Submarino (2010) - Vinterberg's elegant, downbeat Copenhagen-set social realism drama

♥♥♥♥

 

1 Film Excess nomination:

Best Child Actor: Gustav Fischer Kjærulff, Sebastian Bull Sarning, Mads Broe Andersen (lost to Kiernan Shipka for Mad Men S4)

 

+ Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year

 

Lead Jakob Cedergren seems literally submerged in the contours of Copenhagen on this poster for Thomas Vinterberg's Submarino

 

Submarino is a tale of two brothers, which lays off with the day the brothers' infant brother died. As adults many years hence, one of them has grown into a violent man, while the other is a heroin addict on welfare and father. Both are miserable men.

 

Due to the fine beginning and following crosscutting structure, Submarino becomes an elegant acquaintance of the social-realism drama kind. It is well photographed (by feature-debuting cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen (Far from the Madding Crowd (2015))) and well-played, especially by the boy actors; Gustav Fischer Kjærulff (A Family/En Familie (2010)), Sebastian Bull Sarning (The Hunt/Jagten (2012)) and Mads Broe Andersen. Among the adult actors, Morten Rose (Antboy 3 (2016)) as Ivan falls through a bit as one of the many people that debut in the film, both in front and behind the camera.

SPOILER Submarino ends with a great, cathartic ending, becoming a minor modern Copenhagen classic. The title refers to the notorious prison torture technique of lowering a victim's head into a bucket of water, urine or feces, which is called upon as a metaphor for the situation of the characters in the film, who are submerged in other serious problems that make it similarly hard to breathe. The film is an adaptation of Jonas T. Bengtsson's (The Hour of the Lynx/I Lossens Time (2013), screenplay) same-titled 2007 novel, written by Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt) and Danish master co-writer-director Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration/Festen (1998)).

 

Related posts:

 

Thomas Vinterberg: Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) - Vinterberg's plush but grating English adaptation

The Hunt/Jagten (2012) - Vinterberg's strongest film since 1998 is a reversed Celebration  

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Dear Wendy (2004) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed mega-flop 

Watch a clip of the film here

Cost: 12 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 2 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 0.8 mil. $

= Box office disaster

[Submarino premiered February 13 (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 110 minutes. It was made on a small budget almost completely from a pool for debuting talents within Danish TV2, stressing that many of the involved forces, besides veteran Vinterberg, should be debutantes. Filming took place in Vesterbro, Nordvest and Nørrebro in Copenhagen. 46k paid admission to the film in its native Denmark, making 540k $ (68 % of the total gross). The film screened at 10 international festivals, and its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 84k $ (10.5 %) and Mexico with 62k $ (7.8 %). It got nominated for no less than 15 Roberts (Danish Oscar), winning 5, and 5 Bodils (Danish critics' awards), winning one. It was also nominated for the European Film Awards' Best Actor prize (Jacob Cedergren) and the Nordic Council's Film Prize of the year, which it won. 7,333 IMDb-users have given Submarino a 7.6/10 average rating.]

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