Claus Flygare Movies
Two neo-Nazi recruits enter into a homosexual relationship that threatens to be their undoing when they are forced to make a decision that will affect the rest of their lives. Danish serviceman Lars (Thure Lindhardt) is about to be promoted to sergeant when vicious rumors force him to turn his back on the military. Subsequently moving back home with his conservative parents, Lars finds their repeated attempts to cover up the incident repellant, and soon falls in with a local group of racist radicals fronted by the aptly nicknamed Fatso (Nicolas Bro). Fueled by his frustration with both the military and his parents, Lars is eventually seduced into the group, quickly ascending to "A" rank despite the repeated objections of senior member Jimmy (David Dencik), who believes that his devoted younger brother should have been honored with that distinction instead. Later going to live in a secluded summer cottage owned by the board chairman, Lars slowly starts to form a connection with Jimmy, who has been assigned the task of renovating the remote vacation home. Their defenses crumbling, the two men eventually become lovers. But Lars' disillusion with the group is growing, and when they begin turning their hostilities from immigrants to gays, he realizes that he and Jimmy's days as neo-Nazis are numbered. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Thure Lindhardt, Nicolas Bro, (more)
- 2008
A man trying to breathe new life into his career attempts to do the same with his relationship with his son in this drama from Denmark. Born and raised in Copenhagen, Roland (Baard Owe) was a hard-drinking aspiring theatrical director who left his family behind when he moved to Germany in search of work. Years later, he's come back home to direct a production for a local theater company, and in many ways he seems a changed man -- thoughtful, focused, and with a firm control of his appetites. Needing a place to stay in Copenhagen, Roland contacts his son Jakob (Carsten Bjornlund) and asks if he can use his spare room; Jakob, who hasn't heard from his father in years, turns him down and Roland rents a flat instead. Catching a glimpse of Jakob with his wife and children, Roland becomes determined to win back his son's affection, and when Jakob sees his father is dating a local woman, Kirsten (Hanne Hedelund), and is determined to make a fresh start in Copenhagen, he begins reaching out to his dad again. Comeback was the first feature film from writer and director Ulrik Wivel. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Baard Owe, Carsten Bjornlund, (more)
- 1999
In 1927, Adrian Palmberg (Lars Simonsen) faces a severe emotional crisis when his wife and child are killed in a fire. Distraught, Palmberg angrily announces that there is no God and proclaims himself immortal. He exiles himself to a basement before being declared insane and confined to a mental institution, where he does frequent verbal battle with a psychiatrist before finally coming to terms with both God and mortality after turning 100 years old. Featuring exceptional black-and-white cinematography by Harald Paalgard, Manden som ikke ville do (aka The Man Who Would Live Forever) was the directorial debut from Torben Skjodt Jensen and was screened at the 1999 Gothenburg Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ghita Nørby, Lars Simonsen, (more)
Europa (retitled Zentropa for the American release) is an hallucinatory Danish film set in postwar Germany. Jean-Marc Barr plays a young German who aspires for a job as a street conductor. But this is no mere "Joe Job;" Barr's adventures on the line are designed as a metaphor for the emergence of the "New Europe" following the war. Barbara Sukowa costars as the daughter of a railroad magnate--and possible Nazi sympathizer. Many of the special-effects sequences are computer enhanced, but even the "live" scenes have an unsettling, surreal quality to them (colors changing abruptly, backgrounds shifting without warning, etc.) This experimental film left some viewers confused, which may be why English-language prints of Zentropa are narrated by Max Von Sydow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa, (more)
- 1990
Donna (Birgitte Simonsen) has boyfriends, but she loves Britt (Hanne Windfeld Lund). Britt loves Donna back, but she's going to get married to a man who's probably not good husband material (Ole Lemmkeke). The two of them try to make sense of their lives and loves, but ultimately they are only sure that they care about each other. It turns out that some of their men care about each other, too. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ole Lemmeke
- 1989
Isolde (Pia With is a lovely, sensitive girl, recently divorced from an ambitious and unscrupulous politician (Claus Flygare). She has grown fond of her gentle hunk of a boyfriend (Kim Jansson), a mercenary soldier who is in some trouble with the law. When Isolde's ex-husband finds out about this, he takes advantage of the situation to blackmail her boyfriend into doing an "errand" for him. This is a romantic thriller with high production values which features two relative newcomers (With, Jansson) in its cast. The film makes many allusions to works of literature, particularly the medieval classic, Tristan and Isolde. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kim Jansson, Claus Flygare, (more)
- 1986
This low-budget, first feature-length film by Danish Film School graduate Kristian Levring is set in an unknown country where a new army recruit is assigned the task of escorting a prisoner to a stockade. The recruit is gun shy to the extreme, so when the two of them are attacked by bandits, the prisoner himself has to grab the recruit's gun and defend them against certain death. Even though a kind of camaraderie is present between the two men as they head across the desert to the stockade, both know that the prisoner will be brutally interrogated and then executed. That knowledge affects their journey and its unexpected ending. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lars Oluf Larsen, Niels Skousen, (more)
