Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Flame & Citron/Flammen og Citronen (2008) - Madsen's thrilling WWII resistance picture

6/24/2018

Flame & Citron/Flammen og Citronen (2008) - Madsen's thrilling WWII resistance picture

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Thriller of the Year

Stars Mads Mikkelsen and Thure Lindhardt stand out in period garbs on this deliberately ruffed up poster for Ole Christian Madsen's Flame & Citron

A small group of Danish resistance fighters during WWII commit determined efforts out of Copenhagen to assassinate the greatest Nazi criminals that come into their country. But the work tears at them from all angles.

Flame & Citron is written by Lars Kristian Andersen (The Shooter/Skytten (2013)) and Danish co-writer-director Ole Christian Madsen (Banshee (2013-16)). The Danish resistance heroes are given the very biggest paintbrush production-wise here, in a Danish film production context, and a role-model seems to be master filmmaker Steven Spielberg and his great Munich (2005).
For a Danish film, Flame & Citron is handsomely made, although one inevitably feels that the story has probably been exaggerated a bit here and there. After a while the title duo characters also capture one's imagination, thanks to good performances from Mads Mikkelsen (The Green Butchers/De Grønne Slagtere (2003)) and Thure Lindhardt (Little Soldier/Lille Soldat (2008)). Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards (2015-17)), Jesper Christensen (The Interpreter (2005)), a tremendous Stine Stengade (Above Suspicion (2013), TV-series) and Christian Berkel (Miracle at St. Anna (2008)) complete the fine cast.
Especially suspenseful is the third act of this war thriller romance, which, however, is undoubtedly mostly of interest to Danes.

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Listen to a part of the score for the film here, composed by Karsten Fundal (Danny's Doomsday/Dannys Dommedag (2014))

Cost: 8.6 mil. $
Box office: 10.1 mil. $
= Big flop (1.17 times the cost)
[Flame & Citron was released 28 March (Denmark) and runs 130 minutes. Madsen had been fascinated with the real-life Flame & Citron resistance duo since his childhood and researched the film for 8 years, while also gathering the necessary funding, which involved 7 European countries and no less than 25 companies and governmental support funds. Filming took place from March - May 2007 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Berlin, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic. The 46 mil. DKK budget made the film reportedly the most expensive Danish film ever staged. It was the most popular film of the year in Denmark, selling 673,741 tickets. It opened #65 to a 15k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #58 and in 8 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 148k $ (1.5 % of the total gross). The biggest 3 markets were main production country Denmark with 9.2 mil. $ (91 % of the total gross), Germany with 301k $ (3 %) and Norway with 149k $ (1.5 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal to the one here. The film won 1/3 Bodil award nominations (Danish film critics' awards), 5/14 Robert awards (Danish Oscar) and was nominated for a European Film award. Madsen returned with Superclásico (2011). Mikkelsen returned in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009). Lindhardt returned in shorts The Duality of Love (2008) and Closed Doors (2008) and theatrically in comedy turkey Take the Trash/Blå Mænd (2008). Stengade returned in Moving Up/Spillets Regler (2008). Flame & Citron is certified fresh at 87 % with a 6.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (15-24)

6/24/2018

Flame & Citron/Flammen og Citronen (2008) - Madsen's thrilling WWII resistance picture

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