1900-1940, silent cinema, between religion and eroticism
The first vamp in the history of cinema is Danish: Asta Nielsen, who became a silent film icon following a dance scene considered highly erotic in Afgrunden in 1910(The Abyss), which was censored in the United States. Another star of Danish silent cinema is Carl Theodor Dreyer, although he was long shunned in his country and first recognized abroad, especially in France. He had difficulty finding financing in Denmark because of his pessimism and his taste for the supernatural, which displeased producers. Among his masterpieces: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), filmed in France with Renée Jeanne Falconetti, and Ordet(The Word, 1954).
Genre films
Most of the films from the 1930s-1980s were comedies, with the exception of the film noir films of actress and director Bodil Ipsen, co-directed with Lau Lauritzen Jr. In 1942, Afsporet was the first film of this genre, a psychological drama about an erotic relationship between a married woman with amnesia and a thief. Their film De Røde enge(The Earth Will Be Red) - about the Danish resistance - won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1946. The Danish film award is called Bodil Ipsen: the Bodilprisen.
In the 1960s-1970s, Danish erotic films began to attract the attention of audiences around the world. Denmark became the first country to legalize pornography, which gave it a reputation for being sultry and avant-garde.
1980s: international recognition
It is especially since 1988 that Danish cinema marks the international scene when Gabriel Axel's Babette's Feast wins an Oscar. The story is set after the Commune of 1871, when Babette, a young French woman, enters the service of two puritan sisters, daughters of a pastor, in a small village in Denmark.
That same year, Bille August received the Palme d'Or at Cannes for Pelle le conquérant, then a second time in 1992 for Les Meilleures Intentions. He is one of the nine rare directors to have received this prestigious award twice!
While he twice won the CST award for technical artist at Cannes, in 1984 for Element of Crime, then in 1991 for Europa, Lars von Trier was noticed by the critics as much for his formal research as for the violence staged in his works. After a television mini-series that held all of Denmark in suspense: Riget(The Hospital and its Ghosts in French) broadcast between 1994 and 1997, the director totally convinced of his talent with Breaking the Waves (1996): winning the Robert 1997 (the highest distinction of Danish cinema), the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, and obtaining a great success in theaters in European countries.
Thanks to the Robert 1998, which went to Barbara by Nils Malmros, the public could discover or rediscover the Faroe Islands. Shot in the old districts of Hoyvík and Tórshavn, the film is the second adaptation of the eponymous novel published in 1939 by the Faroese writer Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen. It is the story of Beinta Broberg, who married three successive Faroese pastors.
Dogme95
A movement launched by several Danish directors, including Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in 1995, Dogma95 sets out ten commandments that reject all artifice (music, lighting, set design, fixed camera, etc.). Considering that Hollywood, expensive productions and special effects had harmed cinema, they took a vow of chastity by imposing hand-held cameras, natural light, intradialectal music (whose source must be contextualized within the film) and by encouraging experiments that push the limits of acting (including unsimulated sex scenes). Among the films labeled Dogme95 are Vinterberg's Festen, awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998, Von Trier's Les Idiots , Harmony Korine's Julien Donkey Boy and Susanne Bier's Open Hearts .
2000s
Danish cinema, whose reputation is now established, continues to distinguish itself through international awards and collaborations, as well as the arrival of new figures.
Initially a Dogma filmmaker, Susanne Bier is breaking away from this and gaining international recognition. She was nominated in 2006 for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film with After the Wedding, but the consecration comes in 2011 for Revenge with a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Between 1996 and 2005, Nicolas Winding Refn released the Pusher trilogy which made him known to the general public and launched the career of Mads Mikkelsen. This iconic Danish actor was revealed by his cold and nervous performance as James Bond's nemesis in Casino Royale in 2006. In 2012, the actor won the Best Actor Award for his role in Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt . In 2020, the actor and director are again reunited for the comedy-drama Drunk, which questions the benefits and harms of alcohol - a winning bet, it wins the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Then there's The Danish Girl (2016), which, although directed by British director Tom Hooper, is based on the story of Danish woman Lili Elbe, born Einar Wegener, the first person to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 1930. The film won the Queer Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
TV series
The American crime series The Killing is adapted from the Danish series Forbrydelsen created by Søren Sveistrup. The second season won the award for best European production at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in 2010.
Critically acclaimed series author: Adam Price. Among his creations: Borgen (2012) follows the rise to power of a woman in Denmark, which although fictional, recalls the life of Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the country's former prime minister. Also In the Name of the Father (2017) depicts a family of pastors, struggling with their demons. He is currently collaborating with Michael Dobbs, creator of House of Cards , on a new political series to watch closely.
For a total immersion in social issues and Faroese landscapes, do not miss Trom ( 2022): ecology, pollution, pilot whales ... Everything is there. More fantastic, in 2022 on Netflix, Equinox, a Danish mini-series by Tea Lindeburg or The Investigations of Dan Sommerdahl by Lolita Bellstar, an adaptation of Anna Grue's successful thrillers. Released on DVD, FLEE is an animation-documentary film (2022) that evokes homosexuality, both in Afghanistan and in Denmark, migration, survival, following the life of its hero, Amin.
