomi Rapace from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) steals from a Russian pimp and is chased by the police all over the city. Where she meets the good looking detective Tom (Max Riemelt) who then have a cat and mouse relationship the rest of the movie. That night Lena ventures to a secret night club where the trio of vampires are partying and Louise is immediately smitten.
The girls living it up


After a little dancing Louise bites Lena and so begins their courtship. Lena doesn't understand at first and the other two women convince Louise that the newbie has to learn the hard way and accept what she is. So they drop her off at some very bad men's warehouse to be tortured until her need for survival kicks in. And kick in it does as Lena has a very brutal fight scene with one of the bad men. The other girls show up to finish off the others. Especially cool is Charlotte walking on the ceiling upside down with a shotgun.
Nora after a little snack


After this little adventure the girls take Lena back to their place to bathe and clean up. And that's where one of the coolest transformation of a human to vampire takes place. As she emerges from her tub with longer hair and much sexier. And then the fun begins. These girls know how to live. Staying at the swankiest places, each driving their own personal sports car like ferraris and BMW's. Dancing at clubs and for kicks, walking on ceilings like Spider-Man. But don't be fooled by these sexy looking women, they can get downright brutal and nasty when it comes to killing. Some very graphic scenes are plentiful in this film.
Nora and Charlotte have a little taste


But Lena still does not want to kill, which becomes a problem for the group. On a nightly swim at a very nice observatory, they encounter two security guard which they dispatch. Nora kills one quickly and bloody while Charlotte rips a single page from the book she is reading and slices the other guard's throat cleanly. Name of the book..For Whom The Bell Tolls. Lena hauls ass out of their after that and soon the police track them down thanks to their hot "stolen" rides. Which leads to an exciting shoot-out with the SWAT team and Charlotte.
Detective Tom looking out of his league

After this melee, in which Nora is critically wounded, the other girls prepare to leave Berlin. But in one of the film's more touching scenes, Charlotte goes to see her child, who is now 90 years old in a nursing home. Her child was very young when Charlotte was turned and she has always had regret.
Nora being herself


The girls will have one more encounter with the police which will lead to a final and wicked fight scene between Louise and Lena, in which only one of them will survive. I loved this movie. A great vampire film that stays true to the myth while putting it's own spin on it. I like how Louise states that there used to be male vampires but they were stupid and arrogant. And the ones that were not killed by humans, the female vampires killed the rest. Leaving only their gender as the only vampires in the world.
Lena starting to feel the urge


I thought all four women were excellent. Each making their character very different from one another. Louise being torned between finding her true love and her constant need to control the others. Charlotte being the calm and sensible one, but also filled with regret. Nora full of sass and spunk and kind of wild. And of course Lena, who goes from troubled young girl to a girl thrust into a different new world.
That crazy Nora


The film makes great use of Berlin as the setting and is backed by some rocking music. It never bogs down and tells it's story at a nice crisp pace. If you want to see a great vampire film, then you have to see We Are The Night.
B+
The girls just hanging out


Notes:

Three of the actresses: Ulrich, Fischer and Herfurth all were born in Berlin. Hoss was born in Stuttgart.


The licence number of Nora's car is FU-CK 1.

The word "vampire" is not said once in the entire film.

1 comment:

Irene Palfy said...

Marvellous review, Monty! Didn't know that this film made it "out of Germany".. ;")