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Brødre (2004)
Outstanding!
"Brothers" is another outstanding film from Danish Producer, Director and Writer, Susanne Bier. After watching "Open Hearts" (2002), "Brothers"(2004), "After the Wedding" (2006) and last but not least "Things We Lost in The Fire" (2007) a recurrent theme emerges from her filmography. In "Brothers", Susanne tells us the story of two contrasting brothers, Michael (Ulrich Thomsen) and Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). Michael is a scrupulous Danish Officer and family man who is sent to Afghanistan on a rescue mission. Jannik is the younger brother who can't keep himself out of trouble and has recently been released from Prison following a sentence for robbery. Assisted by a beautiful soundtrack and an amazing photography, Susanne shows us the beautiful depth of Michael and Sarah's (Connie Nielsen) love before Michael is sent to Afghanistan. There is a scene at the beginning where Michael tells his soldiers to expect the unexpected in the war-scenario. This scene introduces a sense of 'impending doom' and tragedy that at first seems to be confirmed when Michael's helicopter is shot down. The amazing twist of irony in the narrative, is that the real tragedy is still to come. Prompted by a dysfunctional and emotionally inept father, Jannik decides to help his sister-in-law and nieces through the difficult bereavement. Maybe moved by grief initially, Jannik ends up falling in love with Connie Nielsen and they kiss each other. At the same time and after having survived the helicopter crash, Michael is captured by a group of afghan troops and locked up in a warehouse with a young army technician he was meant to rescue. The captors then decide the young soldier is no longer useful and force Michael to kill him with a lead-pipe to save his own life. The camp is then attacked by British troops who rescue Michael and bring him back to Denmark. Unable to deal with the guilt of having killed the young technician, and consumed by jealousy, Michael starts experiencing bursts of anger and mood swings. The plot reaches its dramatic peak, when the eldest daughter of the couple attacks Michael at the dinner table and in a very crude way tells his father that he is resentful because Sarah prefers to have sex with his brother. Enraged, Michael assaults his wife and brother and is arrested by the Police. The film ends with Sarah visiting Michael in Prison and asking him about what had happened in Afghanistan. At this point, Michael breaks down and starts sobbing in a scene of high emotional intensity.
Allegro (2005)
Artistic, provocative and clever!
This Danish film tells us the story of an accomplished pianist, Zetterstrøm (Ulrich Thomsen), who returns to his native Copenhagen after spending 10 years abroad. Zetterstrøm is a virtuoso who is depicted as cold and emotionally detached man with a mysterious past. Upon his return to Copenhagen, he is lured to visit a segregated part of the town by an enigmatic invitation for a dinner. The 'place' is denominated the 'zone' and is where he used to live. Upon his return to Copenhagen, Zetterstrøm is overwhelmed with fragmented and 'undigested' memories and images from his mysterious past that he desperately tries to suture into a coherent narrative. The film depicts the intimate relationship between memory and identity (in the film, Zetterstrøm is hidden from the audiences during the concert). Despite not finding the acting excellent (I've seen a lot better from Ulrich Thomsen and Helena Christensen's debut performance was too insipid), I have to say that the film is conceptually very well structured. I found the cartoons and the 'timeline' very clever contextualising Zetterstrøm's perfectionism and 'sealing-over' (young boy putting a doll inside a box). The soundtrack is outstanding with classical compositions. The only negative aspect was that, at times, the film offers far too many explanations that are unnecessary and 'kill the romance'. I also found the long contemplative shots too 'cheesy' for my taste. On the positive note, I thought it was very clever the way compartmentalisation and dissociation were portrayed. His memories were 'isolated' and 'segregated' in the "zone" – forbidden and inaccessible area, which is surrounded by a façade - 'the zone' is both a geographical part of Copenhagen i.e. ghetto (political critique and social dimension) and a part of Zetterstrøm psyche - its' interiority and content. The 'Policemen' were outside the perimeter due to the presumed dangerousness of the 'zone', despite its inaccessibility. The 'zone' has oneiric qualities i.e. symmetrical logic, and is accessed through a 'public toilet' in a modern version of Wonderland. The streets and canals have an atmosphere of uncanniness which is perfectly constructed. The part where Christensen's corpse is emerged from the canal by the rescue team, the sutures in her abdomen reminded me of something grotesque and frankensteinian. In the last part of the film, Zetterstrøm tries to play his composition and the symptom 'emerges'. There is a clever 'displacement' and a 'return of the repressed'. Zetterstrøm is unable to play in tune - as he lacks 'emotional attunement' and no longer just emotionality in his interpretation. Overall, it's a very interesting and clever film, worth watching.