Høfeber (1991) - Some rough spots in Hovmand's amusing relationship comedy adaptation

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Two famous Danish actors caught in an unusual situation in the home, along with a long list of the popular ensemble, make up this poster for Annelise Hovmand's Høfeber

An aging judge is completely aware that his wife is screwing his good old doctor friend. But his surroundings are far from as cool about this as he is...

 

Høfeber is written by Arne Forchhammer (Klikk (1986-87)) and co-writer/director Annelise Hovmand (Hvorfor Stjæler Barnet (1955)), adapting the same-titled 1975 novel by Leif Panduro (Øgledage (1961)). The title translates to 'hay fever'.

It is an ingenious web of relationships that run more or less amuck in this pretty amusing film with good performances from especially Frits Helmuth (En Kærlig Omstigning (1994, TV movie)) and Peter Schrøder (Aching Hearts/Kærestesorger (2009)) as the sex-crazed man of wealth who winds up in trouble. SPOILER The plot line about Helmuth's adult son (Thomas Mørk (Prop and Berta/Prop og Berta (2000))), who naively loses his father's funds again and again, - and with whom the troubled judge finally decides to elope South with, claiming to have passed away, is regrettably insipid and a bit too thick. The female characters are the least faceted, and especially Lisbeth Dahl's (Men & Chicken/Mænd og Høns (2015)) character is overly mannered and hysterically overwrought.

 

 

A short video that puts spotlight on the films of Hovmand

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Around 530k $

[Høfeber was released 20 December (Denmark) and runs 84 minutes. It sold 62,686 tickets in Denmark, coming to around 3.65 mil. DKK (average 1991 ticket prize 58 DKK), around 530k $. Hovmand retired after the film's release. Helmuth returned in Det Forsømte Forår (1993). 118 IMDb users have given Høfeber a 4.7/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Høfeber?

Grev Axel (2001) - Frödin and Gråbøl pull laughter from 18th century-set crazy-comedy

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Star Peter Frödin looks silly before a woman in a chastity belt on this DVD cover for Søren Fauli's Grev Axel

In late 18th century Denmark a performing actor without much luck steals a man's pony and learns that said man was about to become a count. He swiftly assumes the man's identity and suddenly becomes a popular man of means and power.

Grev Axel is written by Anders Thomas Jensen (Men & Chicken/Mænd og Høns (2015)) and directed by Søren Fauli (Antenneforeningen (1999)). The titles means 'count Axel'.
The film launches crazy comedy in the Mel Brooks vein, though with a clear Danish style  and engaged performances all the way around:
Peter Frödin (Grethe (2016-17)) and Sofie Gråbøl (Flickering Lights/Blinkende Lygter (2000)) are tremendous.
The film would have benefited from a larger budget, and its script is clearly politely structured to follow the 'three act handbook', which isn't a compliment in this case.

Related post:

Søren Fauli: How to Get Rid of the Others/Hvordan Vi Slipper Af med De Andre (2007) - A generally awful Danish surreal comedy turkey (co-star)

Watch a scene from the film here, which is regrettably without subtitles but hysterically funny if you understand Danish

Cost: 13.5 mil. DKK, approximately 2.03 mil. $
Box office: 348k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.17 times its cost)
[Grev Axel premiered 6 April (Denmark) and runs 90 minutes. The film was supported with a sum of money from the Danish Film Institute. It sold 67,468 tickets in production country Denmark. The listed gross, - only from there, - makes for an average ticket prize of 5.15 $. The film was not theatrically released elsewhere. The film won 2/5 Robert award nominations (Denmark's Oscar). Fauli returned with Polle Fiction (2002). Frödin returned in En Kort En Lang (2001); Gråbøl in Livsforsikringen (2003, short), Nikolaj og Julie (2002-03) and theatrically in Lad De Små Børn... (2004). 645 IMDb users have given Grev Axel a 5.5/10 average rating.]

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Tid til Forandring (2004) - Everyone's wrong and Svendsen doesn't have ANY answers

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The film's central characters stand around in the bottom of this sorry DVD cover scan of the poster for Lotte Svendsen's Tid til Forandring

Danish director Lotte Svendsen's (Royal Blues (1997))  third feature is a hysterically funny black comedy about four circles of people whose lives intersect over the course of a few days. Here's a short presentation:

 
Inge quits her job and puts down her dog, when she realizes she needs to take charge over her own life. Her psychologist Erik is responsible for that change, but in his own life, he struggles with alcohol addiction and a wife who is obsessed with their home. One day, he meets Svend, an old friend who should have been dead a decade ago from a terminal illness, but who is instead busy putting up illegal posters for his socialist debate night. Nearby lives the middle-aged, selfish loner, Jens, who props up an old friend as a 'handicapped brother' in order to get sympathy sex with a blonde model from the area.

 
That area, by the way, is 2900 Hellerup, as rock star/actor Peter Belli (Koko-di Koko-da (2019)) reminds Jens twice in an excellent supporting role. And the portrayal of Denmark's most exclusive zip code is (predictably) not flattering.
But the script is amazingly funny; Svendsen co-wrote it with her writing partner Elith Nulle Nykjær (Bamses Billedbog (1989, TV-series)). One bizarre, delicate scene follows the next, and the humor of the piece is as Danish as pastry, so non-Danes are sure not to enjoy it as much. But it certainly should prove interesting.
All of the actors give fine performances in Svendsen's confident direction, although Louise Mieritz (Ditte & Louise (2018)) as a mentally challenged woman is miscast, (and if Svendsen had really meant her criticism of people's unwillingness to get involved with handicapped and the mentally deficient, why didn't she herself get involved by casting one in this part, including them in her own industry so to speak?)
This debacle set aside, I enjoyed watching Waage Sandø (Krummernes Jul (1996, TV-series)) in particular as a red wine imbibing upper class shrink, and Claus Ryskjær (Kampen om den Røde Ko (1987)), Helle Dolleris (Zoomerne (2009)), Dan Zahle (The Rain (2019, TV-series)) as Jens the egomaniac who treats a woman like she's a delicate alien intelligence, and Anne Sofie Espersen (Live fra Bremen (2012-13)) as said woman. Also Kirsten Lehfeldt (Kongeriget (1998-02)) and the two women friends that follows her around are excellent, portraying, clearly, the characters that Svendsen likes the least. In nice supporting roles are also Frank Hvam (Klovn Forever/Clown Forever (2015)) and Jens Andersen (Breeder (2020)).
The film is an excellent presentation of how a Danish satirical dramedy gets its many laughs with apparent ease; through a variety of flawed, unwitting characters interacting.

Some audiences might begin to turn in their seats or twitch their index finger above the stop button, when the movie enters its third act, and it becomes clear that more than one of its main characters are heading into the abyss, (though they still are darkly comedic abysses.)
My main inference with the film is linked to Svendsen's double standard morals in the disabled issue: Normally, it would be silly to hold such things against a director, but in Svendsen's case, her film is so indignant and essentially a humorous protest film, (the Danish title literally translates to 'time for change'.) In this case, where she blames most all of her characters for their own miserable lives, and in the meantime pulls a plug on self realization thinking and people's basic capabilities for change, something like that has to be held against the film.
Svendsen clearly has the least antipathy, or rather the most sympathy (?), with the lower class in the film, as has also been apparent in her earlier films, Royal Blues (1997) and Bornholms Stemme (1999). Personally, I would have liked the film perhaps even more, if the upper class had held some of the answers, and the lower class instead had been depicted as stupid and degraded, because this would have been a novelty in Danish films The lower class hero is the standard, and a status quo in this case doesn't earn extra points.
The problem with Svendsen's story is that it leaves no answers behind, or even hints of answers, but just shakes in the wind with indignant resentment of our Danish ways, and then leaves us, - and that is too easy. And had Tid til Forandring not made me laugh as many times as it did, I would have slashed a heart from its review for this hypocrisy. 





 

Svendsen later was appointed film consultant in the Danish Film Institute and here talks about that job

Cost: Unknown, but likely at least 5 mil. DKK, approximately 0.81 mil. $

Box office: Around 2.9 mil. DKK, approximately 0.47 mil. $

=  Uncertain but likely a huge flop (projected return of around 0.48 times its cost)

[Tid til Forandring was released 13 August (Denmark) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Denmark, including Copenhagen. The film only sold 38,059 tickets in Denmark, its only market with a general release, coming to 2.9 mil. DKK at a ticket prize of 77 DKK. Svendsen returned with Max (2007, TV-series) and theatrically with Max Pinlig/Max Embarrasing (2008). Dolleris returned in Oskar & Josefine (2005); Sandø in Krummerne - Så Er Det Jul Igen (2006) and Lehfeldt in Solkongen (2005). 173 IMDb users have given Tid til Forandring a 5.3/10 average rating.]

 

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