| MIFUNE Director: Soren Kragh-Jacobsen "Dogma 95 has turned out to be a superb commercial step, even though it wasn't conceived as such. It's liberation from the way a director can be raped by technology, the facts that you can be tyrannized by all the expensive gear, the cranes, filters, dollies, and spotlights. In that area we can't beat the American's anyway, so we Europeans should head in another direction." Soren Kragh-Jacobsen Mifune, directed by Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, has nothing to do with the late great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune although it does have a humorous reference to him. Instead, it is an amusing film about the circumstances of fate and the way four characters, relatively unknown to one another, come together to form a familial bond out on a dilapidated farm in the Danish countryside. This is the third installment of the Dogme 95 series and is the only film in the series that can qualify as a comedy. The manifesto -- started by Lars von Trier and some other Danish directors - is a sort of purity test to get Danish filmmakers to think up new ideas with minimal resources. It emphasizes 10 rules among them being that the film must be shot entirely on real locations with handheld cameras and natural lighting. When Kresten (Anders Berthelsen), a recently married businessman, learns that his father has passed away he leaves from his honeymoon to take care of funeral arrangements. He tells his wife that he must go alone - but what he’s really doing is trying to avoid revealing his poor background to her. Besides that, once he gets there it’s apparent he’ll be stuck on the old farm for a long time. Part of the reason is that he can’t find someone to take care of Rud (Jesper Asholt) his half-wit, childlike brother who clearly is unable to take care of himself. Rud - a sometimes funny, sometimes insultingly mentally-challenged character -- jumps around a lot, spouts off wacky monosyllables and is convinced UFO’s are soon going to land and take him away. The plot thickens when Kresten puts an ad in the newspaper for a housekeeper and the only response he gets is from a beautiful young prostitute named Liva (Iben Hjejle) who is in serious need of a break from her profession. Although it’s obvious Kresten and Liva will end up in the sack together it’s a credit to director Kragh-Jacobsen that he makes the relationship more complex than would be expected. Liva begins to like the daily chores and routines as well as the stability the farm life brings. She too feels camaraderie with Kresten since she isn’t pressured to put out. And since he’s married he, at first, keeps a respectful distance. The film moves into its most satisfyingly wacky gear when Liva invites her younger brother (Emil Tarding) -- who’s just been expelled from school -- to stay with them a while. What ensues is a series of oddball scenes -- some of which are out loud funny, others just goofy -- all in the spirit of light comedy. Yet as the film goes on it becomes far edgier than would be expected from the genre -- call it a Danish screwball drama. Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, the director of Mifune usually directs children’s films. And while this film deals with some darker subjects he still brings a light touch and keeps it from dragging into the depths of Danish drama like its two predecessors Breaking The Waves (not really a Dogme film but often credited as such) and The Celebration. The film doesn’t feel like the other Dogme ‘95 films either because it is shot on film rather than video and the handheld shots are much smoother. And there are also a few other rules broken such as the use of music and props and the use of the director’s name in the credits. Forget the publicity stunt though and just enjoy the story, the acting and directing and then wonder why the Academy didn’t nominate it for best Foreign Language film. - Matt Langdon |