Product Notes
NTSC/Region 1 pressing. Copenhagen 1944. While the Danish population hopes for a swift end to the war, freedom fighters Bent Faurschou-Hviid (AKA Flame) and Jørgen Haagen Schmith (AKA Citron) secretly put their lives at stake fighting for the Holger Danske resistance group. When their immediate superior, Aksel Winther, orders them into action against two German Abwehr officers, events start to get out of hand. Flame engages in conversation with the talented and intelligent Colonel Gilbert and for first time, Flame calls the soundness of the order he is about to execute into question...Something feels terribly wrong. Furthermore, when suspicion turns to his girlfriend, the beautiful and mysterious courier, Ketty, Flame begins to spot the outline of a different and mostly hidden agenda.
Product Reviews
Festival cause c l bre Ole Christian Madsen -- the director of critically championed prior efforts including Kira's Reason (2001) and Prague (2006) -- turns away from the domestic drama that characterized his earlier filmography with this unusual period thriller, adapted from historical events. Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen star, respectively, as Flame and Citron. As two members of the anti-Nazi Danish resistance during the Second World War, their activities predominantly consist of hunting down and rubbing out Denmark's most prominent Nazi collaborators, and thus furthering the way for the Allied cause. Although Madsen opts for conventional subject matter here, and even a traditional perspective given his film's anti-Nazi stance, his deglamorized presentation retains a certain uniqueness, with the two main characters presented not as conventional heroes, but thoroughly desperate characters from the dregs of society with nothing left to lose except for their own lives -- and sociopaths prone to the most sadistic acts of ultraviolence against the enemy. Citron fares worst, as an utterly irredeemable alcoholic and drug addict, crumbling beneath the weight of a miserable, rotten marriage and a less-than-glowing relationship with his young daughter. In touting the film, Madsen openly cited Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows (1969) as one of his key influences. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
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1 December 2009 |
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Universal |
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129 |
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1: USA, Canada |
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2.35:1 (Cinemascope), Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV |
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English, French |
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Dolby Digital Stereo, Danish, German |
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Discs:1 ~ Format:Ntsc ~ Region:1 ~ Country:Canada |
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Christian Berkel(Hoffmann), Claus Riis Ostergaard(Bananen), Flemming Enevold(Spex), Hanns Zischler(Gilbert), Jesper Christensen(Flame's Father), Lars Mikkelsen(Raven), Mads Mikkelsen(Citronen), Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt(Bodil), Peter Mogge Mygind(Aksel Winther), Stine Stengade(Ketty), Thure Lindhardt(Flame) |
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Art Director:Anja M ller, Art Director:Jens L ckmann, Art Director:Soeren Schwartzberg, Casting:Rie Hedegaard, Cinematographer:Jorgen Johansson, Co-producer:Carl L. Woebcken, Co-producer:Christoph Fisser, Co-producer:Kristina Hejoukova, Co-producer:Ralph Schwingel, Co-producer:Stefan Schubert, Composer (Music Score):Karsten Fundal, Director:Ole Christian Madsen, Executive Producer:Bo Ehrhardt, Executive Producer:Brigitte Hald, Executive Producer:Jorgen Ramskov, Executive Producer:Morten Kaufmann, Producer:Lars Bredo Rahbek, Producer:Nimbus Rights II Aps, Screenwriter:Lars K. Andersen, Screenwriter:Ole Christian Madsen |
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