Mifune (1999)

Recommended

Denmark

Feature Film

Original Title: Mifunes sidste sang

Series Title: Dogme #3

Director: Søren Kragh-Jacobsen

Writers: Anders Thomas Jensen, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen

Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle

Cast: Iben Hjejle, Anders W. Berthelsen, Jesper Asholt, Emil Tarding, Anders Hove, Sofie Gråbøl, Paprika Steen

The third film released under the Dogme 95 banner is one of the funnier and more optimistic entries in the series, but it’s also one of the more conventional in its basic romantic comedy plot, which sees a newly-wed Copenhagen businessman return to his provincial, rural home after the death of his father, to look after his brother, where he falls for the housekeeper, a former prostitute; but this conventionality tempered by the ragged Dogme aesthetic combined with a wealth of human spirit results in a strangely alluring work. Iain.Stott

Read More

Open Hearts (2002)

Recommended

Denmark
Feature Film
Original Title: Elsker dig for evigt
Series Title: Dogme #28

Director: Susanne Bier
Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen
Cinematographer: Morten Søborg
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen, Stine Bjerregaard, Birthe Neumann

Released under the ‘Dogme 95’ banner, though it breaks a number of its rules, Bier’s harrowing drama of infidelity and loss, chronicling the tortured emotional lives of a number of Copenhagen residents following a tragic traffic accident, is comparatively straightforward and accessible, but, unsurprising giving its wonderfully assembled cast, the viscerally charged performances are quite excellent. Iain.Stott

Read More