1 Time Film Excess Nominee:
Best Actor: Nikolaj Lie Kaas (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)
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| The very dark poster for Martin Zandvliet's A Funny Man |
QUICK REVIEW:
A Funny Man is a biopic of the life and death of legendary Danish actor-comedian Dirch Passer (It's Nifty in the Navy/Flådens Friske Fyre (1965)), primarily told through the prism of his comedic partnership with Kjeld Petersen (Lars Ranthe (Adam's Apples/Adams Æbler (2005))) as 'Kellerdirk': Trailing times of physical downfall, termination, time solo, dramatic bankruptcy, divorce, reunification, Petersen's death, and Passer's.
Nikolaj Lie Kaas (A Second Chance/En Chance Til (2014)) is outstanding in perhaps the best role of his career; in the eyes of the Danish audiences who are intimately familiar with the beloved man he portrays here, he gradually completely becomes Passer in A Funny Man. He gives it his all, and the show performances, - alone and with Ranthe, - are impressively achieved. - Kudos to the actors and co-writer-director Martin Zandvliet (Angels of Brooklyn (2002))!
A Funny Man is, as Zandvliet's preceding drama Applause/Applaus (2009), also a portrait of the theater world and a strong, burdened performer personality. Passer appears hunted by himself and never as an uncompromising showman in A Funny Man, which, unsurprisingly, drew averse criticism from actor-friends of his still alive, (like Judy Gringer and Morten Grunwald.) Guilt, doubt, lacking self-confidence and wish to perform is instead shown again and again in the Passer of A Funny Man.
Still, I don't feel that we get all around that man in Zandvliet and Anders Frithiof August's (Superclásico (2011)) script. We don't get to know anything about Passer's parentage or his religious side, for instance.
A Funny Man is also niggardly with bigger scenes with extras, perhaps a budget limitation, but in any case, the film could have benefited from a little more verve size-wise.
Zandvliet is busy applying the finishing touches to his next film, the big Danish-German Land of Mine/Under Sandet (2015), a period war film about mines and mine removal.
Related posts:
Martin Zandvliet: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Applause/Applaus (2009) - Paprika Steen's struggling Thea
Watch the trailer with English subtitles here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[However, A Funny Man was the biggest Danish movie hit in Denmark in 2011 with 482k admissions. If that made the film financially successful is difficult to say. (It was produced with unknown support from DR and Nordisk Film & TV Fond and 6.5 mil. DKR from DFI.) The film received a small forest of the Danish film prizes of the year; Bodil's for Kaas and Ranthe, audience award for Zandvliet, as well as 6 Robert awards and many other nominations and wins.]
What do you think of A Funny Man?
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