From Denmark, Mifunes sidste sang—literally, Mifune’s Last Song—is a charmer among the Dogme 95 films. It was written by Anders Thomas Jensen and the director, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen. This lovely, touching romantic comedy celebrates life after whoredom and marriage.
Kresten has just married Claire, for whose father he works in a business firm in Copenhagen. But they both dump him, with divorce papers and without a severance package, when his father dies and he retreats to the ancestral farm, Lollard, a small island. It seems he hasn’t been candid, hiding from sweetheart and boss his background of poverty, his mother’s suicide and his mentally challenged brother, Rud (Jesper Asholt, delightfully restrained—best supporting actor, Bodil Awards, Robert Festival). Meanwhile, he hires Liva as his housekeeper. But she, too, has secrets. She is a mainland prostitute in hiding from what she believes to be a psychopathic stalker who always knows her phone number no matter how many times she changes it. Soon they are all joined by Liva’s bratty teenaged brother, Bjarke, who has been tossed out of boarding school. Needless to say, Liva and Kresten fall in love, although Liva is certain that her trade, once it is revealed, will muck up things between them. (Apparently she is unfamiliar with Bus Stop.) And while Bjarke at first ridicules Rud, Rud’s sweetness gives the boy a sentimental education that would have been off-limits at school. In another context, Liva further instructs her brother, “Never feel so sorry for yourself that you piss on other people.”
It is a wonder that this film is as fresh and funny as it is—and without icky sentimentality or selfconscious, self-congratulatory liberal enlightenment. Its spirit matches its unaffected natural light.
Yes, the title refers to you-know-who. How? See the film.
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MIFUNE (Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, 1999)
By grunesFrom Denmark, Mifunes sidste sang—literally, Mifune’s Last Song—is a charmer among the Dogme 95 films. It was written by Anders Thomas Jensen and the director, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen. This lovely, touching romantic comedy celebrates life after whoredom and marriage.
Kresten has just married Claire, for whose father he works in a business firm in Copenhagen. But they both dump him, with divorce papers and without a severance package, when his father dies and he retreats to the ancestral farm, Lollard, a small island. It seems he hasn’t been candid, hiding from sweetheart and boss his background of poverty, his mother’s suicide and his mentally challenged brother, Rud (Jesper Asholt, delightfully restrained—best supporting actor, Bodil Awards, Robert Festival). Meanwhile, he hires Liva as his housekeeper. But she, too, has secrets. She is a mainland prostitute in hiding from what she believes to be a psychopathic stalker who always knows her phone number no matter how many times she changes it. Soon they are all joined by Liva’s bratty teenaged brother, Bjarke, who has been tossed out of boarding school. Needless to say, Liva and Kresten fall in love, although Liva is certain that her trade, once it is revealed, will muck up things between them. (Apparently she is unfamiliar with Bus Stop.) And while Bjarke at first ridicules Rud, Rud’s sweetness gives the boy a sentimental education that would have been off-limits at school. In another context, Liva further instructs her brother, “Never feel so sorry for yourself that you piss on other people.”
It is a wonder that this film is as fresh and funny as it is—and without icky sentimentality or selfconscious, self-congratulatory liberal enlightenment. Its spirit matches its unaffected natural light.
Yes, the title refers to you-know-who. How? See the film.
Tags: Dogme 95
This entry was posted on June 4, 2009 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Formal Capsule Film Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.