Villa paranoia

Well, for starters, this actually was THE most elegant Clausen film to this date.

The man's always got a sense for characters with a slice of humor to them, but I think that he in this movie adds a dimension unparrallel to anything he's made earlier. His work has - in very black n' white words - been accepted by the broad but not that critical audience, and we've always appreciated his sense of humor and his ability to mix it with human problems and a distinct way of letting the audience know what he needs to say.

In "Villa Paranoia, however, for the first time, he surprises with an unseen wisdom and a respect for the minorities. Not only the ethnic but also the normal people you tend to forget. Set in Jutland - in 'the country' - it deals with the everlasting issue of lack of love, but in a close and at times brutal way that keeps you looking and keeps you focused. And on top of that, he himself manages to play a b******d! A true b*****d, who wants the right thing but has no clue how to get there, and people therefore suffer. Bitterly.

I'd have to say it's one of the best movies I've seen this year and I'm greatly anticipating his next.

As a Dane I'm proud of the handful of good Danish movies that have been produced in recent years. It's a terrible shame, however, that this surge in quality has led the majority of Danish movie critics to lose their sense of criticism. In fact, it has become so bad that I no longer trust any reviews of Danish movies, and as a result I have stopped watching them in theaters.

I know it's wrong to hold this unfortunate development against any one movie, so let me stress that "Villa Paranoia" would be a terrible film under any circumstances. The fact that it was hyped by the critics just added fuel to my bonfire of disillusionment with Danish film. Furthermore, waiting until it came out on DVD was very little help against the unshakable feeling of having wasted time and money.

Erik Clausen is an accomplished director with a knack for social realism in Copenhagen settings. I particularly enjoyed "De Frigjorte" (1993). As an actor he is usually funny, though he generally plays the same role in all of his movies, namely that of a working-class slob who's down on his luck, partly because he's a slob but mostly because of society, and who redeems himself by doing something good for his community.

This is problem number one in "Villa Paranoia"; Clausen casts himself as a chicken farmer, which is such a break from the norm that he never succeeds in making it credible.

It is much worse, however, that the film has to make twists and turns and break all rules of how to tell a story to make the audience understand what is going on. For instance, the movie opens with a very sad attempt at visualizing the near-death experience of the main character with the use of low-budget effects and bad camera work. After that, the character tells her best friend that she suddenly felt the urge to throw herself off a bridge. This is symptomatic of the whole movie; there is little or no motivation for the actions of the characters, and Clausen resorts to the lowest form of communicating whatever motivation there is: Telling instead of showing. Thus, at one point, you have a character talking out loud to a purportedly catatonic person about the way he feels, because the script wouldn't allow him to act out his feelings; and later on, voice-over is abruptly introduced, quite possibly as an afterthought, to convey feelings that would otherwise remain unknown to the audience due to the director's ineptitude. Fortunately, at this point you're roughly an hour past caring about any of the characters, let alone the so-called story.

The acting, which has frequently been a problem in Clausen's movies, can be summed up in one sad statement: Søren Westerberg Bentsen, whose only other claim to stardom was as a contestant on Big Brother, is no worse than several of the heralded actors in the cast.

I give this a 2-out-of-10 rating.

Erik Clausen's "Villa Paranoia" is a satire, psychological drama and comedy all rolled into one. The favorite film of the general public, actually more important than the jury prize, at the 2005 Rouen, Festival of Nordic Cinema was Erik Clausen's brilliant bittersweet dramatic comedy, "Villa Paranoia", which was also selected by the European Youth Jury indicative of its appeal to cinephiles of all ages. The following day I travelled with director-actor Clausen to the remote French town of Mamers, Pays de Loire, for a provincial festival of new European cinema, where "Villa Paranoia" picked up three more prizes -- Best film, Professional Jury; Best Film, Audience prize; and Best film of another youth jury composed of "lycéens", French high school students. Five prizes in a single weekend -- not a bad haul for a film from a small country with unknown actors. In addition, "Villa" was awarded the Grand Prix, the Maverick Spirit Award, at San Jose, California, just a week ago, by distinguished British actor Sir Ben Kingsley ("Ghandi"), making it a grand total of six prizes in a single week.

If Lars van Trier has put Denmark on the offbeat-oddball Dogma Cinematic map in recent years, there is now a good chance that Veteran Maverick Erik Clausen (62) and his capable crew of actors will soon show the world that Denmark has more to offer than dogmatic drivel, In this case a mass audience pleaser for young and old alike. Moreover, the female lead of his film, Sonja Richter, (born 1974) has such a magical screen presence that, with a little more exposure, she stands a good chance of becoming the next international Scandinavian Diva. Sonia was also fantastic in the Susan Blier film "Open Hearts" (Elsker dig for evigt) opposite major Danish star Mads Mikkelsen, at this festival in 2002.

For the record, "Villa Paranoia" is a fiction film, written, directed, and acted in by the multi-faceted Mr. Clausen, and employing certain motifs from Molière's "The Imaginary Invalid". PLOT: Anna (Sonia Richter), an ambitious young actress, has lost a deeply coveted role in the Moliére play and reduced to making an utterly stupid TV chicken commercial is on the verge of suicide. However, Jorgen (Clausen) who runs a massive chicken farm sponsoring the TV spot offers her a job with room and board taking care of his cantankerous, senile, wheel-chair ridden father, Walentin, (Frits Helmuth) who has not spoken a word since his wife Stella committed suicide years before. Anna is the only one who eventually finds a way of communicating with the hostile silent old grouch -- and moreover, discovers that he has been faking deafness and immobility all these years -- a living "Malade Imaginaire". This will lead to her playing the greatest role of her own life in order to uncover the dark secret which led to Walentin's total withdrawal from life and reality. Villa "Paradise-Paranoia", true to the Moliere tradition from which it is partially derived, is a heartwarming, multi-layered, serio-comic psycho-drama that literally has something for everybody and only needs proper placement to attain the kind of general international outreach it richly deserves.

ALEX, Rouen, March 21, 2005

(Unfortunately, the international promotion VILLA needed was not forthcoming and this remarkable film was lost in the shuffle of unforgettable forgotten films)

Alex,Rouen,March 21, 2005

Being from Canada, I cannot say whether this film is original in the context of Danish cinema - unfortunately, we, here, do not get to see many Danish films in a year! I also cannot comment on Clausen's acting in the context of his other roles - I personally found him quite believable - a touching monstrosity of a man, this Jorgen! As for the actor who played Kenneth - why would his participation in a TV show rule him out as an actor - aren't we over such elitist attitudes? International viewers unaware of his Big Brother participation will find him a fair actor.

In spite of the movie's faults (the writing could have been subtler in some instances), I do subscribe to what one could call the 'message' of the film - namely art's essential role in everyday life, art as healing force. Art, as Nietzsche said, sanctifies the lie ('Kunst heiligt die Luege') - it is a holy lie: the wedding scene is fabulous in this sense - a theatrical, not religious, wedding, celebrating love and life as play...

For those astute spectators who thought that Danish cinema was all about Dogma type over the top, hype films than you are for a shock. There is not an ounce of doubt that Danish dogma films were good. The only bad thing about them is that people were getting used to the idea that Danish cinema belongs exclusively to Lars Von Trier. But as is wont with intelligent viewers, fastidious film lovers are always desirous of exploring new facets of cinemas unknown to them. It is with this idea that one must watch this film. Villa Paranoia is directed by Erik Clausen who is a much respected veteran of Danish cinema.He has made a simple film which entertains its viewers nicely. At a close look, it has moments of romantic alliance between its leading players. At the same time it tackles serious issues too.It talks of issues like old people, unemployment, love and affection. Directing oneself in one's own film is a serious challenge. However, Erik Clausen proved his critics wrong by giving fine performances as an actor. A DVD of this film is available from K-films.