TATTOO
Germany, 2002, 109 minutes, Colour.
August Diehl, Christian Redl, Nadeshda Brennicke, Johan Leysen.
Directed by Robert Schwentke.
Tattoo was very popular at the German box office in 2002-2003. It also travelled well around the world.
The film is set in Berlin and focuses on police and investigations. However, with the design, production, colour design, the film is evocative of such other films as David Finch's Seven. It has a sinister look, shows a Berlin underworld, even makes the police look suspicious.
The concern is for a serial killer who is taking tattoos from the bodies of the victims. What is revealed is an international link, based on the Internet, for a collector to have a museum of elaborate tattoos. Murder is no obstacle.
The old police inspector is concerned about the disappearance and death of his daughter. The young policeman, who is on drugs, is persuaded by the old chief to join him in the investigation, to enter into the Berlin underworld in order to discover the truth. This he does, though he falls foul of a femme fatale who, of course, turns out to be the ultimate villain, her own body being completely tattooed. The film works as an interesting police investigation story but also works as a very eerie look at a strange criminal world. In this way, it is reminiscent of the films of the 20s and 30s in Germany, especially those by Fritz Lang with Dr Mabuse, which created these kinds of elaborate and exotic criminal worlds.
1. An atmospheric thriller? Berlin, Germany? The surface Berlin, the underground Berlin?
2. The locations, the police precincts, the nightclubs? The world of the tattooists? The museum of tattoos, a world of madness and beauty?
3. The focus on Schrader, his joining the police, his destiny, at a desk in the office? His private life, the nightclubs, the police raid, his escape? Leaving behind his jacket, the drugs in the pocket? Detective Mincks and his knowing about the drugs, the interview? Offering him a job in Homicide Department, the alternate to be charged with the possession of drugs? Mincks's proposal, the disappearance of his daughter, the hardened veteran who was anxious about his child? His belief that she was lost somewhere in the drug subculture, wanting Schrader to search for her?
4. Mincks, age, experience, tough investigator? His relationship with his daughter, his grief at her disappearance? The motivation for putting pressure on Schrader?
5. Schrader, his moving around the rave scene, finding the daughter, her unwillingness to let her father know the truth?
6. The investigation of the victims of the serial killer? The examination of the bodies, the gruesome close-ups? The tattoos and their being missing from the corpses?
7. Schrader, his inquiries, his meeting Maya, her gallery? The discussion about tattoos, the discussions about Oriental art? His learning that she knew one of the murder victims? His further investigations, the interrogation of the drug addict, the information about the lawyer, Schouba, his collecting of tattoos? The approach to Schouba, Schrader and Mincks and their interrogation? His information about the unknown figure, the name Irezumi? The Internet chat room, the coordination of the trade in tattoos?
8. Schrader and Maya, the affair? Maya and her passion? Schrader and his love for her? Mincks and his knowledge of the affair, his wanting to use Maya as a lure to the criminal? Her own body tattoos? Marie being murdered, her tattoo being sent to her father? His grief, killing himself?
9. Schrader, his reaction to Mincks's death, his asking Maya to be the bait, the police, the attempt to catch the mysterious Irezumi? The failure of the set-up, Maya and her disappearance? The irony of Schrader's later discovering that Maya herself is Irezumi?
10. The end of the film - and the opening for further developments? Maya at a restaurant, her looking at someone with a tattoo? The future?
11. How effective a detective story, an exotic world of crime and violence? The visuals and sounds to suggest this kind of world?
