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Daisy Diamond (2007)
Anna, a young Swedish actress comes to Copenhagen to pursue an acting career. With her she brings her newborn child.
"Daisy Diamond" is not a feel-good film. Every minute of the film almost feels like torture. No wonder it sold less than 3000 tickets in Denmark. Why bother to see it then? I will get back to that.
Anna, a young Swedish actress comes to Copenhagen to pursue an acting career. With her she brings her newborn child. However, there is absolutely no close bond between mother and child. The baby is constantly crying(is it missing motherly love?)and the crying and Anna's lack of sleep gradually drives her to a desperate act. She constantly goes to castings and job interviews, but everywhere she is rejected. No wonder that she gradually loses self respect. Driven by guilt and self-hatred Anna, under the pseudonym Daisy Diamond, goes into the porn film industry, where the jobs become more and more degrading and humiliating. Finally she is ready to take the ultimate step.
The film is highly critical in its portrayal of the film- and theater world. Every person seems to be cold , calculated, and ready to exploit others. The actor is seen like a prostitute, who has to offer her innermost private feelings to the camera. Perhaps Anna feels a kind of relief to get into the porn industry,because here she only has to sell her body, not her soul.
Sometimes it's not possible to know when Anna is acting or just is being her real self. In long monologues Anna talks about her innermost thoughts and feelings to the camera, but these scenes are often reflected by scenes, which she has to play at the castings.
The film has several references to Ingmar Bergman, one of Staho's great mentors. On two occasions Daisy is watching Bergman's "Persona" and is moved to tears. Also the Danish director Dreyer and his film about Joan of Arch, another female martyr, lurks behind Anna. Like Dreyer (and Bergman) Staho is frequently making use of close ups of of his female character. Another Danish director, Lars Von Trier, who is almost obsessed by female victims and martyrs, comes to your mind.
So, why bother to see this gloomy film? Because it is great art, and because Nomi Rapache is brilliant as Anna.
Tine (1964)
While the Danish troops are losing the battle against the superior Prussian troops nearby, a fatal love affair takes place.
I saw the film as a young boy, when it came out in 1964 and it made a huge impression on me. However, I did not see the film again until recently (a rather worn copy) at "Cinemateket" in Copenhagen, but I must admit, that I was pleasantly surprised. In spite of all the years that have passed, the film did not seem outdated at all.
In 1964 the filming of "Tine" Herman Bang's famous novel marked the 100th anniversary of the battle at Dybboel, where the Danish army was defeated by Prussia and Austria, and Denmark lost about one third of its entire area. Indeed one of the biggest traumas in Danish history. The location of the film is Als in the south part of Denmark near the battle fields at Dybboel, where the war's final and crucial battle will take place. At the estate of the forest manager normal life has been suspended. The young forest manager has been inducted into the army, his wife and son has fled to Copenhagen, and the charge of the house has been left to Tine, the young, altruistic daughter of the local school master (played by Lone Hertz).
When the Danish troops are pushed back, the estate of the forester is turned into a hospital for the wounded soldiers. Filled with grief and despair and surrounded by dying soldiers, the forester and Tine begin a brief but passionate love affair which has disastrous consequences.
"Tine" is not considered Knud Leif Thomsen's best film, and as far as I know it did not receive much praise by the Danish critics, when it came out, although Lone Hertz received a well-deserved Bodil as best female actress. My guess is that the highly melodramatic scenes have been considered bad taste and far too melodramatic back in the 1960'es. Especially one of the film's last scenes where Tine's father, the old school master, played with (too?)much pathos by Johannes Meyer, who has gone mad and taken refuge in the church tower, because he is obsessed with the idea that the earth is on fire. At the same time his young daughter gives herself to the forester, a married man, only a few steps away. Melodramatic? Well I do not agree. In fact the scene reminds me of another great film about war and passion: Luchino Visconti's "Senso".
Dag och natt (2004)
Staho is a true heir to Bergman
I did not see "Dag och Natt" until recently, because I knew it was a very dark and sinister film, and I suppose you have to be in a certain mood to appreciate a film like that.Although the director is not Swedish, he is Danish actually, Staho must be a true heir to Ingmar Bergman. Like in most of Bergman's films the theme is that of modern man's loneliness and inability to reach out to his fellow human beings. During the main character's final encounters with his past life:his ex-wife, his son , his mistress, his friend, his sister and his mother, we gradually find out why his life has become so unbearable, that he has made the decision to make an end to it. But it also becomes clear that his life for good or bad is entwined with these people from the past. A more cheerful director might have shown a faint glimpse of hope in the end, but Staho does not.It may sound as a very depressive film, but in fact it is not. Like all genuine tragedies one is left with a sense of relief or a catharsis as the ancient Greeeks called it.