The Good and the Bad (1975)

An extension of The Perfect Human, Good and Evil is a longer, more expansive pseudo-documentary portrayal of life, no less. Using capacious titles or chapter headings that Leth's narrator's... See full summary »

Director:

Jørgen Leth

Writer:

Jørgen Leth

Stars:

Claus Nissen, Ulla Gottlieb, Holger Juul Hansen

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Claus Nissen
Ulla Gottlieb
Holger Juul Hansen
Ulf Pilgaard
Ghita Nørby
Lars Knutzon
Kirsten Peüliche
Jørgen Reenberg
Ove Brusendorff
Ditte Maria Wiberg	...	(as Ditte Maria)
Ib Mossin
Anniqua
Sven-Ole Thorsen
Diana Benneweis
Frank Bierlich

Storyline

An extension of The Perfect Human, Good and Evil is a longer, more expansive pseudo-documentary portrayal of life, no less. Using capacious titles or chapter headings that Leth's narrator's voice dwells upon and impresses upon us as he toys with the cliché "Faces", "Bodies", "Things", "Necessary actions", "Unnecessary actions", Good thoughts", "Bad thoughts", "Pleasant feelings", "Unpleasant feelings", and "Words" - the film consist of aesthetically titillating and contentually almost schematic scenes shot in the void of the film studio: faces, bodies and things. A man with a shoe. Another man with a hardboiled egg which he talks about and eats. A woman gives her husband a shirt. A couple who argue. A desperate woman. And so forth. There is no psychological shading of the characters, merely a series of sketches or examples that are as if plucked out of different everyday contexts. The thread leading back to Life in Denmark is thus also clear. The dialogue is sparse and phrases or ...

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Plot Keywords:

pregnant | full frontal female nudity | female nudity | reenactment | black and white | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

Denmark

Language:

Danish

Release Date:

26 March 1975 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Dobro i zlo

Company Credits

Production Co:

Det Danske Filminstitut, Jørgen Leth Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

78 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Edited into The Five Obstructions (2003)

User Reviews

the absurdities of everyday life

I found this film rather confusing, and for different reasons. OK, the 'philosophical' purposes might have been praiseworthy, but somehow my reactions about the film were rather ambivalent. Some of the scenes, or tableaus, raised many interesting questions. How did the audience react in front of the 5-minute, and totally quiet shooting of naked faces? And what was the point in showing some every-day-activities drawn out of their context? There were people eating, sitting, talking...but were they really eating, sitting or talking? The human figures in front of the audience seemed somehow to dissolve; I experienced some kind of estrangement to their humanity. But then there was some 70's chliches, which blurred the thoughts for me; naked people, men wearing fancy suits smoking fat cigars, some hippie songs.... But, as a whole, it was an interesting 'film'. Or was it a film, perhaps it was a demonstration of the absurdity resting under the surface of ordinary language and everyday-life.