It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a film with subtitles. The last one was the brilliant Swedish horror flick Let the Right One In. Wir Sind Die Nacht (We Are the Night) is equally enjoyable, but of a much different style and tone.
The movie opens with pictures of Berlin through the ages, and haunting, operatic music, beginning with modern day Berlin and moving backwards in time, to the Fall of the Berlin War, the Second World War and further into the past. The same women appear in photos throughout these historical eras. One of them can be seen in an oil painting, giving us an idea how old this lady is. An intriguing voice-over asks: “If you knew that there is only one person in the whole world who is able to make you happy. And he is the right one for you, what would you sacrifice to find him? How many centuries would you spend searching for him? And if you finally found him, would you ever let him go again?…”
Vampire boss Louise (Nina Hoss), her second in command Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) and the younger, fun-loving Nora (Anne Fischer) jump from a plane over Berlin having killed the passengers and crew. The next scene introduces us to the troubled Lena (Karoline Herfurth) who immediately reminded me of Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She picks the wrong guy to steal from, and ends up being pursued, in a highly enjoyable and exciting chase through the city by a cop, Tom (Max Riemelt – FYI, he’s lovely ladies). You have to laugh at a cop who sees the funny side of being punched in the face and kicked in the groin by the thief he’s chasing.
Lena has the bad luck to show up in Louise’s vampire nightclub one night. She reminds Louise of her dead maker and the woman she loved, and Louise wastes no time in making her into a vampire. Max tracks Lena down but she has already been turned and is under the scrutiny of the deranged Louise. We know this love triangle isn’t going to end well.
We Are The Night is a slick and stylish, lightweight movie. In this universe, there are no male vampires. Wondering why? You’ll have to watch the film to find out! Louise and co spend their time dancing, eating, having sex and driving fast cars. They live a life of luxury and decadence and feed without remorse, the latter of which Lena struggles with. The most interesting vampire for me was Charlotte who looks like she stepped out of the 1920s. We discover she was an actress in the silent film era when Louise took a shine to her and promptly removed her from her human life where she was married and had a child. Once we learn this, Charlotte’s cold and seemingly detached personality makes a lot more sense.
Tom & Lena
Pic from Film Critic
These vampires are traditional in nature: they cast no reflection, can’t come out during the day and they kill humans. The film loses its way about halfway through but the action picks up again towards the end. If you’re looking for high drama and a deep and meaningful story, this film isn’t going to provide that for you. On the other hand, if you’re after some harmless entertainment with nice acting and a handsome human police officer who’s in love with a vampire (I’ll mention him again, Max Riemelt :)), give this a watch.
I had never heard of any of these great actors before, and We Are the Night made me want to watch more European films. And of course being the sucker for paranormal romance that I am, I was hoping Lena and Tom would find a way to be together. ****
Check it Out on Amazon HERE
Emma's Ramblings on Supernatural Fiction 
Sorry, I like my vampires male. LOL
I think one of the biggest reasons I don’t like movies with subtitles is that I can’t usually sit and watch something without doing something else. I’m a crazy multi-tasker, so I can’t do just one thing. I can’t read the subtitles while I’m doing other stuff. 🙂
I looked up Max. He’s a cutie. 😉
Isn’t he!
I like my vampires male too, preferably like Eric Northman and Spike, lol but it was cool to see a sort of Lost Boys movie with girls at the helm instead.
There’s a dubbed version of this available but I checked out the trailer on youtube and the accents are horrendous. It would spoil the whole film.
I love harmless and fun, so I’m definitely going to rent this one. I’m with Lauralynn on the subtitles thing, but since my Hubs is freaking going deaf in his old age, he puts subtitles on everything and now I’m used to it. I like to watch foreign films without them to see if I can pick up the language. I never can, but it amuses me all the same.
Ha ha, your poor Hubs 🙂
I took German in school but I’ve forgotten practically everything I learned since I had to rely on the subtitles throughout.
I took German in high school, too. I actually remember more German than I do French and I took 3 years of French! But, I can read French fairly well, it’s the speaking and understanding it spoken part that I suck at. Probably because it’s such a different sentence structure than English and German. Curse you, romantic languages!
Hi Tameri, you might be able to get through the original movie so without subtitles, best of luck!! I ‘studied’ and I use that word loosely, French also. It’s a lot harder to speak than German. I went to Montpellier a couple of years ago and the locals would not speak English to visitors. It was a mortifying holiday as I attempted to order food and shop in my broken French with a strong, Irish lilt 🙂
I’m a sucker for a vampire film that has a different twist, so thanks for the review. I’ll check it out even if it does lose its way in the middle! (And I loved Let the Right One In. Need to see the US remake)
I’ve seen both versions of Let the Right One In. The American one was done well actually.
Hope you enjoy the film. It’s not to be taken too seriously, a popcorn movie I guess.
Thanks for stopping by Julie.
Loved reading your post.
Thanks Melissa.
I love foreign films…I will def have to search this one out. Wir sind de nacht …Das ist gut.
Didn’t see your Tuesday Teaser this week…:}
Es war sehr gut 🙂
I just posted my Tuesday Teaser now!
I’m adding it to our queue but at the rate we’re moving through our list who knows when we’ll see it.LOL. Max looks so familiar.
I know. There’s so much to watch these days. I thought he looked familiar too but I googled him and he’s not in anything I would have seen, no US movies.
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