We Are the Night (film)
Encyclopedia
We Are the Night is a 2010 German vampire
thriller film directed by Dennis Gansel
, starring Karoline Herfurth
and Nina Hoss
. The film deals with a young woman who gets bitten by a female vampire and drawn into her world. She falls in love with a young police officer who investigates a murder case involving the vampires. The film explores themes of depression
, self-harm
, the consequenses of immortality
, suicide
and explores Valerie Solanas
' idea of an all-female society
.
In a private airplane, the people and the pilots are dead. The only survivors, three young women, are the obvious killers. The leader of these women finds an air-hostess still alive. After examining her eyes, she breaks her neck and the women jump out of the plane, allowing it to crash into Berlin
.
In Berlin
, a young criminal, Lena, lurks near a cash dispenser. Just as her victim has used the machine she pickpockets his credit card
only for the victim to be arrested by the police. A police officer, Tom, chases after her. with Tom in close pursuit, Lena climbs over a barbwired fence hurting her hand. She runs through a clothing store, grabs a dress, and manages to shake Tom off for a moment. Lena changes into the dress on a brige and hides her clothes. Tom runs into Lena asking if she's seen the boy he thinks he is chasing. After a short conversation, he sees her handwound. He tries to arrest her but Lena hits him in the face and jumps off the bridge onto a boat.
Later that evening, Lena goes to a nightclub. Everyone in line for the club is being examined with a hidden camera by one of the women from the beginning, Louise. Upon seeing Lena, she orders the guard to let her in. Inside the club, Louise dances with Lena and offers her a drink. She asks where Lena's friends are, but Lena replies she does not have any. When Lena goes to the bathroom, Louise follows and bites her in the shoulder. The terrified Lena runs home. When she awakes in the morning, the sun burns her, forcing her to stay inside. That night, Lena returns to the club to confront Louise about what has happened. She meets Louise's two companions, the silent Charlotte and the cheerful Nora. Although never said in the film, it becomes clear that Louise, Charlotte and Nora are vampires.
The girls sell the angry and confused Lena to the Russian pimp Wasja as a prostitute. Louise plans for Lena to kill the wicked man to ease her transformation. Lena is locked in a room. When the pimp comes in to clean her up, she is overwhelmed by vampiric blood lust and attacks the pimp. In the struggle, she stabs him with a broken light bulb, but he shoots her with a shotgun. The girls return to kill the pimp and two of his henchmen before setting them ablaze. They fail to notice another mobster hiding in fear. Before leaving, Nora steals one of the mobster's lamborghini
.
When Lena awakes at the hotel, Louise gives her a glass of what appears to be blood. As Lena drinks, she feels her strength return. Louise takes care of Lena, removing her dirty and destroyed clothes and showing her to a bathroom where a bath is waiting. After closing the door to leave Lena alone, Louise tells her the story of how she was changed 280 years ago at a masked ball
. At first she hating her maker, she grew to love her after traveling throughout Europe and getting to know all the benefits of vampire life. After her maker was burned (killed by sunlight), Louise wanted to commit suicide
to join her, but instead began searching for a new companion. As Lena baths, her short hair grows and returns to it's natural color, her piercing falls out and she loses all bruises and wounds (including a tatoo on her stomach).
Lena spends a night shopping, partying and having fun with the vampire girls who give her the stolen lamborghini. As they party, Lena notices that Charlotte longingly staring at a pair of baby shoes. Charlotte also exhibits several signs of depression
and engades in acts of self-harm
, among other things burning her own eyeball (which immediately heals). During a dinner (the vampires can eat and taste food but it does not satisfy them), Louise tells Lena that there are no male vampires. As the male vampires grew arrogant, the females tired of their superiority and killed all of them
with the common promise to never turn a man into a vampire. As the night comes to an end, the vampires return to their hotel to perform their morning ritual: allowing the first rays of sun burn their skin but retreating inside before any harm can be done. Charlotte stays outside longer than the others, but retreats before catching fire. Louise kisses Lena, which startles and confuses Lena, before she interrupts herself and begins cursing her hastiness.
Meanwhile, Tom uses a file on Lena to find her home address. The next night Lena returns home to visit her mother who has not even noticed her absence. As Lena leaves, Toms sees her, but almost does not recognize her. He tells Lena that she could go to jail for 18 months if he arrested her for stealing the credit card, but says he won't because her victim(Wasja) used women. The two have a shot and talk, but when Lena suddenly sees Louise approaching, she uses her Lamborghini to retreat to the vampire's nightclub. She finds Charlotte in a private room where Charlotte tells Lena that she was a silent movie
actress in the 1920s and that she had a husband and daughter. Louise enters the room and asks Lena why she is acting different. Lena lies that she misses the sun, so Louise takes the girls to a pool with artificial sunlight allowing them to have a poolparty "in the sun". Two nightwatchmen find the girls and ask how they managed to get inside. Nora convinces the men to join them in the pool where she quickly kills off one of them, but as water slows the vampires down, the other tries to escape. Charlotte kills this man in a sadistic manner, slicing his throat with a piece of paper which causes him to die slowly and painfully. Lena flees the scene in terror.
Tom and his partner, Lummer, interrogate the surviving Russian mobster van Gough who says that the devil killed his friends and stole his lamborghini. Tom realizes that the stolen car is the car he saw Lena drive. Nora awakes with a bellboy she had fallen in love with. She tries to wake him, but realizes she killed him when they had sex. Nora breaks down in tears as the other girls come into the room. Louise shows her that SWAT is invading the building. Charlotte says she will stall them while the girls make their escape. The vampires have special cars with tinted windows to protect them from sunlight if they ever had to escape during daylight. Lena and Louise take one car while Nora drives alone. The police who think the girls are simply dangerous criminals are slaughtered by Charlotte. Tom enters the room looking for Lena and manages to shoot Charlotte before she attacks him, causing her to fall out the window. As the sun starts to burn her skin, Lena and Louise manage to get her inside their car. Nora crashed into a car and is thrown into sunlight. Police open fire at the other car letting in sunlight on the vampires. Unable to save Nora, they drive away as Charlotte looks back at her friend burning to death and screams in agony. The roof of the car is ripped off in a driving block and the girl crash into a subway to escape sunlight.
The three remaining girls hide at the abonded Teufelsberg(The Devil's Mountain)
where Louise has kept cash. Louise angrily blames Lena for leading the police to them and for Nora's death. Now wanted by the police, the girls prepare to escape to Moscow
. Before leaving, Charlotte demands to see her elderly daughter. At the retirement home Charlotte sings a lullaby to her dying daughter whom in her last moments recognizes her mother. With a whole day before their departure to Russia the girls return to their hideout to perform their morning ritual. As the sun rises, Charlotte locks Lena and Louise inside and suicide[allows the sun the kill her. Louise breaks down into tears.
Lena goes to Tom to say good bye and show him who she really is (He shots her and the wound is healing infront of his eyes). Lena begins to cry while Tom holds her and they fall asleep. The SWAT is invading the building and Lena almost kills the policemen but then stops and Tom & her get into jail. Louise goes to the watchmen while they're in the shower and kills them. After that she asks Lena how she will manage to live with Tom, because he will die in ca. 80 years and then she'll be alone. Louise kidnaps Tom and Lena follows her. The sunshine is rising when they meet and Louise wants Lena to tell her "I love you". Lena does so and Louise says that that's the most beautiful lie she's ever heard and shots Tom. Louise and Lena have a fight and Lena kills Louise by throwing her into the sunlight. She runs to Tom and wants to bite him, but stops, kisses him and begins to cry.
At the end the SWAT is coming with Lummer. Lena and Tom are gone with no trace other than Louise's gun. Lummer looks outside and sees something the other police and the audience don't. Lummer whispers Good luck and walks away from the scene.
The first alternative ending plays out almost like the final ending. It continues after Lena starts to cry and shows her running away into the subway station leaving Tom behind. She stops and looks behind her before start to running again.
In the second ending however, Lena finds Tom dying from his wound and bites him turning him into a vampire. Lena whispers forgive me as Tom rises on his feet. The camera moves away as they look on each other. It's notable to mention that when turning Tom, Lena flies backwards crashing into the wall after delivering the bite much like Louise did she bit her.
, who became very enthusiastic and wanted to do the film right away. The script was in development hell
for several years. First Franka Potente
was going to direct, but with the flop of Creep
, no one wanted to invest in German horror films. Gansel almost gave up hope until the release and success of Twilight
sparked a wave of vampire films, and the success of Gansel's The Wave
gave him free hands. Due to the similarities between the original script and Twilight, Gansel had Jan Berger rewrite the script, now under the title Wir sind die Nacht. Thinking that an ordinary love story was no longer in place with the boom of star crossed vampire/human relationships Gansel imagened a darker twist on the subject was more in order. He came up with a new, darker love story and took Carmilla
as inspiration as he thought while Dracula
had been done to death, no one had really made a serious attempt on Carmilla. Karoline Herfurth was shown the script back in 2000, but she was to young to play Lena, so Gansel promised her the role of Nora. But as production was delayed, Herfurth became old enough for the part of Lena. Instead Anna Fischer was cast as Nora, who in the eye of producer Christian Becker was the perfect choice because she looked like a party girl. Jennifer Ulrich auditioned 4 times before being cast as Charlotte. As background for the disco was an old bathhouse. The pool was unheated and therefore all the actors and extras had to play the scene in the cold. The exterior shots of the club came in a deserted theme park in the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick, and Spree in the park.
Most of the stunts in the film were done by the actresses themselves.
. The soundtrack album, released as a MP3 download and on CD, features the majority of the songs and parts of the score. One song, Pleased to meet you by Wolfmother
was featured in the film, but is not on the soundtrack.
The complete score was released as a MP3 download on Amazon.de.
. It was awarded the Special Jury Award at the 43rd Sitges Film Festival.
The film holds a 60% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes
.
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
thriller film directed by Dennis Gansel
Dennis Gansel
Dennis Gansel is a film director, writer and actor from Germany.-Movie career:Gansel is best known for directing The Wave; his following project is the vampire film We Are The Night, which stars Karoline Herfurth, Nina Hoss, Jennifer Ulrich, Anna Fischer and Max Riemelt.- Filmography :* 1999 — Das...
, starring Karoline Herfurth
Karoline Herfurth
-Life and career:She is probably most well known to English-speaking audiences for her appearances in the Academy Award Best Picture-nominee The Reader and in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the 2006 film adaptation of Patrick Suskind's best-selling novel Das Parfum. The feature was directed by...
and Nina Hoss
Nina Hoss
-Early life:Nina's father, Willi Hoss, was a German trade unionist and politician . Her mother, Heidemarie Rohweder, was an actress at Stuttgart National Theatre and later director of the Esslingen-based Württemberg State Playhouse .-Career:In 1997 Hoss graduated from the Drama School "Ernst Busch"...
. The film deals with a young woman who gets bitten by a female vampire and drawn into her world. She falls in love with a young police officer who investigates a murder case involving the vampires. The film explores themes of depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, self-harm
Self-harm
Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...
, the consequenses of immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
, suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
and explores Valerie Solanas
Valerie Solanas
Valerie Jean Solanas was an American radical feminist writer, best known for her attempted murder of Andy Warhol in 1968. She wrote the SCUM Manifesto, which called for male gendercide and the creation of an all-female society.-Early life:Solanas was born in Ventnor City, New Jersey, to Louis...
' idea of an all-female society
Separatist feminism
Separatist feminism is a form of radical feminism that holds that opposition to patriarchy is best done through focusing exclusively on women and girls...
.
Plot
The film opens with several images of three young women. The images date further and further back until ending in the late 1700's.In a private airplane, the people and the pilots are dead. The only survivors, three young women, are the obvious killers. The leader of these women finds an air-hostess still alive. After examining her eyes, she breaks her neck and the women jump out of the plane, allowing it to crash into Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
In Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, a young criminal, Lena, lurks near a cash dispenser. Just as her victim has used the machine she pickpockets his credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
only for the victim to be arrested by the police. A police officer, Tom, chases after her. with Tom in close pursuit, Lena climbs over a barbwired fence hurting her hand. She runs through a clothing store, grabs a dress, and manages to shake Tom off for a moment. Lena changes into the dress on a brige and hides her clothes. Tom runs into Lena asking if she's seen the boy he thinks he is chasing. After a short conversation, he sees her handwound. He tries to arrest her but Lena hits him in the face and jumps off the bridge onto a boat.
Later that evening, Lena goes to a nightclub. Everyone in line for the club is being examined with a hidden camera by one of the women from the beginning, Louise. Upon seeing Lena, she orders the guard to let her in. Inside the club, Louise dances with Lena and offers her a drink. She asks where Lena's friends are, but Lena replies she does not have any. When Lena goes to the bathroom, Louise follows and bites her in the shoulder. The terrified Lena runs home. When she awakes in the morning, the sun burns her, forcing her to stay inside. That night, Lena returns to the club to confront Louise about what has happened. She meets Louise's two companions, the silent Charlotte and the cheerful Nora. Although never said in the film, it becomes clear that Louise, Charlotte and Nora are vampires.
The girls sell the angry and confused Lena to the Russian pimp Wasja as a prostitute. Louise plans for Lena to kill the wicked man to ease her transformation. Lena is locked in a room. When the pimp comes in to clean her up, she is overwhelmed by vampiric blood lust and attacks the pimp. In the struggle, she stabs him with a broken light bulb, but he shoots her with a shotgun. The girls return to kill the pimp and two of his henchmen before setting them ablaze. They fail to notice another mobster hiding in fear. Before leaving, Nora steals one of the mobster's lamborghini
Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...
.
When Lena awakes at the hotel, Louise gives her a glass of what appears to be blood. As Lena drinks, she feels her strength return. Louise takes care of Lena, removing her dirty and destroyed clothes and showing her to a bathroom where a bath is waiting. After closing the door to leave Lena alone, Louise tells her the story of how she was changed 280 years ago at a masked ball
Masked Ball
Masked Ball is a 1918 Hungarian film directed by Alfréd Deésy and featuring Béla Lugosi.-Cast:* Norbert Dán* Róbert Fiáth* Lajos Gellért - * Annie Góth* Richard Kornai* Béla Lugosi...
. At first she hating her maker, she grew to love her after traveling throughout Europe and getting to know all the benefits of vampire life. After her maker was burned (killed by sunlight), Louise wanted to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
to join her, but instead began searching for a new companion. As Lena baths, her short hair grows and returns to it's natural color, her piercing falls out and she loses all bruises and wounds (including a tatoo on her stomach).
Lena spends a night shopping, partying and having fun with the vampire girls who give her the stolen lamborghini. As they party, Lena notices that Charlotte longingly staring at a pair of baby shoes. Charlotte also exhibits several signs of depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and engades in acts of self-harm
Self-harm
Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...
, among other things burning her own eyeball (which immediately heals). During a dinner (the vampires can eat and taste food but it does not satisfy them), Louise tells Lena that there are no male vampires. As the male vampires grew arrogant, the females tired of their superiority and killed all of them
Separatist feminism
Separatist feminism is a form of radical feminism that holds that opposition to patriarchy is best done through focusing exclusively on women and girls...
with the common promise to never turn a man into a vampire. As the night comes to an end, the vampires return to their hotel to perform their morning ritual: allowing the first rays of sun burn their skin but retreating inside before any harm can be done. Charlotte stays outside longer than the others, but retreats before catching fire. Louise kisses Lena, which startles and confuses Lena, before she interrupts herself and begins cursing her hastiness.
Meanwhile, Tom uses a file on Lena to find her home address. The next night Lena returns home to visit her mother who has not even noticed her absence. As Lena leaves, Toms sees her, but almost does not recognize her. He tells Lena that she could go to jail for 18 months if he arrested her for stealing the credit card, but says he won't because her victim(Wasja) used women. The two have a shot and talk, but when Lena suddenly sees Louise approaching, she uses her Lamborghini to retreat to the vampire's nightclub. She finds Charlotte in a private room where Charlotte tells Lena that she was a silent movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
actress in the 1920s and that she had a husband and daughter. Louise enters the room and asks Lena why she is acting different. Lena lies that she misses the sun, so Louise takes the girls to a pool with artificial sunlight allowing them to have a poolparty "in the sun". Two nightwatchmen find the girls and ask how they managed to get inside. Nora convinces the men to join them in the pool where she quickly kills off one of them, but as water slows the vampires down, the other tries to escape. Charlotte kills this man in a sadistic manner, slicing his throat with a piece of paper which causes him to die slowly and painfully. Lena flees the scene in terror.
Tom and his partner, Lummer, interrogate the surviving Russian mobster van Gough who says that the devil killed his friends and stole his lamborghini. Tom realizes that the stolen car is the car he saw Lena drive. Nora awakes with a bellboy she had fallen in love with. She tries to wake him, but realizes she killed him when they had sex. Nora breaks down in tears as the other girls come into the room. Louise shows her that SWAT is invading the building. Charlotte says she will stall them while the girls make their escape. The vampires have special cars with tinted windows to protect them from sunlight if they ever had to escape during daylight. Lena and Louise take one car while Nora drives alone. The police who think the girls are simply dangerous criminals are slaughtered by Charlotte. Tom enters the room looking for Lena and manages to shoot Charlotte before she attacks him, causing her to fall out the window. As the sun starts to burn her skin, Lena and Louise manage to get her inside their car. Nora crashed into a car and is thrown into sunlight. Police open fire at the other car letting in sunlight on the vampires. Unable to save Nora, they drive away as Charlotte looks back at her friend burning to death and screams in agony. The roof of the car is ripped off in a driving block and the girl crash into a subway to escape sunlight.
The three remaining girls hide at the abonded Teufelsberg(The Devil's Mountain)
Teufelsberg
The Teufelsberg is a hill in Berlin, Germany, in former West Berlin. It rises about 80 meters above the surrounding Brandenburg plain, more precisely the north of Berlin's Grunewald forest....
where Louise has kept cash. Louise angrily blames Lena for leading the police to them and for Nora's death. Now wanted by the police, the girls prepare to escape to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. Before leaving, Charlotte demands to see her elderly daughter. At the retirement home Charlotte sings a lullaby to her dying daughter whom in her last moments recognizes her mother. With a whole day before their departure to Russia the girls return to their hideout to perform their morning ritual. As the sun rises, Charlotte locks Lena and Louise inside and suicide[allows the sun the kill her. Louise breaks down into tears.
Lena goes to Tom to say good bye and show him who she really is (He shots her and the wound is healing infront of his eyes). Lena begins to cry while Tom holds her and they fall asleep. The SWAT is invading the building and Lena almost kills the policemen but then stops and Tom & her get into jail. Louise goes to the watchmen while they're in the shower and kills them. After that she asks Lena how she will manage to live with Tom, because he will die in ca. 80 years and then she'll be alone. Louise kidnaps Tom and Lena follows her. The sunshine is rising when they meet and Louise wants Lena to tell her "I love you". Lena does so and Louise says that that's the most beautiful lie she's ever heard and shots Tom. Louise and Lena have a fight and Lena kills Louise by throwing her into the sunlight. She runs to Tom and wants to bite him, but stops, kisses him and begins to cry.
At the end the SWAT is coming with Lummer. Lena and Tom are gone with no trace other than Louise's gun. Lummer looks outside and sees something the other police and the audience don't. Lummer whispers Good luck and walks away from the scene.
Alternative Endings
Two other endings where shot for this film, like with Gansel's previous film The Wave. Both were discarded to bring a more ambigious ending to the film.The first alternative ending plays out almost like the final ending. It continues after Lena starts to cry and shows her running away into the subway station leaving Tom behind. She stops and looks behind her before start to running again.
In the second ending however, Lena finds Tom dying from his wound and bites him turning him into a vampire. Lena whispers forgive me as Tom rises on his feet. The camera moves away as they look on each other. It's notable to mention that when turning Tom, Lena flies backwards crashing into the wall after delivering the bite much like Louise did she bit her.
Cast
- Karoline HerfurthKaroline Herfurth-Life and career:She is probably most well known to English-speaking audiences for her appearances in the Academy Award Best Picture-nominee The Reader and in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the 2006 film adaptation of Patrick Suskind's best-selling novel Das Parfum. The feature was directed by...
as Lena - Nina HossNina Hoss-Early life:Nina's father, Willi Hoss, was a German trade unionist and politician . Her mother, Heidemarie Rohweder, was an actress at Stuttgart National Theatre and later director of the Esslingen-based Württemberg State Playhouse .-Career:In 1997 Hoss graduated from the Drama School "Ernst Busch"...
as Louise - Jennifer UlrichJennifer UlrichJennifer Ulrich is a German actress who has starred in such films as The Wave and We are the Night. She was born in Lichtenberg, Berlin.-Career:...
as Charlotte - Anna Fischer as Nora
- Max RiemeltMax RiemeltMax Riemelt is a German actor born in Berlin in 1984 . He says "it was more by coincidence because I hadn't really thought about getting involved in acting and hadn't joined any drama groups at school"....
as Tom - Arved Birnbaum as Lummer
- Steffi Kühnert as Lena's mother
- Ivan Shvedoff as van Gogh
- Waléra Kanischtscheff as Wasja (The Pimp)
- Christian Näthe as Guard 1
- Tom Jahn as Guard 2
- Neil Belakhdar as Bellboy (Nora's Lover)
- Cristina do Rego as Stewardess
Background
Dennis Gansel originally wrote the script back in 1999. Then called The Dawn, the plot dealt with a love story between a Berlin vampire and a mortal. He pitched the movie to Nina HossNina Hoss
-Early life:Nina's father, Willi Hoss, was a German trade unionist and politician . Her mother, Heidemarie Rohweder, was an actress at Stuttgart National Theatre and later director of the Esslingen-based Württemberg State Playhouse .-Career:In 1997 Hoss graduated from the Drama School "Ernst Busch"...
, who became very enthusiastic and wanted to do the film right away. The script was in development hell
Development hell
In the jargon of the media-industry, "development hell" is a period during which a film or other project is trapped in development...
for several years. First Franka Potente
Franka Potente
Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...
was going to direct, but with the flop of Creep
Creep (film)
Creep is a 2004 British horror film about a woman locked in overnight on the London Underground who finds herself being stalked by a hideously deformed killer living in the sewers below...
, no one wanted to invest in German horror films. Gansel almost gave up hope until the release and success of Twilight
Twilight (2008 film)
Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series...
sparked a wave of vampire films, and the success of Gansel's The Wave
The Wave (2008 film)
The Wave is a 2008 German film directed by Dennis Gansel and starring Jürgen Vogel, Max Riemelt, Jennifer Ulrich, Jacob Matschenz and Frederick Lau. It is based on the book The Wave which was inspired by the social experiment The Third Wave. The film was produced by Christian Becker for Rat Pack...
gave him free hands. Due to the similarities between the original script and Twilight, Gansel had Jan Berger rewrite the script, now under the title Wir sind die Nacht. Thinking that an ordinary love story was no longer in place with the boom of star crossed vampire/human relationships Gansel imagened a darker twist on the subject was more in order. He came up with a new, darker love story and took Carmilla
Carmilla
Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla...
as inspiration as he thought while Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
had been done to death, no one had really made a serious attempt on Carmilla. Karoline Herfurth was shown the script back in 2000, but she was to young to play Lena, so Gansel promised her the role of Nora. But as production was delayed, Herfurth became old enough for the part of Lena. Instead Anna Fischer was cast as Nora, who in the eye of producer Christian Becker was the perfect choice because she looked like a party girl. Jennifer Ulrich auditioned 4 times before being cast as Charlotte. As background for the disco was an old bathhouse. The pool was unheated and therefore all the actors and extras had to play the scene in the cold. The exterior shots of the club came in a deserted theme park in the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick, and Spree in the park.
Most of the stunts in the film were done by the actresses themselves.
Soundtrack
The film's score was composed by Heiko Maille and performed by the Deutsches Filmorchester BabelsbergDeutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg
The German Film Orchestra Babelsberg is a symphony orchestra based in Potsdam, Germany. It was founded in 1993 by Klaus Peter Beyer. The orchestra derives its name from the legendary Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam-Babelsberg, a city part of Potsdam today, where notable films such as Metropolis, Dr...
. The soundtrack album, released as a MP3 download and on CD, features the majority of the songs and parts of the score. One song, Pleased to meet you by Wolfmother
Wolfmother
Wolfmother is an Australian rock band from Erskineville, Sydney. Formed in 2000, the group was originally a trio composed of vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, bassist and keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett. Wolfmother released their self-titled debut album in October 2005,...
was featured in the film, but is not on the soundtrack.
- "Self-fulfilling Prophecy" − Scala & Kolacny BrothersScala & Kolacny BrothersScala & Kolacny Brothers is a Belgian women's choir, conducted by Stijn Kolacny and arranged and accompanied by Steven Kolacny on the piano. Formed in 1996 and winning the Belgian 'Choir of the Year'-contest in 2000, they have made five studio albums, starting with On The Rocks in 2002.Most songs...
- "In Our Eyes" (Anthony Mills Soundtrack Version) − MoonbooticaMoonbooticaMoonbootica is the pseudonym of Hamburg DJs KoweSix und Tobitob . The band name derives from their rather large shoe sizes which quickly lead to the fitting shoes, moon boots. Their musical style is a mixture of Electro and House with little Hip Hop influences...
- "Wir sind die Nacht" − CovenantCovenant (band)Covenant is a band from Sweden whose music comprises a mixture between electropop and electronic dance music. The band is composed of Eskil Simonsson, Daniel Myer and Joakim Montelius...
- "Charlotte's Death (Au Claire De La Lune)" (Score) − Heiko Maile
- "Nightlife" − IAMX
- "Lena's Metamorphosis" (Score) − Heiko Maile
- "Cold Song" − Klaus NomiKlaus NomiKlaus Sperber , better known as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona....
- "Escape From The Hotel (Suite)" (Score) − Heiko Maile
- "Dumpfe Träume (WSDN Remix)" − Xenia Beliayeva
- "Miserable Girl (Nite Version)" − SoulwaxSoulwaxSoulwax, headed by David and Stephen Dewaele, are an alternative rock/electronic band from Ghent, Belgium. Next to the Dewaele brothers, Soulwax consists of bassist Stefaan Van Leuven and drummer Steve Slingeneyer. They were first noticed after the release of their album Much Against Everyone's...
- "Tief in der Nacht" − DJ Valero
- "IERS" − Dirk Blümlein Terzett
- "Land Of The Free" − Warren Suicide
- "Farewell My Child" (Score) − Heiko Maile
- "Pretty When You Cry" − VASTVASTVAST is an American industrial rock band based in Austin, Texas. The acronym VAST stands for Visual Audio Sensory Theater and is the main creation of singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jon Crosby...
- "Russian Whorehouse (Suite)" (Score) − Heiko Maile
- "Big And Bad (WSDN Edit)" − Gabriel Le Mar
The complete score was released as a MP3 download on Amazon.de.
Critical reception
The film was nominated for Best Editing and Best Film score at the 2011 German Film AwardsDeutscher Filmpreis
The Deutscher Filmpreis is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie...
. It was awarded the Special Jury Award at the 43rd Sitges Film Festival.
The film holds a 60% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.