Under Stjernerne på Himlen (2025) - Eurovision biopic is sentimental in the most wonderful way

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Anders Matthesen's profile against colored spotlights on a stage makes up this simple poster for Kasper Gaardsøe's Under Stjernerne på Himlen

Danish rock musician Tommy Seebach changes tone and conquers international dance floors in 1979 with his Eurovision hit Disco Tango. But after a decade of hits his fame fades, and the spotlight moves on. Tommy wants to reconquer the stage, but the costs of his endeavor rise.

Under Stjernerne på Himlen is written by Stefan Jaworski (Rita (2013, TV-series)) and Jannik Tai Mosholt (Anti (2016)), based on the life of Tommy Seebach, and directed by debuting Kasper Gaardsøe (DNA (2019, TV-series)). The original Danish title translates to 'under the stars on the sky'.

Opening with the Disco Tango pomp and splendor, the film soon arrives at Seebach's increasingly difficult predicament from the 1990s onward: Past his glory and relying on the bottle for support and comfort. Anders Matthesen (Toscana (2022, VoD)) shows more dramatic range and skill than he has been afforded space for in prior performances, and Neel Rønholt (Tinka og Kongespillet (2019, TV-series)) is good as his sweet, patient and forgiving wife. Their three children are central to the film, which is mostly a story of a family's coping with the father/husband's suffering from alcoholism. They also give fine performances, and the production's vivid design, costumes and hairpieces help recreate the eras depicted vividly.

Though there are light moments and some humor, the film is mostly a sentimental drama, building up to Seebach's at first triumphant return to national celebration with the lullaby written for his daughter (the film's title is named after the song), which ends in disaster, when the song flops badly at the Eurovision in Ireland, and Tommy goes off the deep end as a result. Caspar Phillipson (Maria (2024)) is very good as Seebach's songwriting partner Keld Heick. 

Under Stjernerne på Himlen succeeds with a simple but effective, tender, loving portrayal of a man, his struggles and his family with plenty for others to reflect in and be moved by.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Too early to say

= Uncertain

[Under Stjernerne på Himlen was released 20 March (Denmark) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place in Denmark. The cost is unreported so far, and the gross receipts are yet to be counted from the first weekend. The film is not slated to release in other markets as of yet. Gaardsøe does not have his next project announced yet. Matthesen returns in Det Andet Offer (2025). 82 IMDb users have given Under Stjernerne på Himlen a 7.8/10 rating.]

What do you think of Under Stjernerne på Himlen?

Speak No Evil (2022) - Take a beating with Tadrup's awesome horror

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A boy with a wide open mouth, encased in darkness, makes up this striking poster for Christian Tafdrup's Speak No Evil

A big-city couple from Denmark receive an invitation by snail-mail from a couple from Holland that they met on holiday months earlier and decide to take them up on their offer and drive South with their daughter for a long weekend at their house.

 

Speak No Evil is written by Mads Tafdrup (Yes No Maybe (2019, TV-series)) and his brother, co-writer/director, great Danish filmmaker Christian Tafdrup (Parents/Forældre (2016)).

Tafdrup moves ahead in the same waters as his first films, Parents and En Frygtelig Kvinde (2017), with another film about gender power dynamics today and a young modern couple with relationship dysfunction, a male that seems castrated into modern submission and a female who on some level longs for a different type of man. This time the familiar dilemmas are put up against a Dutch couple who are the Danish couple's opposites; very old-fashioned, unrestricted by inhibitions and very politically incorrect.

This is quite funny for a long time, as issues around diet, child-raising, smoking, drinking and more are effectively skirted by the conflict-averse Danes, as their unwillingness to look straight at the human behavior of their hosts and draw some sensible consequences from them push them from one awkward situation to another, - and eventually all the way into the shark's mouth. Great cinematography (by Erik Molberg Hansen (Becoming Astrid/Unga Astrid (2018))) and a bombastically foreboding score (by Sune Kølster (Parents))) leave us with no doubt as to the sudden turn into horror that is bound to occur in Speak No Evil. SPOILER There are creepy, earlier scenes of near-invasion, feeling of immediate danger and threat of violence, and then the horrific scene with the child that is invoked on the poster above, which all help set the unnerving tone. 

The upbeat good time I had with the film lasted long, anyway, due to the fact that the dark social satire lasts long, and you have ample room to slap your forehead at the dispositions of the dysfunctional Danes here, SPOILER as they fail to heed the warnings and thus doom themselves - with some justification?

The performances from the unknown quartet of adults are very good: Morten Burian (Sons of Denmark/Danmarks Sønner (2019)) and Sidsel Siem Koch (Hvidstengruppen II - De Efterladte (2022)) play the troubled couple with exposed nerves, and Fedja van Huêt (Soof 2 (2016)) and Karina Smulders (Alle Tijd (2011)) are strong and eventually chilling as the disturbing Dutchmen.

Speak No Evil turns very dark and very gruesome in its conclusion, which mixes Old-Testamental religious symbolism into a truly wicked, horrific ending that only sets this serving of blackness further apart. Speak No Evil speaks loudly enough.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3.2 mil. $

Box office: 1.7 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.53 times its cost)

[Speak No Evil premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place in Denmark, Holland and Italy. The film has sold 68k tickets in Denmark to date, coming to around 7.5 mil. DKK, approximately 1.08 mil. $ (63.5 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Poland with 246k $ (14.5 %) and Netherlands with 195k $ (11.5 %). Tafdrup does not have his next gig announced yet. Burian returns in Loving Adults (2022); Koch returned in Hvidstengruppen II - De Efterladte (2022). Speak No Evil is fresh at 79 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Speak No Evil?