Rozinda There are two spoilers in this review. If you don't want hints, don't read this.I was hooked from start to finish, greatly moved. The young, badly abused and herself abusive girl with genius in her hands, and the old woman unwillingly discovering this aggressive young girl is a true prodigy and then doing everything she can to get that girl a chance. The conflict between the two over what kind of music is best. The hints that arise from this conflict about the past of the older woman. The irony of how that concert performance may finally be achieved. And somewhere in the movie, I won't say where, the most astonishing piece of music is played - so very exciting. I've twice seen particularly wonderful pieces of music performed within a movie, that is pieces I can remember that stand alone in their excellence whilst written as I understand it just for the movie. One is within Ladies of Lavender for the mysterious young violinist who seems to come from nowhere, the other for the young misfit in Vier Minuten.This movie is unrelentingly grim much of the time, but there is great beauty too and wonderful heartwarming moments. The moral seems to be that even people who appear to be vicious, abusive, murderous, completely lost causes, may contain the most amazing gifts if only someone else has the ability and then the willingness to draw them out. Would this girl ever escape from the emotional prison of her past and the physical prison of her present? I don't know but it would be nice to think she could.

hark-2 This film lost me near the beginning when old Traude refuses to deal with Jenny's messy hands during the interviews with new students. I mean, Traude is supposed to be a woman who is devoted to music and who wants to help female inmates of a prison to learn piano. And she turns Jenny away because she plays "Negro music" and has filthy hands? Couldn't Chris Block, the writer and director, have come up with a more realistic reason for Jenny to bash Mutze nearly to death, thus turning him from what was initially a sympathetic character into a jailer out for revenge? The wartime lesbian subplot didn't add anything to the main plot. If anything, it seemed gratuitous. How could a woman who was daring enough to love another woman under the gaze of Nazis, come to hate "Negro Music"? These two characteristics don't seem to fit together.The other weird, if not gratuitous, inclusion was the incest subplot between Jenny and her father. Aside from Jenny's outbursts, it was handled vaguely, as it it were no more important than the refusal (or inability) of Mutze's daughter to curtsy to Traude.And the music drove me crazy. The Mozart and Schubert pieces have been played to death. Surely a couple of more interesting études out of the thousands upon thousands that have been written by hundreds of composers could have relieved the boredom of hearing these hackneyed tunes over and over for the entire length of the film.I came to this film expecting to like it, which is why I'm so bloody disgusted. But by the time the last plot contrivance was thrown at us: Jenny finding a bottle of her detested father's favourite booze at Traude's place and thus setting up a melodramatic bellowfest, not even the heralded last "vier minuten" could save it.

susanna_uk I can't readily find fault with this movie despite being fairly critical usually... It had me hooked within the first minute and didn't let me go throughout the movie!The characters are gritty but believable and the characterization by the two lead actresses is flawless for most of the movie. The cinematography I found to be gorgeous with a rustic and brittle edge to many of the screen shots!The slow revelation of the histories involved in the two lead women's lives shows a deeper, more tangible side to who and why they are the people they are. Some of the flashback sequences are slightly dislocating but this doesn't seriously detract from the plot. The timing of these revelations is well thought out though and we start to realize that the first question we need to ask of anyone is what their past is that has made them who they are...It challenges a good few precepts about femininity as well along the way but this is secondary to the relationship dynamics of the psychological mother-daughter relationship that is setup here.It asks some deep questions about the meaning of our relationships and our purpose in life that doesn't let go right to the end. This movie doesn't hold back from any of the capricious nature of life and the consequences that it often throws in our life paths. It also shows the failure of people to deal with this on a humanistic level... often resulting in shattered and wasted lives. The violence (both emotional and physical) depicts well the struggle people have with dealing with each others 'violations', towards each other.I'd wholeheartedly recommend you see this movie! It will have you captivated from the opening sequence of the the suicide of her cell mate that Jenny sleeps through and then awakes only to then carelessly steal the last cigarette from the dead woman's body as if this is somehow a daily occurrence to the final Four Minutes that are the summation of all that Jenny is as a human being...

trgusa Vier Minuten left me admiring a young actress, respecting our cultural achievements, and pondering freedom and what part music and literature plays in dividing us from the animal kingdom. Yes, I think this movie is a statement of cultural development in relationship to physical, mental, and emotional stress, anger, hatred, cruelty, and violence.That is the Conflict theory of social progress.It reminds me of all the rebellious youth who had something shocking, abrasive, antisocial, and yet astonishing to say in a new format. Hail, hail, rock and roll, Hip-Hop, Punk, Goth, New Wave, Rap, Swing, Jive, Big Band, and even Classical. We have come a long way since the days of Turlough O'Carolan or Steven Foster.The plot is not as simple as you might think. Two women, both gifted, both abused and injured as youths, both driven. A father seeking redemption at the end of his life... a vast array of opponents meaning to deter hope and subdue expression. Movies have been built on oppression and hardship for a long time. It makes for a great story (like Purple Rain, for example).Beauty and the beast... continuance, salvation, rebirth, dignity... you could ponder the factors of this movie for some time. The music itself is meant only to be representative, not sterling, and you must remember the settings. I found the opening hard rock song of the piano being transported to the prison absolutely fantastic, and the finale innovative, and yet reminiscent of the "Acid Freak Concerts" of the late 60s, oddly enough. Listen to The Rolling Stones - "Their Satanic Majesties Request", 1967. Maybe they even used the same piano and the strings in the same way. However, I won't tell you how this one ends....Nevertheless, make no mistake: Hannah Herzsprung's performance throughout the movie is absolutely stunning, for lack of a better word. You will not forget it.I had a great deal of trouble tracking down a copy of this movie, since DVD copies are hard to find. In the end, I was really glad I took the time, and now, I am tracking down the CD soundtrack as well... yes, I think it is well worth seeing the movie, and owning the music too.If it only reminds us how to curtsey, and rebel at the same time....