The source of tension in Madsenâs movies is almost always loss, usually involving the collapse of a world the protagonist previously saw as permanent, intractable. When things implode, the protagonist is inevitably caught unawares and left to deal with a world where he or she can see the same reference points, but they no longer point in the same direction as before. More often than not, the collapse is something thatâs been long gestating, and the hero has simply been too complacent or rigid to realize it. ...
...much of Itsi Bitsi is about the adrenalin generated by collapse. Things fall apart, characters become junkies and lose their way, but, really until the last section of the film, Eik is practically gleeful, optimistic, willing to duke it out with an army of suitors and gurus who want to haul Iben away from him. Itâs only in the latter stages when reality sinks in that he begins to doubt himself. In his own way, heâs as rigid as his predecessors in Prague, Flame & Citron and SuperclĂĄsico, the only difference being that the others feared or ignored change; here Eik adores chaos as long as he has an anchor, and when he loses that, chaos is far less appealing.
