scandinavian movies


I just love them! Tonight I watched "Der einzig Richtige". (Translated maybe "The Only Right One"?)
It was as usual very entertaining and sported this special sense of humour that I dare call "typical" danish.

"Der einzig Richtige" - Regie: Susanne Bier - Drehbuch: Kim Fupz Aakeson
Cast:
Susanne Rossi, "Sus" - Sidse Babett Knudsen
Nils Bech, "Niller" - Niels Olsen
Lizzie Heinzen - Soes Egelind
Andrea Rossi, "Sonny" - Rafael Edholm
Stella, Kollegin von Sus - Paprika Steen
Merete "Muller" - Sofie Grabol
Knud, Kollege von Niller - Lars Kaalund
Mgala - Vanessa Gouri

PLOT: It is the story of two couples who both want children but don't seem to be able to conceive; it shows that the young woman Sus doesn't really want a baby and purposely avoids the fertile days, but her italian husband Sonny insists. When she finally gets pregnant she finds out he betrays her and kicks him out although she still wants him somehow. The other couple is adopting a child from Burkina Faso after Niller finds out that his spermatozoa are a lazy bunch of mutineers. Unfortunately on the day the child arrives, his wife is killed in an car accident while fetching milk form the shop.
As in many of those sweet danish movies the protagonist's lifelines cross at some point and they end up all together. My absolute favourite Niller is working for a company that builds kitchens and meets Sus in the beginning before she gets pregnant. They somehow click but as both are married nothing happens. Until later the by-then-widower Niller returns to fix up the kitchen and by-then-single Sus and him have a hot liaison on said kitchen furniture. Of course there's lots of trouble in the way: Niller's terrible sister-in-law Muller is having the (unrequited) hots for him and is a pain in the ass with her pseudo-psychological talking (7! years of studying, still lacking the last exam and basically being totally ineligibly for the field). Then there is the social worker that wants to take the adoptive daughter away after finding out about the wife's death. Also, Sus is thinking about an abortion, gets fired and has several frustrating encounters with Sonny. In the end all is good, the ones who love each other marry and will be happy ever after. Very funny details in the movie is for example Sus' clumsy girlfriend Stella who suffers from being a tall luscious blonde, and the running gag is Niller's obsession for kitchen metaphors.
It's a friendly sweet film and it made me think I should start building a danish movie collection. I just love them, especially in the OV because it makes them sound really funny (and sometimes the jokes aren't quite fit for translation). Don't be insulted if you're a danish reader, Come on, what name is "Fupz"? Danish is a funny language and I love listening to it. Actually, the first time I ever heard it I got a fit and couldn't stop laughing. There.
Amazing remark to this movie: no exposure of male nudity. I know a handful of movies that I could just identify as danish because they included scenes with naked male genitals hopping over the screen (well, not on their own of course), something that the Danes are obviously less shy about than germans or others like - OMG - americans.

I do recommend this film, it was funny!
Other recommendable danish films are "Små Ulykker", "Italiensk for Begyndere" (2000), "Nightwatch" and more with titles I've forgotten, take any Dogma film ("Mifune" etc).
Recommendable islandic movies: 101 Reykjavik (2000) and the short erotic film "On Top Down Under", both starring the sympathetic Hilmir Snær Gudnason (pictured below)

Posted: Mo - Mai 3, 2004 at 02:06 Uhr      

©