#klovn

A/N: Hello everyone! Since Druk (Another Round) won an oscar, the first danish movie in like 7 years by the way, and I am very proud of that. I thought, maybe riding off that movies success, people might want to explore the culture and movies of my country, Denmark. So, as a proud danish person, and lover of cinema in general, I thought I would give you all some tips and tricks I have learned along the way. Which movies to just avoid, which are musts! And which are just, like, why don't we leave this genre alone. (Full disclosure tho, I have not seen every danish movie ever made, and some I haven't watched since I was a kid, so I might remember them better than they are. So, this is by no means a complete list at all).

So, going off of Druk (Another Round, I will refer to all movies by their danish names and then put their english title or what I would translate it to, in a parenthasis, cool? Cool.). Druk, is a very good example of what danish cinema has to offer.

First off. Denmark is a small scandinavian country;

Yeah, that little small red blob there, is where I live. (You see me? ;) ), we are a bit of a weird culture; we have more pigs than people, love to eat said pigs with sovs or what you would call gravy, only browner and thicker (its amazing). We were vikings, has the worlds oldest flag and one of the oldest monarki's. We haven't historically done too much since being vikings (Our french revolution was pretty peaceful, and we basically rolled over when the germans invaded us in the second world war, after doing nothing in the first one (we were actually called the cream front, because so little happened). We speak danish. And even though we have raged a lot of wars against them, if you confuse us with Sweden or Norway, we will fuck you up. Also, only we get to be mean to them. Not you. Also, as evidenced by Druk, we get drunk a lot. Its a thing.

So, that was a brief (not so brief soz) summery of my culture and country. Onto the movies.

So, I haven't really done too much research into film history, but here is what you need to know. from the 1950's to 70's, our movies were a lot of fun. So, in this era there are basically three kinds of movies, one is called Morten Korch, the other: Dirch Passer, and the last: Olsen Banden. These three dominated the danish film industry. So, from this era, here are some tips.

If you love old movies that are oddly serious and light hearted at the same time, always taking place on a farm, and usually with a love triangle based on a book from the 30's, the Morten Korch movies are for you. Now. I am personally not too big of a fan, tonally they're a bit wonky, but to ease into it at least I would recommend watching Sønnen Fra Vingaarden (The son from the vineyard) or De røde heste (the red horses). But, if you are just getting into danish cinema, this is probs a bit hardcore.

Which brings us to the two others.

So, if you like zany antics, stupid plots, also a lot of farming, sailors and or soldiers, then, Dirch Passer movies are the way to go. He made a whole bunch. They are always sweet as hell, charming as hell, and feature some cute antics. They are light-hearted and fun. Their view of females, a little weird. But on a sick day they are everything I need. Some of my favourites are: Sømand i knibe (sailor in trouble), Soldater kammerater (Soldier buddies), Majorens Oppasser (the majors keeper), Hurrah for de blå Hussarer (Hurray for the blue hussars) and Dig, mig, Dirch og Dario (you, me, Dirch and Dario). A few years ago they also made a beautiful biopic about Dirch Passer which I would recommend watching, that is just called Dirch (A Funny Man). He is a bit of a folk hero here. Just warning.

The last, the Olsen Banden, is actually not a genre or anything, it is a series of movies, but I am expanding it to the great movies with these actors. So, these actors Ove Sprogø, Morten Grünewald and Poul Bundgaard, star in a lot of danish movies as well (basically all the actors in all these movies are more or less the same, we have like 30 working actors at all times at most. Small country). But these three are really special. Besides the Olsen Gang, they starred in some other good movies I would recommend like; Far klarer sovsen (daddy handles the sauce (Surprisingly feminist for its time)), and a fave which is soo problematic in the end but I love it anyways: Een pige og 39 sømænd (One girl, and 39 sailors). These three starred in this series called the Olsen gang. Which, if you like, zany antics, lovely characters who yell a lot, formulas that is unique to this movie, things going oh so wrong, then the Olsen gang is for you. Beloved folk classic movies, and all just great. These movies about this gang of bumbling thieves and Yvonne, are amazing, has an amazing soundtrack you can never get out of your head, and some real iconic scenes! Now, watch the old ones, if you see something called the Olsen gang, and it is animated or features young people, DO NOT WATCH. They are bad.

Moving on!

Basically from there, all danish movies can be split into a few categories:

Fantasy (we are generally not good at those, except when its made for kids (Otherwise they usually get too dark and weird), so, here I would watch; De Fortabte Sjæles ø (the island of lost souls), Tempelridderens skat (The treasure of the templar) and Falkien fra Bilbao (The Falkie from Bilbao), and for horror the temp (vikaren) is amazing, but in general, we should not be touching fantasy as a genre, cuz we are not good at it...).

Historical movies (usually about being Vikings, our monarki, or world war two.), these movies just get very stale after a while, but a few are pretty good, Hvidstensgruppen (I dont think this has an english name), but that one is pretty good for your world war two cravings along with Flammen og Citronen. Other than that, A royal affair is amazing, and Summer of '92 is pretty good. Otherwise, eh. I dont know. I haven't seen too many outside of school, so good ones are hard to come by.

Social realism. (We, make a lot of these!!), so, this is a bit of a weird genre, it is like realism, and drama and this weird, I wouldn't call it noir, but there is like this special danish sauce, sprinkled over most movies in this genre, its a little hard to discribe, Druk, falls into this category. Other movies that are definitely worth a watch are: Gud taler ud (Word of god), which is this amazing family movie just amazing. En frygtelig kvinde (a terrible woman), Festen (the celebration), Pusher and Nordvest, are all definitely worth a watch, and maybe you can explain what that special sauce is.

Speaking off: Dark (ass) comedies. We make a TON of these. And we're real good at it. It is such, realistic but funny movies that are just fucked up in different ways, and I love them! You have the sillier more violent ones like: Terkel i Knibe (Terkel in trouble), Sorte Kugler (What goes around), Klovn (all the movies, Clown, they are like the inbetweeners on steroids when it comes to cringe), Blå mænd (take the trash), Alle for en (all for one, this franchise is real good) and Selvhenter (heavy load).

( And then, we have the DARK shit, that is somehow still entertaining and funny at times. Here I'm talking: De grønne slagtere (The green butchers), Blinkende lygter (Flickering lights), Retfærdighedens ryttere (Riders of justice), Ved verdens ende (at worlds end) and De Frivillige (Out of tune). These are all amazing and funny, and especially a few of these are cultural phenomena here. Dark humor is our specialty. (I would personally start with Terkel in trouble, Sorte kugler and De grønne slagtere).

Now some honourable mentions to the first Anja and Victor movie, it can stay and Askepop is weirdly adorable as well. And Guldhornene (the gold of Valhalla), is everything norse mythology could have been. (yeah I just didn't know where to put them. But seriously watch Guldhornene, it answers the question: What would the norse gods be like if they were stupid and in our world? The answer: Hilarious!)

Then we have our last category: Crime. We are good at making some murder mysteries great! And yeah, I know Nordic Noir is a cliche or whatever, but what can I say? We're just good at it. From the department Q franchise (which I haven't watched the last, but all the others are amazing!) To the hunt, (Jagten), to Den Skyldige (The guilty), we are just good at crime movies man. But avoid Kød og Blod (Flesh and blood), that was disappointing in the end.

I know I am missing a lot of kids movies, but that is mostly cuz I watched a lot of those movies, as a kid, and I haven't since, so I dont really know if I can trust my judgement.

But generally, these are my recommendations to danish cinema! I would love for you all to watch all these movies, I hope would be to your liking, I have specially picked them out from each genre. And if I haven't mentioned a genre, it's cuz we aren't very good at them. We are a small country, so our success rate for movies are a little low, but I hope you all feel inspired to watch some fun danish movies. I know I am. Feel free to tell me if you saw any, if you liked or hated them? if you have any of my picks you disagree with, or something you think is missing from my list. let's talk!

Klovn - noʎ ʇuɐʍ ı