Danish movies can sometimes leave you really puzzled and that’s the case with the 1977 film by Director Nils Malmros, Drenge (Boys).
The film opened with a scene of kids playing. Five-year-old Ole (Mads Ole Erhardsen) runs along with the rest of the group — wanting to be included in all the fun they are having. During a game of hide and seek, he wanders outside of the garden playground in the direction of the nearby pound.
I would have to think hard to come up with a film whose story is more controversial than that of the 2006 Danish Film The Art of Crying (Kunsten at græde i kor). It’s a dark, melancholic story imbued with choices and sacrifices, about a dysfunctional family, sinful behaviour, secrets, sicknesses, and a loss of innocence.
The story is told through the eyes of eleven-year-old Allan (Jannik Lorenzen), who is trying to help his depressed father. The father is constantly threatening to take his own life, which he considers a failure. It takes a while to fully grasp the abnormality of Allan’s family – a loving yet distant mother and a teenaged sister who seems to be the only person who can comfort the father when he slips into one of his suicidal moods by submitting to his unnatural urges.
Allan does not perceive his family as unusual, but he knows that if there is a problem and feels there must be a solution. His father is filled with self-pity, and his mother takes sleeping pills to escape reality (the harsh reality is frequently mentioned and addressed throughout the film). Unable to understand what is happening in his family, worried that his mother doesn’t take her husband’s threats seriously enough, and confused by the sudden rebellious and inexplicable behaviour of his sister, the boy is determined to do whatever it is takes to keep his father alive.
When the young son of a neighbour dies, Alan’s father delivers a tearful eulogy at the funeral, and for once, even though surrounded by sorrow, he seems truly happy that his abilities are being appreciated. Alan sees that as a solution and plots to arrange more funerals for his father to attend, even if they have to be those of their relatives. At this point, you may have decided that you have figured the story out – but just before the final credits roll, you will be surprised and maybe even repulsed by the events that occur in Allan’s family…
The Art of Crying addresses serious issues realistically, as is typical for many Scandinavian productions. It ends up being a combination of dark comedy and drama, emphasising the Coming-of-Age experiences of Allan and his sister – essentially a portrayal of their miserable childhoods. Jannik Lorenzen and Julie Kolbech deliver excellent performances in the role of Allan and his sister Sanne, despite the lack of any previous screen experience.
This compensates for the rather weak character development of the script. One still becomes concerned about the fate of Alan and his sister, even if identifying with their emotional turmoil is an almost unattainable task (while not a desirable one in the story’s context). It’s assumed that in the best-selling novel by Erling Espen (which I haven’t read, but on which the film is based), one would get more insight into the motivations and personal traits of the story’s characters.
The Scandinavian cinema has a few good warm and funny films, but when it comes to harsh, realistic dramas you can’t go wrong by selecting a film from that region. I often prefer harsh realistic films to the happy-ending fairy tales always present in great variety at the cinema saloons or DVD rental places. Despite the Coming-of-Age themes, the plot’s subject matter and complexity make this film unsuitable for young audiences.
The Art of Crying was highly recommended to me as a challenging and controversial film, and it did not disappoint.
The Art of Crying Trailer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0495040/combined
If you are looking for a charming little film to cheer you up, you can’t go wrong by choosing A Plum Summer. While it’s true the story targets pre-teen audiences, and while many scenes appear a little silly or even bizarre at times, there is a certain appeal to such feel-good films even if one sees them as escapist entertainment.
The action in A Plum Summer takes place in Montana, USA, during the early 1960s. Kids all over the state have a favorite character – Froggy Doo – a marionette featured in a local TV show alongside a wizard and a story-telling genie.
Before Moonrise Kingdom, Little Manhattan and My Girl, there was a film that captured the essence of first love, starring the British child actors Mark Lester, Jack Wild and Tracy Hyde. Melody, directed by Waris Hussein, is one of the best Coming-of-Age tales of youthful love ever told through the viewpoint of children.
Thanks to its wonderful casting, Melody is as much a movie about friendship as it is about first love. Mark Lester delivers a dazzling performance in the role of the young Daniel Latimer.
Cuore di mamma (Mother’s Heart) is one of those classic Italian films attempting to exemplify what life was like (in the late 1960s). Yet, unlike the best of those Italian classics, in this case, the attempt has resulted in confusion, boredom or distress. My interest in the 1969 Salvatore Samperi film initiated from the cover artwork, which led me to believe that the film could end up being a challenging and even controversial narrative. Instead
Whats’s the best way to open this review? Maybe by telling you that I won’t be discussing cinematography, camera, acting or soundtrack — all ingredients of films that I usually touch on in my reviews. That’s because in the 2009 film by Robert Glinski, Swinki, the story is all that matters. It’s a story of lost innocence, of friendship, and of love and betrayal.
In the Coming-of-Age genre, the majority of good short film releases come from the Scandinavian countries. Yet once in a while one stumbles upon an interesting British release such as Al Mackay’s 2009 film Bale. The film tells the story of three kids whose play in the fields is interrupted by older teenagers. The confrontation between the two groups, in the name of a demonstration of superiority, leads to unexpected terrifying consequences…
The 2007 film Jake’s Closet is an intriguing drama, which comes as a surprise as the synopsis could lead one to believe that the film is a horror story. If one is prepared to shake off the genre expectations, Jake’s Closet turns out to be pretty decent film, even if it doesn’t really impress with its cinematography or its actors’ performances.
Funeral Kings – that title first attracted my attention to the movie. Its cover artwork intrigued me too as, for some reason, in combination with the title, the film reminded me of the 2002 film The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. Certainly the plots of both films have something in common – mischievous youth and an abundance of Coming-of-Age experiences they go through.
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get.”
The quote is from the 1994 film Forrest Gump (which can be also categorized as one with a Coming-of-Age narrative), but I have chosen it for the opening of my review of the independent French film Teenagers.
Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Teenagers offers a distinct experience to its viewers.
The winners of the 5th Annual Coming-of-Age Movie Awards were announced on 2-March-2013. For the past couple of years, in the week following the announcement, we have sought to contact a filmmaker or an actor who worked on a film selected as a winner by the readers of the site. Past interviews have included the Canadian actor Robert Naylor [Best Newcomer and Best International Film (10 ½) – 3rd Coming-of-Age Movie Awards] and Kevin Callies [Director of the 2011 short film The Man in the Red Suit – Best Short Film for the 4th issue of the awards].
This year we are honored to present an interview with the Belgian filmmaker Gert Embrechts, who wrote and directed the Flemish film Allez, Eddy – voted Best International Film. The movie’s lead actor, Jelte Blommaert, also won the Best Newcomer category with his immaculate performance in the film.
If one is looking for an atypical Coming-of-Age film, Markus Imhoof`s Die Reise /The Journey is a good candidate. Two different times – Germany right after the fall of the Nazi government and then later, during the 1960s — are interconnected by two father/son stories presented in parallel, which makes the film both atypical and challenging to grasp at first.
Arguably the essence of the film lies in portraying the various ways in which childhood experiences shape the personality of an adult. Yet, until a clear connection is established sometime in the second half of the film, the sudden changes of setting and action makes one wonder if it’s still the same film or two different films have been purposefully stitched together.
Bertram, son of Will Vesper, the well-known Nazi poet, has had a rough childhood. Teased at school because of the literary works of his father, he is subjected to strict, abusive discipline at home. Years later, having become a father on his own, Bertram is involved with a radical leftist terror organization. When he discovers that the mother of his son Florian intends to take the child to a camp in Palestine, he kidnaps the boy and together they travel through the country to the house of Bertram’s childhood.
Die Reise is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Bernward Vesper and is regarded as a realistic portrayal of the German student society in the 60’s. Yet unconventional editing weakens its value as a Coming-of-Age film.
While I was genuinely interested in the portrayal of Bernward’s youth, a large portion of the film is devoted to his adventures as an adult. If one does not seek the connection between his adult self and his past experiences, the film could pass for a meaningless adventurous timewaster that is neither provoking nor entertaining.
None of the actors leaves any lasting impressions with the exception of Gero Preen in the role of the young Bertram. Sadly, he did not pursue acting as a career and Die Reise remains the only film in which he can be seen.