Truly Dreadful Film

Am I Missing Something?

Absolutely the worst movie.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Most of the events are catchy, intense and run smoothly, but evenness does not last until the very end - ca 30 last minutes of the film there are a few odd scenes and the settlement comes abruptly and without any explanation, e.g. how the shelters were disclosed. The so-called final shooting scenes are a bit over-dramatized as well. The strongest part of the film are the two protagonists: Thure Lindhardt as Bent Faurschou-Hviid, also known as Flammen, and Mads Mikkelsen as Jørgen Haagen Schmith, also known as Citron; both the actors give really gifted performances, although I have to admit that Flammen's character was more elaborated and specified. Christian Berkel as Hoffmann, leader of the Gestapo, is well played as well, but as for other major characters, I consider Stine Stengade as Ketty Selmer and Peter Mygind as Aksel Winther rather ordinary. Nevertheless, it is a good resistance film, and being due to real events provides an additional authenticity.

Danish screenwriter and director Ole Christian Madsen's fifth feature film which he co-wrote with screenwriter Lars K. Andersen, is based on real events. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, in the Shows section at the 35th Telluride Film Festival in 2008 and is a Denmark-Germany-Norway-Czech Republic-Sweden co-production which was shot on location in Denmark, Czech Republic and Germany and produced by producer Lars Bredo Rahbek. It tells the story about a 23-year-old man named Bent aka "Flammen" who lives with a married couple and a 33-year-old man named Jørgen aka "Citronen" who lives with his wife Bodil and their daughter Anne in Copenhagen, who carries out illegal operations for a police attorney named Aksel Winther.Distinctly and engagingly directed by Danish filmmaker Ole Christian Madsen, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated by and mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a moving portrayal of two members of the Danish resistance movement and their dedicated fight against Danish informants and Nazis. While notable for its naturalistic milieu depictions, sterling production design by Danish production designer Jette Lehmann, cinematography by Danish cinematographer Jørgen Johansson, costume design by Danish costume designer Manon Rasmussen, fine make-up by make-up artists Sabine Schumann and Jens Bartram and use of sound, this character-driven, narrative-driven and historic story depicts some dense studies of character and contains a good score by Danish composer Karsten Fundal.This somewhat romantic and somewhat biographical neo-noir which is set during World War II and the German occupation of Denmark in the mid-1940s, centers on some of the many sabotage operations that was executed by two of the most prominent resistance fighters in the Holger Danske group and is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, mysterious characters and the brilliant acting performances by Danish actors Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen and Danish actress Stine Stengade. A consistently involving and memorable narrative feature which gained, among several other awards, the Bodil Award by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics for Best Cinematography Jørgen Johansson at the 62nd Bodil Awards in 2009.

This is one of those Danish films which are attracting so much attention these days, and the actor Lars Mikkelsen who played Troels in season one of THE KILLING a year earlier (2007, see my review) even appears in it. It is a harrowing and ultimately sad tale, 'based on a true story'. It depicts the attempts by the Danish Resistance (all two of them, Flammen og Citronen) to struggle against the Nazi Occupation of Denmark. In that respect, it offers a view of a familiar subject in an unfamiliar setting, and is of considerable interest. The action is exciting but the film has a downbeat quality, because the Resistance keeps getting betrayed and whacked. The character called Flame has red hair, hence his nick-name, and is too brave to bother covering it up most of the time, though once in a while he is persuaded to wear a beret in the hope that at least his flame-red head will be a bit less obvious on his Resistance missions. He goes around murdering collaborators but is under strict orders not to murder Nazis themselves. It is a pity he didn't get more collaborators, but then there are always so many of such vermin whenever a country is occupied. There is a very pleasant large café where Flame and Citron and their friends foregather, with Nazi officers often sitting very near them. Considering how well known Flame was meant to be as a 'terrorist', I can't understand why he was never arrested in the café. But then that's the movies, I guess. The film is extremely well made, with a great deal of tension and suspense. The director, Ole Madsen, is highly talented. The performances by Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen as Flame and Citron are very good. Lindhardt has appeared in 57 titles despite his youth, and Mikkelsen in 41. We have to remember that all these Danish people who are largely unknown to us are really highly experienced pros in their field, and that Denmark has produced more than just the film director Carl Dreyer whose work we all know and love. Other people have made films there too since the silent days, and because we find it difficult to distinguish between Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes (they have no such problems distinguishing between each other, and indeed do nothing but grumble about one another the whole time and ridicule each other's accents), we have often not realized who was really a Dane. For instance, the director Henning Carlsen who filmed Knut Hamsun's HUNGER (1966) was not a Norwegian at all, but a Dane, strange as that may seem. (And Per Oscarsson the actor who played Hamsun was a Swede.) One day we may get all of our Scandinavians sorted out and differentiate between all their broad vowel sounds, pinpointing the origin of each. (Swedes seem to be the broadest, Danes the most clipped and they use '-sen' endings on names instead of '-son'.) But until that day comes, we should keep an eye on those Danes, because they seem to be up to things. And this Danish film is well worth watching.

The first thing I noticed when watching Flame and Citron was the directing, more precisely the camera angels, and acting. The main character, Flame (played by Thure Lindhardt), looked awesome in almost every shot and his partner Citron (Mads Mikkelsen) did an amazing job acting as well. This movie has a lot of good life lessons, and moral warnings.I liked the fact that it was based on true events. This makes it possible to look at the movie from a more realistic point of view. Flame and Citron encourages one to question life and reason in general from a realistic view rather than question the movie it's self. This all in accordance with war time events of course, and resistance fighters.I looked into the history behind the movie and it's neat to know that they have statues built in Denmark to commemorate these brave underground soldiers.