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10/10
simply brilliant
17 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This Christmas series for minor children is no less than brilliant! anarchist, non-conforming, the series containing 24 small films tells the story of three friends, Bamse (a giant Teddy bear), Kylling(a man-size chicken) and Ælling (a man-size duckling) heading off to find Father Christmas at the North Pole (where Danish children believe Santa lives).

They do this because they find several of Santa's things he needs to prepare for Christmas. Being afraid that there might not be a proper Christmas--i.e. presents for them, they take off to find him.

Unfortunately, the three characters mental development corresponds to children aged 5, 3, 2. As you might imagine, finding Santa is not as easy as it sounds. Especially as there is a Chrstimas elf who wants them to fail for his own private reasons.

Bamses julerejse completely ignores everything about Christmas movies; there aren't any reindeer in the first 23 films, there is no snow before well into the second half, the three animals walk through blooming fields (in Northern Europe in December quite an impossible thing to do). No well-behaving children, no morale about being a good child, just sheer fun. Still, Bamses Julerejse captures the smaller children who can identify with at least one of the characters.

Disadvantages: it's in Danish, which hardly anyone can understand. Never mind, if you understand Danish, buy it!
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1/10
waste of time
1 September 2006
Having read the entries in the IMDb forum, I was really looking forward to watching this movie--what a disappointment! The movie's cast was mainly Chinese but apart form the very last scene (3 years later) and the banquet scene I could not see anything Chinese in it. Everyone seemed to be talking all the time, rather like in an American movie.

And why does everyone have to speak English? Don't they speak Chinese in China? Not even the pictures were just marginally as powerful as in most Chineese films I have watched.

As the end credits rolled across the screen I realized--Pearl S- Buck. Well, I stopped reading Pearl S.Buck when I was 13 as I couldn't see any challenge in her books. They rather depict the "good old days" the way they never were.
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Karniggels (1991)
10/10
Buck (almost) at its best
31 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Buck's first full length film depicts brilliantly the expectations and clichés in rural Northern Germany. The young police officer dreaming of fun and excitement, catching dangerous criminals, is stationed as a local copper in a small town. Nothing ever seems to happen. Apart from the mysteriously slaughtered cows...

Buck manages to show sympathy for rural lifestyle without canonizing it; his depiction of the young upper-class woman and her family sums up what happens when you loose touch with reality.

I's a pity that "Erst die Arbeit und dann" isn't available any more. This short film was even better than "Karniggels".
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Jerusalem (1996)
10/10
a masterpiece
29 August 2006
This film is no less than a masterpiece--director Bille August's masterpiece! Selma Lagerlöf's novel described the Jerusalem syndrome 60 years prior to its diagnosis, and Bille August manages to capture the many levels of interior monologue. August takes the audience both to Sweden and the Middle East without painting nauseatingly glossy pictures. Neither does he cross any mines unintentional. The film shows the consequences of religious fanaticism as well as a piece of Scandinavian history. The pietist movements of the early 19th century are brought back to life and even modern, agnostic viewers can begin to understand what power the pietist preachers had among their followers.

Simply wonderful!
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9/10
a wonderful movie about different ways of coping with changes
26 August 2006
Cirkeline, a little paper-cut elf, is the star in this enchanting movie for smaller children--co-starring alongside several mice with Frederik and Ingolf as her room-mates. Originally, Cirkeline an her pals were starring in small ten-minute films produced for Danish Radio's Children's television. Known to almost all Danes over 3, Cirkeline is common knowledge and represents very much the nation's attitude towards children. The movie contains hardly any adults (mice etc.) Cirkeline and her pals move freely around the city (Denmark's capital Copenhagen), meeting other children (mice) and adults (the dove, a father, a big, bad rat) and thus getting accustomed to life in a new place.

Friendship keeps them together, and as friends they master almost every situation.

Absolutely harmless even for timid children the movie still keeps up enough tension to be one my daughter's favorite movies.
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4/10
Poul Reichard in his first leading role
26 August 2006
Poul Reichardt is seen in his first leading role, preceding dozens of films with Danish film's first lover as the star. Driven away form his loved one, the antagonist has to endure all the dangers of Arctic life and catastrophe.

Great for its time. However, in the age of special effects, one sometimes tends to smile unwillingly at the effects of the 1930ies. The vessel sinking seems to be crushed by an handful of ice cubes, for example.

Still a must for fans of Poul Reichardt as his role is much less predictable as in his films in the 1950ies.
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5/10
not suitable for toddlers
27 December 2005
My daughter was scared by the setting last year when she was two. Much more eerie than one would suspect a Winnie Pooh film to be. So we put the film aside until this year. Now she enjoys watching the film. Still she has to watch some scenes with an adult by her side. Not suitable for dinner preparation TV.

The film clearly benefits from including all the original characters. Unlike some of the other films which exclude OWL, a character dearly loved by all our family--ever since the stormy day film.

So, great for bigger preschool children but unsuitable for toddlers. Buy Tigger's Movie or the 1977 film instead if you have a young child.
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