Tivi Magnusson Movies

A small boy with a big dream of riding an elephant finds his hopes suddenly dashed when the curmudgeonly superintendent who presides over the apartment building informs the tenants that in order to rent the grounds for their extravagant summer party they will have to pay an exorbitant fee. All signs indicated that this would be the best party ever; not only was there going to be plenty of great food, but the organizers promised to bring in a live elephant in order to entertain the children! Frode couldn't have been looking forward to the party more. But then the superintendent proved to be a stickler for details, insisting that the tenants cough up a tidy sum for use of the apartment grounds. His dreams now fading before his very eyes, Frode discovers that downstairs neighbor Mr. Storm has been the victim of mysterious burglaries, and that he's offered a substantial reward for the capture of the culprit responsible for the crimes. Now, if Frode and his friends can beat their bitter rivals the basement gang to nabbing the burglar, perhaps they can use the reward money to finance the party and make this the most memorable summer ever. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Adam's Apples screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen pens director Paprika Steen's darkly comic tale of an opera-obsessed cafeteria manager who works on a financially strapped ferry running between Copenhagen and Stockholm. Cafeteria manager Jan (Lars Brygmann) isn't the most likable of characters. Not only has his fixation on proper procedure isolated him from his co-workers, but even Jan's shrieking wife Anna (Sidse Babett Knudsen) can't find many redeeming qualities in her severely grating spouse. One night, after hiding out in the local opera house, Jan comes home to yet another battle with his embittered bride. The following day, Jan's life takes a wholly unexpected turn when the fed-up captain of the ferry grows tired of Jan's behavior and demands that the obnoxious employee seek professional help. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An overly-optimistic preacher with a penchant for taking in lost causes to help around his remote church finds his rose-tinted view of the world challenged by a psychotic neo-Nazi he is trying to reform in this jet black comedy from Green Butchers screenwriter/director Anders Thomas Jensen. Vicar Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen) prides himself on his efforts to help those in need by offering them a variety of odd jobs around the church and spreading the good word. After "adopting" a violent Saudi immigrant and a drunken tennis pro with a history of sexual assault, Ivan is approached by Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) -- a decidedly non-reformed neo-Nazi planning to lie low in the countryside for a spell before returning to the city to once again wreak havoc. When Ivan inquires as to what his new charge's goal will be during his stay in the countryside, the snide hooligan sarcastically states that he would like to bake a cake -- a response which prompts the gullible Ivan to place him in charge of the church's cherished apple tree. As ravens immediately descend upon the tree, Ivan concludes that Satan is attempting to prevent Adam from realizing his true potential. Meanwhile, Adam takes it upon himself to give the cheery clergyman a crash course in the harsh realities of life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This black comedy from Denmark involves the exploits of Bjarne and Svend, two friends who go into the meat-cutting business together only to see their venture fail miserably. But when Svend starts experimenting with a strange new culinary concoction, business picks up -- but they find that getting ahold of their "secret ingredient" will be more of a challenge than they thought. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

A career criminal stumbles upon his big chance to get out of the business, though not everyone thinks it's such a good idea, in this witty thriller. Torkild (Soren Pilmark) is the leader of a band of small-time crooks; having just celebrated his 40th birthday (which coincided with his being dumped by his girlfriend), Torkild is looking to land a big score so he can get out of the business. While trying to map out a major heist, a guy known as the Man From Faro (Peter Anderson) approaches Torkild with a job -- he needs someone to steal a bag for him. Torkild and his cronies are up for the job, but they soon discover that a team of security guards is on hand to make sure the bag isn't stolen, and one of Torkild's friends is wounded in a shootout. After they've made their getaway, Torkild discovers why everyone was fighting over the bag -- it contains over four million kroner ($500,000 in American currency) -- and he and his partners decide they're not keen on turning it over to the Man From Faro. After their car breaks down, Torkild and company happen upon an old restaurant that's up for sale, and they decide to use their newfound wealth to buy it and go into business -- which would be complicated enough without the arrival of the Man From Faro, who wants to know what happened to the money he hired Torkild to steal. Blinkende Lygter also stars Iben Hjejle, who gained the attention of American audiences as John Cusack's love interest in the film High Fidelity. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Maria (Karina Skands) is an 18-year-old, late-blooming woman who has for years been a gifted violinist. She live in the slums of Copenhagen and has led a sheltered life often marked by poverty and cruelty. Due to her consuming musical passions -- fueled by the expectations of her overprotective father -- the beautiful Maria is unaware of her own attractiveness. She feels the first stirrings of love with Jonny (Ole Lemmeke), but she leaves him when he turns out to be a repressed homosexual. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Virtually unknown in English-speaking countries, Emma's Shadow was one of the most popular Danish films of the 1980s, and a winner of several awards in the bargain. Emma, an impulsive 11-year-old girl, is portrayed by Line Kruse. Tired of being neglected by her wealthy parents, Emma fakes her own kidnapping. She hides out with an impoverished Copenhagen sewer worker. Things take a serious turn halfway through, but a lighthearted "Pippi Longstocking" atmosphere pervades the picture throughout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this children's movie, a grade-school girl and her friends entertain various dreams of the future. One longs to be a veterinarian and marry Michael Jackson, the others dream of having babies, on the condition that the boys take care of them. When the girls are unhappy, they do some very mean things to one another. Happily, in this film, that doesn't happen often. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on legendary Danish writer Tove Ditlevsen's autobiographical novel of growing up during the Depression, this Danish screen milestone was directed with a sure hand by the veteran Astrid Henning-Jensen. Fourteen-year-old Ester (Sofie Gråbøll), a daydreamer whose ambition is to become a writer, finds all the material she needs crammed in with her family in a one-bedroom cold-water flat in the slums of Copenhagen's downtrodden but proud working-class neighborhood of Vesterbro. The co-director of the classic Child of Man (1946), Henning-Jensen brings the same kind of social realism to Bardommens Gade but occasionally tips the scale a bit too much in favor of nostalgia. Still, the well-acted film stands as one of the decade's more impressive undertakings. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this satire on familial relationships, a conniving, selfish grandmother (Bodil Udsen) finds her match in her six-year-old grandson, and the two have a series of conspiracies in her large urban apartment that are meant to keep her widower son from marrying again. Little Sörmand (adroitly interpreted by Mikkel Egelund) is a boy open to bribery and mayhem if it furthers his interests, which often coincide with those of his grandmother. The two make a difficult team to beat in this otherwise safely gray treatment of what was meant to be a decidedly black comedy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The setting is the beginning of the 20th century in Denmark, underscored by the use of sepia-tinted scenes, and the bride of a villainous mill owner suffers her own existence stoically, until a handsome railroad laborer catches her eye and hope begins to dawn for a relationship based on love rather than endurance. The stilted movements, dialogue, and sepia-soaked scenes were probably meant to create the "look and feel" of an earlier time, though viewers themselves will have to decide on whether or not the technique is successful. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide