Take a little dance, Mads.
We think of nordic Happiness, in Danish well-being and our heads are flooded with enviable images: steaming coffees and chocolates, scented candles, wood, nature. But they give as much envy as they suggest fantasy. Unreality. Something that we do not quite believe no matter how much they swear to be the happiest countries in the world And it seems that we were not so far off in our skepticism.
has had to come the most thuggish Dane of all (of many), Thomas Vinterberg, to tell us in his new movie, Another round, that there in the north they are as we are here, bored, and they also need excuses to remind themselves to embrace and celebrate life more.
Another round of Juvé & Camps, please.
Something like that happened to Vinterberg himself. One of the founders of Dogma 95, together with Lars Von Trier, Raised in a hippie commune, the director was reaching a worrying creative comfort. Among his latest films, two projects in English (Far from the madding crowd, Kursk), scripts written by others, which were also interesting and liberating for him, but which kept him trapped in a too controlled maturity. Then crossed his path the theory of the philosopher and Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud. According to him, We are all born with 0.05% less alcohol in our blood. According to him, with a drink in the body "we are more creative, more open, the conversation rises, we are braver", says the director of Celebration.
From there and around that theory, Vinterberg began to build a film that would celebrate alcohol because he realized the role that drunkenness had played in history, from Hemingway to Churchill. He himself admits that he wrote one of his best films, The hunt, with a bottle of cognac by the side. But the more he thought about it, the more he saw her rough edges, her friendly face and her dark face. "Alcohol can get people high, but it can also kill them," he says. And what he found in those extra drinks was an excuse to talk about the boredom and excessive control we exert in our comfortable Western lives and how we try to overcome it.
Lose control to find fun.
“There has to be an element of risk in your life, of regaining curiosity about life, when you get to a safe zone in this Western civilization and, particularly, in a small country like mine, the risk is to fall into boredom, disappointment and things like that”, Vinteberg explains. Come on, not a trace of hygge.
A word that should not be in the vocabulary of the four protagonists of Another round (led by Mads Mikkelsen): four high school teachers in their forties, married, divorced, bored, without enthusiasm for their families or their work, who take the theory of the Norwegian psychiatrist literally and check what alcohol does to their behavior. But they go too far and another Danish word appears that also does not have a concise definition: Druck (the original title). “It's like drinking a lot, but a lot, a lot. It is a very strong word. It cannot be translated (into English)”, explains Thomas Vinterberg.
Mads Mikkelsen is Martin.
The experiment for the Danish director himself it continued to be a celebration but not of alcohol, but of life. A crusade that ended up being deeply personal when, four days after filming began, his eldest daughter, Ida, died in a car accident. The decision was difficult, but supported by his team, he decided to go ahead, dedicate the film to her. He wanted to talk about losing control and the most uncontrollable thing had passed him by. He decided to turn that bitter drink into a final dance (enjoyed by Mikkelsen) that, with even more strength, embrace life and love.
The end of boredom.