I krig & kærlighed

Filmens historie er fuld af smerte. Aktuel for alle.

Good Danish-German-Czech drama held during World War I (and partially inside it, but most of the time in Danish lands conquered by German Empire decades before), with a nice story and characters, great art direction and cinematography, good acting, and a remarkable love triangle. Worth watching.

Filmen er smuk. Filmen er brutal. Filmen er rørende. Den skal du se. Længere er den ikke.

Well, I think it was Alfred Hitchcock who said that all you needed to make a good film was essentially 3 things, a good script, a good script and a good script. Sadly, this film is missing on all 3 accounts. The story is weak and the dialogue is atrocious. Filled with lines like 'I am afraid we are gonna lose ourselves'. Yuck. Topped off with one of the worst endings in movie history. The film has reportedly been rather expensive, at least by Danish standards, not that it really shows. The war scenes' main spectacle is one tank circling an abandoned building, which is occupied by a handful of soldiers. The rest of the film centers around the male lead hiding in an old mill. Yawn. The filmmakers desperately want the film to be 'epic', but the only thing epic about it, is its length. Otherwise, you get the feeling you are watching film students trying to emulate epicness. The only partly interesting aspect of the movie is the rivalry between Esben and Gerhard, and Sebastian Jessen and Tom Wlaschiha both give good performances, despite the weak script. Rosalinde Mynster is left with not much to do, and Ulrich Thomsen and Thure Lindhardt are wasted in this. Especially Thure Lindhardt - this must surely be the worst part and worst performance of his career. Anyway, if you're looking for epic or a good film, or just something that won't completely waste your time, look elsewhere.

I did not find this film too long for a multi-layered, character driven film. The acting is superb as is the cinematography. We are not currently seeing this kind of depth in American films. Thank heavens for foreign, independent film!