jpjensen Reviews

Mille, Marie og mig (1937)

The complications are rather amusing

[9/10 · 21 May 1999]

A female medical student I 1937 was expected to be a very decent and hardworking person - and indeed Ellen Klausen is - complete with tie and big glasses. And a bit in love with the handsome professor in anatomy too. But she earns money for her study as the wild and almost sexy jazz-club singer "Mille". The professor, bachelor off cause, meets "Mille", and believes that she is not Ellen, but Ellen's sister. Later the hardworking student gets yet another undercover job, as the very simpleminded and hardworking maid "Marie." What a surprise - the same professor meets Marie too, believing she must be a third sister... The complications are rather amusing, and the end won't surprise anyone. But the gem value in this oldtimer lies in the Marguerite Viby's wonderful triple role.

Ice Palace (1987)

Very forbidden feelings in icy Norway

[16 August 1998]

This film don't look like anything else. It is very slow moving, almost boring, and most of the pictures are close-ups of not very expressive faces. It's set in a very cold and very remote Norwegian mountain area in the thirties - not the most amusing place in the world. But very decent indeed. And then something starts sparkling. The two 12 year old girls meets a frosty evening, it is the first time that the kind and completely ordinary Siss visits the outsider Unn, who lives alone with her aunt. Unn shows to be an outsider indeed, having her room decorated by posters of pin-up girls , and soon suggest, that they take off their clothes. After doing that, Unn cries and admits, that she will not be let into Heaven, when she dies.

Siss promise to keep Unns special feelings a secret. The very next day Unn dies in the big ice palace (a frozen waterfall in the nearby river)- nobody knows, if it was an accident or suicide, but Siss is left with feelings of guilt. What she really thinks, and what other people think, is not quite obvious. But this strange film is fascinating in its own odd way. There is some nudity and scary scenes, but that won't offend any minors, because they would be bored away long before it starts.

Celia (1989)

Growing up in Australia in the 50's

[9/10 · 16 August 1998]

Celia is a 9 year old girl with a lot of imagination. She lives with her family in South Australia in the fifties. She has a strong will, lots of charm and wit. Her family are communists, which makes them kind of outcasts in the society, and Celia has to fight mobbing schoolmates as well as discriminating teachers. She manages to do that very well. All this gives a rather frank and funny description of childhood problems, and Rebecca Smart plays her part extremely well. But Celia is not just a charming kid - when she hates, she really hates. And when she fantasizes about mysterious evil animals, she can't quite distinguish fantasy from reality. Which might seem rather normal, but Celia lives in a house, where a loaded gun is available... This movie is very entertaining, giving a varied picture of growing-up - and one can really feel the emotions and confusions, which is a part of being nine years old. At times the film becomes perhaps a bit too confusing - it can be quite difficult to follow the girls vivid imagination. But I'll guess, you have the same problem in the real world...

Children's Island (1980)

A boys view of lust and life

[15 August 1998]

10 year old Renee lives in a Stockholm suburb alone with his mother. She has only limited time and heart for her boy. Her lover Stig is a scary and frustrated loser. When Renee's mother leaves home for a summer job in another town, Renee is "deported" to a summer camp. But he chose to stay home alone, living one last summer of innocent childhood in the city. He soon meets and befriends some of the lower existences and gradually slides towards criminal activities. The boy has a very special live-philosophy: Lust is what makes grownups crazy - and only children are sane. And his experience of miserable and selfish adults only supports this view. But the boy knows, that he himself will come into puberty - where everything ends! Therefore he makes a daily inspection of his genitals in search of pubic hair. He thinks that hair is the sign of corruption, and he befriends an adult young woman with no hair at all. He thinks she is "pure", but the bald woman turns out to be just as lustfull and selfish as everyone else. There are a lot of dirty words, sexual references and nudity in this movie, which might offend some. It could even be considered (child)-pornographic. But it is a highly artistic and very conscious film, and it has been shown several times on Swedish and Danish TV, public channel prime time. The film gives a very remarkable and outstanding, but also depressing, view of childhood.

Krigernes børn (1979)

A very bad cold-war childrens film

[1/10 · 14 August 1998]

In the 70's, a lot of Danish intellectuals and film-makers had socialist ideas. There were a lot of films, telling about the inhumanity of capitalism. This one is about a group of children fleeing from a cruel stoneage society with violence, exploitation and sexual abuse. The title: Krigernes børn = Children of the warriors. The children make a timetravel and end up in a modern capitalistic society. Which soon turns out to be just as unfair and violent as the stoneage society. It comes to a sort of confrontation, I guess nobody quite understands, whats really happening in this bizarre movie. But the real world turned out even more bizarre than the movie. It could be viewed as irrelevant - but just after the films release, one of the actors, a 15-year old girl, committed suicide, jumping in front of a Copenhagen commuter train. Leaving a note, telling that she was forced to have sex with the director during the film sessions! The director admitted, was jailed and made no more films. And everybody has been trying to forget this film ever since!