Tattoo

If David Fincher's SE7EN was a mystery shot through the prism of 70s American crime films, then Robert Schwentke's TATTOO is a mystery shot through the prism of 70's European art films. The comparisons are inescapable, it shares SE7EN's dark look, dual detectives, mid-point chase and "something in a box" as well as its meticulous, exacting direction, but it is a very different film with very different thematic agendas. This German film about a secret market in skin and its thematic concerns of guilt, conformity, identity, violence and heritage suggest obvious connections to the Third Reich and the current crisis of east/west reintegration of culture. This rich thematic tapestry is held together by one of the most precise, stylish and icily dreamlike directorial debuts to be seen in decades. Shades of Antonioni and Cronenberg, as well as Tourneur and Hitchcock inform a style which is never imitative and truly hypnotic. Strong, understated performances ground the film, which stumbles only in a pre-climax exposition scene that feels shoe-horned in, for until that point, every piece of information is earned and visually realized. Schwentke is a director to watch; provocative, thoughtful and clearly in love with the art of cinema.

"Tattoo" is a first class macabre psychological horror movie / thriller from director Robert Schwentke. From the start, its cold colour palette and distanced camera-work create a dark and sinister atmosphere. Nightclub life in the world of "Tattoo" appears depressing and emotionless. This is a world where there is little laughter, only pain.

Schwentke manages to create an on-screen world where the fantastic events of this tale seem believable. Inspired by the German expressionist movement, it's a fantastic achievement and although comparisons will always be made with Fincher's "Se7en", I think "Tattoo" is the superior film.

The cast are excellent. August Diehl plays the young cop who is blackmailed into joining Christian Redl on the grittier side of police work. Diehl's first case is the murder of a young woman who was into self-mutilation and who died shortly after biting off a man's finger...and swallowing it. The beautiful Nadeshda Brennicke plays Maya Kroner whose secrets take the story in an exciting and unpredictable direction.

While the subject of people being murdered for their tattoos is not new (Roald Dahl's short-story "Skin" covers the same ground), the film's plot is gripping and effectively told.

After viewing this film shortly after "Antikörper" and "Kontroll," it would appear that some of the best psychological horror films of the noughties are coming out of Europe. Rich on atmosphere and slightly other-worldly, these films are a delight to watch.

9 out of 10.

Lynn is a woman with a very delicate and exclusive japanese tattoo on her body. The art and class of the tattoo is so fine that a collector pays enormous amounts of money to obtain the skin art. That means ripping it of the living body in Lynn's case.

This is a German crime-movie about two cops (and not the ordinary ones) solving the mystery of the 12 missing bodies/tattoos. Who is the collector, and how can they get in touch with him?

The estethic of the movie is beautiful if you ask me. Though it is very in-your-face and raw to some people I can belive. Flames of fire and blood is the theme in contrast to stiff, clean German architecture.

I enjoyed this movie a lot and it was althrough an exiting piece of art.

/Maria

German made thriller about a killer with connections to Tattoos. When a body turns up burned and mutilated, with a chunk of skin missing, a senior cop blackmails a younger cop into helping him try and find the killer, as well as another missing girl gone two years. The investigation leads to several other bodies all with missing tattoos. Dark thriller that was explained to me as in the vein of Seven. I don't think so. It is a dark and disturbing little thriller that isn't particularly happy. Very well made and well acted the film is a bit too much form over substance at times, with its dark brooding passages and very deliberate set design. Its not bad but it kind of lessons the thrills since the film seems at times more intent on looking good. It also doesn't help that the who of the who done it is a bit too clear. Still its worth a look for those who like gritty, good looking thrillers that are a bit on the squishy side.

It was too late!If there had not been "silence of the lambs", "seven",this German flick could have had its day.But it tries too hard to be like the American relatives and it cannot be compared with them.It seems that in Europa only Spanish Amenabar was able to transcend his models.

Not that "tattoo" is devoid of good scenes.The rain falling over Maya's body ,revealing her impressive tattoos ,is a great moment ,both erotic and unsettling;the lawyer and his awful collection provides the movie with another strong sequence.

But ,with its "open" ending,à la "silence of the lambs" (which goal is,obviously to make an eventual sequel,"Tattoo" tries too hard and it's finally its downfall.A curio.