Flickering Lights (2000)

A gang of 4 Danish criminals are ordered by Færingen to steal a bag from a safe. When they see DKK4,000,000 in the bag, they keep it for themselves and head for Spain. They end up in a ruin of an old restaurant on Funen and renovate it.

Director:

Anders Thomas Jensen

Writer:

Anders Thomas Jensen (screenplay)

Stars:

Søren Pilmark, Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen

3 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Søren Pilmark	...	Torkild
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Peter
Mads Mikkelsen	...	Arne
Nikolaj Lie Kaas	...	Stefan
Sofie Gråbøl	...	Hanne
Iben Hjejle	...	Therese
Frits Helmuth	...	Carl
Ole Thestrup	...	Alfred Jæger
Peter Andersson	...	Færingen
Niels Anders Thorn	...	William
Henning Jensen	...	Peters Far
Solbjørg Højfeldt	...	Peters Mor
Jesper Asholt	...	Torkilds Far
Helle Dolleris	...	Torkilds Mor
Bent Mejding	...	Farfar

Storyline

Four small-time gangsters from Copenhagen trick a gangster boss: they take over 4,000,000 kroner which they were supposed to bring him. Trying to escape to Barcelona they are forced to stop in the countryside, in an old, wrecked house, hiding there for several weeks. Slowly, one after another, they realize, that they would like to stay there, starting a new life, renovating the house and forming it into a restaurant. But they can't avoid being caught up by their past.

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Plot Keywords:

cigarette smoking | gangster | restaurant | escape | nude outside | 

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Taglines:

De har altid været på flugt - nu løber de for livet.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Denmark Sweden

Language:

Danish

Release Date:

3 November 2000 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Flickering Lights

Filming Locations:

Det Danske Filmstudie, Lyngby, Sjælland, Denmark

Company Credits

Production Co:

M&M Productions, Danmarks Radio (DR), SVT Drama

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stefan (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is seen eating in almost all of his scenes.

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Goofs

The guy bringing the cigarettes "from Poland" in the beginning of the movie does not at all speak Polish, but is actually speaking Russian.

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Quotes

Carl: Beers should be cold as earth.

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Connections

Features Matador (1978)

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Soundtracks

Don't Run for the Money
Written and Performed by Peter Viskinde

User Reviews

Entertaining and brilliant.

This movie is one of those that will always be remembered in danish film history, it's a unique product written by the single most talented manuscript writer in Denmark, he simply appears to be writing by far the larger part of the succesfull movies the later years, and this is no difference, he even instructed it also, and it is both, original, funny, thoughtfull and just generally entertaining.

Thorkild, Arne, Peter and and Stefan are 4 smalltime criminals that has known each other their entire adult life, they all have a troubled past behind them, but as Thorkild turns 40 they are into serious problems with the local gangster, they are forced to do a larger job for this gangster to pay debts, and finds a suitcase containing 4million danish Kr. After some discussion they decide to run off to Barcelona with the money, but underway their car breaks down and they get stuck in a house, which was a former resteraunt, here their reconstruction begins.

Flickering Lights, or Blinkende Lygter as i know it as, is simply a great and unique movie, it is however part of the revolutional movies that are coming from everywhere these days in Denmark, mainly written by Anders Thomas Jensen, this is similar to movies like "I Kina Spiser De Hunde", the language in the movie roughly takes advantage of the small slang words and funny things we use, it's very realistic rather than the normalized boring movie language that sometime appears, it's a fresh breath. The movie itself is very unique and has some moments that will never be forgotten, some very funny moments, and i'm sure everyone that has seen the movie will never forget the scene where Thorkilds is blowing eggs.

The directing of this movie is rather strong, although rather anonymous, there aren't many scenes where it really shines through, but it works pretty well all the way through, although there is some alternative camera work with the flashback scene, but the strength of the movie doesn't lie in the directing, on another note it doesn't bring it down either.

The acting in this movie is simply, just amazingly brilliant, especially Mads Mikkelsen shines through as the numb shooting freak, Arne, that is one amazing performance never to be forgotten, and he also makes for some memorable scenes, for example when he shoots a cow, Denmark will never forget that scene. But also the other 3 main roles are fantastic, the acting is very proffesional and it feels like the actors very easily connects with their character, which makes for a very belivable film and avoids awkward moments due to awkward acting, simply, just great.

However as usual i can put when Anders Thomas Jensen have written the movie i can put a finger down and say, this is the movies strength, becuase his manuscripts are just so damn good, and i love his excellent raw use of the danish language, that is what he does so damn great, and he's been doing it great a lot of times now.

This movie has its smaller flaws that keeps it from being a superb masterpiece, but it's still a fantastic piece of movie and now i wonder why i didn't give it a higher vote, however i think the movie somewhere has small flaws that keeps it down a little, but strange enough i don't really know which, maybe i need to watch it again, however i give my vote with an arrow up.

8/10