Reconstruction (2003) - Luminous Bonnevie in Boe's striking Copenhagen love/mystery debut

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+ Best Art Film of the Year + Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Romance of the Year

The stars meet romantically on this beautiful poster for Christoffer Boe's Reconstruction, which undeniably aestheticizes smoking cigarettes

A man in a relationship suddenly falls for an unknown woman named Aimee and follows her, finding that she is also already entangled. But their connection is powerful all the same.

Reconstruction is written by Mogens Rukov (Elise (1985)) and great debuting Danish co-writer/director Christoffer Boe (Beast (2011)). A salute should go out to Boe for injecting a strong dose of Parisian elegance into Danish cinema with this delectable love mystery. And yet Reconstruction still seems so Copenhagen and Nordic still.
The film has a sommelier restaurant scene that may be putting on airs a bit, and the drama at times seems somewhat secondary and diffuse, - but it gets a renaissance later in the emotional finale.
Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Just Another Love Story/Kærlighed på Film (2007)), Krister Henriksson (Faithless/Trolösa (2000)) and Maria Bonnevie (I Am Dina (2002)) give brilliant performances, and especially Bonnevie is fantastic. 
Reconstruction features innovative, inspiring photography by Manuel Alberto Claro (Nymphomaniac: Vol. I & II (2013)) on Super16, masked to CinemaScope format in editing. It is a hard-to-explain film of existential fear stemming from a story of the construction of a love story that evolves into a classical mystery. Somehow the unlikely thing happens and this all comes together, making Reconstruction one of the first highly distinctive and memorable Danish films of the new millennium.

Related post:

Christoffer Boe: Allegro (2005) or, His Past Was Lost in a Copenhagen Zone!

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a scene from the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Around 1 mil. $
= Uncertain - but likely a huge flop
[Reconstruction premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, France) and runs 91 minutes. Shooting took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The film enjoyed an extensive release of foreign markets and festivals for a Danish film. It sold 51,523 tickets in its production country Denmark, not bad for an art film, raking in approximately 515k $ (51.5 % of the total gross). It opened #81 to a 13k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it never rose in rank but spread to 9 theaters and grossed 73k $ (7.3 %). North America was the 5th largest market; the largest was Denmark, followed by Argentina with 113k $ (11.3 %) and Russia with 90k $ (9 %). If the film was made on a probable low budget of around 2 mil. $, it would rank as a huge flop. It won 2 minor prizes in Cannes, was nominated for a European Film award and won 2/6 Robert nominations (Denmark's Oscar). Boe returned with Visions of Europe (2004, segment) and feature-wise with Allegro (2005). Kaas returned in Dogville: The Pilot (2003, short) and theatrically in Brothers/Brødre (2004); Bonnevie in Let's Play House/Mamma Pappa Barn (2003). Reconstruction is fresh at 72 % with a 6.29/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Reconstruction?

Melancholia (2011) - Trier's heightened reality doomsday reflections

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2 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst (lost to Bérénice Bejo for The Artist)
Best Cinematography: Manuel Alberto Claro (lost to Phedon Papamichael for The Descendants)

+ Best Apocalyptic Movie of the Year

Kirsten Dunst in what might be 2011's most beautiful poster, for Lars Von Trier's Melancholia

QUICK REVIEW:

An awkward wedding in a large country estate SPOILER ends tragically, as the groom leaves his mentally unbalanced bride, Justine. She remains in a state of deep depression, while guilt and hate bounces off the walls, and a distant planet moves towards Earth.

Danish master filmmaker Lars Von Trier's (Breaking the Waves (1996)) melodrama disaster movie, possibly a little bit better than his preceding Antichrist (2009), is a pictorially generous experience, shot in Trollhättan, Sweden. - Particularly the ultra-slow shots in the beginning of the film are poignant. Striking cinematography by Chilean Manuel Alberto Claro (Reconstruction (2003)).
The film is well-acted, with a strong Kirsten Dunst (On the Road (2012)) leading the ensemble, intense and affecting.
The film's style mix of the meticulously designed and the randomly untidy, and the hopeless characters that don't inspire much real sympathy, who populate Von Trier's script, make the film a somewhat stiff and whimsical work in his oevre, however, although there are some others who actualy think this is his best film to date. I strongly disagree.

Related reviews:

Lars Von Trier:  Nymphomaniac (2013) short version, vol. 1 & vol. 2, or, Lars Von Trier's Suck It
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
Antichrist (2009) - Trier's cabin-in-the-woods psycho-horror 
Dear Wendy (2005) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed megaflop (writer)  
Dancer in the Dark (2000) or, Selma the Immigrant 

A wonderful Melancholia production still of Lars Von Trier surrounded by cinematographer Claro and stars Kiefer Sutherland, Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgård and Charlotte Gainsbourg

Watch the trailer for Melancholia here

Cost: 9.4 mil. $
Box office: 15.9 mil. $
= Big flop
[Melancholia debuted at Cannes, where Dunst won the Best Actress award, and Von Trier was excommunicated as 'persona non grata', because he stirred up the festival by talking about Hitler at the Melancholia press conference. The case later led to a police questioning of him in Denmark and two years of self-enforced public silence from Von Trier, who was very shocked and affected by the whole, stupid affair. Melancholia went on to win Best Film, Cinematographer and Designer at the European Film Awards as well as Best Film - International, Best Director - International, Best Screenplay - International and Best Actress - International from the US National Society of Film Critics, as well as other awards. Melancholia made 3 mil. $ (19 % of the total gross) in the US, and in Denmark, 60,156 paid admission.]

What do you think of Melancholia?

Allegro (2005) or, His Past Was Lost in a Copenhagen Zone!

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Ulrich Thomsen's oppressed figure looms large in red on this elegant poster for Christoffer Boe's Allegro

Zetterstrøm, a famous Danish pianist, is invited to Copenhagen from his new life in New York by a man, who says that the pianist's past has been stolen, and that it is hidden inside a vacuum in the city, which is called the Zone. 

Allegro is written by Mikael Wulff (Pandaerne (2011-12)) and co-writer/director Christoffer Boe (Everything Will Be Fine/Alting Bliver Godt Igen (2010)). Deeply mysterious and aesthetically fixated, - with lovely photography by Manual Alberto Claro (Melancholia (2011)) - Allegro is very reminiscent of director Christoffer Boe's preceding film, his debut Reconstruction (2003): Once again we are in Copenhagen, where a knotty man and a beautiful woman meet and find themselves caught in a single, fantastic device. The narrative seems more outreaching in Reconstruction, however, and I also had some difficulty here in believing Helena Christensen (Chris Isaak: Wicked Game (2001), music video) falling for Ulrich Thomsen's (Banshee (2013-16)) seemingly wood-carved, charmless man, our protagonist.
Allegro is beautiful and original, but it speaks more to the brain than to the heart.
SPOILER The Zone turns out to be a box, which Zetterstrøm has created himself for storing all the things that he doesn't want to be reminded of, (that is, his past), and he can only open the box, once he learns to trust another person's love.

Watch a trailer for the film with Spanish subtitles here

Cost: Reportedly 10 mil. DKK, approximately 1.57 mil. $
Box office: Unknown - but seemingly less than 2 mil. DKK, approximately 0.31 mil. $
= Box office disaster (approximately 0.2 times the cost)
[Allegro premiered 25 August (Copenhagen International Film Festival) and runs 88 minutes. Shooting took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in New York. The film opened #124 in 1 theater to a tiny 505 $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #88, only played that one cinema and grossed 7k $. The only other market listed at Box Office Mojo is Brazil with 2k $. Allegro sold a measly 13,825 tickets in Denmark, which should rake in approximately 1 mil. DKK. - This was after a record first half of 2005, in which Danish films held an impressive 33 % market share of the home cinema market. The film won 1/5 Robert nominations (Denmark's Oscar). Boe returned with Offscreen (2006). Thomsen returned in The Virgin Queen (2006, miniseries) and theatrically in Clash of Egos/Sprængfarlig Bombe (2006). Supermodel Christensen returned in The Christmas Party/Julefrokosten (2009). Allegro is fresh at 63 % with a 6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Allegro?