Oscar-nominated Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg is set to make his television drama debut with six-part family saga “Families Like Ours.” (Via Variety.) The Dane’s profile skyrocketed recently after he nabbed a surprise Oscar nomination for Best Director for his latest film “Another Round,” which is also nominated for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. “Families Like Ours” will continue Vinterberg’s collaboration with “Another Round” producer Zentropa, the Danish company founded by Lars Von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen.
“Families Like Ours” has been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2 and will be supported by Danish Public Service funds. In addition to directing, Vinterberg will co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, co-writer of his first feature “The Biggest Heroes.”
According to Variety:
“‘Families Like Ours’ takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After...
“Families Like Ours” has been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2 and will be supported by Danish Public Service funds. In addition to directing, Vinterberg will co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, co-writer of his first feature “The Biggest Heroes.”
According to Variety:
“‘Families Like Ours’ takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After...
- 4/15/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Oscar-nominated Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, whose latest movie “Another Round” is nominated for a pair of Oscars and just won a BAFTA award, is re-teaming with Danish production outfit Zentropa on his TV drama debut, “Families Like Ours.”
The thought-provoking drama series has already been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2. A family saga, the six-part series will be directed by Vinterberg, who will also co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, with whom Vinterberg wrote his debut feature film, “The Biggest Heroes.”
“Families Like Ours” takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After a flood slowly takes over the country, Denmark is gradually evacuated. People must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and to who they are. In the coming years, Danes disperse in all directions: only houses, schools and empty streets are left.
Those...
The thought-provoking drama series has already been commissioned by Danish broadcaster TV2. A family saga, the six-part series will be directed by Vinterberg, who will also co-write the script with Bo Hr. Hansen, with whom Vinterberg wrote his debut feature film, “The Biggest Heroes.”
“Families Like Ours” takes place in summertime Denmark where everything seems normal, but is about to be disrupted by a natural catastrophe. After a flood slowly takes over the country, Denmark is gradually evacuated. People must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and to who they are. In the coming years, Danes disperse in all directions: only houses, schools and empty streets are left.
Those...
- 4/13/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Thomas Vinterberg went through a bit of a dry patch following “The Celebration,” with a string of movies (“It’s All About Love,” “Dear Wendy,” “Submarino“) that missed the mark. But now he’s back on form, chilling everyone with “The Hunt,” going the period drama route with the underrated “Far From The Madding Crowd,” and now bringing “The Commune” to art houses everywhere.
Continue reading Choose Your Family In The New U.S. Trailer For Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘The Commune’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Choose Your Family In The New U.S. Trailer For Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘The Commune’ at The Playlist.
- 3/9/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Copyright Desert Dancer Productions Ltd 2014
Relativity Studios has released a new, behind-the-scenes featurette for their upcoming film Desert Dancer. The movie stars Freida Pinto, Reece Ritchie, Tom Cullen, Nazanin Boniadi and Makram J. Khoury.
Check out the featurette now for an inside look at the cast’s dance rehearsals with acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan.
The video features Benjamin Wallfisch’s original score throughout.
Set in Iran, this powerful and unbelievable true story follows the brave ambition of Afshin Ghaffarian. During the volatile climate of the 2009 presidential election, where many cultural freedoms were threatened, Afshin and some friends (including Elaheh played by Freida Pinto) risk their lives and form an underground dance company.
Through banned online videos, they learn from timeless legends who cross all cultural divides, such as Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev. Afshin and Elaheh also learn much from each other, most importantly how to embrace their...
Relativity Studios has released a new, behind-the-scenes featurette for their upcoming film Desert Dancer. The movie stars Freida Pinto, Reece Ritchie, Tom Cullen, Nazanin Boniadi and Makram J. Khoury.
Check out the featurette now for an inside look at the cast’s dance rehearsals with acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan.
The video features Benjamin Wallfisch’s original score throughout.
Set in Iran, this powerful and unbelievable true story follows the brave ambition of Afshin Ghaffarian. During the volatile climate of the 2009 presidential election, where many cultural freedoms were threatened, Afshin and some friends (including Elaheh played by Freida Pinto) risk their lives and form an underground dance company.
Through banned online videos, they learn from timeless legends who cross all cultural divides, such as Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev. Afshin and Elaheh also learn much from each other, most importantly how to embrace their...
- 3/11/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Thomas Vinterberg adapts Thomas Hardy with Far from the Madding Crowd, and a teaser trailer for the May 2015 release has now been released. Carey Mulligan stars as independent-minded Bathsheba Everdene, who finds herself attracting three very different male suitors: sheep farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), Sergent Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), and prosperous, older bachelor William Boldwood (Michael Sheen). Juno Temple also co-stars in this exploration of relationships and resilience.
There have been many film and TV adaptations of Hardy’s novel, with the 1967 version by director John Schlesinger – which starred Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Peter Finch and Alan Bates – being the most beloved, so Vinterberg has his work cut out for him. This is his first English language feature since 2004′s Dear Wendy, though Fox Searchlight’s trailer makes an effort to promote Far from the Madding Crowd as from the filmmaker behind Oscar nominee The Hunt. He’s far from the Dogme crowd now.
There have been many film and TV adaptations of Hardy’s novel, with the 1967 version by director John Schlesinger – which starred Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Peter Finch and Alan Bates – being the most beloved, so Vinterberg has his work cut out for him. This is his first English language feature since 2004′s Dear Wendy, though Fox Searchlight’s trailer makes an effort to promote Far from the Madding Crowd as from the filmmaker behind Oscar nominee The Hunt. He’s far from the Dogme crowd now.
- 11/23/2014
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- SoundOnSight
"Nymphomaniac" and "Melancholia" director Lars von Trier has begun writing a screenplay for "Detroit," a horror film set in the downtrodden American city.
Fellow Danish filmmaker Kristian Levring ("The Salvation") is slated to direct, making this the first film von Trier has penned but not directed since 2004's "Dear Wendy".
Speaking of European filmmakers, Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur ("Contraband," "Everest") is in early talks to helm the history drama "Reykjavik". Mike Newell was previously set to direct.
Michael Douglas is set to portray U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Christoph Waltz as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the film about the former world leaders' famous 1986 Reykjavik Summit which signaled the end of the Cold War.
Source: THR...
Fellow Danish filmmaker Kristian Levring ("The Salvation") is slated to direct, making this the first film von Trier has penned but not directed since 2004's "Dear Wendy".
Speaking of European filmmakers, Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur ("Contraband," "Everest") is in early talks to helm the history drama "Reykjavik". Mike Newell was previously set to direct.
Michael Douglas is set to portray U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Christoph Waltz as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the film about the former world leaders' famous 1986 Reykjavik Summit which signaled the end of the Cold War.
Source: THR...
- 5/14/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
The former teen star of Billy Elliot has added Lars von Trier to the bulging portfolio of directors he's worked with. But after filming Nymphomaniac, he admits, 'I had no idea what I just did'
It's lunchtime in Richmond, Virginia when a perky Jamie Bell calls. He's there filming Turn, a new American TV drama in which he plays a farmer heading up a team of secret agents during the revolutionary war, and it's "absolutely freezing", he says. But playing war games in the cold is a piece of cake compared to the week he spent with Lars von Trier.
Since 2000's Billy Elliot, Bell's Bafta-winning breakout role, he's been notching up meaty turns with directors of choice, from the indies (David Gordon Green, Kevin MacDonald) to the big guns (Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson). Von Trier was always on his list. Bell loves his work, calling him "one of the...
It's lunchtime in Richmond, Virginia when a perky Jamie Bell calls. He's there filming Turn, a new American TV drama in which he plays a farmer heading up a team of secret agents during the revolutionary war, and it's "absolutely freezing", he says. But playing war games in the cold is a piece of cake compared to the week he spent with Lars von Trier.
Since 2000's Billy Elliot, Bell's Bafta-winning breakout role, he's been notching up meaty turns with directors of choice, from the indies (David Gordon Green, Kevin MacDonald) to the big guns (Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson). Von Trier was always on his list. Bell loves his work, calling him "one of the...
- 2/22/2014
- by Alex Godfrey
- The Guardian - Film News
Danish director Thomas Vinterberg is known for co-founding Denmark's Dogme movement, best expressed in his film "A Celebration," which wowed Cannes in 1998. After a journey of creative risk-taking with English-language films "It's All About Love" and "Dear Wendy," Vinterberg returned home for a major comeback with "The Hunt," cowritten by Tobias Lindholm ("A Hijacking"), which earned Mads Mikkelsen the Best Actor prize at Cannes in 2012 and was a hit in Denmark, which submitted it this year as its official Oscar entry. If the Best Actor category weren't so intensely competitive, Mikkelsen would have a strong chance at a nomination for his penetrating portrayal of a decent school teacher whose life is shattered when he is falsely accused of being a pedophile. One spreading lie throws his community into a state of hysteria as his friends ostracize him and the teacher fights back against the witch-hunt alone. "Suddenly this kind, lovely civilized man.
- 12/2/2013
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
After landing on cinephile radars with 1998's "The Celebration," Thomas Vinterberg went on a weird and wild cinematic journey. From pictures that didn't or barely got a release stateside, to disappointments like "Dear Wendy" or "It's All About Love," Vinterberg failed to match the acclaim of his Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize-winning film. That's until this year's "The Hunt," the gripping tale of community persecution that earned rave reviews, and more Cannes awards (an Ecumenical Jury Prize for Vinterberg, a Best Actor trophy for Mads Mikkelsen). And the helmer isn't wasting a moment riding that momentum. Last month production started on his star studded adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Far From The Madding Crowd," and today Empire brings us the official first images from the movie, and yes, we will buy all the tickets. Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Juno Temple, Michael Sheen and Tom Sturridge, the movie tells the tale...
- 10/31/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Sometimes in the film buz you get a second chance to make a great second impression. It took one critically-lauded, unexpected (it was the surprise inclusion at the Cannes film festival in 2012) hit in the award-winning (Best Actor for Mads Mikkelsen) The Hunt to put Thomas Vinterberg on the right side of the tracks again. 98′s The Celebration was all the talk and his follow up critically bashed projects such as It’s All About Love and Dear Wendy took the helmer out of circulation. Now Fox Searchlight Pictures announced that Vinterberg has begun shooting on the U.K shot Far From the Madding Crowd which sees Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge and one of the busiest actresses in Juno Temple make up the crowd. The film will shoot on location in Dorset, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London. DNA Films’ Allon Reich and Andrew Macdonald are producing. Look...
- 9/16/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Like many directors who make a big splash with an early feature, Thomas Vinterberg did not have an easy time of it thereafter. And while we don’t particularly understand the critical opprobrium heaped on, for example, “Dear Wendy,” a film this writer admires, it’s clear that he has not fully lived up to the potential on display in his landmark 1998 film, “The Celebration.” After all, that film not only launched his career into the arthouse stratosphere, it launched a whole movement, and has arguably never been bettered as the definitive iteration of what Dogme should and could be. Interestingly, “The Hunt” returns to themes explored in that earlier film, specifically the breakdown of interpersonal relationships under the pressure of revelatory accusations of sexual abuse. But here Vinterberg is unconstrained by Dogme, er dogma, so the film is in a style more classical than experimental, more deliberately staged and,...
- 7/12/2013
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
At courthouses in some of the most infamous child abuse cases of recent history, there's always a crowd out front, always someone with a poster that says "I Believe the Children."As if children don't lie. As if adults don't project their worst nightmares onto whatever accusations a child might naively make and wish he or she hadn't.
And those who are falsely accused pass through a living nightmare of shame, ostracization and social, personal and financial ruin.
"The Hunt" is a Danish film about a pre-school teacher, falsely accused. The adoring daughter of his best friend gets mad when he refuses her inappropriate kisses. A word from her to the credulous head mistress at the school, and Lucas is through the looking glass of the small Danish town he calls home.
Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is divorced with a teen son who would rather live with him than mom. Lucas...
And those who are falsely accused pass through a living nightmare of shame, ostracization and social, personal and financial ruin.
"The Hunt" is a Danish film about a pre-school teacher, falsely accused. The adoring daughter of his best friend gets mad when he refuses her inappropriate kisses. A word from her to the credulous head mistress at the school, and Lucas is through the looking glass of the small Danish town he calls home.
Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is divorced with a teen son who would rather live with him than mom. Lucas...
- 7/11/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
A Danish allegory about a man falsely accused of pedophilia (the dashing, quietly charismatic Mads Mikkelsen) and the town that turns against him, Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt was one of the most divisive works screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Odd, since there's nothing worthy of love or hate in this capably made but underwhelming movie. Vinterberg—with compatriot Lars von Trier—founded the Dogme 95 movement (that charter of dos and don'ts intended to purify big-screen realism), and his first effort, The Celebration, was a watchable jolt of family dysfunction. Since then, the director has made two far shakier U.S.-set films: the dreadful anti-gun parable Dear Wendy and an endearingly inept futuristic noir-romance, It's All About Love (s...
- 7/10/2013
- Village Voice
Shoreline is focused on discovering the best scripts from around the world. Their goal is to get these scripts into the hands of the producers and production companies who have the ability to get them made. They have the highest calibre and most respected industry judges of any screenwriting competitions out there and their judges are Oscar, Cannes & BAFTA winners and nominees.
30th June is the last day to enter your screenplay.
Feature Script – Late Deadline: 2nd June – 30th June 2013 £35 ($56 approx)
Short Script – Late Deadline: 2nd June – 30th June 2013 £25 ($40 approx)
Last years winner sold his screenplay to Christopher Figg, producer of: Hellraiser, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Dog Soldiers & many more.
There’s also over £9000 ($14000 approx.) in prizes to be won!
———-
To Enter Your Feature: http://www.shorelinescripts.com/shoreline-scripts-screenwriting-competition/feature/
To Enter Your Short: http://www.shorelinescripts.com/shoreline-scripts-short-script-submission/
Judges:
Oscar Nominated Producer, Stephen Woolley – The Crying Game,...
30th June is the last day to enter your screenplay.
Feature Script – Late Deadline: 2nd June – 30th June 2013 £35 ($56 approx)
Short Script – Late Deadline: 2nd June – 30th June 2013 £25 ($40 approx)
Last years winner sold his screenplay to Christopher Figg, producer of: Hellraiser, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Dog Soldiers & many more.
There’s also over £9000 ($14000 approx.) in prizes to be won!
———-
To Enter Your Feature: http://www.shorelinescripts.com/shoreline-scripts-screenwriting-competition/feature/
To Enter Your Short: http://www.shorelinescripts.com/shoreline-scripts-short-script-submission/
Judges:
Oscar Nominated Producer, Stephen Woolley – The Crying Game,...
- 6/30/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
I am appalled to learn that Film Education, the charity that provides curriculum-based teaching resources, teacher training and cinema-based events across the UK, has closed (Report, 23 April). Film Education has been a vital resource for me during seven years heading a media department at an outstanding north London comprehensive girls' school.
Every September I launch the Young Film Critic of the Year Award as part of my induction into the UK film industry and introduction to journalism courses. In October I take my As and A2 students in lesson time to National Schools Film Week, an astonishing network of morning film screenings that take place for a fortnight throughout the whole of Britain.
While my daughter's Lambeth primary class – many of whom have never been to the cinema before – were watching A Shark's Tale in Leicester Square, my As students attended a marketing event on Dear Wendy and my A...
Every September I launch the Young Film Critic of the Year Award as part of my induction into the UK film industry and introduction to journalism courses. In October I take my As and A2 students in lesson time to National Schools Film Week, an astonishing network of morning film screenings that take place for a fortnight throughout the whole of Britain.
While my daughter's Lambeth primary class – many of whom have never been to the cinema before – were watching A Shark's Tale in Leicester Square, my As students attended a marketing event on Dear Wendy and my A...
- 5/5/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Mark Webber is not only a solid actor traversing both indie and mainstream worlds ("Broken Flowers," "The Hottest State," "Dear Wendy," "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"), but he has also found his own voice and bloomed into a interesting writer/director in recent years. He released his debut "Explicit Ills" in 2009, and his sophomore directorial effort, "The End of Love" feels like another personal and intimate work. It also features a meta aspect at its core: he stars as an actor named Mark alongside his real-life, then-two-year-old son Issac. Here's the synopsis: When the mother of his two-year-old son suddenly passes away, struggling actor Mark is forced to confront his shortcomings. With his fate and his son's now intertwined, he grapples with his ability to grow up - stuck between the life he once knew and the one waiting for him. When he has a meaningful encounter with a young mother,...
- 1/14/2013
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Shoreline Scripts, in partnership with Sound on Sight, is giving emerging independent writers and talented, new voices a chance to have their scripts put into the hands of leading producers and production companies who have the ability to get them made. This is your chance to have your screenplay read by the most respected industry judges of any screenwriting competition across the globe.
Here are the details. Best of luck to our readers who enter.
Shoreline Scripts Screenwriting Competition is offering 1 Free Feature script submission to it’s 2013 competition. www.shorelinescripts.com - How to enter: -
All you have to do is email contact@shorelinescripts.com with your name and ‘Sound on Sight’ in the subject heading. One reader will be chosen at random and notified that they have won by next Wednesday, January 16th.
Shoreline Scripts Screenwriting Competition is focused on discovering the best scripts from around the world.
Here are the details. Best of luck to our readers who enter.
Shoreline Scripts Screenwriting Competition is offering 1 Free Feature script submission to it’s 2013 competition. www.shorelinescripts.com - How to enter: -
All you have to do is email contact@shorelinescripts.com with your name and ‘Sound on Sight’ in the subject heading. One reader will be chosen at random and notified that they have won by next Wednesday, January 16th.
Shoreline Scripts Screenwriting Competition is focused on discovering the best scripts from around the world.
- 1/9/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Mark Webber is likable -- our kind of guy. His acting career is full of interesting, offbeat independent productions and challenging little roles ("Broken Flowers," "The Hottest State," "Dear Wendy" and of course, a bit more mainstream, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"). But the 32-year-old actor is also trying to tell his own stories and in recent years has evolved into a director/screenwriter as well, starting off with 2009's "Explicit Ills." His sophomore directorial effort looks like another small and intimate, personal work called "The End Of Love." It also boasts a meta aspect and stars himself as an actor named Mark and his real-life two-year-old son Issac. Here's the synopsis: When the mother of his two-year-old son suddenly passes away, struggling actor Mark is forced to confront his shortcomings. With his fate and his son's now intertwined, he grapples with his ability to grow up - stuck between the.
- 10/1/2012
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Far From The Madding Crowd has been a target of directors for years now, and has been seen on screens both big and small at least three times. The Celebration / Dear Wendy director Thomas Vinterberg has decided it’s something he wants to tackle and is in talks with DNA Films about the job.Hardy’s novel follows the changing fortunes of several characters, including Bathsheba Everdene, who attracts the attention of several men and finds her life filled with wealth, heartache and tragedy. The most famous adaptation was John Schlesinger’s 1967 version, which saw Julie Christie as Bathsheba, Terence Stamp as Sergeant Troy and Alan Bates as shepherd Gabriel Oak.According to The Wrap, Starter For 10 / One Day writer David Nicholls (who was also behind a TV version of Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles and, more recently, Dickens’ Great Expectations) is...
- 9/25/2012
- EmpireOnline
Thomas Vinterberg has certainly been on an interesting journey since breaking out with "Festen" nearly fifteen years ago. While that film put him on the map, he struggled to follow it up, with audience and critical indifference meeting subsequent efforts like "Dear Wendy," "It's All About Love" and "Submarino." But this spring, Vinterberg once again wowed Cannes with "The Hunt," a searing drama starring Mads Mikkelsen (who took home Best Actor) as a man wrongfully accused of sexually abusing a young girl. And it hasn't taken the director long to leverage that success into a potentially exciting new project. Vinterberg is in talks to direct an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's famed "Far From The Madding Crowd." No stranger to adapting classic literature, David Nicholls (the Ralph Fiennes/Helena Bonham Carter "Great Expectations" and the 2008 Brit TV mini-series "Tess of the...
- 9/25/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
In this day and age, what famous person hasn’t inadvertently shown America their naked parts? Sure, maybe other celebs like Scarlett Johansson and Christina Hendricks had their photos hacked or leaked where as The Newsroom‘s Alison Pill just…accidentally tweeted one to the the entire Internet herself, but the effect is still the same. “Yep. That picture happened. Ugh. My tech issues have now reached new heights, apparently. How a deletion turned into a tweet… Apologies,” the actress explained via Twitter this afternoon…like a boss.
Because isn’t that the correct attitude for a celeb to take after the world sees a private photo, perhaps one intended for her fiance Jay Baruchel? “Oh, my bad. Just naked for a minute. Sorry about that!” This is the Internet, people! We’re all going to have naked photos floating around eventually! Maybe Alison was especially blase about her accidental flash because,...
Because isn’t that the correct attitude for a celeb to take after the world sees a private photo, perhaps one intended for her fiance Jay Baruchel? “Oh, my bad. Just naked for a minute. Sorry about that!” This is the Internet, people! We’re all going to have naked photos floating around eventually! Maybe Alison was especially blase about her accidental flash because,...
- 9/12/2012
- by Halle Kiefer
- TheFabLife - Movies
Like many directors who make a big splash with an early feature, Thomas Vinterberg did not have an easy time of it thereafter. And while we don’t particularly understand the critical opprobrium heaped on, for example, “Dear Wendy,” a film this writer admires, it’s clear that he has not fully lived up to the potential on display in his landmark 1998 film, “The Celebration.” After all, that film not only launched his career into the arthouse stratosphere, it launched a whole movement, and has arguably never been bettered as the definitive iteration of what Dogme should and could be. Interestingly, “The Hunt,” which played this week at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, returns to themes explored in that earlier film, specifically the breakdown of interpersonal relationships under the pressure of revelatory accusations of sexual abuse. But here Vinterberg is unconstrained by Dogme, er dogma, so the film is in a style more.
- 7/5/2012
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
Mads Mikkelsen starrer The Hunt goes to Magnolia Variety reports that the distributor's picked up U.S. distribution rights to the Cannes Film Festival player Jagten (The Hunt) which took home the actor award. Pic tells of a kindergarten teacher falsely accused of child abuse, and also stars Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrømm Sysse Wold and Anne Luise Hassing. Vinterberg, known for films like The Celebration, When a Man Comes Home, Dear Wendy and Submarino, directs as well as scripting alongside Tobias Lindholm. "Thomas Vinterberg demonstrates his directorial mastery in his finest work since...
- 5/30/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Mads Mikkelsen starrer The Hunt goes to Magnolia Variety reports that the distributor's picked up U.S. distribution rights to the Cannes Film Festival player Jagten (The Hunt) which took home the actor award. Pic tells of a kindergarten teacher falsely accused of child abuse, and also stars Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrømm Sysse Wold and Anne Luise Hassing. Vinterberg, known for films like The Celebration, When a Man Comes Home, Dear Wendy and Submarino, directs as well as scripting alongside Tobias Lindholm. "Thomas Vinterberg demonstrates his directorial mastery in his finest work since...
- 5/30/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
After making big waves with his Dogme classic The Celebration in 1998, Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg has made a handful of flawed and underseen films, whether the genre be post-apocalyptic sci-fi (It’s All About Love) or a pseudo-Western about a group of gun-wielding pacifists (Dear Wendy), that have rendered him largely unnoticed as of late.
Let it be said that his newest work, The Hunt, will stand to change the tide. Starring Mads Mikkelsen in a decidedly, and impressively, domesticated role. Vinterberg takes his time with his narrative, looking into a very 21st century kind of witch hunt. Lucas (Mikkelsen) is a new teacher at a local kindergarten, recently divorced and at odds with his ex-wife over custody of their teenage son. He’s an engaged educator, interacting with the young children and developing close relationships with all of them.
Perhaps his closest relationship is with Klara (Annika Wedderkopp), daughter...
Let it be said that his newest work, The Hunt, will stand to change the tide. Starring Mads Mikkelsen in a decidedly, and impressively, domesticated role. Vinterberg takes his time with his narrative, looking into a very 21st century kind of witch hunt. Lucas (Mikkelsen) is a new teacher at a local kindergarten, recently divorced and at odds with his ex-wife over custody of their teenage son. He’s an engaged educator, interacting with the young children and developing close relationships with all of them.
Perhaps his closest relationship is with Klara (Annika Wedderkopp), daughter...
- 5/22/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
It’s been a long time since we saw this Dane at the Cannes Film Festival in the Main Competition capacity. Thomas Vinterberg ‘s second feature film Festen (The Celebration) in 1998 claimed the Jury Prize which he parlayed into a career of experimental-type English language films It’s All About Love and Dear Wendy, and then homegrown titles A Man Comes Home and Submarino followed with less festival plays making it somewhat of a surprise that the filmmaker is in this year’s Main Competition. The Hunt stars Mads Mikkelsen in the lead and of course, the very unique Thomas Bo Larsen plays the supporting role in what is essentially a drama about the rumor mill, how it spreads and how it destroys lives. So far, we’ve drawn a “love it” or “hate it” type reaction, as we’ve got something of a rarity, with scores from zero to five stars.
- 5/21/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Early this morning brought one of the most anticipated moments in the cinephile's calendar: the announcement of the line-up of this year's installment of the Cannes Film Festival. And while it reads in places like a parody of a Cannes line-up (Alain Resnais! Abbas Kiarostami! Michael Haneke! Ken Loach!) there's no doubt that we're excited about all of those films, as well as new ones from David Cronenberg, Jacques Audiard, Walter Salles and many, many others.
Much of the line-up had been widely predicted by Cannes-watchers (even that April Fool's Day prank ended up getting 18 films right), but nevertheless, there were a few surprises, as well as a few major absences, either expected ones or more eyebrow-raising ones. Some Cannes favorites we've known weren't coming for a while: Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" opens tomorrow in Italy and wasn't thought to be at Cannes, while neither Wong Kar-Wai...
Much of the line-up had been widely predicted by Cannes-watchers (even that April Fool's Day prank ended up getting 18 films right), but nevertheless, there were a few surprises, as well as a few major absences, either expected ones or more eyebrow-raising ones. Some Cannes favorites we've known weren't coming for a while: Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love" opens tomorrow in Italy and wasn't thought to be at Cannes, while neither Wong Kar-Wai...
- 4/19/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Oranges and Sunshine; Justin Bieber: Never Say Never; Rango; The Eagle; The Lincoln Lawyer
The ironically upbeat title of Jim Loach's impressive and arresting feature debut, Oranges and Sunshine, (2010, Icon, 15) refers to the bright new future promised to British children shipped to Australia in one of the most alarming chapters of this country's recent past. Assured (often erroneously) that their parents were dead, these forgotten unfortunates arrived wide-eyed down under, where they faced a life of slave labour – and worse. Inducted into institutions where child abuse was rife, they suffered at the hands of anonymous authorities and closed-rank religious orders, their plight a grotesque secret shrouded in an all-encompassing silence.
Inspired by the real-life investigations which led to belated (and all-too-recent) official apologies, Loach's powerful movie strikes an exemplary balance between personal journey and wider political parable. Emily Watson is terrific as social worker Margaret Humphreys, the reluctant heroine...
The ironically upbeat title of Jim Loach's impressive and arresting feature debut, Oranges and Sunshine, (2010, Icon, 15) refers to the bright new future promised to British children shipped to Australia in one of the most alarming chapters of this country's recent past. Assured (often erroneously) that their parents were dead, these forgotten unfortunates arrived wide-eyed down under, where they faced a life of slave labour – and worse. Inducted into institutions where child abuse was rife, they suffered at the hands of anonymous authorities and closed-rank religious orders, their plight a grotesque secret shrouded in an all-encompassing silence.
Inspired by the real-life investigations which led to belated (and all-too-recent) official apologies, Loach's powerful movie strikes an exemplary balance between personal journey and wider political parable. Emily Watson is terrific as social worker Margaret Humphreys, the reluctant heroine...
- 7/23/2011
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Lars von Trier's Cannes slating calls to mind the fate of his fellow Danish film-maker, who likewise fell abruptly from critical grace
And so this year's Cannes turned out to be a tale of two Danes. Engulfed in acclaim was Nicolas Winding Refn, the longtime wunderkind now making good on his youthful promise to claim the award for best director with his arthouse noir Drive. Drowned in opprobrium, of course, was Lars von Trier – about whom too much has surely already been written but who, however absurdly, emerged as the chief talking point of the whole shebang. The two even shared a public spat to further hog the attention.
All of which put me in mind of a third Danish film-maker, technically absent from the festivities but lurking in the background like a Scandinavian Marley's ghost – the spectral figure of Thomas Vinterberg. Because not so very long ago it...
And so this year's Cannes turned out to be a tale of two Danes. Engulfed in acclaim was Nicolas Winding Refn, the longtime wunderkind now making good on his youthful promise to claim the award for best director with his arthouse noir Drive. Drowned in opprobrium, of course, was Lars von Trier – about whom too much has surely already been written but who, however absurdly, emerged as the chief talking point of the whole shebang. The two even shared a public spat to further hog the attention.
All of which put me in mind of a third Danish film-maker, technically absent from the festivities but lurking in the background like a Scandinavian Marley's ghost – the spectral figure of Thomas Vinterberg. Because not so very long ago it...
- 5/27/2011
- by Danny Leigh
- The Guardian - Film News
After the whirlwind of indie-world deals from Sundance, here’s a true indie story from The Playlist: Mark Webber, the indie film veteran who played Stephen Stills, the frontman of the band Sex Bomb-Omb in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, will be directing a version of his own past in his sophomore directing effort, and will be joined by his real two-year-old son.
Webber’s terrific turn as the flighty Stills in Scott Pilgrim should be his star-making role, but it looks like he’s content to stick to his indie roots. After roles in The Laramie Project, Broken Flowers, and Dear Wendy, Webber made his feature directing debut with Explicit Ills.
The untitled drama centers on a single father (Webber) dealing with the loss of his wife while caring for his two-year-old son (Webber’s own boy). To shield his son from the process, Webber is using as minimal a process as he can,...
Webber’s terrific turn as the flighty Stills in Scott Pilgrim should be his star-making role, but it looks like he’s content to stick to his indie roots. After roles in The Laramie Project, Broken Flowers, and Dear Wendy, Webber made his feature directing debut with Explicit Ills.
The untitled drama centers on a single father (Webber) dealing with the loss of his wife while caring for his two-year-old son (Webber’s own boy). To shield his son from the process, Webber is using as minimal a process as he can,...
- 1/27/2011
- by Anthony Vieira
- The Film Stage
Mark Webber is no stranger to indie film and is one of those actors that you wonder why he hasn’t broken through to the mainstream. He’s appeared in films such as Dear Wendy, Broken Flowers, and Jesus’ Son. He was recently in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World which, despite its success among the critics, didn’t produce the box office revenue that was expected. In 2008,Webber made his directorial debut with Explicit Ills and production of his follow-up film is currently underway.
Read more on Mark Webber-directed drama starring his two year old son gets cast…...
Read more on Mark Webber-directed drama starring his two year old son gets cast…...
- 1/27/2011
- by Ronnita Miller
- GordonandtheWhale
For those who remember Mark Webber as Stephen Stills from Scott Pilgrim, this next move might seem strange. For those who remember him in indie fare like Just Like the Son and Dear Wendy, it might seem fantastic. For those who mistake him for Michael Weston (the guy on House for a few episodes), none of this will make any sense at all. Webber, according to The Hollywood Reporter, has cast Michael Cera and Amanda Seyfried to play slightly altered versions of themselves for an upcoming, as yet untitled, movie about a father raising his son after the mother’s death. He’s also cast Shannyn Sossamon and Jason Ritter in smaller, but similarly styled, roles. He’s friends with all the actors in real life. He also shares a connection with the co-star: his two-year-old son. In trying to achieve the strictest version of a real father-son relationship, Webber (who will direct as well) will act...
- 1/26/2011
- by Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Ricky is having a tough day, the bullet with his name on it is quite literally staring him in the face. Structured as a flashback of his life right at the second of final judgment, for (ostensibly) our entertainment, the writer of cult festival hit Sexykiller, Paco Cabezas, blows up his award winning short into a lengthy feature of the same name: Neon Flesh. In the world of Carne de Neón you are either climbing the rungs of the sex business (It's hard out there for a wannabe pimp) or being gobbled up by it. There are cops and John's to make life difficult or lucrative, but it is the spectacularly screwed-up street folks that are on display here either for a stab at gangster coolness or goofy sight gags. Let us get this out of the way, I will probably not see a worse or more disappointing film in 2010 than Carne de Neón.
- 10/10/2010
- Screen Anarchy
I'm starting to find the backlash against vampires downright funny. A certain young adult phenomenon incites many studios to jump on the bloodlust bandwagon, and the hordes get antsy. But what about the zombies? We've got crazy zombies, Jane Austen zombies, zombies in a Zombieland, and my personal favorite, wordy Pontypool zombies. While the vamps flash it up on the big screen and make a fuss, the real zombie invasion seems not to be in reality, but in the movie theater. And now it's time to add one more to the pile.
Deadline reported at the end of last week that the zombie tide has moved from classic literature to pop sensations. Double Feature's Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher have optioned Paul is Undead -- Alan Goldsher's novel where The Beatles are zombies. Not The Zombies, the St. Albans rock band whose music covered Bunny Lake is Missing and Dear Wendy...
Deadline reported at the end of last week that the zombie tide has moved from classic literature to pop sensations. Double Feature's Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher have optioned Paul is Undead -- Alan Goldsher's novel where The Beatles are zombies. Not The Zombies, the St. Albans rock band whose music covered Bunny Lake is Missing and Dear Wendy...
- 5/10/2010
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
Outside of Europe, Lars Von Trier got all the attention for Dogme 95, the film 'movement' that set down a set of naturalistic rules for directors. But the co-creator of Dogme 95 and director of the first film made under the resulting manifesto was Thomas Vinterberg. His film Festen (The Celebration) is a low-key tour de force, a portrait of family breakdown that toes a nearly undefinable line between satire and tragedy. It instantly established Vinterberg as a talent to watch. Sadly, Vinterberg's later films haven't hit the same high. It's All About Love is vaguely like a more arthouse version of Southland Tales, while Dear Wendy only seemed to anger audiences. (I think I'm one of the few people who liked it at all.) But I remain optimistic for each new film from Vinterberg. So here's the trailer for his latest, Submarino, which premieres at the Berlin Film Festival. The trailer...
- 1/25/2010
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Thomas Vinterberg is one of these directors that one can’t help but take note of. He really caught attention in the late 90s with the release of his Dogme film The Celebration, one which impressed me the first time I saw it a few years ago. I didn’t have quite the same love (any love actually) for Dear Wendy, the only other Vinterberg film I’ve seen, but as they say, you can’t love everything.
I’ve yet to see what his other offerings are like but I fully admit to being darn excited at discovering that his latest, a family drama about two estranged brothers titled Submarino, is making its debut at Berlinale and has already been picked up for North American distribution by Match Factory.
Based on a novel by Jonas T. Bengston this story of a childhood event which tears apart a family looks...
I’ve yet to see what his other offerings are like but I fully admit to being darn excited at discovering that his latest, a family drama about two estranged brothers titled Submarino, is making its debut at Berlinale and has already been picked up for North American distribution by Match Factory.
Based on a novel by Jonas T. Bengston this story of a childhood event which tears apart a family looks...
- 1/25/2010
- QuietEarth.us
In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.
- - -
- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...
- - -
- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...
- 9/5/2009
- The Movie Fanatic
In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.
- - -
- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...
- - -
- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...
- 9/5/2009
- The Movie Fanatic
In Part 2 of tMF's 50 Essential Foreign Films, we're listing down our UK Top 10. This means the list is not limited to English films and include movies which essentially are either about the whole United Kingdom or predominantly so or about someone from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast or from any other places in the UK.
- - -
- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...
- - -
- - - Taking note of how to define what is a British Film. Aside from the British Film Institute, there are a lot of lists that feature British cinema's best. There is one particular issue that The Guardian pointed out, which at some point, was an important consideration in our own list of 10. A few days ago, The Observer published the Best British Films poll, to which it was pointed out:
... how to define a British film. Did it need to be shot here? Funded here? Feature predominantly British talent, in front and behind the camera?...
- 9/5/2009
- The Movie Fanatic
I've had many strange moments with Lars "Von" Trier. I sat, soaking wet, in a thunderstorm at an outdoor cinema in Australia and cried like a baby at the end of Dancer in the Dark, I laughed so inappropriately at the orgy scene in The Idiots that I had to leave the cinema until it was over and I still can't watch the end of Breaking the Waves with anyone else in the room as it remains, for me, one of the most powerful moments of my cinema life. It's interesting to look back at Von Trier's life before his films because in many ways it is as bizarre, hectic and sad as anything he has put to screen. Raised in Denmark, Von Trier's (some what) communist, nudist parents believed that rules and discipline were counter productive aspects of growing up and the little "Von" is thought to have had free reign.
- 7/27/2009
- by Neil Innes
- t5m.com
Two of my favorite indie youngin's are Michael Angarano and Jesse Eisenberg. What's not to like? Angarano stole our hearts as the young William in Almost Famous, and has since popped up in Dear Wendy, Lords of Dogtown, and One Last Thing. Eisenberg, meanwhile, he started things off with the ever-excellent Roger Dodger, and continued on to The Squid and the Whale, The Education of Charlie Banks, and Adventureland (with Angarano's main squeeze, Kristen Stewart). Now the dudes are combining for some sweet indie fare together.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Angarano has signed on and Eisenberg is circling a new comedy called Ceremony. The film will follow a young guy (Eisenberg) who falls head over heels for an older woman (Elizabeth Berkeley again!?!?) who is getting ready to get hitched. His infatuation leads him to grab his friend (Angarano) and travel to a beat town to break up the...
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Angarano has signed on and Eisenberg is circling a new comedy called Ceremony. The film will follow a young guy (Eisenberg) who falls head over heels for an older woman (Elizabeth Berkeley again!?!?) who is getting ready to get hitched. His infatuation leads him to grab his friend (Angarano) and travel to a beat town to break up the...
- 6/10/2009
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
In 2005, my friend and I grabbed day passes to the Toronto International Film Fest and coordinated 25 films that incorporated our varying tastes. Film after film was a bad choice, and we began to feel defeated and tired. Then we strolled into Dear Wendy. My appreciation for Lars von Trier had led this choice, and I was expecting a simple, sullen, and strange film, but feared that it would follow this trend of bad choices.
But both of us were transfixed. The creativity of the story was palpable in every scene, as viewers were led through the loveletter to a gun named Wendy, and the lives of gun-toting pacifists. While some aspects of the film mirrored the simplicity of Dogville, it was filled with more stunning visuals, depth, whimsy, and irresistible moments of engagement. It was sweet and fairy tale-ish while also dark and rife with social commentary. By the end,...
But both of us were transfixed. The creativity of the story was palpable in every scene, as viewers were led through the loveletter to a gun named Wendy, and the lives of gun-toting pacifists. While some aspects of the film mirrored the simplicity of Dogville, it was filled with more stunning visuals, depth, whimsy, and irresistible moments of engagement. It was sweet and fairy tale-ish while also dark and rife with social commentary. By the end,...
- 3/19/2009
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
Edgar Wright's upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a veritable puupuu platter of young talent. Some are super-recognizable -- like Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, and Kieran Culkin. And some are new Canadian talent thrown into the mix, like Ellen Wong. Since Mr. Pilgrim is a Canadian slacker and ex-boyfriend-slayer, we're getting a little more maple leaf talent, more recognizable faces, and a superhero to boot.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Brandon Routh has signed on to play Ramona's evil ex #3, Todd Ingram -- the rocker with vegan psychic powers, and Brie Larson (who is currently playing the struggling daughter in United States of Tara) will play Pilgrim's ex, Envy Adams. But that's only the beginning. Alison Pill (who kicked butt in Dear Wendy, and more recently served under Milk) will play the drummer in Pilgrim's band, while her Wendy co-star Mark Webber will play Stephen Stills,...
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Brandon Routh has signed on to play Ramona's evil ex #3, Todd Ingram -- the rocker with vegan psychic powers, and Brie Larson (who is currently playing the struggling daughter in United States of Tara) will play Pilgrim's ex, Envy Adams. But that's only the beginning. Alison Pill (who kicked butt in Dear Wendy, and more recently served under Milk) will play the drummer in Pilgrim's band, while her Wendy co-star Mark Webber will play Stephen Stills,...
- 1/20/2009
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
MOSCOW -- French director Claire Denis will chair a competition jury that includes Oscar-winning Italian film composer Nicola Piovani and Russian screenwriter Valentin Chernykh at the 27th edition of the Moscow International Film Festival, organizers said Friday. Austrian director Ulrich Seidl, a Venice prizewinner for Dog Days, also is expected to serve on the jury, along with two other members yet to be announced. Among films competing for the festival grand prize will be Thomas Vinterberg's new film Dear Wendy, scripted by Lars von Trier; Le Sourire d'Hassan (Hassan's Smile), a French-Syria co-production by Frederic Goupil; Macedonian director Darko Mitrevski's Bal-Can-Can, a Kusturica-style take on the ethnic conflict of the Balkans; and Uzbek director Yusup Razykov's The Shepherd.
Wellspring, a division of American Vantage Media Corp., has acquired U.S. rights to Dear Wendy, a film collaboration between Dogme 95 comrades Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier. Wendy, described as an acerbic commentary on American gun culture, appeared at this year's Sundance Film Festival and stars Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman and Mark Webber. It was directed by Vinterberg and written by von Trier. Nimbus Film and Zentropa produced.
- 2/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY, UTAH -- Written by Lars Von Trier and directed by Thomas Vinterberg, Dear Wendy is not a conventional romance -- it's a love story about a gun. This is what happens when a bunch of alienated teenagers in a poor southwest mining town are exposed to weapons of individual destruction. Part parable, part wild west shoot-out, yet totally original, "Dear Wendy" is a powerful indictment of American gun culture that is sure to draw controversy and heated discussion wherever it plays -- just as the filmmakers must have intended.
The leader of the pack is a young man named Dick (Jamie Bell) who is saved from a life in the mines by his black nanny Clarabelle (Novella Nelson). She says he is too sensitive and weak for the mines and will one day do something great to save the world one day. He gets a job at a super market and wanders aimlessly through life until he meets and falls in love with a small, sleek and stylish handgun he names Wendy, although he professes to be a devout pacifist.
Dick is befriended by his sullen co-worker Stevie (Mark Webber), who happens to know everything about guns, and the two boys form an instant bond over their fascination with weaponry. Stevie's a pacifist too.
After a while they decide to spread their wealth and recruit a handful of the town's young misfits--a cripple and his brother, Huey (Chris Owen) and Freddie (Michael Angarano), Susan (Alison Pill), a pretty girl who was unfortunate enough to be the one in high school without breasts, and later, Dicks's nemesis, the street smart black kid Sebastian (Danso Gordon).
What draws them together is that they have absolutely nothing in life to look forward to--until they get their guns. Hiding out in a deserted mine shaft, they create a home for themselves where they practice, shoot and create an elaborate secret society dubbed The Dandies.
Dressing in costumes ranging from a union soldier's coat to a revolutionary war stove pipe hat and a coonskin cap, they look like a ragtag survey of American history. Brilliantly accompanying them throughout the film as they swirl their guns around, is the music of the Zombies, singing stuff like "let me tell you about the way she acted, the color of her hair..."
In a conventional American film, Dick would fall for Susan and ride off into the sunset, but here he only has eyes for Wendy. Sex is not part of the equation. Any erotic feelings are directed towards their weapons, and, in fact, one of the rituals they study is a technique used by German soldiers in World War II in which they bind their genitals to the point of excruciating pain so that they will fight more fiercely.
Although it is not their intention, exposed to enormous firepower, which they have no trouble acquiring, it is inevitable that they will one day use it. As police chief Krugsby (Bill Pullman) says, they are "the kind of boys this country is built on." And like many innocent young men in this country introduced to the mystique of guns, they will eventually be led to slaughter.
For a time these kids feel empowered by the guns and can look people in the eye. Bell's perpetual sneer and hawk like gaze make it hard to take your eyes off him. Equally compelling is Pullman, who gives a complex performance as a sincere man who sends out mixed messages only because he doesn't have all the answers. All the kids seem to have been melded into their roles with Webber and Pill bringing a deep understanding to the tortures of growing up in an absurd world.
The filmmakers appropriate bit and pieces of American culture and film history, but these are Europeans commenting on our society. The iconic town of Etherscope with its sad center know as Electric Square was modeled, fittingly, after Pocahontus, West Virginia and magnificently reconstructed in Denmark by Karl Juliusson and Jette Lehmann.
Strutting and fretting across this stage, the kids are alternately fascinating and far fetched. Vinterberg's storytelling is straight forward and unadorned, imbuing the stylized and timeless setting with a believability that, for the most part, allows one to suspend disbelief, although the action is at times frustratingly slow. With The Battle Hymn of the Republic playing softly in the background, Vinterberg is not being subtle. But the cumulative power watching these kids self-destruct for nothing is heartbreaking and angering. Any impatience with the film is dispelled by the power of the ending, a ballet of violence right out of Peckinpah. This is Von Trier and Vinterberg's vision of America today and it's sobering.
DEAR WENDY
Lucky Punch I/S/A Nimbus/Zentropa Production
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: Lars Von Trier
Producer: Sisse Graum Jorgensen
Executive producers: Peter Aalbaek Jensen, Bo Ehrhardt, Birgitte Hald
Director of photography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Co-producer: Marie Cecile Gade
Costume designer: Annie Perier
Editor: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
Cast: Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Michael Angarano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson, Chris Owen, Alison Pill, Mark Webber;
MPAA rating: unrated
Running time -- 100 minutes.
The leader of the pack is a young man named Dick (Jamie Bell) who is saved from a life in the mines by his black nanny Clarabelle (Novella Nelson). She says he is too sensitive and weak for the mines and will one day do something great to save the world one day. He gets a job at a super market and wanders aimlessly through life until he meets and falls in love with a small, sleek and stylish handgun he names Wendy, although he professes to be a devout pacifist.
Dick is befriended by his sullen co-worker Stevie (Mark Webber), who happens to know everything about guns, and the two boys form an instant bond over their fascination with weaponry. Stevie's a pacifist too.
After a while they decide to spread their wealth and recruit a handful of the town's young misfits--a cripple and his brother, Huey (Chris Owen) and Freddie (Michael Angarano), Susan (Alison Pill), a pretty girl who was unfortunate enough to be the one in high school without breasts, and later, Dicks's nemesis, the street smart black kid Sebastian (Danso Gordon).
What draws them together is that they have absolutely nothing in life to look forward to--until they get their guns. Hiding out in a deserted mine shaft, they create a home for themselves where they practice, shoot and create an elaborate secret society dubbed The Dandies.
Dressing in costumes ranging from a union soldier's coat to a revolutionary war stove pipe hat and a coonskin cap, they look like a ragtag survey of American history. Brilliantly accompanying them throughout the film as they swirl their guns around, is the music of the Zombies, singing stuff like "let me tell you about the way she acted, the color of her hair..."
In a conventional American film, Dick would fall for Susan and ride off into the sunset, but here he only has eyes for Wendy. Sex is not part of the equation. Any erotic feelings are directed towards their weapons, and, in fact, one of the rituals they study is a technique used by German soldiers in World War II in which they bind their genitals to the point of excruciating pain so that they will fight more fiercely.
Although it is not their intention, exposed to enormous firepower, which they have no trouble acquiring, it is inevitable that they will one day use it. As police chief Krugsby (Bill Pullman) says, they are "the kind of boys this country is built on." And like many innocent young men in this country introduced to the mystique of guns, they will eventually be led to slaughter.
For a time these kids feel empowered by the guns and can look people in the eye. Bell's perpetual sneer and hawk like gaze make it hard to take your eyes off him. Equally compelling is Pullman, who gives a complex performance as a sincere man who sends out mixed messages only because he doesn't have all the answers. All the kids seem to have been melded into their roles with Webber and Pill bringing a deep understanding to the tortures of growing up in an absurd world.
The filmmakers appropriate bit and pieces of American culture and film history, but these are Europeans commenting on our society. The iconic town of Etherscope with its sad center know as Electric Square was modeled, fittingly, after Pocahontus, West Virginia and magnificently reconstructed in Denmark by Karl Juliusson and Jette Lehmann.
Strutting and fretting across this stage, the kids are alternately fascinating and far fetched. Vinterberg's storytelling is straight forward and unadorned, imbuing the stylized and timeless setting with a believability that, for the most part, allows one to suspend disbelief, although the action is at times frustratingly slow. With The Battle Hymn of the Republic playing softly in the background, Vinterberg is not being subtle. But the cumulative power watching these kids self-destruct for nothing is heartbreaking and angering. Any impatience with the film is dispelled by the power of the ending, a ballet of violence right out of Peckinpah. This is Von Trier and Vinterberg's vision of America today and it's sobering.
DEAR WENDY
Lucky Punch I/S/A Nimbus/Zentropa Production
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: Lars Von Trier
Producer: Sisse Graum Jorgensen
Executive producers: Peter Aalbaek Jensen, Bo Ehrhardt, Birgitte Hald
Director of photography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Co-producer: Marie Cecile Gade
Costume designer: Annie Perier
Editor: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
Cast: Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Michael Angarano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson, Chris Owen, Alison Pill, Mark Webber;
MPAA rating: unrated
Running time -- 100 minutes.
- 1/24/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Newcomer Alison Pill has swallowed the female lead role in Thomas Vinterberg's Dear Wendy, starring opposite Billy Elliott topper Jamie Bell. Set in a small mining town in West Virginia, Dear Wendy centers on Dick Bell), an ingenious teenager who finds a friend and confidant in a pistol after losing his father. Pill is set to play Susan, a friend of Bell's character, who is a loser often lost in a world of her own. The project, which is currently lensing in Denmark, was penned by Lars von Trier, who reportedly handed it over to Vinterberg so he could prep the third installment of his trilogy, Manderlay. Sisse Graum Olsen is producing. Pill is repped by WMA and Joanie Burstein at the Burstein Company. Her credits include Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, What Girls Learn and the upcoming Pieces of April. She also recently completed Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.
- 10/6/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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