Bille August Movies
Bille August is a photographer-turned-director whose penchant for weaving deeply personal stories eventually gave way to adapting seemingly impenetrable novels into moderately successful features. His remarkable eye for period and character detail has gained him a solid reputation as one of his generation's most talented filmmakers. A native of Brede, Denmark, August graduated from the Danish Film Institute and started out working in the television industry, but it didn't take long for him to gravitate toward film work. First stepping behind the camera as cinematographer for the 1977 drama Homeward in the Night, August took the helm for Honeymoon the following year, to great critical acclaim. A middle-class Danish drama detailing the crumbling marriage of a one-time library assistant and a downbeat factory worker, Honeymoon served as an ideal showcase not only for August's abilities as a director, but his talents as a screenwriter as well.August abandoned directorial duties for the next several years, working in television and spending time honing his skills as a cinematographer for feature films. He returned to directing with the made-for-television romantic drama Maj (1982). As the '80s progressed, August's talents behind the camera were obviously maturing, as was his skill for crafting believable, three-dimensional characters. His 1983 release Zappa, a sensitive tale of friendship and discovery, earned him a notable place in the pantheon of respected Scandinavian filmmakers. The following year, August took the helm for the television miniseries Buster's World and the popular children's film of the same name before directing Twist and Shout. A semi-sequel to the popular Zappa, Twist and Shout (1984) followed that film's lead character as he came of age during the time when the Beatles' popularity exploded worldwide. Not only did the film fare stratospherically well in August's native Denmark, but its sensitive portrayal of youthful love and loss earned the earnest film a place in numerous art-house theaters in the U.S. as well.
August's career behind the camera seemed to be reaching a high point, and in 1987, he crafted the film that many consider to be his masterpiece, Pelle the Conqueror. A sensitive tale of Swedish emigrants making a new life for themselves on the Danish island of Bornholm, Pelle the Conqueror showcased the best that August had to offer in terms of both character and period detail. In addition to taking home the Oscar for Best Foreign Film at that year's Academy Awards, the film earned star Max von Sydow near universal praise from critics' circles. Not only was Pelle the Conqueror August's most popular international film to date, but it also marked the beginning of the director's growing interest in adapting popular works of fiction for the screen. With all of the attention August was drawing, he soon caught the eye of legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, and in 1992, the veteran director teamed with the relative newcomer for the feature The Best Intentions. Bergman penned the biographical tale of his parents lives up to the point of his birth in 1918, while August took the director's chair. Originally produced as a television miniseries, the film played well to international audiences when edited down for time and released as a feature in 1991. Not only did Best Intentions earn August the Golden Palm at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, it also brought him and star Pernilla August together romantically. They marryed soon thereafter, and had two children before their divorce in 1997.
Despite an impressive cast that included Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, and Vanessa Redgrave, August's next film, The House of the Spirits (1993), would prove his first true professional disappointment. After his 1996 drama Jerusalem was met with deadly indifference, August impressed critics with the low-key mystery Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997). Though generally praised by film lovers for its masterful use of Copenhagen's snowbound landscapes and compelling central mystery involving the death of a young boy, the film unfortunately flew under the radar of the general public and was subsequently relegated to the home-video market. By the time August spearheaded a 1998 film version of Les Miserables, many considered the director's literary adaptations to be top heavy and tiresome, resulting in poor ticket sales and lukewarm critical reception. Though August ventured outside of his comfort zone to direct episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, he soon returned to the sort of human drama that defined his early career with the release of A Song for Martin in 2001. A touching tale of an aging couple's valiant attempts to preserve their relationship in the face of Alzheimer's disease, A Song for Martin provided August's career with a much needed boost. In 2003, August once again returned to television to direct Det Kongelige Teater's production of Detaljer. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2007
At the time of its production, To Each His Own Cinema represented the latest arrival in a tidal wave of internationally oriented omnibus films, with no official relation between them but all produced within a few years of one another. Few could claim a roster of talent comparable to this one, which boasts contributions by 33 of the most acclaimed directors in world cinema,
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
each responsible for three minutes of celluloid. Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Festival, devised the project as a "gift" to commemorate the festival's 60th birthday, and recruited many Golden Palm winners in the directorial selection process. Simply put, Jacob asked each director to express, cinematically, his or her "state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theater." Featured filmmakers include Joel and Ethan Coen; Olivier Assayas; Atom Egoyan; Walter Salles; Lars von Trier; Nanni Moretti; Roman Polanski; Theo Angelopoulos; Chen Kaige; Andrei Konchalovsky; and many, many others. Many of the initial entries (by Angelopoulos and others) involve the neglect or disrepute into which contemporary cinema, as a collective viewing experience, has fallen; a few segments, such as the Coen Brothers' short, about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who attempts to determine which movie he should go see in sunny Los Angeles, employ a light and whimsical approach. At the other end of the spectrum sits David Cronenberg's piece -- a brutal short in which he prepares to commit a very public and graphic suicide on television before millions of viewers. Other highlights include Moretti -- offering a typically witty divertissement on what cinema means -- and Zhang Yimou, who lyrically depicts the gathering of numerous rural children for a screening at a movie theater. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2007
- R
Bille August's inspirational docudrama Goodbye Bafana begins in 1968, with South Africa buried neck-deep in the horrors of apartheid and Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert) -- then an underground leader of the African National Congress -- imprisoned on Robben Island for sedition. As the story opens, the native African population of the country -- 25 million in number -- buckles beneath the crippling weight of the racist white minority, who control the Nationalist Party Government. The film follows the spiritual and psychological journey of James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes), a Caucasian Afrikaner who came of age on a farm in the Transkei and initially views all blacks as subhuman. Gregory also speaks Mandela's native language of Xhosa with perfect fluency, which makes him an ideal candidate to serve as warden of the Robben Island Prison and eavesdrop on Mandela and his inmates. What he fails to anticipate is the most unlikely and special of friendships (one of history's greatest) that burgeons between himself and Mandela -- and helps him evolve from a narrow-minded bigot with limited self-awareness to a sensitive, humane critic of social injustice with a heightened awareness of humankind's ill treatment of one another and a genuine love for his fellow man. As the friendship between Gregory and Mandela grows and matures, it symbolizes Africa's transition from the oppressiveness of apartheid to the freedom of multiracial democracy. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph Fiennes, Dennis Haysbert, (more)
Charlotte Cory, the main character in the thriller Convicted, has only days left until she is executed. Her lawyer discovers information that was kept out of her trial, and must race against time in order to save his client. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Connie Nielsen, Aidan Quinn, (more)
After a number of big-budget international projects, writer and director Bille August scaled himself back with this intimate story about two people who find both love and tragedy late in life. Martin (Sven Wolter) is a well-known and highly respected classical composer and conductor in his early sixties. While rehearsing for a concert, Martin becomes aquatinted with Barbara (Viveka Seldahl), the orchestra's concertmaster who is ten years his junior. While both Martin and Barbara are married, there is a strong mutual attraction between them, and after a brief affair they decide to divorce their respective mates and get married. Despite the objections of their children (all of whom are fully grown), Martin and Barbara wed, settling into a happy and productive relationship in Sweden. But five years later, while Barbara assists Martin with his latest project, she notices his memory seems to be failing him, and his personality is beginning to shift. A doctor diagnoses Martin's condition as the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and as his condition worsens, Martin finds it more and more difficult to write the music that means so much to him. Barbara, on the other hand, wants to help her husband, but as his memory fades and his confidence goes with it, she sees the brilliant artist she fell in love with slipping away, and she's not sure how she feels about the increasingly feeble stranger who has taken his place. En Sang For Martin was based on the novel Boken om E by Ulla Isaksson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sven Wollter, Viveka Seldahl, (more)
Bille August directed this Rafael Yglesias adaptation of the 1862 classic by Victor Hugo (1802-1885) about the quest of Inspector Javert to capture escaped convict Jean Valjean, originally an honest man who was jailed for stealing a single loaf of bread to feed the family of his starving sister. This new interpretation of Hugo's epic begins with Valjean (Liam Neeson), released after 20 years of cruelties and hard labor, reporting for parole in Dijon. Stopping at a bishop's house, he's treated with respect, but even so, he steals silverware, flees, and is captured. However, the bishop says the silverware was a gift, proving Valjean's innocence by giving him two silver candlesticks. Valjean is free, but the bishop asks him to treat others with equal kindness. By 1822, Valjean has risen to mayor of the village of Vigau, where he also maintains a successful factory. Joining the local police, Inspector Javert (Geoffrey Rush) is suspicious of Valjean's identity and eventually recognizes him as a former convict, but Javert has no proof when he carries his accusations to Paris. Valjean develops a relationship with Fantine (Uma Thurman), who lost her factory job because of local attitudes about her illegitimate daughter. The starving Fantine turns to prostitution, is arrested and tortured by Javert, and becomes ill. As she dies, Valjean promises to raise her daughter Cosette. Focusing on Valjean's life with Cosette (Claire Danes), the story is set amid the action of the July 1832 Revolution, a time when Cosette falls in love with a militant student, Marius (Hans Matheson). On the banks of the Seine, Valjean and Javert have their final confrontation. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, (more)
Julia Ormond stars as Copenhagen resident Smilla Jasperson, a reclusive, half-Inuit scientist who befriends a neglected Inuit boy who lives in her building. Arriving home from work one day, Smilla is mortified to learn that the boy has died in a fall from the building's roof. Suspicious because she knows that her young friend was afraid of heights, Smilla probes into the "accident." Her only ally is an enigmatic man known as the Mechanic (Gabriel Byrne), who also lives in the building and seems sympathetic. Smilla discovers that the boy's family is connected to a mining company conducting top-secret research in her ancestral home of Greenland. Then she spies the Mechanic and the company's president (Richard Harris) dining together. Is she a paranoid conspiracy theorist or a sleuth uncovering a bizarre murder mystery? When a retired secretary (Vanessa Redgrave) helps her make a critical discovery, Smilla sets off for Greenland, where the otherworldly, prehistoric answer to her questions awaits. Danish director Bille August's previous film Pelle the Conqueror (1987) also concerned the bond between an adult Denmark émigré and a child. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, (more)
- 1996
A group of messianic pilgrims abandon their native Sweden and emigrate to Palestine. This fact-based episodic Swedish drama looks at the events leading up to the trek and the immigrants' experiences after they arrive in the holy land. The story begins in Sweden and is introduced by the death of Big Ingmar, the leader of a small farming community. Shortly thereafter, his eldest daughter Karin sends Ingmar's namesake son to be raised by another family so she can control the family farm. Years pass and Ingmar grows up to fall in love with his beauteous "step-sister" Gertrud. But the romance never fully blooms, for Ingmar must leave to earn the money he needs to buy his father's farm back from Karin. About this time, the local village is plagued by a series of ominous disasters that begin with Karin's sudden paralysis. In the midst of the ensuing superstition and chaos, a charismatic, hellfire-and-brimstone preacher shows up, and some family members begin converting to his cause. Karin becomes a true follower when the preacher prays and she is "miraculously" healed. Ingmar eventually returns to find a very different village. With not enough money to buy the farm, he marries a wealthy young woman. Broken-hearted Gertrud immediately joins the preacher's cult and decides to follow him to Palestine to await Christ's Second Coming. Three months after she leaves, a recently divorced Ingmar arrives in Palestine to try to win her back. That is but one story line among many that transpire as the pilgrims struggle with survival in their strange new homeland. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maria Bonnevie, Ulf Friberg, (more)
Bille August directed this film version of the Isabel Allende novel, featuring a cast that includes Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, and Glenn Close. The story is a sweeping and brooding melodrama, spanning generations and filled with violence, revenge, and telekinesis. The tale begins in South America in 1926, when a young man, Esteban (Jeremy Irons), falls in love with the daughter of a rich man, Rosa Del Valle (Teri Polo). He vows to become rich enough to make her his wife and spends months of toil in the gold fields to earn enough money to do just that. Before the two marry, however, Rosa is killed by poison meant for her father. After the tragedy, Esteban moves to Trés Marias, an abandoned ranch, and spends 20 years of his life turning the ranch into a thriving estate, exploiting the labor of the poor who live off the land. When he returns to the city, he comes across Rosa's younger sister Clara (Meryl Streep), now a woman with telekinetic abilities. Clara took a vow of silence years before, but upon the arrival of Esteban, she speaks for the first time in years -- "You have come to propose marriage to me," she says. Esteban and Clara marry, and Esteban takes her back to the ranch, where they have a daughter, Blanca (Winona Ryder). Their daughter falls in love with the son of one of Esteban's foremen, a hot-headed revolutionary named Pedro (Antonio Banderas). Now, the country is in the throes of revolution. Esteban banishes his sister Ferula (Glenn Close) from the ranch, beats his wife, and rapes a peasant woman. The product of Esteban's rape (Joaquin Martinez) grows into an angry young man who convinces Esteban to send him away to military school. When there is a military coup, the illegitimate son returns to Trés Marias with revenge and torture on his mind. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 1992
Scripted (but not directed) by Ingmar Bergman, Best Intentions is a multilayered backwards glance at the courtship of Bergman's own parents. Henrik Bergman (Samuel Froler) is a struggling theology student in the year 1909. His intended, Anna Aakerbloom (Pernilla August, who married director Bille August while the film was in progress) is from a well-to-do family. Despite the expected class differences and personality clashes, love-or at least mutual understanding-prevails. But after a harsh, spare few years as the wife of a clergyman, Anna yearns for the more bountiful pleasures of her family home. Bergman writes himself into the proceedings as a mewling infant. The current three-hour theatrical version of Best Intentions (original title: Den Goda Viljan) was simultaneously prepared as a six-hour TV miniseries, which ran in Europe, Scandanavia, and Japan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Samuel Fröler, Pernilla August, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Max von Sydow, Pelle Hvenegaard, (more)
- 1984
- R
Child actor Mads Bugge Andersen carries this children's film in his role as young Buster, put-upon by bullies at school and elsewhere, and forced to improve his lot through a vivid imagination and some ingenuity. Originally a television series in six episodes changed to a feature-length format, Buster's adventures are forcibly told in six sequences. In one of these sequences he develops a giant crush on a charming girl and summons all his courage to approach her. In another, his sister is featured and their relationship strained when Buster tries to cheer her up the wrong way. While these stock vignettes are decidedly for the younger set, their clichés are more easily ignored because of Buster's unique character. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Schröder
- 1984
- NR
This Danish film is set in 1963, at the height of Beatlemania. Played out against the standard pop-culture backdrop is the story of the friendship between Adam Tonsberg and Lars Simonson. His ego in tatters thanks to a domineering father, Simonsen yearns for the affections of snooty Ulrikke Juul Bondo, though it is "common knowledge" that she's Tonsberg's girl. Tonsberg, however, prefers the company of the down-to-earth Camilla Soeberg. When Soeberg becomes pregnant, Tonsberg is forced to borrow the abortion money from former girlfriend Bondo, who wants him to spend a weekend with her in exchange. This is all going according to Bondo's plan, and soon she and Tonsberg are making wedding plans. Suddenly gaining a moral backbone, Tonsberg calls off the wedding, then helps his friend Simonsen, who is endeavoring to prove that his mother is not the lunatic described by his tyrannical father. The coming-of-age process in this film is even more complex than these notes would suggest, but young Danish filmgoers had no trouble relating to Twist and Shout (originally Tro, Hab Og Karlighed), which allegedly made more money than any previous Danish film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Adam Tønsberg, Lars Simonsen, (more)
- 1983
Based on the first book in a trilogy by Danish novelist Bjarne Reuter, Zappa proved an early international breakthrough for its director, Bille August. The story of three teenagers in 1960s Copenhagen is really no big literary accomplishment -- the boys become delinquents because of their parents' inattentiveness in particular and a decadent society in general -- but August elicited wonderful performances from his young, inexperienced cast, especially Adam Tønsberg, as the lower-middle-class boy with upward mobile pretensions, and Peter Reichhardt as the thoroughly vicious Steen, whose carnivorous pet fish gives the film its name. The son of Danish matinee-idol Poul Reichhardt, Peter Reichhardt offered a truly frightening portrayal of contained malice. Director August filmed the second novel in Reuter's youth trilogy, Tro, Håb og Kærlighed, the following year. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Reichhardt, Adam Tønsberg, (more)
- 1981
Based on the novel by Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing stars Karen Black as a successful career woman based in South Africa. Ms. Black gives up the relative comfort of city life when she falls in love with a bush farmer. The core of the film is Karen's efforts to assimilate herself into her forbidding new environment. John Thaw co-stars as the man in her life. Filmed on location in Zambia, it was released in the US in 1984 under the title Killing Heat. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Karen Black, John Thaw, (more)
- 1980
This uneven drama, uneven perhaps because of budget problems, looks at the dilemma of Erich Nussbaum (Gedalia Besser) a German Jew who has lived in Tel Aviv for several decades. Erich is separated from his wife and his inner turmoil keeps him apart from his son Michael (Yair Elazar) and from his neighbors as well. He is trying to decide whether he should return to Berlin. He was forced out by the Nazis before World War II began, but unlike himself, the Germans in the enclaves around him have not altered their old ways at all. It is as though they never left Germany. As Erich debates these issues he leans more and more towards leaving. Transit was a competing film at the 1980 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Per Ragnar, Lena Olin, (more)
- 1978
Anna, a fortyish librarian who is recently divorced, goes on a date with Martin, a middle-aged perpetual bachelor. After a little sexual groping, she is ready to call it quits. Instead, he rapes her. As she recovers from her shock over the incident, she contemplates what would constitute a similarly invasive humiliation for a man, asking herself the question, "can a man be raped [by a woman]?" Donning a good disguise, she begins to stalk Martin, causing him considerable discomfiture. She even causes him to lose a bowling tournament. After enough of this, she abducts him at gunpoint just before a party he is giving, takes him back to his apartment, and ties him in a humiliating posture on his bed, leaving his front door unlocked when she departs. This unusual drama is based on a novel by Marta Tikkanen. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gösta Bredefeldt
- 1978
After marrying his lovely librarian girlfriend Kirsten (Kirsten Olesen), Jens (Claus Strandberg) and she enjoy a brief, idyllic honeymoon, but soon she drifts into a deep depression and attempts suicide. She moves back into her parents' house and lurks there out of sight. Jens, a good-natured, shy and steady fellow, is bewildered at this turn of events and cannot make head nor tail of it. At least he has a friend he can turn to for some solace, Bjarne (Jens Okking), his older coworker. They go drinking together sometimes and he tries to figure this situation out. It finally comes to him that perhaps she cannot bear the fact of marriage itself, and he offers his dear Kirsten her freedom. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Claus Strandberg, Kirsten Olesen, (more)
- 1977
Harri (Lasse Hjelt) is one of Sweden's many Finnish immigrant-workers. While in Sweden, the illiterate Harri marries and has a child. After accidentally killing a man in a fight, he flees back across the border to Finland and begins to pick up the pieces of his life, but soon, the police come looking for him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lasse Hjelt, Gunnel Fred, (more)
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