Axel Ströbye Movies

Long but rewarding, the Danish-Swedish Pelle the Conqueror is based on the early passages of Martin Andersen Nexoe's four-volume novel. Pelle (Pelle Hvengaard) is the son of a 19th-century Swedish farmer (Max Von Sydow). Seeking escape from their poverty-stricken surroundings, father and son emigrate to Denmark. Upon arrival, however, they are treated like indentured servants, leading to a profound ideological turnaround for the impressionable Pelle. In the original novel, Pelle ended up embracing Communism. Nexo's political overtones are soft-pedalled in the film, which concentrates on the close, indestructable relationship between Pelle and his father. Adapted for the screen by Bille August, Pelle the Conqueror won the 1988 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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

This flat tale of teen innocence lost is based on a 1958 novel by Klaus Rifbjerg and features, aside from middle-class manners, Tore (Thomas Algren) -- a popular young high-school stud, his devoted buddy Janus (Allan Olsen), his girlfriend Helle (Simone Bendix), and Helle's mother Mrs. Jundersen (Susse Wold). Helle has consistently refused any sexual advances made by Tore, and since a sub-text of the plot seems to say that young teen men must have sex or else, Tore is seduced by Helle's mother. Meanwhile, Janus does not know about Helle's stance on her own virtue and finds a fast-and-loose young woman to initiate him into the wonders of sex. The effect of Mrs. Jundersen's indiscretion, however, is more than anyone could have expected. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this engaging children's movie, a little boy named Topper (Kristjan Markersen) has a magic pencil that brings to life anything he draws on his apartment's walls. This helps him fend off the loneliness of an absent father, taken away for long periods by his work at sea. Everything seems to come to life when a bright yellow rhino drawn by Topper walks off the wall and eats vast quantities of dark bread and hay as a regular diet. Like most newborns, he loves those who feed him and pay him some kind attention but has no truck with the nasty innkeeper (Axel Stroebye) downstairs. Topper and the innkeeper's son Viggo (Erik Petersen) are the best of friends, enjoying life together as they go around town in an old children's stroller that they alternately push or ride. Although the innkeeper is after the magic pencil and makes life as miserable as he can for the young boys, he is inevitably thwarted in the end. Both charming and technically adroit, the fantasy and reality portrayed in the film would be entertaining for parents as well as children. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A 1723 satire written by Ludvig Holberg ("the Moliere of the north") was chosen as the story for this full-length feature film, meant to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Nordisk Film Kompagni, perhaps the world's oldest, continually-running film studio. Director Kaspar Rostrup has decided to emphasize the perceived weaknesses of the upper and lower classes in Denmark in his adaptation of the story. Jeppe of the Hill features (Buster Larson) as the tipsy peasant Jeppe and (Henning Jensen) as the Baron who plays a cruel practical joke on the unsuspecting simpleton. The comedy springs into action when the Baron encounters a dead-drunk Jeppe and has him brought to the castle in a stupor. When Jeppe comes around, he is led to believe that he is the Baron himself, now in a position to wreak a long-desired vengeance for indignities suffered at the hands of his former social superiors -- which he does with an increasing enthusiasm that sets off alarms in the Baron's mental security system. Before mayhem and worse is allowed to happen, Jeppe gets roaring drunk again, and the Baron is able to toss him back into his pre-Baronial lifestyle -- poor Jeppe loses his brief but heady moment of power. Although he is no longer top man on the hill, Jeppe has craftily observed some of the Baron's elite servants stealing the silver, so to speak. Armed with that information, Jeppe may have the last word yet. First-time director Kaspar Rostrup and the lead actor Buster Larson successfully brought Jeppe of the Hill to the stage 10 years before the release of this film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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

The perennial Danish comedy favorites of the 1970s, the Olsen Gang, undertakes another adventure in Olsenbanden Gaar I Krig. In the story, Egon, Benny and Kjeld discover that the entire country of Denmark is slated by the Common Market to serve as a theme park resembling Disneyland, named "Daisyland" (after Queen Margrethe's nickname). The citizenry of Denmark will become waiters, guides, and so on, for the sensation-seeking tourists of the rest of Europe. Naturally, the gang wants a cut of the action until their own patriotism surfaces,overcoming their avarice and surprising them a bit. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this comedy, two gangs of thieves exert themselves to outdo one another at art forgery and bank robbery, among other things. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this farce, the fact that some stolen diamonds were hidden in a cake sends all sorts of people scurrying around the countryside, looking for the tiny sparklers. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The Olsens, a popular Danish crime/comedy trio, reappear in this engaging slapstick comedy. Egon is asked by a company director to open the company's safe. Things don't turn out exactly as planned, and the trio find themselves chasing and being chased in a scheme involving diamonds and laundered money deals. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Danish sex farce stars the ever-competent comedian Dirch Passer. In the film, he runs a special boarding school for women who want to marry rich men and be quick about it. Axel Stroebye appears as one of the school's instructors. The school's potential trouble through a policewoman's undercover investigations is prevented when she falls into bed with her "instructor." ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

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, Rovi