De forbandede år

Some films are weighed down by poor scripts, some by poor direction and some by poor casting. This and its sequel wasn't just weighed down but sunk by all of the above.

Working from a script he helped pen, Anders Refn showed there's a reason why he hasn't undertaken such grand projects earlier on in his career. Mostly known as Lars von Trier's editor, here Refn puts himself forth with a pair of hugely ambitious films - the tale of occupied Denmark by Nazi Germany in WWII.

We're thrown into the story just as the central and upper crust family's patron and matron are to celebrate their twenty-five years of marriage which, unfortunately, coincides with the occupation of Denmark. And so, what we get is a yarn; an attempt at telling an epic story of how this family is thrown into chaos by the events as they would unfold during the next five years.

You can tell the director's intentions were good; that Refn wanted this film to happen presumably for some time. Unfortunately, that didn't help him. Because what we get is a film from a script so overcooked and explicit it never feels cinematic or epic. We get constant breaks in whatever flow Refn does manage to stage. We get characters that are so inconsistent I at times wondered if they were meant to be different roles and where perhaps the same actor had accidentally played both. In one scene you'd see a character berate her husband for being too close to the Nazis, only for her to admonish another for being critical of the same nazis in the very next scene! It's so over the top amateurish that it instantly kills any engagement you might have felt before. And I say might, because it's very much in doubt you would feel all that much for the story or these cardboard cut-out characters. And even when characters aren't arbitrarily contradicting themselves from one scene to the next, they are given such poor dialog it's beyond embarrassing to watch it unfold! At times it feels like we're watching a first day rehearsal of a local amateur theater production. It's that hammed up!

There are actors in these films who've proven themselves time and again. But it's clear that even the best of them are struggling. Jesper Christensen is a wonderful actor, so it isn't surprising that his scenes are the ones which flow most naturally but even then, he's fighting a lost cause. The dialogue constantly rings false. Far too many things are explicated, far too little left unsaid and communicated cinematically - visually.

And it's clear there are far too many characters for this to ever have become a tight telling of what is a fascinating subject matter even all these years later. Refn constantly rushes from one scene to the next, from one character arc to the next without ever establishing why these people act as they do or why we should care. Characters move in and out of the story, some get killed off - I even caught myself feeling relieved as that might have left more oxygen for the remaining characters - others again seem to disappear without a trace or an explanation. So, we're left with this clunky break-neck speed. Start, no stop. Run, no stroll. Hurry, but go slow. There's absolutely no rhythm. Characters die, leave, fall in love, fall out of love, make choices entirely motivated by plot needs, and it all makes for a very awkward film.

I'm left feeling two things. Firstly, that Anders Refn is an editor and not a writer nor director, and secondly that this should never have been two feature films, but instead two seasons of 6 episodes a pop, each episode with its own tight story arc. That would have left plenty of room and oxygen for all these many characters to unfold and expose their motivations properly.

If there's one upside, and that's a stretch, really, then it's that Refn's strange choices mean we avoid one of those over sentimental paint-by-the-numbers war films there are entirely too many of as it is. However poor and awkward this film is, its awkwardness means we do avoid any Hollywood pretentions. I suppose sometimes that is, well, something.

I watched this because I knew very little about the danish situation during the second world war nazi occupation. The story about the family is woven as a string of episodes only loosely connected with the major developments. Things do happen in the stories of multiple family members and others, but expected consequences of actions and what occurs are to a large extent absent and unexplained.

The characters of Jesper Christensen , Bodil Jørgensen and Mads Reuther make the strongest impressions of the Skovs with Gustav Dyekjær Giese and Sara Viktoria Bjerregaard surprisingly bleak despite strong developments in their life stories. All personal stories are quite shallow so it's hard to get engaged in any of them.

Unfortunately, the looseness of the storytelling inhibits the potential in the story, despite the possibilities a more held together presentation could have achieved. Therefore I don't think this is a film one must see, but the actors are not terrible and if the subject interests you it could be worth a watch. Just don't expect anything epic or spectacular.

De Forbandede År, directed by Anders Refn, is a gripping portrayal of the Danish resistance during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. The film centers around the complicated relationships between a group of characters trying to survive during the war.

The characters are complex and interesting, each with their own motives and struggles. The main character, Kar Skov (Jesper Kristensen) l, is a successful businessman who is torn between his loyalty to his family and his country. He becomes involved in the resistance, but as the war goes on, he begins to question his actions and those of his fellow resistance fighters.

The film does an excellent job of capturing the uncertainty of how to feel about the actions of people during war. It shows how divided loyalties can make it difficult to know who to trust and what to do. The relationships between the characters are also explored in depth, showing how war can put a strain on even the closest of bonds.

One particularly interesting aspect of the film is its portrayal of the Danish police force during the occupation. Many Danish police officers chose to collaborate with the Nazis, but some also worked with the resistance. This added a layer of complexity to the film and showed that not everyone's actions during the war were black and white.

Overall, De Forbandede År is a thought-provoking film that explores the complexities of war and the human relationships that are impacted by it. The director, Anders Refn, does an excellent job of creating a tense and emotional atmosphere throughout the film, and the performances of the cast are top-notch. It is a must-see for anyone interested in World War II history or human relationships during times of crisis.

Starting on April 9th 1940, this follows a Danish family, and the friends, colleagues and such, of its various members, as they struggle through the moral grey area, the non-stop compromising, that can be unavoidable when trying to live your life in an occupied nation during a World War. Agreeing to work with with the Nazis sounds like tacit support of them, but what what if is the only way to to avoid having to fire dozens of people with families to feed?

While I haven't read the novel upon which this is based, I can say without a doubt that this is one of the book adaptations that appreciates the challenges that come with that. It manages to handle a massive amount of material, with over a dozen major characters, involved in a handful of different subplots(one could argue that there might be a couple too many), without simply ending up overwhelming. It does move very fast, and there are definitely times where you struggle to keep up with why this or that person behaved in a certain way, as their growth sometimes flies by and it's hard to keep up with it. There are times where it goes from one of these storylines to another too abruptly. This is definitely a movie that requires the viewer have a strong base of knowledge about Denmark during WWII. It is not going to hold your hand, and you are frankly going to be confused, if you go into this not knowing very much about that. The acting is convincing and these all feel like real people. You've known people similar to them in your own life. Some events are dramatised, yet most of this is credible and authentic.

This contains a little bloody violence, as well as brief sexuality and nudity. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys fiction dealing with the period. 8/10

This is very interesting from a historical point of view.

There have been many films set during World War II but this has an insight as to what it was like in Denmark following the German occupation.

Many uncertainties were faced within families and the business community. Many a moral dilemma in the latter. Go under through the loss of orders from allied countries, or "collaborate" with the Germans and continue the business ... and make lots of money.

The allergenics within families were put to the test. I was reminded of the same thing happening in the American Civil War.

The film was long, but I didn't watch it in one hit and overall I thought it was very good.

As for the inconclusive ending, well, that is life as it really is, rather then everything being tidied up.