Else Petersen Movies
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)
- 1987
The aged actresses in this film have had their day in the sun, and now they have settled down to a life of genteel poverty at the Actors' Home, a retirement home for theatrical has-beens, funded by a stingy and very dictatorial charity organization. The grand old gals' in this film really want to get a glass veranda put on one side of their rest home and can't spring the money from the rest home's board of directors. Nothing daunted, they take advantage of the fact that they are still big names, and they sell the rights to tell the intimate story of their current lives to a weekly magazine. Each lady vies with the others to be seen as the most important actress of the lot, but despite a lot of posturing, what they are really doing is keeping themselves interested in life. They are assisted in their endeavors by a pack of aging beaus, who gallantly do what they must to help these fine women feel appreciated. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Birgitte Federspiel, Kirsten Rolffes, (more)
- 1986
This entertaining tragi-comedy looks at the contradictions in a nurse's (Kirsten Lehfeldt) personality and how they work against her. Henriette (Lehfeldt) leaves her boyfriend when he makes it clear that he does not want marriage or children, and she transfers her affections to Leowe (Torben Jensen), a surgeon at the hospital where she works. She is leery of showing her true feelings, hiding them by being a little quirky. Leowe is not exactly a perfect companion either and is not interested in marriage. Soon that relationship starts to spell trouble in capital letters, causing Henry to make some radical decisions. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kirsten Lehfeldt, Torben Jensen, (more)
- 1974
Per (Ole Ernst) is a young, homeless drifter. He accepts a proposition by a factory owner that he burn the factory down for the insurance, and he reluctantly does the deed. Pursued by the police, he seeks help from the factory owner, who sends him to his country estate to be cared for by his wife. She and Per become attracted to one another and have a romantic encounter before Per's crimes catch up with him and he must move on. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1936
Kay Francis, Warner Bros.' resident "wronged woman," was the star of Give Me Your Heart. Francis plays a socialite whose illicit romance with married Patric Knowles results in a baby. When the father, a titled Englishman of means, declares that the child would be better off in his care, Ms. Francis suffers luxuriously in a series of fashionable evening gowns. She finds lasting happiness in the arms of attorney George Brent. Give Me Your Heart was based on Joyce Carey's stage play Sweet Aloes, and bore that title when released in Great Britain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, George Brent, (more)
- 1936
Maria (Hilda Koerber) is the personal maid of opera star Alice (Hilde Hildebrandt). Much too busy to look after her 6-year-old son, Alice leaves the kid in Maria's care. The maid takes a shine to the boy, devoting as much attention to him as if he were her real son. The girl is so devoted to the youngster that she keeps postponing her marriage to poor Franz (Hans Schlenck). Her obsessiveness comes to an end when Alice decides to at long last assume her proper maternal responsibilities. Maria is fired, but she has little time to grieve since faithful Franz is still waiting for her. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hilda Koerber, Hilde Hildebrand, (more)
- 1930
The second of Cecil B. DeMille's talkies (as well as his second for MGM), Madam Satan is an exercise in incoherence, but this doesn't detract one iota from its entertainment value. Kay Johnson plays the sedate wife of philandering Reginald Denny, who is currently carrying on with "jazz baby" Lillian Roth. In a desperate effort to win back her husband, Johnson disguises herself as the alluring, provocatively clothed "Madame Satan." In this guise, she attends a lavish charity costume party being thrown by socialite Roland Young on a dirigible moored high above New York Harbor. Failing to recognize his mousey little wife, Denny arranges for a rendezvous with Madame Satan. When she reveals her true identity, Denny is outraged and threatens divorce. Suddenly, the dirigible is struck by lightning; it breaks loose from its moorings, tossing its terrified passengers around and about. Denny behaves heroically in shepherding the passengers into their parachutes; meanwhile, Johnson gives up her own parachute to save Roth. Coming to the mutual realization that each is worthy of the other's love, Johnson and Denny are reunited. Though when taken out of context, the dirigible sequence appears to be the ultimate in campy melodrama, this scene and all the scenes that built up to it are played for laughs: DeMille didn't take this farrago any more seriously in 1930 than we do today. Highlights include several unexpected and charmingly innapropriate musical numbers, including a bizarre "Ballet Mechanique" featuring dancer Theodore Kosloff. Though DeMille carefully threw in every ingredient that he hoped would appeal to a mass audience, Madam Satan was one of his few box office flops. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
