With Run Lola Run, Tykwer gave foreign-language film a sizzling shot in
the arm. Audiences who normally avoided sub-titles were drawn in by his
cutting-edge, clubby-punky-techno feast, and discovered that World
Cinema could be cool too. But Lola is not typical. Tykwer's sombre
Wintersleepers - for all its colour-coded stylishness - is a more
contemplative, dialogue-driven piece, as are his next projects: his
own The Princess And The Warrior, and his adaptation of Kieslowski's
last script, Heaven. A true cinephile who's been a projectionist and
programmer, Tykwer is the most significant German director since
Fassbinder and Herzog - but can he keep a global audience?
