You Are Not Alone (1978) Review

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(More customer reviews)DU ER IKKE ALENE (You Are Not Alone) is a 1978 Danish landmark film written by Lasse Nielsen and Bent Petersen and directed by Nielsen and Ernst Johansen. When the period during which this film was made, a time when gay theme movies were all but verboten, this little film is a brave, delicate, tender, unpretentious tale of the bonding, both emotional and physical, that occurs between two young boys in a boarding school in Denmark. The story develops slowly and insidiously, a fact that makes some viewers find it boring or slow. But for this viewer the pacing of the story is intricately involved in this tale of the fragile first attractions that occur in young boys: everything is new, and nothing is rushed - it just happens and evolves.
Kim (Peter Bjerg) is a young prepuberal youth living with his parents: his father (Ove Sprogøe) is headmaster of a boys' school and his mother (Elin Reimer) is in line with the father's hardline standards. Though not a student in the school, Kim does associate with the young high school age boys and finds one lad in particular, Bo (Anders Agensø), a role model who shows concern for Kim and with whom Kim bonds, emotionally and eventually physically. The manner in which this occurs is never acted out but merely suggested in the most discreet and beautiful way. But we watch as this bond develops more strongly, with each of the boys nascent to the situation in which they find themselves.
The classmates are a varied group - normal kids in a normal school situation - until one of the boys Ole (Ole Meyer), who is somewhat of a trouble-maker, posts magazine pictures of nude women in his dorm room. Reprimanded by the headmaster he is put on probation and when he ultimately posts the contraband pictures in the dorm restroom, he is threatened with expulsion. His classmates band together to protect him and Ole is maintained in the school.
Other sidebar stories that pepper the screen are swimming hole escapades where the injury of one of the boys calls forth the empathy of the entire class; there is a vignette where an older woman tries to teach one of the boys the beauties of physical love; there is a shower scene that finds Bo and Kim gently observing each other; and there is a class project for graduation that is supposed to be an enactment of the 10 Commandments, one episode of which is assigned to a student filmmaker.
It is this finished class project film, shown before the faculty and the parents, that is based on the commandment 'Love thy neighbor' and it is a beautifully wrought scene of Bo and Kim embracing and kissing in one of the more honest and sensitive moments on film. The 'non-story' film ends without an audience response: it simply fades away to a tune that speaks of 'You are not alone - there is someone like you ahead.' No, this is not a film about nudity or raw sex. Instead this film is a brave exploration of the normal period in growth when boys search for role models and find their first sensations of love emerging. It is delicate, beautifully filmed and acted, and is one of the early forays into same sex love that works on every level. Grady Harp, December 06

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Unflinchingly honest and boundlessly lyrical, the exploration of sexual awakening in You Are Not Alone was a turning point in world cinema. At a Danish boy’s boarding school in the late 1970s, Bo and Kim are naive young classmates, whose friendship blossoms into a childlike love affair. When their friend is expelled for a prank involving lewd posters, the student body bands together to strike against the school and its authoritarian headmaster. Lasse Nielsen and Ernst Johansen’s classic film is a groundbreaking meditation on innocence, rebellion and love.

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Valhalla Rising (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)A peculiar though fascinating art house excursion, the 2009 film "Valhalla Rising" is a symbolic viking adventure about the discovery of the new world. To understand this film's aura, it should be noted it makes Terrence Malick's similarly-themed The New World feel like a summer blockbuster romp. Danish writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn has carved a bold name for himself with such challenging works as Pusher Trilogy and Bronson (Widescreen Edition), and this expedition into the muddy and bloody age of 1000 AD continues his refusal of convention.
There is nothing pleasant about Refn's nightmarish world (filmed on location in Scotland) where men wear sodden rags, tromp through mud and wage wet battles to the death. An oppressive fog covers all, and scarred men stare quietly into space desperately searching for definition. Small campfires provide little warmth, and what few women are seen are naked and chained together as slaves. Harsh does not begin to scratch the surface of Refn's haunting imagery (aided by Morten Søborg's brilliant cinematography and a fascinating musical score of Peter Kyed and Peter Peter). Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen displays unique presence as a one-eyed viking, appropriately named One Eye. He's evidently a captive, residing in a wooden cage and carefully fed like a lion by the orphaned blond boy Are (Maarten Stevenson). On a regular basis, he's dragged from his prison, chained to a post and forced to fight to the death versus combatants while weary warlords sit nearby and wager the outcome. There are no cheers for his victories, punctuated by the sounds of crushed skulls and broken bones.
One Eye eventually kills his captors and, with the boy gingerly trailing, silently travels cross country where they encounter a meager band of warriors who have converted to Christianity. They are preparing for a Crusade to Jerusalem, and reluctantly recruit One Eye, whose warrior legend precedes him. Soon, trapped on a meager long ship within a mysterious mist, they become hopelessly lost and depressed. The mists finally part, and before them is the ominous but sunny, tree-covered land of the new world. Quietly hiking through tall grasses, they encounter signs of Native Americans, including burial scaffolds and ghost-like arrows thumping into the bodies of unlucky comrades. These desperate vikings plant a tall, wooden cross in the virgin soil, utterly convinced they've arrived in Hell. Through it all, One Eye, with his boy sidekick in tow, silently leads the way through this mysterious world, disturbing even to him.
"Valhalla Rising" includes multiple dream sequences drenched in red, long continuous shots of wind-blown landscapes and ultimately, scenes of men sitting on rocks for minutes at a time staring into the void of quiet space. These are not spirited warriors by any stretch of the imagination, but terrified souls lost within the tides of worlds far more powerful than their swords. "Valhalla Rising" is a vision quest gone mad, completely lacking in the romantic conventions one expects from this period. Think The Vikings, or to a far lessor extent Pathfinder and the all-but-forgotten Lee Majors' B-flick The Norseman, where lusty vikings fight slow-motion battle sequences against tribes of fierce Native Americans. You'll get none of that here.
There are multiple inspirations Refn appears to be channeling, including Roman Polanski's Macbeth, the already-mentioned Malick, Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God and, perhaps most apparent of all, the experimental works of Kenneth Anger (The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 2) including his famous film Lucifer Rising [VHS].
I have always respected Anger's purposefully obscure films, where story is sacrificed for experimental, dream-like imagery. This is the true promised land of Refin's brutal journey. With a larger budget, he's taken Anger a step further, though fueled by equally potent doses of LSD. The minimum amount of dialog, usually raising more questions than answering, further carves a moody land of mystery and death. Insisting upon multiple interpretations, "Valhalla Rising" is an example of an incredibly gifted filmmaker reworking the tired conventions of period adventure, cutting through the surface, and pulling out the bloody results beneath.

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Acclaimed Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn follows his worldwide smash Pusher trilogy and the widely praised Bronson with his most daring film yet. Valhalla Rising is a brutally beautiful Viking film with international star Mads Mikkelsen ( Casino Royale, Clash Of The Titans ) as One Eye, a chained prisoner forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of his captors. When One Eye escapes, he stumbles upon a group of warriors headed to the Crusades. But fate has something else in store, as the men drift into the New World, where savages stalk them one by one in increasingly violent ways. Is One Eye an avenging angel or just the guiltiest of them all? The answers can be found in this ruthless, hallucinatory, one of a kind journey.

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