Cinema of Denmark

On the 6th of March we had a very unique lesson with Jette. She introduced us the history of Danish film and filmmaking. To tell you the truth I wasn't impressed at the first place, because one hand I'm not good at films and the other hand I thought she speak about the Danish literature.
So I was little bit disappointed at first, but it dissappeared immediately, when she gave that interesting retrospection of films, filmmaking illustrated by lots of videos from YouTube and dvds.
First we learnt about the basis of communication - sender - message - receiver - feedback, then the special "language" of film.
After this we got a retrospection of filmmaking in Denmark:

1906: The starting point of Danish filmmaking was when the Nordisk Filmstudios opened in Valby. (Polar Bear). - These movies were silent and black&white movies.

1930's-1940's: The tone films appeared. These films were heavy black&white movies or there were some entertaining one, but mainly musicals.

1950's: The beginning of "art-tradition": dramas and novels turned into film. The light entertainment also became popular (Morten Korch). This was the way to criticise the society. Carl Dreyer intoduced a new kind of film: the superrealistic film. These films have heavy moral messages and the symbolism is also very important. The best known is The World (1954), which is about a man, who beleives he is Jesus and a tragic love is also involved in the story. The film based on a novel, which was written by a man, who first beleived in the idea of a big Leader (nazism), but later he changed his mind and he was shot by Germans in 1944.

1960'-1970's: Most of the films are comedies. The most popular one is Obsen-banden, which is a series about 3 men: one of them always just come out the prison and he is the person, who always has an idea. He ends up in the prison again, because his idea always goes wrong.

1980's: This period is the decade of prizes (Golden Palm, Oscar).
The most famous film of this period is Out of Africa, which was directed by Sydney Pollack in 1985, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. It won seven Academy Awards. The story is an adaption of a novel by a Danish writer Karen Bluxen - her pseodunym was Isak Dinesen - , who used to live in East Africa (Kenya) and had a coffee plantation there. The film is a mixture of biography and fiction. Karen Bluxen first came to public attention with her book Seven Gothic Tales, which contains mystical tales.

Babette's feast won an Academy Award for Best Foreign film in 1987. It shows to create a meal is also art.

Pelle, the Conqueror is an adaptation of a novel by Martin Andersen: Nexo (political book) and it won the best Foreign Film award in 1988, directed by Bille August.

1995: The Dogme-movement - DOGME95- against Hollywood's effects. The main typicals of the movement:

• the story is the most important and the actors
• only use the origin location
• natural light
• natural sound
• natural props
• no underline music
• no special light
• hand held video camera
• present time

Films from this period:

The celebration (Festen), directed by Thomas Vinterberg, won several awards. The most famous scene, when the oldest man gives a speech for his father. (You can see below.)

Danish film in the 1990's was dominated by Lars von Tries, who directed the following films:

• The Idiots
• Europa
• Breaking the Waves
• Dancer in the Dark
• Dogville

Italian for beginners is a romantic comedy, directed by Lone Scherfig. Usually the DOGMA95 films serious and harsh in tone, but this one has a "light" story.

The Bench, Inheritance, Manslughter are a triology directed by Per Fly. These films are super-realistic and show the social life of different classes in Denmark.
There are some action films - some of them comedy - from the late 1990's:

• Portland
• Angels in Fast Motion (Nordkraft)
• Flashing lights
• The Art of Crying Together
• Terribly Happy (Frygtelig Lykkelig)

I could say we got not only an overview about Danish films, but different aspects of watching movies. I started to feel I have to watch more films, than before, because films tell a lot about a culture of a certain country. So I have much left to learn, but the first lesson is over...: )