Mifune

Mifunes Sidste Sang (Comedy-drama -- Danish)

By DAVID STRATTON

A Nimbus Film production, in cooperation with Zentropa Entertainment, DRTV, STV Drama. (International Sales: Trust Film Sales, Hvidovre, Denmark.) Produced by Brigitte Hald, Morten Kaufmann. Directed by Soren Kragh-Jacobsen. Screenplay, Kragh-Jacobsen, Anders Thomas Jensen.
 
Kersten - Anders W. Berthelsen
Liva - Iben Hjejle
Rud - Jesper Asholt
Bjarke - Emil Tarding
Gerner - Anders Hove
Claire - Sofie Grabol
Pernille - Paprika Steen
Nina - Mette Bratlann

 

Avery entertaining romantic comedy about a yuppie, a hooker and the yuppie's retarded brother, "Mifune" is the best of the three films produced so far under the restrictive Dogma Vow of Chastity. Well-constructed mixture of romance, sex and humor should be a crowd-pleaser in most territories. Further festival exposure can only help it on its way.

The first two Dogma 95 films, Lars Von Trier's "The Idiots" and Thomas Vinterberg's "The Celebration," preemed last year at Cannes to mixed reactions. On the basis of the Danish collective's third film, it seems that the so-called rules of its manifesto are simply being ignored whenever it suits the filmmakers involved (the prohibition on offscreen music, for instance). Dogma 95 now seems more a clever marketing gimmick than a genuine film movement.

"Mifune" has none of the irritating, vertigo-inducing camerawork that so reduced the impact of the other films; instead, it's beautifully, though loosely, shot, and is certainly director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's best film to date (his last was the disappointing Europudding "Island on Bird Street.")

Pic opens with the marriage of Kersten (Anders W. Berthelsen) to Claire (Sofie Grabol), the daughter of his boss. Obviously destined for fast-lane success, he seems to have it all, and, judging from the amusingly protracted orgasmic experienced by his bride on their wedding night (a very funny scene), Claire is also destined for a satisfying life.

But things change the next morning, when Kersten receives news that his father has died. The trouble is, he'd never gotten around to telling Claire and her family about his father, who had been eking out a living on a run-down farm for years. Nor did Kersten tell his wife and in-laws about his mother, who hanged herself ("on one of the oldest trees in Denmark") or about Rud (Jesper Asholt), his mentally handicapped brother.

Taking time out from business and marital commitments, Kersten heads for home to sort things out, and soon realizes he must get someone to look after Rud, an amiable slob of a man quite incapable of caring for himself. The successful applicant for position of housekeeper is Liva (Iben Hjejle), an attractive, seemingly quite capable young woman. Liva doesn't tell her new employer that she's been working as a high-class hooker in the city and is on the run -- from her pimp (after she transgressed boundaries with an important client) and from the mystery man who is constantly calling her with vaguely threatening messages.

It's not hard to work out that Kersten and Liva will become attracted to each other, but "Mifune" still keeps a few narrative surprises up its sleeve. Principal characters are likable and well-portrayed by the actors involved. Hjejle is a delight as the whore on the run, and Asholt is on the button as the lovable, though at times irritating, Rud. Berthelsen perfectly inhabits the character of the smug go-getter who finds his values undermined during an enforced stay on the farm where he grew up. As Liva's surly adolescent son, Emil Tarding convincingly conveys the suffering of the boy who knows about his mother's profession and tries too hard to be cool about it.

Anthony Dod Mantle's grainy camerawork (framed in the old standard 1:1.33 ratio, per Dogma 95 credo) is consistently inventive and attractive, and other technical credits are solid. The original Danish title translates as "Mifune's Last Song," and refers to a game played by the brothers in which Kersten entertains Rud with an impersonation of Toshiro Mifune in "The Seven Samurai."

Camera (color), Anthony Dod Mantle; editor, Valdis Oskarasdottir; music, Thor Backhausen, Karl Bille, Christian Sievert; sound (Dolby stereo), Morten Degnbol, Hans Moller; assistant director, Christian Gronvall; casting, Stine Bruel. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (competing), Feb. 13, 1999. Running time: 101 MIN.