Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Ticket to Romance/En enkelt til Korsør (2008) - Fredholm's middle-of-the-road Danish province swan song

6/21/2018

Ticket to Romance/En enkelt til Korsør (2008) - Fredholm's middle-of-the-road Danish province swan song

♥♥♥

'A One-way to Korsør' (a small town in Zealand, Denmark) - '... and return to romance' reads the title and tagline translated directly from Danish on this stuffed poster for Gert Fredholm's Ticket to Romance

Rasmus, a newly graduated PhD with insight into Romanticism takes a job as a Danish teacher in an adult education center in a small province town, where he is enriched by meeting some new people, including a woman with a particular wish.

Ticket to Romance is written by Mikael Olsen and Gert Duve Skovlund (One Hand Clapping/At Klappe med Een Hånd (2001), both) and directed by Gert Fredholm (The Missing Clerk/Den Forsvundne Fuldmægtig (1971)). The film sloshes problematically around in the waters between comedy and drama without having enough laughs or unrest to convincingly be either one.
It undeniably takes us to Korsør in Southwest Zealand, but we are often simply constricted to Rasmus' classroom or a taxi, which are not elevated into cinematic places here. Furthermore, the title - both the English and the original Danish one, - is nonsensical, since Rasmus both arrive and depart from Korsør in a moving van, which, as is common knowledge, doesn't require tickets, neither one-ways or returns.
Carsten Bjørnlund (ID:A (2011)) does alright as the sometimes annoyingly withheld but lingually gifted Rasmus; Lærke Winther (3 Things/3 Ting (2017)) is sweet as his romantic interest, and Bjarne Henriksen (Where Have All the Good Men Gone/Hundeliv (2016)) is great in a supporting part as one of the students.
Fredholm focuses on the human relations and manages to give the film a core concerning a lesbian couple's ambition of having a child. But Ticket to Romance remains a Danish film that, in more than ways than one, is tiny.

Watch a trailer for the film here (no English subtitles unfortunately)

Cost: Reportedly 16.5 mil. DKK (approximately 2.49 mil. $)
Box office: Likely around 2 mil. DKK (approximately 0.31 mil. $)
= Box office disaster (0.12 times the cost)
[Ticket to Romance was released 19 September (Denmark) and runs 100 minutes. Financing was brought together from a 6 mil. DKK grant from the Danish Film Institute, from DR, Slagelse Kommune, Korsør Erhvervsforening and Zentropa. The film was only released in Denmark, where 27,790 paid admission to see it, coming to about 2 mil. DKK at the box office. Bjørnlund was nominated for the Best Actor Robert award (Denmark's Oscar) for his performance. Fredholm retired from filmmaking after the film's poor audience reception. Bjørnlund returned in Sommer (2008, TV-series), The Killing/Forbrydelsen (2009, TV-series) and Pagten (2009, TV-series) and theatrically in Nothing's All Bad/Smukke Mennesker (2010). 267 IMDb users have given Ticket to Romance a 5.8/10 critical average rating.]

What do you think of Ticket to Romance?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

6/21/2018

Ticket to Romance/En enkelt til Korsør (2008) - Fredholm's middle-of-the-road Danish province swan song

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)

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