Claus Nissen Movies

The emotional ups and downs of the habitués of a Copenhagen watering hole form the basis of this Danish drama. The Blue Monk is a bar favored by jazz fans, where classic sides by Thelonious Monk dominate the jukebox and the regulars use the waitresses and bartenders as sounding boards for their emotional problems. One of the customers develops a crush on his favorite waitress; however, she's become involved with someone else, and she soon discovers her customer isn't as harmless as she thought. This mood piece, dominated by a classic jazz soundtrack, was shown at the 1999 Gothenburg Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This unusual film explores the small dramas experienced by a group of people who have been stranded in Copenhagen overnight because of a cancelled flight. The all ride in an airport bus to lodgings in town, and the stories of each person or group of persons are told from the moment they leave the bus to the moment they get back on it the next morning. Extraordinary things happen to all of them, and yet, to see them on the bus the next morning, you would imagine nothing at all had happened. Strandees include a rock singer from Russia chaperoned by his English-speaking daughter; he is on his way to an engagement at, of all things, a Russian pizza house in New York. Another strandee is an airline stewardess, and then there are the two brothers who have reunited for the first time after many years. As the movie goes on, their stories overlap in humorous ways. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This pseudo-documentary chronicles, in a high-flown anthropological manner, the preliminary preparations men and women in Denmark make before they make love, and the things they do afterwards. Subjects are shown shaving, putting on make-up, dressing carefully, etc., and then getting together and caressing one another. The sex act itself is omitted. Then the subjects are shown smoking, deciding to put on their clothes and then deciding not to (for another bout of lovemaking). All is presented in a dry, non-emotional style. Adding to the documentary flavor of this experimental film (part of a series by the director) is footage from the Trobriand Islands, an hommage to anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski's groundbreaking work earlier in the century. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The polite Walter (Ole Stephensen) and his loud friend (in both personality and fashion) Carlo (Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen) first appeared together in Walter & Carlo: Op På Fars Hat (1985), an alarmingly popular piece of old-fashioned low comedy. Few critics clamored for a sequel -- Walter and Carlo were no Olsen Gang -- but it came anyway. This time, however, the audience stayed away in droves, but that didn't deter the filmmakers, who issued a third film, Walter & Carlo i Amerika, which crash landed with an even larger thud in 1989. The story of Yes, Det Er Far was ostensibly about senior citizens forced by high taxation to smuggle cheap coffee on the ferries from Sweden, but in reality it was merely an excuse for Saturday Night Live-ish television personalities Ole Stephensen (a former reporter, believe it or not) and Jarl Friis-Mikkelsen to do their patented schtick. It seemed a good idea at the time -- so much so that the then Danish prime minister, Poul Schlüter, made a cameo appearance as himself. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Karen (Solbjoerg Hoejfeldt) has just come out of a divorce and although she is a worldly-wise woman who knows her own mind, like most people she has been hurt in the process of legally breaking off her marriage. She meets Jens (Kurt Dreyer) a quiet, somewhat introverted man whose own divorce left him less than enthusiastic about starting up a new relationship. In spite of their wounds and the warnings of divorced friends, both Karen and Jens cannot deny the attraction they begin to feel for each other, and each fall into a pattern of gradual and increasing commitment. Appropriately enough, the musical score of the Wobbly Waltz provides melodies that lighten the drama, and enhance the mood that the witticisms and drole situations bring to the story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

When he hears that the house he is living in is scheduled to be demolished to make way for high-rise apartments, Kasper makes plans with his blind neighbor Holger to steal the development plans from the insurance company which is holding them. In this Danish comedy, all the marginal people in his neighborhood, and there are many, get involved in this ill-fated scheme. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Poet Joergen Leth created this visual meditation and narrates it. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Well-known Danish film producer Per Holst turned director for this muddled psychological melodrama about a civil servant (Ove Sprogøe) who cannot admit to his unfaithful wife (Bergman regular Bibi Andersson) that he has just lost his job. In desperation, the quiet clerk murders the entire family. Again and again. Or is it all in his head? Is the timid civil servant indulging in a stress-relieving fantasy, or his he really a homicidal maniac? Holst, who kept to folksy comedies thereafter, apparently couldn't decide whether he was making a Bergmanesque piece on marital angst or a straightforward crime drama and the end result convinces no one. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This provocative sci-fi outing is set in an over-populated, horribly polluted 21st century where child-bearing has become illegal. To help ease the tension and stress caused by not procreating, married couples use robot dolls to substitute for children. One couple decides to break the law and have a real baby in secret. Unfortunately, their neighbors find out and demand that the couple share the baby with them. The other couple does so, but finds that the neighbors get too attached to the infant. They stop sharing their child, and the neighbors becomes so angry that they report them to authorities. The couple and their baby are arrested and sentenced to death. Fortunately, the clever husband anticipated this and made a few plans in advance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This brooding Danish drama harkens to the work of the great Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer in its sensitive exploration of inner torment. The Tar Merchant refers to its central character, a wounded, vengeful man who has changed from being a gentle and thoughtful man in response to his wife's impulsiveness and lack of concern which led directly to the death of their child. This man has adopted the guise of a tar merchant, which enables him to travel freely to advance his irrational scheme of retribution. Beginning with the death of her child, the heedless wife begins to know guilt and care, as she sinks into a nightmarish state. A real merchant spots the tar merchant as a phony and tries to put the squeeze on him, with disastrous results. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this dark, foreboding sea story, a veteran sea captain abducts his niece for what he believes is his last chance at love. As the sad demon of the ocean Klabautermanden watches the passing of doomed ships, the niece awakens in her uncle's cabin. She makes him marry her but never allows the tyrannical captain to ever touch her. For eight years, the ship never docks as the malnourished crew wishes for death. The woman has a child by another man and the captain watches in horror as she makes friends easily while he is reviled by his superstitious crew. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide