Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Applause/Applaus (2009) - Paprika Steen's powerhouse performance makes drama debut

10/14/2013

Applause/Applaus (2009) - Paprika Steen's powerhouse performance makes drama debut

♥♥♥♥

Star Paprika Steen looks anguished in front of her makeup mirror on this poster for Martin Zandvliet's Applause

Middle-aged Copenhagen-based actress Thea is out of rehab and wants custody of her sons back. That doesn't come easily, and apart from them, she has nothing but her own misery in her life.

All the plot takes place while Thea is performing a Copenhagen stage production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962). These sequences from the play are from an authentic, acclaimed production that Paprika Steen (Okay (2002)) appeared in prior to filming Applause. (Steen plays Martha in the play.)
Steen's anguished portrayal of a woman in crisis is this film, - it's title is not even shown at any time in the film, (which is rather strange), just her name in excessively large letters.
That is silly, and it is also a shame that this fantastic film struggles to even pass 80 minutes playtime. The writers Anders Fridthiof August (The Model (2016)) and debuting co-writer/director Martin Zandvliet (Land of Mine/Under Sandet (2015)) have not dared to escalate the conflict, and instead underplay the third act, characteristically for 'good' Danish taste and films made on a tight budget in the small Scandinavian country.
But thanks to Steen's incredible performance, this is a rare and worthwhile movie about a dysfunctional, middle-aged woman.

Related posts:

Martin Zandvliet: Teddy Bear/10 Timer til Paradis (2012) - Matthiesen's little gem of intercontinental romance (co-writer)

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

A Funny Man/Dirch (2011) - Kaas shines in serious biopic of Danish national treasure comedian

Paprika Steen talks about making the film in a Q&A here

Cost: Reportedly 3.6 mil. DKK, approximately 580k $
Box office: In excess of 505k $
= Some uncertainty, but looks like a huge flop (returned 0.87 times its cost)

[Applause premiered 4 July (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic) and runs 85 minutes. Shooting took place in Denmark, including Copenhagen. The film was screened at many film festivals and had limited general releases in the US, Hungary and its production country Denmark, where it sold 39,852 tickets, coming to its 505k $ gross. It won 1/2 Robert award nominations (Denmark's Oscar), among other honors. Zandvliet returned with A Funny Man/Dirch (2011). Steen returned in Everything Will Be Fine/Alting Bliver Godt Igen (2010). Applause is fresh at 89 % with a 7.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Applause?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

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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

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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

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

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10/14/2013

Applause/Applaus (2009) - Paprika Steen's powerhouse performance makes drama debut

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