As a fan of minimalist tones such as those of Arvo Pärt, Philipp Glass and the Penguin Café Orchestra, director and scriptwriter Tom Tykwer was inspired by such sounds throughout the entire creative process of THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR.Following their first experience together on WINTER SLEEPERS, and the international success of his previous film (and accompanying soundtrack) RUN LOLA RUN, it quickly became obvious that Tykwer would work with his partners Reinhold Heil (Spliff, Nina Hagen Band, Babyloon etc.) and Johnny Klimek (Producer of Dr. Motte and Paul Van Dyck amongst others) on this film as well: "The three of us understand each other perfectly. I know that if I send a script, or just fragments thereof to Johnny and Reinhold, that they will immediately start thinking of things which will help the film and its atmosphere."
While Tykwer started shooting, Reinhold Heil of Germany and Johnny Klimek of Australia began looking for ideas and sounds for the score in Santa Barbara and Berlin respectively. Heil says "Tom's script was so intensive and three-dimensional that after the first read, I already had some spontaneous ideas. For example, very early on I fiddled about on a sound for the institution, even though we didn't end up using it…"
The final soundtrack of the film material also happened very spontaneously. The former Spliff musician recalls: "We met every evening after Tom had spent the day with the editor on the final cut. He showed us some finished scenes and we started working on them immediately. It was an incredibly spontaneous and maybe as a result, fruitful process."
Tykwer adds his thoughts: "The music for this film had to fulfil a task. It had to be able to underline the path of the two main characters. In contrast to RUN LOLA RUN, mood swings and dreams play a vastly bigger role. Working in this way meant we were always familiar with the characters' different situations."
The resulting soundtrack CD, which is to be published by Motor music is equally unusual, and probably unique. It reveals music from the film, but not just one score. "At some point we had the idea that we could arrange songs out of the accompanying music," said Heil. On the basis of intense and creative co-operation, the trio, now to be known as Pale 3, are looking to become involved in music projects beyond the editing of moving pictures. "Given that the driving force in the film is Sissi, it seemed natural to all of us to restrict our wish list of vocalists almost exclusively to women." Tykwer goes on: "The vocal pieces wouldn't have worked half as well in the film, but with the texts cut for individual scenes and continual expressive singing, listeners can relate much better to the feelings and motives of the plot when they listen to the CD without the film."
