Anatomy (film)

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Movie
Original title anatomy
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2000
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Stefan Ruzowitzky
script Stefan Ruzowitzky
production Jakob Claussen
music Marius Ruhland
camera Peter von Haller
cut Ueli Christians
occupation

Anatomie is a German medical thriller by Stefan Ruzowitzky from 2000. In 2003 the sequel Anatomie 2 was released .

action

The main character is the intelligent and ambitious Munich medical student Paula, who wants to take an anatomy course with the respected Professor Grombek at Heidelberg University during the summer . In doing so, she wants to emulate her grandfather, who can present some significant research results in modern medicine. Her father, on the other hand, is a family doctor and rejects his daughter's career plan. Shortly before leaving for Heidelberg, she visits her grandfather again, who is now dying.

During the train ride, she meets Gretchen, who is also one of the chosen students. The two women embody opposing characters as the story progresses. Gretchen doesn't take her studies as seriously as Paula does. First and foremost, she wants to enjoy life and have a lot of fun. That's why she starts an affair with fellow student Hein in Heidelberg. Suddenly the passengers on the train panic because a young man collapses after a heart attack. Paula keeps calm and saves the patient with targeted resuscitation measures .

When the two students enter the anatomy room for the first time, they look in shock at one of the corpses that are waiting for an autopsy. The dead body seems to be moving. The women believe that a fellow student is joking, but when Gretchen removes the scarf, they see that the head is missing. However, Paula shows her professional attitude here too. With a factual analysis, she comes to the conclusion that the muscles were moved by electrical impulses and reveals the pranksters.

Professor Grombek welcomes his students and uses pathetic words to point out the importance of their work: “In this room no pain has been alleviated, no patient has been healed. The basis for this is being created here. "

When Paula sees the body for the first section, she can't believe her eyes. In front of her lies the young man whom she resuscitated on the train journey there. However, she remains calm and conducts the pathological examination. She notices that the blood has thickened in a strange way. She asks a biochemist friend for help. During the analysis he finds the chemical “Promidal”, which actually does not belong in a human body, but is used in animals to dry them out for preparation.

This discovery arouses Paula's curiosity. She examines the corpse one more time. She discovers the brand “AAA” on the ankle . At first she cannot assign any meaning to the abbreviation until her classmate Caspar leads her on the trail of an old secret society. Behind the abbreviation "AAA" are the anti-Hippocrats, a secret box made up of doctors and students who oppose the Hippocratic oath . In their pursuit of medical advancement, they do not allow ethical concerns to bother them, and they do not even shrink from murder. Another detail puts Paula in acute danger: the headquarters of the antihippocrats is the University of Heidelberg.

However, Paula doesn’t let the bloody traces on her bed or Hein stop her during her research. The latter complains that Gretchen now loves fellow student Phil instead of him, and urgently warns her not to bother about this matter. A short time later, her roommate and her new boyfriend disappeared. Paula calls the police, but the law enforcement officers don't take their concerns seriously.

From then on, Hein behaves strangely. When Paula watches him desecrate the corpses in the anatomy room, she flees from him and walks into the middle of Grombek's study. There she discovers the symbol of the anti-Hippocrats. It is now clear that the respected professor is the grand master of the secret box. But Paula's connection with the anti-Hippocrats is closer than she thinks. Grombek tells her that her grandfather was also part of the group. Her grandfather himself was the Grand Master of the Lodge, was responsible for developing the Promidal method and dissected alive prisoners of war who were terminally ill during the Third Reich. Paula goes straight back to Munich to talk to her grandfather personally about it. But she's too late. The old man has just passed away.

In a meeting of the anti-Hippocrats, Hein has to answer for the murders. He rejects the allegations of the judge - they are only an expression of petty bourgeois morality. Grombek then announced to him that he would notify the police and, as Hein's instructor, take responsibility for himself. He calls Paula in Munich and asks her to come and see him the next day. Shortly afterwards he is murdered by Hein.

After listening to the call on the answering machine, Paula immediately returns to Heidelberg. On the door of Grombek's house she found a fake note in which Grombek asked her to come to the anatomy room in the evening. Before she goes there in the evening, she meets with Caspar and sleeps with him. In his bathroom she finds a bottle of Promidal. She discovers documents with the AAA seal on his desk. That is why she believes that he is an anti-Hippocrat like Hein and flees immediately.

In the anatomy room, however, she does not meet the professor, but Hein, who drastically reveals to her that he murdered the two missing students: He shows her Gretchen's corpse, which he has plastinated in the meantime . Paula is said to be his next victim. He overpowers her, ties her up on the operating table and injects her with the infamous Promidal. Shortly after he has left the hall, Caspar comes in. This frees Paula and stops the effect of the poison with a 10% saline solution. He explains to her that his real name is Oliver Kaufmann and that he is doing his doctorate in history. The topic of his doctoral thesis are the anti-Hippocrats; he secretly snuck into the anatomy class for his research. When the two want to leave the room, Hein comes with Oliver's roommate Ludwig. While Hein begins to cut up Oliver, Paula Ludwig is able to inject Promidal and manage to escape. Hein pursues her and wants to stab her with the scalpel, while Ludwig fails to inject himself with a life-saving saline solution. After a dramatic hunt through the anatomy rooms, Hein cuts into an electrical cable that Paula is holding up. But finally Paula kills the man who was believed to be dead with his own scalpel. Oliver can also be saved.

In the epilogue the audience learns in a conversation between two students that the tradition of the anti-hippocrats is being continued. The student Gabi says that she would take over her father's practice and that you could try it out.

background

The drug Promidal and the anti-hippocrats are fictional.

The Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky celebrated his greatest commercial success with over 2 million visitors in Germany. Anatomy is thus also the most successful German film of 2000.

The main characters were also shown with the help of the documentary Table No. 6 (Director: Carola Noëlle Hauck , 1998) prepared for their roles. The film, which shows how budding physicians lose their shyness as part of the dissection course, also served Ruzowitzky as a basic research.

Reviews

"The film loses a lot of its suggestive effect because it does not want to be satisfied with the pictorial and thought patterns of the genre, but tries to create a mental 'superstructure' that is as flat as it appears superficial."

- Lexicon of international film

“With his alpine drama Die Siebtelbauern , the Austrian Ruzowitzky succeeded in simultaneously subverting and circumscribing the homeland film genre. In anatomy he adopts reactionary American shocker clichés without breaking them or even playing with them. "

- Katja Nicodemus

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lumiere - Database of movie attendance figures in Europe
  2. ^ Anatomy. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 7, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ "Robes and runes in the candlelight", taz on February 3, 2000