Cover Art

Credits

Director: Stefan Ruzowitsky Starring: Franka Potente, Benno Furmann, Anna Loos, Holger Speckhahn, Sebastian Blomberg Screenplay: Stefan Ruzowitsky Music: Marius Ruhland Tagline: The Subject Is You Country: Germany

Anatomie tells of medical student Paula Henning (Franka Potente), whose family has a history of being in medicine. Her grandfather was the Dean of the exclusive Heidelberg Medical School and her father (Rudiger Volger) is a G.P. When Paula is accepted into The Heidelberg Medical School, her father is less than impressed, especially when Paula suggests she wants to be more than just a G.P. On the train to Heidelberg, she meets fellow student, Gretchen (Anna Loos) and soon comes to the assistance of David (Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey) who suffers from a rare inoperable heart condition. When Paula is in Anatomy class at school she is taught by Professor Grumbeck (Traugott Buhre), and she soon has her abilities as a potential Doctor challenged by having to perform an autopsy on David. She discovers that David's corpse has some anomalies not related to his disorder and that he has a brand of 'AAA' on his ankle. Upon further investigation after the autopsy, she is threatened by a bunch of Anti Hippocratic order of medicos, or is it just by one of the many seemingly strange men that have entered her life….

The Gallery is a scrolling slideshow with some of the most horrific lounge music you shall ever hear… made me long for Mel Torme and his Orchestra!!

The interviews section (21 minutes 14 seconds) has interviews with four cast members and three of the crew. Of the cast members, Benno Furmann, Anna Loos, Franka Potente and Holger Speckhahn get a go, and of the crew, Producer Andrea Wilson, Executive Producer Jakob Claussen and director Stefan Ruzowitzky. Together these interviews make an interesting look at the making of this film, and what each individual thought of their role, character motivations and each other.

The commentary is by writer/director Stefan Ruzowitzky and is a thorough and fascinating look at his filmmaking. He really grasps everything that his characters are involved in and has reasons for their situations. This commentary is in German and has English subtitles.

There is music clip from Anna Loos, who played Gretchen in the film and was once the singer of punk band Leck Mich am Arsch (which can mean either Kiss My Ass! Or Eat Shit and Die!, either way, a great name for a German Punk band) called My Truth (4 minutes 3 seconds).

There are two deleted scenes, each of which can be played with or without the directors (subtitled) commentary: Disposal of Body (3 minute 14 seconds) and Hein chases Paula (1 minute 45 seconds). His discussions of why these scenes had to be removed are an interesting look into the antagonist/ protagonist identification problem…quite fascinating!

Special Make Up Effects Featurette (2 minutes 26 seconds) is a subtitled look into the Effects workshop for this film. If you like special effects features, this is interesting but far too brief, and the lounge music soundtrack makes it feel like you are watching a badly made travelogue or cheap porno film.

Making of Featurette (4 minutes 52 seconds), is again subtitled, and interesting but too short to appreciate fully. The advantage that these short featurettes have is that they are supported by the cast interviews mentioned previously.

Storyboard to Film Comparison is a split screen look at incredibly badly drawn storyboards, with notes, in German and the relevant film sequence they represent.