Thomas Bo Larsen Movies

In this comedy, Sebastian (Oliver Moller Knauer) is a handsome but shy young man living in a small town in Denmark who is cursed with a stutter. Sebastian is in love with a beautiful girl, Claudia (Helene Reingaard Neumann), who has agreed to marry him. However, Claudia isn't Sebastian's first love, and a chance meeting with his old girlfriend Maria (Ronja Mannov Olesen) leads to him being unfaithful to his fiancée for the first time. Sebastian could use some advice from a male role model, but the town is abuzz because Karl Kristian Schmidt (Thomas Bo Larsen), a internationally famous opera singer who is the village's most famous son, is coming home for a visit and no one has time to talk to him. Sebastian decides to ask his mother what to do and she makes a surprising confession -- while she's always told Sebastian his dad was killed in a train accident not long before he was born, the truth is Schmidt fathered him during a brief fling before he left town to seek his fortune. Now Sebastian is determined to meet the great singer during his brief visit, and it turns out Schmidt has plenty of advice for his long-lost son. En Mand Kommer Hjem (aka When A Man Comes Home) received its American premiere at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The sexual revolution meets a bumbling door-to-door salesman and his beautician wife in the form of "educational" sex films in this satiric comedy, set in Spain in 1973. Alfredo Lopez (Javier Cámara) is an encyclopedia salesman whose work has not been going especially well lately, which is worrisome to his wife, Carmen (Candela Peña), who is eager to have a baby. As it happens, encyclopedia sales have been dismal overall, and publisher Don Carlos (Juan Diego) strikes upon an idea for a more lucrative product line -- an "audiovisual encyclopedia of human reproduction," consisting of 8 mm movies demonstrating different ways for couples to make love. Don Carlos sets up a meeting between his sales staff and Dennis (Thomas Bo Larsen), a pornographer from Denmark who likes to tell people he once worked with Ingmar Bergman. While most of the salesmen refuse to have anything to do with Don Carlos' new scheme -- especially since pornography is strictly illegal under the Franco regime -- Alfredo grudgingly goes along, and despite initial misgivings Carmen is drafted to star in the first film in the series. As the films become an underground success in Spain and earn a more high-profile reputation in Denmark, Carmen is recognized in public as a glamorous porn star, and Alfredo deludes himself into believing he and Dennis are making art films. But Alfredo's ambitions get the better of him when he begins writing a screenplay for a serious feature film and Carmen becomes increasingly obsessed with having a child. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A young boy's tart tongue leads to a visit from one of the most powerful youth counselors of all in this comedy from Denmark. Twelve-year-old Dennis (Stefan Pagels Andersen) is still struggling emotionally after the death of his father, who fell from a roof while dancing for his son. Although Dennis' mother (Sidse Babett Knudsen) looks after him, the boy has been having a rough time, and he's developed the vocabulary of a longshoreman in an effort to seem tough. As Dennis struggles to find satisfaction in life, he's visited by God (Thomas Bo Larsen), who happens to look exactly like his late father. God informs him that his wishes can become realities, but first he has to meet one requirement -- he has to stop swearing so much. Dennis soon learns that this necessity is easier said (or not said) than done. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Recalling Brassed Off and The Full Monty, this dark comedy, directed by Lotte Svendsen, tells of a downwardly mobile fishing community in Denmark. Set in 1981, the fishermen's former affluence abruptly ends when the government institutes fishing quotas. First fancy stereos and luxury cars go by the way side, then houses, and then marriages. The film focuses on married couple Lars Erik (Henrik Lykkegaard) and Sonja (Sofie Stougaard). Lars Erik used to have three employees and his own boat, now he has nothing. His wife has secretly gotten a job with their neighbor who makes pottery for tourists. Because she dare not tell the proud Lars Erik of her current furtive employment status, he assumes that Sonja is having an affair. Just as the cold embrace of the abyss threatens to envelop Lars Erik, Swedish pop band Vikingarna comes to town! The group's unusual blend of funky grooves and feel-good pop momentarily leavens the grinding tedium of the community's abject despair. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Denmark never seemed more like Transylvania than in this horror effort from Copenhagen. Rebecca (Maria Karlsen) is a young woman who has recently inherited a house from her grandmother. Joined by her best friend (Mette Louise Holland) and her significant other (Tomas Villum Jensen), Rebecca decides to check out her new estate, which is old, big and just a little scary looking. While checking out the basement, they run across some information on Rebecca's great-grandfather: local legend has it he was once a priest but later became a bloodthirsty vampire. What's the truth behind his violent legend? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide