+ Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Esben Smed
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| The sensational romance at the film's heart is the center for this erotic poster for Bille August's A Fortunate Man |
Peter Andreas is a young man with an uncommon drive, ambition and contempt for his Christian family, as he takes a small room in Copenhagen in the late 19th century and intensifies his engineer studies, pushing forth a revolutionary project for Jutland.
A Fortunate Man is written by Anders Frithiof August (Key House Mirror/Nøgle Hus Spejl (2015)) and Danish master co-writer/director (and father of his co-writer), Bille August (Pelle the Conqueror/Pelle Erobreren (1987)), adapting the 8 (!) classic, semi-autobiographical Lykke-Per novels (1898-1904) from Henrik Pontoppidan (De Dødes Rige I-II (1917).
A Fortunate Man is a marvelous experience for someone with a penchant for grand period dramas and 19th century adaptations. The production is exquisite, never boastful but impressive and lovely in its portrayal of old Copenhagen, the Danish countrysides as well as trips to Austria and Germany. Falling into this world of yore is a treat.
Esben Smed (Denmark 92/Sommeren '92 (2015)) leads the film impressively. He is great as the complex Peter, whose surroundings name him 'Lykke-Per', meaning a fortune-seeker, a man who is led by his towering ambitions, ruthlessness and arrogance. He is also, perhaps, and at least in his own mind, a genius. And a very handsome character in Smed's figure. He succeeds in making Peter's rise and fall seem probable and natural.
Surrounding Smed is an ensemble of fine Danish actors: Especially joyous is it to have funny-men Tommy Kenter (The Passion of Marie/Marie Krøyer (2012)) and Rasmus Bjerg (Nothing's All Bad/Smukke Mennesker (2010)) in serious roles as patriarchs stunted by youthful passion, but also Elsebeth Steentoft (Small Town Killers/Dræberne fra Nibe (2017)) is formidable as Peter's mother. Good performances also flow from Julie Christiansen (While We Live/Mens Vi Lever (2017)), Tammi Øst (The Woman Who Dreamed About a Man/Kvinden Der Drømte Om en Mand (2010)), Claus Flygare (Danny's Doomsday/Dannys Dommedag (2014)), Jens Albinus (Portland (1996)), Paul Hüttel (1864 (2014), miniseries) and Katrine Rosenthal (Kursk (2018)) SPOILER as the tremendously big-hearted, intelligent Jewish Jacobe, whom Peter seduces and later ditches, when his immature focus shifts back to his Jutlandic roots.
The film is sometimes funny, involving and romantic, SPOILER but it loses its shape, as Peter makes his radical move away from Copenhagen and his betrothed, who, unknown to him, is carrying his child. A Fortunate Man has epic length, but it feels more like a miniseries, as this shift occurs at such a natural place to end a long and fine film. Indeed A Fortunate Man is also envisioned to serve as an elongated miniseries on Danish TV shortly after its theatrical release, and this commercially dictated logic, which broadens the audience and therefore the revenue for the project, doesn't serve the film well. Unfamiliar with Pontoppidan's novels, A Fortunate Man's last act makes us very aware that the story is vast, and that August's wrapping up of it is somewhat haphazard.
SPOILER Peter starts a family in Jutland and abandons them in favor of strange solitude, while managing to gather considerable funds, (we don't learn exactly how.) Smed's attractive, boyish looks also clash somewhat with his seemingly having become much older.
A Fortunate Man is a fine film and treat, not least for Danes, but it should have been a two-parted film, and it is the latter part of the story that seems raced through here, as August speeds up to get to the finishing drone shot of Peter, alone and awaiting death in the
Jutlandic heath landscape.
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Watch a trailer for the film here, without English subtitles regrettably
Cost: 55 mil. DKK, approximately 8.6 mil. $
Box office: Unknown - but likely not exceeding 20 mil. DKK yet
= Still uncertain - but so far a theatrical mega-flop
[A Fortunate Man premiered 20 August (Jutland, Denmark) and runs 162 minutes. A newly formed Public Service fund supported the production with 22 mil. DKK. 1 mil. DKK came from Den Vestdanske Filmpulje, requiring some shooting to take place in Fyen. Shooting took place in Denmark, including Copenhagen, and in Austria. The film has been well received in its production country Denmark, where 218k have paid admission to it so far. Unfortunately the film is part of 'Biografklub Danmark', which means that a large portion of the audiences pay only half price for admission. The miniseries version is to be shown on Danish TV2 at a later date. The film is shortlisted as one of three candidates to become the Danish Oscar bid of the year. August is set to return with Danish-Italian The Emperor of Dreams: Gianni Versace and Belgian A War of Their Own, both only announced. Smed returns in Ditte & Louise (2018), Rosenthal in Kursk (2018). 235 IMDb users have given A Fortunate Man a 7.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of A Fortunate Man?
