Bodil Kjer Movies
- 1998
Robert Mitchum's is seen in one of his last performances in this Norwegian drama about four lifelong friends. After Carl (Espen Skjonberg) collapses in an Oslo street, he awakens in the hospital to the grins of his buddies Ernest (Mitchum), Ted (Cliff Robertson), and August (Erland Josephson). The dying Carl's last wish is to hear opera sung by the sister of a dead friend. The four head for Heidelberg where they all went to 1937 medical school. As they seek the singer, revelations surface from the pre-WWI Nazi era, including a plot none knew about 60 years ago. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, (more)
- 1979
Leif Panduro's novel Traditions, My Behind was a sensation among Danish youth of the 1950s in a similar fasion to American J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye which appeared at about the same time. This movie is based on Panduro's well-loved tale. In the story, David is an upper-class teen whose response to his discovery of the overwhelmingly offensive hypocrisy which surrounds him is to bite the offender's thighs, or simply to kick them on the backside. His uncomprehending mother immures him in a psychiatric nursing home. There, he endures the meandering platitudes of the psychiatrist and befriends a genuinely mad old fellow. The madman, who is highly paranoid, and David, amuse themselves by tossing around small bombs. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Henrik Kofoed, Bodil Kjer, (more)
- 1978
Heavily influenced by the French stage sensation La Cage Aux Folles (which was filmed the very same year) this trite drag-queen comedy about a group of homosexuals sharing an apartment with a naive but straight country boy did not live up to expectations. The lead characters lead boring lives during the day and, as depicted here, downright pathetic existences at night, all decked out in peacock plumes and high heels and with nowhere to go. Several of the performances -- especially Fritz Helmuth as the love-starved, aptly named Bent -- manage to reach a little beyond the stereotypes, but Bodil Kjær, of all people, delivers a simply dreadful (and one-note) parody of a once-glamorous movie star. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Frits Helmuth, Bodil Kjer, (more)
- 1976
In this police thriller, a policeman returning to work after a nervous breakdown is asked to give perfunctory treatment to a case involving his ex-wife and her new lover, a petty criminal. This kibosh has been laid on by his higher-ups at the urging of a group of important businessmen. However, the policeman persistently investigates and nearly blows the lid off of a really big swindling operation. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jens Okking, Dick Kaysoe, (more)
- 1971
This important Danish film is a scathing satire on the Danish love for order and security, and was filmed by and for Danes. It is based on the humorous novel Den forsvundne fulmaergtig by old-line Marxist writer Hans Scherfig. In the story, two men go missing at the same time. One is a lawless drifter; the other is a clerk, with a wife and two children, who works for the Defense Department. The clerk discovers that the drifter has died and switches identities with him. His family is protected by his life insurance policy, so he is now free to do whatever pleases him. He tries rural life for a while, but when the police arrest him for a crime they believe the drifter committed, he is not unhappy. Indeed, so pleased is he with the orderliness of prison life that he confesses to the crime so as to be able to remain there. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1945
The Invisible Army is a tribute to the activities of the Danish underground during WW II. Set in Copenhagen, the film juxtaposes dramatic sequences with actual footage of sabotage activities against the Nazi troops. The most startling "actuality" clip shows a German soldier running down a street with his head on fire. Curiously, the dramatized portions suggest that certain members of the Underground weren't terribly bright, and thus brought about their own deaths. The winner of several Danish film awards, Invisible Army was released to the U.S. in a censored version; most of the violence was left intact, but a steamy boudoir scene was considerably toned down. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ebbe Rode, Mogens Wieth, (more)
