Henning Moritzen Movies

Kaspar Rostrup directs his usual murder mystery about a single mother's fierce love for her autistic son. In flashbacks, we see doctors explaining to Mrs. Nielsen (Ghita Norby) that her young son Brian (Magnus Stahl Jacobsen) is not necessarily retarded, but different nonetheless. "He's in his own world, as if he's from another star," one tells her. Years later, Mrs. Nielsen, who ekes out a living by running a general store in a small rural community, tries to shelter her now grown Brian (Thure Lindhardt) from the rest of the world. During one swelteringly hot summer night, Brian returns later than usual from his evening walk. The next morning, news spreads that a murdered teenaged girl had been found in the local park. Mrs. Nielsen immediately suspects her son and sets about removing potentially incriminating evidence and coaching her son as to what to say to the police. Meanwhile, Detective Jespersen (Frits Helmuth), who also suspects Brian, keeps dropping by the general store and peppering Brian with the same questions. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Based on the 1932 novel Mendel Philipsen and Son by Henri Nathansen, Sofie was adapted for the screen by celebrated actress Liv Ullmann, making her directorial debut. Beginning in Copenhagen during the late 1880s, Sofie (Karen-Lise Mynster) is a devoted Jewish daughter who falls in love with the Gentile painter Hojby (Jesper Christensen). Her parents, Semmy (Erland Josephson) and Frederikke (Ghita Nørby), don't approve of the relationship, so they encourage her to marry her mentally ill cousin, a Swedish shopkeeper named Jonas (Torben Zeller). She gives birth to a son, but their already loveless marriage becomes further complicated when Sofie develops an interest in her brother-in-law Gottleib (Stig Hoffmeyer). Jonas is inconsolable after the death of his mother (Kirsten Rolffes), so much so that Sofie has him institutionalized and takes over his business. Years later, Sofie returns to Copenhagen with her son to help her aging parents and attend an auction where she reunites with Hojby. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Ole Ernst plays Peter von Scholten in this historical film biography. Appointed by King Frederick VI (Henning Moritzen) as governor of the Virgin Islands, Peter fights for the education and liberation of the island's black residents, former slaves, while keeping a black mistress on the islands and a wife at home in Denmark. Peter establishes schools for the children and avoids a bloody insurgence from locals bent on violent overthrow of the government. The former governor is charged with treason and dies a dejected man soon after the unfair charges are overturned. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Cries and Whispers stars Liv Ullman and Ingrid Thulin as the sisters of dying cancer patient Harriet Andersson. Both sisters have already had brushes with death: Ullman has had an affair which prompted her husband's suicide, while Thulin has long wanted to do away with herself, at one point mutilating her own vagina out of self-hatred. As for Andersson, she has been in pain so long that she feels as though she's in the midst of death-in-life. With her two sisters wrapped up in their own problems, Harriet turns to her housekeeper Kari Sylwan for comfort; Sylwan has herself suffered the death of a child, and has developed a philosophical attitude towards impending doom. One of the most influential moments of the film -- when two of the sisters share the innermost thoughts that they'd kept from one another for so many years -- is filmed without benefit of dialogue, with the music of Chopin (enhanced by cinematographer Sven Nykvist's carefully selected camera angles) "speaking" for the ladies. While Cries and Whispers only won the Oscar for cinematography, the film did very well for itself in international awards contests. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This offbeat crime drama finds a bank teller being approached by a robber to hand over the money. He would, but much of the daily deposits are hidden in his own lunch box, making the robber's take a small one. The robber escapes but calls the police on the crooked teller after he discovers his scheme. The teller lives in fear of arrest for the next month until the robber is captured. A mystery woman appears and eventually becomes the teller's mistress, but he soon discovers that the woman is the robber's girlfriend and that the robber has escaped once again. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A combination of witty dialogue and old-fashioned slapstick move this Danish comedy along at a jolly pace. The story is about the proverbial impoverished poet (Henning Moritzen) and his equally impoverished wife (Helle Virkner) who are faced with the slings and arrows of outrageous non-fortune on a daily basis. That is the case until one day, they win a fantastic 10,000 crowns and it seems like all their troubles are over. The only problem is that since they never had any money in the first place, they may not have much expertise in how to manage this unexpected windfall. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide