Submarino (2010) - Vinterberg's elegant, downbeat Copenhagen-set social realism drama

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1 Film Excess nomination:

Best Child Actor: Gustav Fischer Kjærulff, Sebastian Bull Sarning, Mads Broe Andersen (lost to Kiernan Shipka for Mad Men S4)

 

+ Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year

 

Lead Jakob Cedergren seems literally submerged in the contours of Copenhagen on this poster for Thomas Vinterberg's Submarino

 

Submarino is a tale of two brothers, which lays off with the day the brothers' infant brother died. As adults many years hence, one of them has grown into a violent man, while the other is a heroin addict on welfare and father. Both are miserable men.

 

Due to the fine beginning and following crosscutting structure, Submarino becomes an elegant acquaintance of the social-realism drama kind. It is well photographed (by feature-debuting cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen (Far from the Madding Crowd (2015))) and well-played, especially by the boy actors; Gustav Fischer Kjærulff (A Family/En Familie (2010)), Sebastian Bull Sarning (The Hunt/Jagten (2012)) and Mads Broe Andersen. Among the adult actors, Morten Rose (Antboy 3 (2016)) as Ivan falls through a bit as one of the many people that debut in the film, both in front and behind the camera.

SPOILER Submarino ends with a great, cathartic ending, becoming a minor modern Copenhagen classic. The title refers to the notorious prison torture technique of lowering a victim's head into a bucket of water, urine or feces, which is called upon as a metaphor for the situation of the characters in the film, who are submerged in other serious problems that make it similarly hard to breathe. The film is an adaptation of Jonas T. Bengtsson's (The Hour of the Lynx/I Lossens Time (2013), screenplay) same-titled 2007 novel, written by Tobias Lindholm (The Hunt) and Danish master co-writer-director Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration/Festen (1998)).

 

Related posts:

 

Thomas Vinterberg: Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) - Vinterberg's plush but grating English adaptation

The Hunt/Jagten (2012) - Vinterberg's strongest film since 1998 is a reversed Celebration  

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Dear Wendy (2004) - Vinterberg and Von Trier's unpopular, gun-themed mega-flop 

Watch a clip of the film here

Cost: 12 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 2 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 0.8 mil. $

= Box office disaster

[Submarino premiered February 13 (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 110 minutes. It was made on a small budget almost completely from a pool for debuting talents within Danish TV2, stressing that many of the involved forces, besides veteran Vinterberg, should be debutantes. Filming took place in Vesterbro, Nordvest and Nørrebro in Copenhagen. 46k paid admission to the film in its native Denmark, making 540k $ (68 % of the total gross). The film screened at 10 international festivals, and its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 84k $ (10.5 %) and Mexico with 62k $ (7.8 %). It got nominated for no less than 15 Roberts (Danish Oscar), winning 5, and 5 Bodils (Danish critics' awards), winning one. It was also nominated for the European Film Awards' Best Actor prize (Jacob Cedergren) and the Nordic Council's Film Prize of the year, which it won. 7,333 IMDb-users have given Submarino a 7.6/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Submarino?

A Soap/En Soap (2006) - P. Christensen's great melodrama debut

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+ Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Best Melodrama of the Year

The delicious, pink poster for Penille Fischer Christensen's A Soap

QUICK REVIEW:

In a block in Nordvest, Copenhagen, Charlotte (Trine Dyrholm (Love Is All You Need/Den Skaldede Frisør (2012))) moves into a flat atop Veronica (David Dencik (Daisy Diamond (2007))), a pre-op transgender person, and the two gradually get closer and start to attract each other.

A Soap, the feature debut of great Danish co-writer-director Pernille Fischer Christensen (Someone You Love/En Du Elsker (2014)), is a really good, deeply melancholic film. It seeks boundaries and at times may make you uncomfortable. By demonstratively relegating a melodrama to us, using narration, the film transcends its earthbound base. A Soap, in a sense, shows us that life is a bagatelle, - a soap.
Christensen co-wrote with Kim Fupz Aakeson (In Order of Disappearence/Kraftidioten (2014)).

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

David Dencik in Pernille Fischer Christensen's A Soap

 In lieu of a trailer for the film, which isn't on Youtube currently, here's a trailer for a more recent Fischer film, A Family/En Familie (2010) (which is far from the quality of A Soap) with English subtitles

Cost: 1.5 mil. $ 
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty (but looks like a huge flop)
[A Soap was released April 7 (Denmark) and runs 104 minutes. At the Berlin Film Festival, the film won the Grand Jury Silver Bear Award and the Best First Feature Film Award. At the Danish Bodil awards, the film won the Best Danish Film of the Year award as well as the Best Actress Award for Dyrholm, her third up to that point. 29,060 paid admission (accounting for approximately 0.3 mil. $) to A Soap in its native Denmark, which is so few that it should likely count as a huge flop theatrically. The international figures available, from the US (where it played in 2 theaters for 8 weeks, making 4k $), Brazil, Mexico and Portugal, add 145k $ to the number, still firmly setting the film in the huge flop category. 1,649 Rotten Tomatoes users have given A Soap an average 3.6/5 rating.]

What do you think of A Soap?

Northwest/Nordvest (2013) - Strong performances make Noer's underwritten crime thriller work

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Lead Gustav Dyekjær Giese frontlines the tough guys on the poster for Michael Noer's Northwest

QUICK REVIEW:

Casper is a young burglar in Copenhagen's Nordvest [Northwest] neighborhood, who has gotten really tired of answering to the local immigrant hood Jamal. When he takes a job from a rocker-related gangster, his little brother gets mixed up in it ...

Great co-writer/director Michael Noer (R: Hit First, Hit Hardest/R (2010)), whose first solo-directing feature this is, succeeds in creating a suspense and a sense of realism in Northwest, which a lot of the time is carried by the actors: Roland Møller (A Hijacking/Kapringen (2012)) especially, and Lene Maria Christensen (Terribly Happy/Frygtelig Lykkelig (2008)) is good as the mother, but it is debuting amateur actors Gustav Dyekjær Giese (When Animals Dream/Når Dyr Drømmer (2014)) and his real-life younger brother Oscar Dyekjær Giese (Attack of the Lederhosenzombies (2015)) who are the film's real scoop. Lead Giese's face and gesticulation communicates his character's dual sides as a scared kid and a semi-hard kid very well.
Rasmus Heisterberg (A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære (2012)) co-wrote Northwest, which is a good film but unfortunately a little short, (it runs 91 minutes.) More plot elements could have been elaborated and escalated further.
Noer is currently out with his third fiction feature, Key House Mirror/Nøgle Hus Spejl (2015), about growing old and falling in love.

Watch the trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: 12.6 mio. DKR (approximately 1.8 mil. $)
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[Northwest was shot in and around Northwest, Copenhagen. Despite many good reviews, the film only drew 97,452 tickets in its native Denmark, which is far from hit status. It was shown in many other countries, mostly at festivals, and a gross is not made public, so saying how it did commercially is difficult, but I will generously label it a big flop.]

What do you think of Northwest?