Sorrow and Joy/Sorg og Glæde (2013) - Malmros' film of his life's major tragedy

♥♥♥♥

 

The poster for Nils Malmros' Sorrow and Joy exudes the gravity of the film

 

Filmmaker Johannes returns home one day in 1984 to his home, as a tragedy has taken place: SPOILER His mentally ill wife has murdered their 9 months old baby.

 

As in most of his previous films, personal real-life experiences also dictate this film by co-writer-director Nils Malmros (Tree of Knowledge/Kundskabens Træ (1981)), which takes place in his own, very Jutlandic environment. Sorrow and Joy is elegantly shot (by Jan Weincke (Aching Hearts/Kærestesorger (2009)), debuting digitally) and told, to a large degree through flashbacks, as Johannes (Malmros' alter ego) tells his story to his psychiatrist.

Central are the two phenomenal, strong lead performances: Jakob Cedergren (Submarino (2010)) even looks like the loving, chronically distanced Malmros, and Helle Fagralid (Reconstruction (2003)) succeeds in getting us to understand the wife and her condition. In well-played supporting parts Nicolas Bro (Men & Chicken/Mænd & Høns (2015)) and Søren Pilmark (Kon-Tiki (2012)) can be enjoyed.

SPOILER Not until the end, when Johannes gets permission to make the film we are watching, - and maybe also during the trip to Berlin, - does one feel the strangeness that rests in the fact that Malmros here has staged the tragedy of his own life, (which almost no one else ever does.) It is both exhibitionistic and narcissistic in some way.

Sorrow and Joy is co-written with John Mogensen (Facing the Truth/At Kende Sandheden (2002)). In its best scenes, it is beautiful, because it shows a relationship which is built on heartfelt love.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 21.5 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 3.2 mil. $

Box office: Unknown

= Unknown (but likely a big flop)

[Sorrow and Joy premiered November 7 (in Malmros' native Aarhus, Denmark) and runs 107 minutes. The last piece of the budget (2 mil. DKK missing) came from an old schoolmate of Malmros, who had been a LEGO board member. Filming took place in Jutland, including in Malmros' own garden. The title is loaned from a 17th century hymn by Thomas Kingo. Danish media granted Malmros anonymity around the time of the tragedy, so Malmros himself chose to go public with his tragedy with the film, which was well-received by Danish critics and public: 270k tickets were sold in Denmark, (especially to older ladies) which is considered a very good performance. The film was the Danish Oscar-submission of the year but didn't get nominated. It won one Robert award (out of 11 nominations) and no Bodils, out of 3 nominations. It was screened at 7 international film festivals, but the international gross is not public. 814 IMDb-users have given Sorrow and Joy a 7.1/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Sorrow and Joy?