‘Bandits’ Rocks With Emotion as Female Band Goes on the Run

The spirit of “Thelma & Louise” hovers over the rock ‘n’ roll adventure “Bandits.” Dynamic German director Katja von Garnier has made a movie that’s as fun and exuberant as the best Hollywood entertainments yet has still come up with an emotion-charged tale that’s also an edgy commentary on women’s destinies and how they’re still so largely affected by men.

In her Oscar-winning student film “Making Up!” (1993), Von Garnier showed that she was a sharp, stylish observer of the challenge modern women face in squaring away their longing for freedom and independence with their attraction to the opposite sex and in their longing for love--concerns that very much underlie the go-for-broke “Bandits.”

Katja Riemann, a major German star of beauty and versatility who appeared in “Making Up!,” plays Emma, one of four inmates in a women’s prison who form a scorching rock band. When they escape they more than live up to the name they’ve given their group, Bandits, who become folk heroes as they elude the police while their clandestine recordings zoom to the top of the charts. There’s a strong element of action-comedy fantasy in their escapades, but Von Garnier is adept at playing against her escapees-on-the-run plot with strong characterizations of a group of highly diverse women who we come to feel have been more sinned against than sinning.

So convinced is Emma, who claims she killed her brutal lover in self-defense, that she will win an appeal that in prison she remains uptight and withdrawn. When she loses it, Emma reveals what a sensational drummer she is, joining forces with the gifted but hot-tempered and headstrong singer-guitarist Luna (Jasmin Tabatabai), the pretty guitarist Angel (Nicolette Krebitz) and the older, vulnerable Marie (Jutta Hoffmann), their keyboardist. Von Garnier has given her actresses plenty to work with and inspires them to pull out all the stops, Barbara Stanwyck-style, but without going over the top.

The Bandits captivate us--both as individual women and as musicians; in fact the super-charged songs, most of which are sung in English, by the way, were written by Krebitz and Tabatabai. There’s a good mix of humor and pathos in this most vital and passionate of movies, and Von Garnier, working with a crackerjack cameraman, Torsten Breuer, brings it an unflagging panache and scope.

*

* MPAA rating: R, for language, sexuality and some drug use. Times guidelines: The film is too intense and too adult in its themes for youngsters.

‘Bandits’

Katja Riemann: Emma

Jasmin Tabatabai: Luna

Nicolette Krebitz: Angel

Jutta Hoffmann: Marie

A Stratosphere Entertainment presentation of an Olga Film production co-produced by Vela X in association with ProSieben and Flach Film/Jean-Francois Lepetit. Director Katja von Garnier. Producers Harry Kugler, Molly von Furstenberg, Elvira Senft. Screenplay Von Garnier, Uwe Wilhelm; from an idea by Von Garnier and Ben Taylor. Cinematographer Torsten Breuer. Editor Hans Funck. Music the Bandits. Costumes Claudia Bobsin. Production designer Susann Bieling. In German, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.

At selected theaters.