Mennesker Bliver Spist (2015) - Clausen hits home with jewel of a film

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+ Best Dramedy of the Year

 

'Sometimes you've gotta go far to find your way home' reads the tagline on this poster for Erik Clausen's Mennesker Bliver Spist

Herluf is an auto mechanic with a wife who is no longer very impressed with him. Now he is beginning to suffer from dementia, but no one really notices it, which leads him on an unplanned journey.

 

Mennesker Bliver Spist is written by Louise Clausen (Aldrig Mere i Morgen (2017)) and great Danish co-writer/director/co-star Erik Clausen (Cirkus Casablanca (1981)). The title translates to 'people get eaten'.

Clausen's films are especially for Danes. But you don't have to subscribe to every societal opinions of his in order to enjoy Mennesker Bliver Spist, which is his best film in years and maybe the year's best Danish film. (Just as a matter of form, some of those opinions of his include; being a national-conservative is a life-crisis; modern man is selfish and without a sense of propriety; Danes are extremely concerned with possessions and forget the value of human care; and finally, that women are tough on their men.)

Clausen himself is deeply moving and convincing as Herluf. The story, which involves the increasingly blank man going to Poland by mistake, is outstanding and inventive, and it contains a long list of good performances: Bodil Jørgensen (Badehotellet (2013-20)) is matchless as the wife who has frozen herself into an iceberg in their marriage and has begun cheating; Nicolas Bro (Sorrow and Joy/Sorg og Glæde (2013)), Charlotte Fich (Drabet (2005)), Lærke Winther (Mille (2009, TV-series)), Rasmus Botoft (Danish Dynamite (2012, TV-series)), Leif Sylvester (Hodja fra Pjort (1985)) - all are great. Unknown amateur actors also light up scenes; a son, the shop master in Poland and a lady there, Herluf's car-interested old buddy among them, - the cast is terrific.

The title comes from John Mogensen's song Mennesker Bliver Spist i Polynesien (1975), used to great effect in the film. Clausen also pokes fun at modern missing persons searches here, and he generally keeps the film in an often moving farce style. Whatever you'll hold against Mennesker Bliver Spist, you'll easily forgive due to its warm-hearted, funny and edifying qualities. 

 

Related post:

 

Erik Clausen: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

The Great Day on the Beach/Den Store Badedag (1991) or, My Copenhagen Boyhood (actor)

 

Watch a clip from the film here of Herluf being forgetful while on a stage

 

Cost: Reportedly 17.5 mil. $, approximately 2.78 mil. $

Box office: 2.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.93 times its cost)

[Mennesker Bliver Spist was released 26 February (Denmark) and runs 104 minutes. Shooting took place from February - April 2014 in Denmark and Poland. It spent its first two weekends at #1 in Danish cinemas, where it sold 235,547 tickets, a decent haul in the small country. Its only foreign market was Brazil, which doesn't have a listed gross. The film was nominated for 3 Robert awards, Denmark's Oscar. Clausen returned with Aldrig Mere i Morgen (2017). As an actor he returned in Sverige Er Fantastisk (2015); Jørgensen with a voice performance in Albert (2015) and a physical performance in Parents/Forældre (2016). 457 IMDb users have given Mennesker Bliver Spist a 6.6/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Mennesker Bliver Spist?

All for One/Alle for Én (2011) - Heide and Øgendahl's flawed but funny Danish crime comedy

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The four male stars look game to make us laugh on the not very original poster for Rasmus Heide's All for One

Three dingbat friends are going to prison after a car theft but learn that they can avoid it by helping the police reveal a Dutch art dealer's secret drug business.

All for One is an enthusiastic crime comedy written by the also co-starring Mick Øgendahl (All for Two/Alle for To (2013)) and directed by Rasmus Heide (The Christmas Party/Julefrokosten (2009)). Øgendahl has written an excessively verbally and language-oriented script, and some of the scenes of the slacker characters sitting around telling each other jokes just don't fly.
Jon Lange (Denmark 92/Sommeren '92 (2015)) as the group's 'straight man' is wobbly in his acting, SPOILER and the sentimental ending, in which his separated wife takes him back, is pretty thick. Mille Dinesen (Rita (2012-17)) is wasted, but Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner (1982)) is fun to watch as the well-cast villain, and Charlotte Fich (People Get Eaten /Mennesker Bliver Spist (2015)) is also good as the police mama, a role that riffs on her performance in the popular Danish police show Unit One/Rejseholder (2000-04).
Though flawed, All for One is fairly entertaining and will certainly make a Dane laugh, which is clearly its main ambition.

Here is a video from the film's premiere

Cost: 19.5 mil DKK, approximately 3.1 mil. $
Box office: Unknown (but likely around 30 mil. DKK, approximately 4.8 mil. $
= Uncertain (but likely a big flop)
[All for One premiered 10 February (Denmark) and runs 81 minutes. The funding was supported by the Danish Film Institute, Den Vestdanske Filmpulje and TV2. Shooting took place in Aarhus, Jutland in Denmark. The film was a hit in Danish cinemas, where 368,110 bought admission. But it doesn't seem to have had any life outside of Denmark; it is only listed to have been shown at the Hamburg Film Festival. The Danish audience will have generated around 30 mil. DKK, still not enough to rank the film better than big flop status. The 'rules' for hit or flop status are, however, written somehow differently in the state-sponsored movie business in small Denmark, however, where All for One is recognized as a big hit and have resulted in two sequels to date, All for Two/Alle for To (2013) and All for Three/Alle for Tre (2017). The film won the Audience Award Robert, the Danish Oscar equivalent. 1,951 IMDb users have given All for One a 5.7/10 average rating.]

What do you think of All for One?