The bench

We've all of us seen them: the alcoholics wasting their lives sitting on our cities' benches. What we don't see is the drama behind the alcohol.

What struck me while watching Baenken is that it is all so believable and therefore the more painful to watch. The story of this film becomes less important than the leading character's death wish. His cynical attitude towards life and suicidal drinking habits are what sticks in one's mind.

Jesper Christensen is masterful in portraying the misery, the shame and hopelessness that go with alcoholism. The drinking bout in which he cries while lying wounded in his apartment is gut wrenching to watch.

Not an easy film to watch but definitely worthwhile if one has the stomach for it.

Here's a comment to this Norwegian Øysten guy! To me it sounds more like you have a problem with Danes in general and are just using the movie as an excuse to utter some very stupid remarks about Danish movies. You sound like a poor fellow with a self esteem problem. It's not our problem that Norway is not exactly the capital of film making right now. During the last 10 years or so Danish films have had an impressively high level of quality. Sure, there have been some not very good and some very bad movies, but the general level is high. If you take a look at the over-exposed American movies it's only a low fraction of those that are even worth mentioning and yet they are still dominating the cinemas everywhere, also in Denmark. Of course, the success of Danish films has made the fraction of American movies decrease a bit which is a very positive thing. In the 80's we excelled in extremely bad comedies so the last 10 years have been a giant leap forward. You can say what you want about the Dogma95 concept but it resulted in a series of good movies and a lot of fruitful discussions about film making in general. Now, Dogma95 has seized to exist (it was only intended to be officially "running" for 10 years) which is probably also a good thing because otherwise the concept could end up as a parody of itself. Dogma95 caused a little stir in the movie industry and rightfully deserves a note in movie history. It's like Lars Von Trier himself: You can love or hate him, but you cannot possibly ignore him.

I have recently watched this excellent Dannish movie on satellite channel.Regrettably I was deprived of the opportunity to understand dialogs as there was neither English translation nor subtitles. Nevetheless, that language barrier had not prevented me from understanding the essence of the movie and conversely watching this movie in Dannish emphasized scenes regarding alcoholics, contradictions and attitude towards lonely poverty-stricken generally in Europe and particularly in Denmark. The problem of solitude is pivotal in this movie. Loneliness kills us faster that whatever disease. The movie is full of sadness and sympathy. I recommend everybody to watch it.

The most stunishing thing about this movie is the acting of the drunk guy. Several times during the movie I pondered whether they had brought in a real drunk, or if it really was an actor? All his moves, the way i talked etc. were so real.

The story as far as I recall it, is about a drunk guy on dole, with no future. Suddenly he meets a person which makes his internal flame of live rise and burst.

We as spectators get a view of how it is having no future, no family and nothing to do. Its a story without any special effects or explosions (not even a telly which is thrown out of the window from the second floor explode upon impact with the sidewalk!) But still, the story is so much better than of most multi-billion dollar movies from Hollywood.

This Danish masterpiece revels the story of a drunk alcoholic living in the suburbs of Copenhagen. The film represents the underclass of the Danish welfare society and is the 1st of Per Fly praised trilogy.

Kaj is an alcoholic living on the money the Danish state is providing him. Him and his friends spend their time drinking beer at a public bench. One day Kaj's life turns upside down when a young lady and her child moves in next to him.

The movie shows the life of a person fighting with depression and addiction. Subjects as social inheritance, compassion, honor and shame play a significant role in the movie.

The acting of Kaj is done by Jesper Christensen and it's remarkable trustworthy. One of the best performances I've ever seen. The story of Kaj is interesting and sad. It revels the story of a man who lost his track in life and how this affects others around him. It gives perspective on how people differently are dealing with shame, honor and love. It shows a person who have lost his purpose with life and how drinking became his only solution to deal with it. However behind the trashy clothes and smell lies a great person with honor, love and passion.