Laura: “Why did you leave the key in the car”
 

Chance encounters (fate), the idea of justice, misunderstanding, guilt, atonement,
Laura also is the nurse, the light and the curtains, the soothing music, green/white
Their intertwined relationships
the friendship between the two women pondering the depth of their male relationships
The disco scene and Marco’s selfishness when he himself is promiscuous
What is it Rebecca accuses him of?
The bed scene?
Marco–ski instructor
Rene–photographer and projectionist, memory lapses, causes chain of events
Laura--nurse and performer, keels over
Rebecca–translator and ski instructor1
Theo–farmer, bankrupt, but not a generation X guy. Older and more concerned

Marco and Rebecca: Why does the film spend so much on them?? Is it a developed relationship?
Marco: makes decisions for both, does not accept free will, it’s a man’s world, father image scares him, envy, insecure. Rebecca lives in a fantasy world–her cheap novels
 

Laura and Rene is a chance encounter. Laura also suffers from memory lapses during her performance; their exchange of words; Rene cannot remember what has happened the day before yesterday. Kitchen Scene: Rene takes care of Rebecca who went to the funeral. Spontaneous reaction. Marco is afraid of feelings and attachments. Rene is always dark. Marco is egocentric
 

Theo’s accident (Rene), then Laura, then Marco

drifting
 

Cinematography:
snow
forest landscape
the glaciers
the tunnel
the final jump-over the edge
the fog conditions
the snow covered road forms the title of the movie
the shot of Laura from the outside of the train
Renee trying to remember (circular movement)
the shower scene
the end and the juxtaposition and drawn out ending in slow motion
The cigarette smoke and the fog
the fall into the abyss and the birth of Rene’s baby
Camera:
Nature shots
swooping down mountains
the ravines in the glaciers
the beauty of nature
Somehow Tacker makes connection between these nature shots and the people in the story
the film begins with nature shots
Bath tub
 

Realism:
characters, Theo’s wife who does not respect him. Priest finds Theo. Responsibility, police
fairy tale motif by the lake
 

Values/Message
What does the film seem to ask? What is it that attracts people to one another? What values do the 2 couples represent or each individual? What is it that “binds” Marco to Rebecca? Maturity of men in general or people? Values of relationships? The film might want to capture the search for a sense of life, or their own discontinuity. The characters are all linked. Therefore, events tie us together–chain reaction
 

Music:
enigmatic
the distance between Marco and Rebecca: silence only music
the camera that circles around Laura and Rene and their discussion muted by the music

Dialogue:

Beginning:
The names of the characters

"Winter Sleepers," which Tykwer and Anne-Francoise Pyszora adapted from her novel "Expense of Spirit," offers a riveting depiction of the classic collision of fate and character, with geography in this instance playing a crucial role--all those icy roads and slippery slopes.

Making its case
The Domino effect of the open car door (also in Run Lola Run). Death, fate, human nature

"Winter Sleepers' " title may refer to its characters' tendency to drift without anchor. Sleepers, however, is also the name of a popular local tavern. For Tykwer, love is the anchor, and he has said his film is "about love in the face of impossible circumstances."

Marco and Rene approach life differently. Rene takes pictures and watches life in movies and can’t remember his own life  and Marco watches TV
For Marco it is entertainment
For Rene it is a necessity

Generation:
Somehow a picture of a lost generation, maybe Tykwer’s own. Emotional and also intellectual
Several of his shots - frozen or still frame - could function as photographical execution of his theme, especially the end shot of the skier who is racing toward the depth of the abyss without any contours All characters are developed and they should be O.K. Yet, they all are missing something What is it with that generation around 30 years old? How awake is it
It was important to Tykwer to create a movie with which one can identify and that’s why he has the Marco and Rebecca scene in it. A movie comes alive he says

Quote in German
Flown at from the side, a white area with crevasses stands symbolic for all figures who have frozen wounds. They do not bleed because people would not allow it. It would be great if these wounds would bleed...

"Von der Seite angeflogen sieht man eine weiße Fläche, dann kommst du immer näher und kuckst ein bißchen weiter runter. Plötzlich öffnen sich überall diese Spalten wie unterkühlte Wunden, in denen das Blut nicht raus kann, weil es eingefroren ist. So sind die Figuren für mich auch, sie haben Wunden. Aber sie bluten nicht, weil es keiner zuläßt. Es wäre gar nicht so schlecht, wenn sie es mal täten."

Isolation of each character, no solidarity among them. The generation seems to be in a winter sleep and they do not know when the sleep is over
 
Why does the camera angle point to Laura and Marco on the train and in the car?
Why not vice versa?
How does the winter landscape add to the mystery of the movie (evergreen trees+baby=closure)

Time lapse:
accident
the end
Theo’s obsession with the scene of the accident

Silence:
accident
Theo by the bed side
Rebecca and Marco
Pool
over the edge
blank screen
Why does the camera not follow Theo at the accident scene
Nina on the tree (girl in the hospital)