Jagten / The Hunt

Maybe that's a post-production. I mean, the movie is shown on several film festivals yet. Maybe it will be the same in Belgium, France, Russia and the UK at the end of November. I think it had to start in Denmark first, because it's a Danish movie.

'Jagten' is nominated for the European Film Awards in five categories - you can find it here. And of course Mads got a nomination as best actor!

Wow! Very cool!
I hope they stream it on internet....and Mads gets the prize...

Well, I hope so, too. But not having seen 'Jagten' but 'Shame' I must say Michael Faßbender will be hard to beat. Plus Mads got an award last year - I am not too sure how this will affect the decision making process of the jurors... Btw: Are there jurors? Or who is deciding?

'Shame' is a remarkable film!

The German premiere of the Hunt was this weekend in Lübeck and the movie had won three Awards. It's so sad, that I didn't known that before, because I have friends in Lübeck, so I had the chance to visit them and watch this movie!

Please discuss the European Film Awards in this thread. Thank you!

An interesting interview with Thomas Vinterberg:

Quote :

Danish noir

Nov 20th 2012, 12:01 by E.F.

SET in small-town Denmark, “The Hunt” tells the story of Lucas, a schoolteacher who is accused of being a paedophile when a seven-year-old in his care claims he has abused her. A potent mix of rumour, innuendo and speculation creates a modern-day witch hunt alienating an innocent man from his community and everything he holds dear as he battles to clear his name. This turbulent and intense film is the latest offering from Thomas Vinterberg, a Danish director (pictured below).

Mr Vinterberg has explored the murky world of misplaced sexual desire before. “Festen” his well-received film from 1998 is a harrowing account of incest. “The Hunt” explores what can happen to someone who is falsely accused. Mads Mikkelsen (pictured above) exudes sensitivity and pathos in the lead role. The film has been critically acclaimed at this year’s film festivals and is coming to cinemas this month.

Scandinavians get “a weird satisfaction out of making dark tales”, Mr Vinterberg admits, but he highlights the importance of love and friendship in this film. The child of an intellectual hippy commune, he started making films in his twenties and co-founded the “Dogme 95” film movement. Mr Vinterberg struggled to find his feet after the success of “Festen”. But fourteen years later, he has come full circle.

The Economist spoke to Mr Vinterberg about Danish cinema, and the challenges of such a controversial story.

What inspired you to make “The Hunt”?

One evening, a well-known Danish children’s psychiatrist who was living in my street came to my door and said, “You did ‘Festen’, I am afraid there is another film you must do” and gave me some papers to read. I thanked him and just shelved them as this was happening to me every day in the supermarket. Eight years later I badly needed a psychiatrist myself, so I called him and then read the case materials on false child-abuse cases he originally gave me. This is how it came about.

Did you feel you had found incredibly powerful material for a film?

With every film you have to figure out whether what you have is really dramatic material. I grew up on a commune where everything was possible. There was a sense of togetherness, which I felt we have lost. Maybe, because of that, I feel a little sad that schoolteachers can’t hug a crying girl, or your daughter can’t give you a kiss in the street because people would feel awkward. I was also fascinated by “false memory syndrome” and about the amount of things that children can invent collectively.

What were the biggest challenges of making the film?

To avoid making a case story and avoid police courtrooms. That was very difficult because it is so tempting and [the cases were] great dramatic material. Another challenge was insisting Lucas was innocent because the audience wants the game of “did he do it or not?”

How did you brief the child actress playing Klara?

Annika Wedderkopp was seven years old, so she does not, and should not, understand sexuality. However, everything else was told to her. This film is slightly an attack on Western civilisation’s over-protection of children. I sometimes feel we victimise them a little bit. The sensitive nature was something we discussed first with her parents and they were happy to let us be frank with her. Annika didn’t care and was more interested in playing with her toys. She was only an actress because she could see that she impressed a bunch of grown-up people.

So there weren’t any awkward moments?

There was a moment when we had to spit in her face. That wasn’t a great moment. We actually replaced her with a stand-in for a bit so she could see someone spitting in someone else’s face and understand that it was nothing personal. I felt sad about doing that, but she smiled right after, so it was ok.

Has the film’s critical acclaim come as a surprise?

It always does but I don’t read reviews anymore as I take them far too personally. I always insist on being on thin ice and pushing the boundaries; that implies falling through sometimes.

How did you work with Mads Mikkelsen to create the character of Lucas?

We adjusted the character quite a bit. We softened him and made him more humble, against what Mads had been playing over the last couple of years. We found it opened him and the film up quite a bit. Lucas is a very civilised man who ends up head-butting people in the supermarket. Somehow, I think the film has become a comment on the weakened modern man, especially the weakened Scandinavian man, and this whole gender role thing that seems to be around Scandinavia at the moment.

Danish cinema is often dark and bleak. Why do you think this is?

I think it is part of our tradition. Maybe part of the reason is because it is just so dark over there. Maybe it is in the soul. I also think darkness is sometimes the most powerful way of telling about love when it is challenged.

You co-founded the “Dogme 95” cinema movement with Lars von Trier in 1995. What is its legacy?

“Dogma 95” was a riot against the conventions of film-making. It was playful, arrogant and full-hearted, an attempt to undress film-making—pure and naked, without taste. Then, in Cannes in 1998, it became the fashion. It suddenly became a very fancy dress and then it was over. At the same time it was implanted in people’s minds and became an inspiration for some. For me, it became a milestone.

"The Hunt" is in European cinemas now

source

In European cinemas but not in German ones... *sigh* Someone said, Mads is monumental in it. I want to see it for myself... NOW!

GAAAHHHH!!! On allocine.fr there is a) an interview with Mads and Thomas Vinterberg but also b) three scenes from the film until now unknown to me (you find them on the right side of the interview). As I thought this film - and especially Mads - seems to be very intense! March 28th is still so far away...

It's new to me. I should search more often after Mads-news.

Quote :

The Hunt: Mads Mikkelsen interview

HELEN BARLOW / 5 DECEMBER 2012

The Danish actor's Cannes-winning turn in The Hunt comes in a long line of outstanding performances.

Over the past year Mads Mikkelsen has been winning international awards and many believe it’s about time. There were standing ovations when he took out the best actor award for Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt in Cannes last May and this time last year he received a career tribute from The European Film Academy (EFA). A montage of his roles at the latter ceremony showed his astounding range, from his physically demanding turns for Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher, Bleeder, Pusher II, Valhalla Rising), to his gut-wrenching movies with Susanne Bier (Open Hearts, After the Wedding), to his English-language blockbuster roles (King Arthur, Casino Royale, Clash of the Titans, The Three Musketeers), to his stunning period turns (Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky in France and A Royal Affair in Denmark), to his hit comedic movies (The Green Butchers and Adam’s Apples) and his Emmy Award-winning Danish cop series, Unit One.

The 2011 European Film Awards ceremony was in fact a night when Denmark ruled, with Lars von Trier taking out the main prize for Melancholia and Bier the director gong for In a Better World. Interestingly, the conflicted doctor Mikkelsen might have played in Bier’s film was portrayed by another good-looking Scandinavian actor, Sweden’s Mikael Persbrandt, soon to be seen as Beorn in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Unlike mild-mannered Mikkelsen, Persbrandt, who is also famous on Scandinavian television for playing tough cops, has been is a bit of a wild man over the years.

“A bit?!” Mikkelsen retorts with a brimming smile. “We go way back, me and Mikael. We even made an arty black and white short film [2002’s Now by Danish director Simon Staho] where we played a gay couple. It’s not a straightforward story. It’s very dramatic. But we do slip the tongue in!”

Mikkelsen shares an even stronger camaraderie with Stellan Skarsgård, who had long been Scandinavia’s biggest international star—until his son Alexander became a vampire on True Blood. While there’s never been a sense of competition between Mikkelsen and Skarsgård Snr., the tall outgoing Swede stole the show at the European Film Awards with his hilarious recollections and musings as he presented Mikkelsen with his gong, before the pair partook in a big bear hug.

“Obviously, Stellan stole my moment because nobody could remember who got the award but everyone remembered his speech!” the more understated Mikkelsen recalls. “That’s his typical fucking style! But it was such fun.”

This year Mikkelsen missed out at the EFAs, though Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm won for best screenplay. Interestingly, their story is more prescient now than when it was made as it follows a teacher who is wrongfully accused of child molestation. In many ways, though, the story focuses on inter-personal relationships, in the manner of Vinterberg’s 1998 Dogme film, Festen (The Celebration), which depicted a disastrous family wedding.

The Hunt examines how teachers and social workers react following a genuine misunderstanding, so that Mikkelsen’s Lucas becomes a hated outcast in his small tight-knit community. They actually convince a kindergarten pupil into accusing Lucas of molestation. Mikkelsen explains this was based on fact.

“There was a case in Norway where a social worker essentially put words into the kid’s mouth. But we made it into our own story. Our film is much more about how fragile life is and about how fragile friendship is. My character is up against irrational emotions, and they kick me. It’s like I’m in a Kafka novel. So what can I do from there? A lot of people ask why Lucas isn’t reacting, but he is reacting constantly. The problem is, who should he hit? Everybody is doing it out of love, there is nobody to hit, there is nobody to be angry at. I can't hit my friend, I can't hit the girl in the kindergarten. So it’s super frustrating.”

The film examines the mores of modern society where the rules have become a little inflexible, notes Mikkelsen. “We are not allowed to take a photo of our little son in the swimming pool because there are other kids in there. Things are getting absurd. Obviously people are making these rules because they love their kids, but there has to be a balance in there somewhere—and we’re having a hard time finding it. Of course, there are a lot of sick people out there and a lot of kids who are not telling a lie. It’s not a story about trying to defend the man who is wrongly accused. We are trying to tell a story about how big, big love can become big, big fear and implode society.”

Mikkelsen has never been into hunting, he says. Born in the Østerbro area of Copenhagen, he is the son of Bente Christiansen and Henning Mikkelsen, a cab driver. His elder brother Lars is also an actor.

“I was a very small kid actually, but I was very athletic,” he recalls of his early years. “I played handball and I was a total sports freak at school.” This physical agility led to his initially pursuing a career as a dancer. “The transition from dance to drama was easy enough because I was in love with the drama of dancing and then I decided after a long time to just do the full drama package instead of waiting for some dramatic dance to come along.”

It was while attending the Århus Theatre School that Mikkelsen made his film debut in Refn’s first feature, Pusher. The Drive director had risen to fame together with Mikkelsen, and at one point the actor admitted he would do almost anything for his old friend, including battling it out for months near-naked in the freezing Scottish Highlands in Valhalla Rising. While they have planned to reunite for a long-gestating Hollywood heist movie, it has yet to happen.

Keen to strike while the iron is hot, Mikkelsen has been pursuing other English-language projects. He recently filmed the mob thriller The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, co-starring Carey Mulligan and Shia LaBeouf, and has just played the most famous villain of them all, Hannibal Lecter, in a 13-episode series titled Hannibal, an adaptation of Thomas Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon. Hugh Dancy plays Will Graham, the criminal profiler who is on the hunt for a serial killer with the FBI and enlists Dr. Lecter's help with the case.

“I do whatever I find interesting and that can be a blockbuster because it’s a very entertaining family film that my kid can see, or something like The Hunt because it’s super radical and very dark. I take it from what my gut feeling is and obviously after talking to the director as well. I am not planning my career. If you plan your career you can only be disappointed. But if you do the things that you find interesting, or at least make you happy, it will become a career.”

The 2012 European Film Awards screen December 6 at 9:30pm on SBS TWO. The Hunt will appear at the Perth Festival from January 7-20, with other states to follow.

Source: SBS

GAAAHHH - sometimes it is wonderful to live in a capital like Berlin!
In Berlin the embassies of Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Danmark share a building known as the Nordic Embassies (wonderful architecture! Pictures can be found on their website). They are trying very busily to interest the common Berliner in nordic culture. And they just sent an email announcing a nordic film festival: they will screen The Hunt on February 1st!!! Two months before the official cinema release! I know where I will be February 1st!!!

Glückspilz!

Mensch scottie, wir haben aber auch immer Pech, oder?

Two months left for the rest of Germany. That's so unfair. I want to see that movie too, but I haven't got time to go to Berlin.

Its worse in America - I have no idea when it will get here!

Just came home from the cinema - and I am still speechless... Let me just say: every minute you have to wait to watch that film is worth it! :bow:

And Berlin isn't the only city where Jagten is/was shown. Next (and last) city is Düsseldorf: 16.02.12 at the Metropol. I have an job meeting Tuesday evening but I am thinking about postponing it to watch Jagten again as they screen it once more... Just incredible...

Apparently Jagten had his Swiss cinema release. On Swiss tv there is a (more than deserved) high praise of Mads and his acting skills. Unfortunately it is only in German. And I am to stupid to embed it, but here's the link.

Damn, THANX for the link!
Awesome.

Well, I prolly have to wait for the DVD, because there is no way that movie will be shown in a cinema close to me.

annesrake wrote:

Apparently Jagten had his Swiss cinema release. On Swiss tv there is a (more than deserved) high praise of Mads and his acting skills. Unfortunately it is only in German. And I am to stupid to embed it, but here's the link.

Thank you. It's always nice to see, that there are some other peoples too, who see that great talent of Mads. My friends always are making jokes about my "love" for Mads. Before I moved last week, I've made for one member of our gospel choir a little photo-book of mine - my c.v. and my hobbies. And I've made two pages about Mads - one with one of the wallpapers I've made and one with a picture of Mads I've made in Berlin. It's funny, because my parents and my sisters have no place in it. (But I didn't had the time to find pictures from everything I love. So there are only about 60 pictures and I've made thousands by myself.)

But it's still hard to wait on that film. I'm sure it will be thrilling and I will be impressed - much more than in other films. I still love to criticize movies of Mads, even if he is such a brilliant actor.

@scottie
Can't you visit someone in a bigger city? After my movement I'm back in a little city too, but I will visit some friends (hopefully) maybe in Halle or in Dresden, so I can watch that movie. And I want to go with some friends. I was in "A royal affair" with some others and they said, that it was a good film. But the Hunt will be better, I suppose. So that's the chance for them to see a really good movie with Mads!

The Hungarian premiere is in an hour!

Should I move to Hungary or not? Should I move to Hungary or not?

Only one month and a few days left for the German premiere. Can't wait.

Yeah! The movie is shown at cinema! I mean at the 28.3., but at a cinema I know. That's a good reason to visit my friends and see this great movie at least. Can't wait, but that are soo good news!

I finally saw "The Hunt" in Germany. I first saw it last Saturday in German and then I saw it on Monday again, but this time in Danish with subtitles.

This movie is very, very impressive. I love it and I want to buy the DVD. Even, if Mads on big screen is much better.

I've tried not to read to much reviews before, not to know a lot of details of the movie. But of course I knew how the story goes before.

I really love the character of Lucas. He is - like his new girlfriend said - so cute!!! Very charming and it's so funny, when he plays with the kids. You can see, how he loves them. Very beautiful. I can understand, why Klara fell in love with him. I would do the same, if I were on her place. And she made this heart of perls for him with so much love.

Of course her lie was bad, but she didn't made it to cause a hard life for Lucas. She was only dissappointed. And the whole movie, she is very, very sweet and charming. You want to hug her or make some fun with her. And I love her game not to step on the stripes on the street. I've played that game too with my sister when I was a child.

I love the son of Lucas too. He's very sympathetic, frightened but strong. He has a very hard life too and he deserves a better life.

Of course I have some problems with the reaction of the friends of Lucas, but on the other hand: They only protect their children and you can never know, if someone isn't guilty like you know it as the viewer of this movie. Because only the person himself knows truely, whether he/she done something cruel or not. So it's impossible to say: The friends of Lucas are the bad ones in the movie.

The movie is very good from the beginning till the end. And Mads is extraordinary. Wow! You want to hug him all the time and be with him, just to let him not feel so lonely. Because you know how cute he is in reality.

I can't say, that I had to cry while watching the movie. There are of course some very sad moments, but I didn't cry. Maybe I've missed the music, but there is some great music in the movie too. There was another woman in the movie and she cried the last 15 Minutes of the movie I think.

By the way: The cinema was nearly complete full in the German version. I think there were about 100 or more seats. I was really surprised, because it was only an Art-house-cinema.

While watching I thought, that there was no need for the sex scene of Mads in the movie. It was clear, that both would have sex in the night, so the scene could have stopped before. Because this scene wasn't thaaaaaat nice, that you need it. I loved more the scene when the parents of Klara hugged each other and you didn't saw if there was more this night or not. Because this scene was very emotional and there was no need of showing some sex. Maybe there is just a to big overflow of sex or naked persons every day, that I want less sex in movies.

Well, I really love this movie and now I have to look after the DVD, because I want to see it again.

By the way: I bought the poster in the cinema! Yeah the very impressive picture of Mads! I really love his look in the movie. He doesn't look that old like in the Royal affair. His hair was nice - like all of him. And he doesn't smoke!!!!

Hopefully, he makes some of that great movies again - and then he must win the Oscar for it, because he deserves it.

I finally saw The Hunt, too, yesterday. The film was also dubbed in German (I have no idea where to watch in original and even though the dubbed voice of Mads wasn`t as nice as in The Door it was okay...of course nothing ever compares to the original )

I have to agree with Luin, the film is very impressive. Even though I got very frustrated with Lucas' so called friends the film was very enjoyable... if you can call it that, regarding the topic and everything. Also it made me feel quite conflicted... on the one side the parents' reaction is to some extent understandable, the overall shunning by the towns people is really despicable. This sort of mob justice reminded me of a case not too long ago in Germany in which indeed a little girl was abused and a 17-year-oldboy was arrested because people had seen him close to the crime scene...shortly after a whole lynch mob amassed via facebook messages etc. and they had to take the family under police protection...only a day later they found out the boy had had nothing to do with it, but the damage had already been done. It is really teribble that these things do happen. People are so easy to judge even without proper proof. When I think of these things I am really glad that Germany no longer has death penalty.... Ok that got kinda off topic quickly... but it is really one of those films that makes you really think about human nature, as such it is absolutely brilliant.

So if you have the chance go see it!

It's so great, that you have watched it finally.

Yeah it's very sad and unsympathetic in which way Lucas friends react. I can't understand it, because if you have a friend, then you trust him, because that's what's friendship is about: Love and trust. So I would talk with my friend about it and hear his statement. But nobody gave Lucas a chance …

I remember that story about that 17 year old boy. It's very bad.

I want to buy the DVD, because this movie is really great. But I have to wait a little bit till that day.

Today I've won the DVD of The Hunt! That's great, because I love this movie. I can watch it again and again - in German or Danish. And there are Deleted Scenes and Outtakes. And Interviews. I've only paid 45 Cent for it (post stamp).  

Congratulations!!!