Showing posts with label Dogme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dogme. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Brothers.

THE DANISH FILM MAKER, SUSANNE BIER'S psychological drama, "BRODRE",(BROTHERS) 2005, examines a contemporary tragedy. Imaginative and engrossing screenwriting incorporates violence in Afghanistan with an intimate study of domestic relationships. Fine performances of power and ferocity portray emotional truths both at home and at war.
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Jannik, played by the peerless Nicolaj Lie Kaas is the aimless younger brother of Michael, (Ulrich Thomsen). He has just been released from prison for having committed a petty crime. Michael, the"good" brother, loving husband and father, and a doctor, is sent temporarily to Afghanistan with his reserve military unit. His helicopter is shot down, and his wife Sarah, ( Connie Nielsen), is notified that he has been killed.
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The movie is basically about consequences. Michael is rescued, but his life is shattered because of a fateful event, an atrocity. When he returns to his wife and family, he is a broken man, full of rage. His jealousy and suspicion of Jannik and Sarah become increasingly irrational. The brother roles are exchanged; the good and the troublesome personas switch.
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The movie was the winner in 2005 of the Sundance Film Festival's Audience Award for Drama. There is great narrative drive, and as in other Dogme films, locations are real and actors are given the freedom of movement and improvisation.
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Dogme/Dogma is an avant-garde film movement started in 1995 by Danish directors, Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier, who wanted to make films not dependent on huge budgets. The goal was to cause a stir, to rethink the essence of film making. Dogme has roots in the '60's New Wave.
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A Hollywood movie, "Brothers", was made in 2009 and is being released on DVD. I hope that they don't miss the point of "Brodre", that we don't necessarily know who we are, will be, in terms of right and wrong, when our lives are turned upside down.

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