slightlyundead asked:

from your list of Danish-director movies, which would you recommend watching first? It's a big list so I don't know where to start.

Uh, good question! It really depends on your mood.. Let me see… 

#1 “Festen”/”The Celebration” by Thomas Vinterberg is a great family drama. The tagline of the film is “All families have secrets” which is a good description. It was the first dogme/dogma film. The Dogme 95 movement was created by Vinterberg and von Trier, they made the “Dome 95 Manifesto” inspired by Truffaut, which includes rules for the dogma movies like “filming must be done on location, prop and sets must not be brought in”, “the sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed”, “the camera must be a hand-held camera”, “genre movies are not acceptable” and so on (read all the rules here ). Later the movement were joined by two other directors, and the Dogme 95 collective (and many other directors) made lots of brilliant dogma movies. I think the project is really interesting and the rules make the films way more natural and real. It’s nice that the focus is on the acting and the history instead of on special effects, sound effects etc. I think “The Celebration” is one of the best dogme films, the actors are brilliant, and I can kind of relate to the family party awkwardness. I suppose all families are a bit crazy? It’s very funny and very tragic at the same time. It’s definitely a must-see movie, and it will make your own family seem less crazy. 

 #2 Anders Thomas Jensen is a brilliant auteur! “Blinkende Lygter”/“Flickering Lights” is about a small group of awkward criminals. It’s probably the funniest film I have ever seen, but I’ve been told that I have a really sick humor, so I guess you should be prepared for some Tarantino-ish action humor but without all the splatter. Anders Thomas Jensen generally uses a lot of violence, killings of animals, taboos and a great amount of swearing as comedy (so if you are in need of katharsis this is perfect). His screenplays are lovely and very absurd, he tends to put these agressive and semi-psycho characters in very mundane situations, which creates some wonderfully funny and revealing scenes. I really love his movies. ATJ has also directed “Adam’s Apples” (a skinhead sentenced to community service at a rural church) and “The Green Butchers” (two awkward butchers who decide to start their own butcher shop … very disgusting but also very hilarious and sweet. Wow that made me sound like a psychopath…). ATJ has also written the screenplays for “In China They Eat Dogs” and “Old Men in New Cars” which is the sequel (trailer), but they’re directed by Lasse Spang Olsen, who is a stuntman, so they are a bit more harsh and explosive.

 #3 “Frygtelig Lykkelig”/”Terribly Happy” by Henrik Ruben Genz has a sort of “western movie” feel that really fascinated me. It’s not about cowboys and shootouts though, but the dark mood and environment has that badass, slow, deserted, country feel that any decent western movie has. 

 #4 “Flame & Citron” by Ole Christian Madsen is really beautiful. It’s about the Danish underground resistance movement during World War II when Denmark were occupied by Nazi Germany. The film is based on facts about two of the most active resistance fighters, Flame & Citron are their nicknames. It’s a fascinating story about very brave people and the scenery is amazing. 

 #5 “Nordkraft” (I think it’s called “Angels in Fast Motion” in English, but I’m not sure) is also directed by Ole Christian Madsen, but it’s based on a book by Jakob Ejersbo. Ejersbo’s work is always very intense, brutal and realistic, and the movie depicts this very well. It’s divided into three stories about three young people whose lives are woven together by their drug addictions. 

Wow… that was a long reply. I better stop now (why isn’t it possible to make a “read more” break in these reply-things?) Well.. I hope some of this made sense and that it made you want to watch some of the films. Oh by the way, taokitamoto made me realize I forgot to put “Nattevagten”/”Nightwatch” on the list.. damn!