Tuesday 20 September 2011

En Familie - A Family

2010 by Pernille Fischer Christensen - Danish movie

We see so many family movies from across the world. There are few actually, which depict a real family. Of course, life in a family is different to each and every family. So it is difficult to say, which is the real cinema of a real family.

Rheinwald family runs a dynasties old bakery. When the father, who manages the business, is cleared of a suspected illness, his loving daughter Ditte, who runs a gallery, decide to take up a new job in New York and wants to move out with her boy friend. But then the father's health fails again.

The beginning of the movie was very charming but later slowly the pace went down, typical of serious art house movies. This is a serious movie about a family, about the struggles within the family, when the central figure is failing.

I especially liked the relationship between Ditte and her father. So were the final scenes of the women taking care of the male body. The movie also reaffirms the fact that it is women who always have to make serious sacrifices when it comes to the matter of a decision making between personal life, career and family.

At the same time, the marriage of the father and the celebrations were telling us clearly what was going to happen next. I did feel that the script writer wasn't sure how next to take the movie to the second half, so went for it this way, the easy way. However, the final scene was really a difference, like a dessert after an intelligentsia meal.

A really serious movie, which has brilliant performances by two actors, Jesper Christernsen as the father and Rene Maria Christensen as Ditte. The former especially, was truly brilliant. Could be a lesson for actors around the world, from popular movies, how to act sick. Brilliant cinematography too.