MC Consensus: Nordic Countries

[Spinal]

#17


There is nothing so quiet as a heart that has ceased to beat.


Day of Wrath

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer

Year: 1943

The young wife of an aging priest falls in love with his son amidst the horror of a merciless witch hunt in 17th century Denmark.

Named one of the year's 10 best films by the National Board of Review.

When it premiered, the film received poor reviews and was unsuccessful financially, with many Danes complaining about the film's slow pace. It later gained a better critical reputation after World War II. While Dreyer denied the film was about the Nazis, during the war it had resonated with the Danish resistance movement.

"Day of Wrath may be the greatest film ever made about living under totalitarian rule. Astonishing in its artistically informed period re-creation as well as its hypnotic mise en scene (with some exceptionally eerie camera movements), it challenges the viewer by suggesting at times that witchcraft isn't so much an illusion as an activity produced by intolerance. And like Dreyer's other major films, it's sensual to the point of carnality. I can't think of another 40s film that's less dated." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

[Spinal]

#16


There's nothing in your head that you haven't said!


Force Majeure

Director: Ruben Östlund

Year: 2014

A family on a ski holiday in the French Alps find themselves staring down an avalanche during lunch one day; in the aftermath, their dynamic has been shaken to its core, with a question mark hanging over their patriarch in particular.

Won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes.
Won 6 Guldbagge Awards including Best Film, Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor (Kristofer Hivju). Nominated for 4 others.
Won Best Foreign Language Film at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards.
Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.
Nominated for Best Film not in the English Language at the BAFTAs.
Nominated for Best International Film at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Despite being a winter film, the recurring main music theme of the movie is from Antonio Vivaldi's Summer Concerto.

"What makes Force Majeure much more than a clinically accurate depiction of a middle-class marriage in crisis is its keen understanding of how, in modern civilization, people increasingly imagine that they can control nature. But what about human nature? Until it smacks them in the face, they ignore their irrational, atavistic drives. No matter how well we talk the talk of technological mastery and rationality, there are crazy parts of us that remain beyond the reach of language to explain or resolve." - Stephen Holden, The New York Times

[Spinal]

#15


We're emotional illiterates.


Scenes from a Marriage

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Year: 1973

Ten years of Marianne and Johan's relationship as they separate, engage in extramarital affairs, bond, re-bond and eventually divorce.

Won Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes. Also nominated for Best Actress - Drama (Liv Ullmann).
Nominated for Best Actress (Ullmann) at the BAFTAs.
Won 4 awards from the National Society of Film Critics including Best Film, Best Actres (Ullmann), Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Bibi Andersson).
Won Best Actress (Ullmann) and Best Screenplay at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
Due to the original miniseries version being telecast in Sweden, the film version was ineligible for the Oscars.

Ingmar Bergman gave options to the actors and crews to choose between receiving salary or percentage share from the TV series profit. Liv Ullmann chose salary since Cries and Whispers was a financial failure, while Erland Josephson chose percentage share. Scenes from a Marriage ended up being internationally popular and financially successful. According to Ullmann, this was one of the things she most regretted in her life.

"In Scenes from a Marriage, Mr. Bergman is examining the molecular structure of a human relationship. You think you've seen it before, but every time you see it, it's new, which is one of the things about love. Like a laboratory model of a molecule, the design is complex and beautiful in a purely abstract way, but the film is also intensely, almost unbearably moving." - Vincent Canby, The New York Times