Næsehornet (1972) (TV)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Søren Melson

Writer:

Eugène Ionesco (play)

Release Date:

1 October 1972 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title | Based On Play

Cast

Tage Axelson	...	Brandmand
Jørgen Buckhøj	...	Dudard
Ingolf David	...	Logiker
Holger Juul Hansen	...	Botard
Lili Heglund	...	Fru Boeuf
Hugo Herrestrup	...	Cafévært
Pouel Kern	...	Hr. Papillon
Alf Lassen	...	Købmand
Henning Moritzen	...	Jean
Erik Mørk	...	Bérenger
Ghita Nørby	...	Daisy
Bjørn Puggaard-Müller	...	Ældre herre
Walt Rosenberg	...	Hr. Jean, gamlingen
Kirsten Søberg	...	Købmandens kone
Solveig Sundborg	...	Gamlingens kone
Lillian Tillegren	...	Husmoder (as Lillian Tillegreen)
Eva Weinreich	...	Servitrice

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Denmark

Language:

Danish

Color:

Color

Company:

Danmarks Radio (DR)

Movie Connections:

Featured in Skuespillerens ansigter - portræt af Henning Moritzen (1974) (TV)

He's got the horn...

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a low-budget Danish television production of Eugène Ionesco's surrealist play 'Rhinoceros'. I speak very little Danish, and I'm eager to improve my understanding of the language. When a chance to screen this kinescope came my way, I eagerly accepted. I'm very familiar with Ionesco's play in English translation, so I hoped I'd have no difficulty following the (bizarre) plot even if I couldn't follow the dialogue. Also, the dramatic progress of Ionesco's narrative depends much more on emotion and physical behaviour than on dialogue (except for one scene involving a logician), so I figured that my lack of Dansk would be only a minimal handicap.

For once, my instincts were right. 'Næsehornet' (literally 'nose-horned', as in rhinoceros) is a very faithful and straightforward staging of Ionesco's tragicomedy. The extremely low budget of this production is no handicap, as the director and cast are able to concentrate on the ideas of Ionesco's writing, without the distraction of flashy production values.

SPOILERS COMING. Unless something was slipped past me in the dialogue, this staging follows Ionesco's text very closely. Bérenger (Erik Mørk) is a lowly clerk in an unnamed city, similar to Zero in Elmer Rice's 'The Adding Machine'. He is infatuated with Daisy (Ghita Nørby), the attractive secretary in his boss's office, but has no serious expectations that anything will come of this.

One day when Bérenger is on his way to work, the people of the city are alarmed because ferocious rhinoceroses are loose in the streets. The rhinos can't have escaped from a circus or zoo; there are too many of them. The leading theory is that there has been an epidemic of 'rhinoceritis': one by one, humans are turning into rhinos.

Rhinoceritis or no rhinoceritis, Bérenger doesn't much care. His life is defined by his pathetic little job. He reaches his office, and has problems with his boss Papillon (Pouel Kern). Eventually, it becomes clear that Bérenger will no longer be able to ignore the rhino epidemic. His friend Jean (Henning Moritzen) turns into a rhinoceros, snorting and bellowing. In a sort of Adam-and-Eve scenario in reverse, eventually Bérenger and Daisy are the last man and woman who haven't been rhinocerified. But then Daisy begins snorting and bellowing. And now Bérenger is the only human left...

Ionesco's play was written in the aftermath of World War Two, and its meaning is open to multiple interpretations. 'Rhinoceros' can be seen as an indictment of the mindless conformity that enabled Hitler's rise to power. (This interpretation is popular in Denmark, a nation that was conscripted into the Third Reich.) Or, more positively, 'Rhinoceros' can be seen as a testament to the virtue of the individual ... with Bérenger perceived as a rebel simply because he insists upon remaining faithful to his true nature. As with Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot', if we knew precisely what Ionesco meant to say here, the work would lose much of its power. As I watched this production, I was also reminded of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 'The Visit', another stage drama in which a small-town protagonist finds everyone else gradually turning against him.

This production is excellent, and the entire cast are impressive. Lili Heglund is especially good as the wife of one of Bérenger's workmates, an absentee who has already succumbed to rhinocerisation. I had difficulty following a dialogue-intensive scene between Erik Mørk as Bérenger and Ingolf David as the logician, but that seems to be down to my own difficulty with the Danish language. Normally, I shan't rate a foreign-language film if I've difficulty following the dialogue, but for this production there weren't any crucial gaps in my comprehension, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. 'Næsehornet' rates 8 out of 10.