I'm Lars, and I'm sitting here with Peter Aalbæk, who is -
Well, how were you involved in this film?
Well,
I think I was - I was probably what you'd call a producer.
A producer? Not an executive producer?
As you probably remember, I'd just gone bankrupt with my company,
which had received the first money for the film.
- And the money just disappeared? - No.
You and Niels Vørsel got the money,
but the Film Institute told me they wouldn't let me produce the film.
- They didn't stick to that decision. - They probably should have.
Then we were told that we had to find some new investors.
We sent the script to Per Holst, your former executive producer.
Yes, and somehow it didn't fit into his "repertoire plans."
After having produced The Element of Crime -
Which he lost a lot of money on.
Our script was lying on his table for six months,
when we finally got a letter-
It was a standard letter, and at the bottom of the page they'd written
that "it didn't fit into the repertoire plans of Per Holst Film. "
What kind of executive producer has a repertoire plan?
Apparently, Per Holst had at the time.
It didn't fit into his golf plans.
We also spoke to Metronome.
And Mads loved the script. - They all did.
The most interesting concerning this - Do you remember Metz?
Yeah, Metz, goddamn it, that was -
Metz had this interesting viewpoint.
He thought it was a very interesting project,
but he wouldn't invest any money in it.
It didn't fit into his repertoire plans either.
We were having lunch,
which I paid for- Or did he actually pay for it?
Film consultants never buy you anything.
They just want the receipt, but they never buy you anything.
Anyway, he told me how much he liked the script,
and then he said that he would never invest any money in the film.
The next day I went to Nordisk Film
and told Bahs we wouldn't get any money.
Then he said, "It's been discussed at a meeting this morning. It's okay. "
Apparently, all the big bosses at Nordisk Film went to these meetings.
In the credits it says: "George Metz helped finance this film."
I've never spoken to Metz about it, but it was a dramatic change in -
But then again, I'd only heard him say that he wouldn't support it.
Because he wanted to make the film Sofie.
When Nordisk Film decided to support that film, he supported this one.
- Was it a "package deal"? - Definitely.
Isn't that wrong and something you should never do?
Well, the Film Institute refused to make a deal on the Dogme films,
because we asked them directly.
Europa and Sofie were the results of an unofficial request.
There's Ernst-Hugo!
Oh, now you're talking about the film?
There's a film studio in Ystad called "Ernst-Hugo."
Really? Sweet Ernst-Hugo. I miss him.
"You may embrace me."
Back then, Jean-Marc still had a few sticky locks.
Since then, it's gone from bad to worse.
The technical-
You can't tell they're walking on a moving platform here, right?
Well, why bother making it -
If you can't tell it's fake? You're absolutely right.
I believe the background is from -
We talked about Breslaw, Wroclaw- Or was it Stettin?
Well, all the backgrounds are shot in Poland and this is a back projection.
It's a front projection.
This is a Henning Bahs set. - Yes.
And we used the city hall windows from an old Olsen Gang film.
Bahs was very proud of this. In one of the Olsen Gang films
they're looking through the windows of the city hall.
He pulled them out of storage
and they probably charged us a lot of money to let us use them.
I know we would have.
- Don't talk about "us" as if- - As if we're a unity?
Especially right now. Did you see that detail?
By the way, that was Leif Magnusson, now we're talking about -
The detail was the mirror which is covered when it's brought in.
I've never seen that before.
No, but we saved you the trouble of making a hidden camera.
You don't know this, but we try really hard to minimize the expenses.
To see Henning Bendtsen behind the box.
Behind a Panavision camera.
Yes, and that camera type is called a Panaflex.
And it's shot in Panavision. - I see.
Ernst-Hugo was a nice guy.
Yes, he was.
I'd seen him in a Swedish television series
where he played a red-haired police officer who'd killed his parents.
We needed a Swedish actor because the Swedes helped finance the film.
You've always been great at that.
And it was very peculiar that a taxi from Lidingö to the airport
could cost 1,305 Swedish kroner. That record still stands.
We've worked with Philip Zandén and other Swedes -
He's never managed to spend that much on a taxi.
But I've always been told to believe the things people tell me.
This is a split screen with a model of a dormitory.
Yes, I remember that. The model.
It was difficult to make. We should have just used a real dormitory.
- With a lot of beds. - Yes.
I'm sure Ernst-Hugo spat in his face there.
This was the common - What kind of head did we use here?
What are those heads called that you can operate by remote control?
- Do you think we used them here? - I'm not sure.
Later, when they walk around inside the house, we used that apparatus.
It's almost standard nowadays. The young people -
- They have all the latest technology. - And know how to use it.
Look. There we use an extended silhouette effect.
That was back when the pictures mattered to you.
What's her name? - It's Vera Gebuhr.
She's been in all my films.
Most of the actors claimed that they were fluent in German,
but she was one of the only ones who actually spoke the language.
In Dancer Paprika Steen told me she could speak English.
That was also interesting. - That was a lie!
Her mother is American, and therefore she thought -
That was quite funny.
And Jørgen Reenberg thought he mastered German perfectly.
Yes, he thought he was infallible.
It was because he spoke German to his dog, as hunters often do.
- And he was really good at it. - Yes, "hinter" and "Sitz."
Look! Now we're - - Back in Poland.
When we shot these backgrounds we hadn't found all the actors yet.
This is, of course, a front projection.
But the extras, or the stand-ins, we used -
Later on we had to find some actors who looked like those extras.
Well, that approach might be as good as any.
Who was he? The guy to the right?
He was a cultural official in some German city.
- He was really good. - He wasn't an actor.
He was a cultural official, whatever that means.
Many of the actors were reluctant to participate in the film.
You weren't that hot back then.
Neither was the producer.
That was what united us then.
Our despondency and lack of sympathy from the world around us.
And from one another. And now we've reached the end of a curve again.
A curve. And you try to curve your way around -
What's it called - the thing that moves the trains around?
The turntable. It symbolizes our cooperation.
I stand with the handle and you just stand there talking nonsense.
No, he talks about the sleeping car, which -
Here are all the freezing cold, Polish children.
The problem here was
that they're pulling a real carriage.
We put a small locomotive behind it to help push it forward,
but they could easily pull it themselves,
thus we had to add an extra carriage.
Apparently, it's very easy to pull such a carriage.
Ten men could pull it by themselves.
Well, you must take off your hat to the art of engineering.
Yes. It caught us by surprise. Even Henning Bahs was surprised.
That wasn’t the carriage. No, we bought one.
We never used the carriage. That one has just been painted on.
We bought the interior of a carriage.
Bahs bought the interior of a carriage for 10 dollars in Poland.
Ernst-Hugo drops a tear there.
Do you remember that the investors demanded we make it in color?
- No, I haven't seen any colors yet. - They appear later on.
No, I don't remember. Once more, the director has -
Cheated the investors.
I thought you talked about my loss of integrity.
You've claimed that I've lost it so many times since.
No, they demanded it become a color film, and then you said,
"Okay, we'll make four shots in color, end of story. "
It was a bit more -
- That was very resolute. - Yes.
Look!
That carriage is made up of the detached parts bought in Poland.
It was a beautiful carriage, which had been -
Bahs made sure that all the parts of the carriages could be removed.
We installed the camera in the ceiling
so the carriage could move from side to side,
without touching the camera suspension.
I'm sure we've got some pictures of it somewhere.
From time to time, I was rocking the carriage.
You moved it with a big beam, using "the principle of the lever."
I did it with Jørgen Johansen, who became our cameraman later on.
He probably should have stuck with the beam.
He'd found his niche there.
- Those - - Those kids were quite interesting.
An elderly lady from the Polish Film School rehearsed with those kids.
After each take, she picked out five children
and then she slapped them because their acting was unsatisfactory.
She kept on doing this, and they actually became better and better.
Maybe we should use that technique on Danish schoolchildren.
She was very consistent. You, you, you and you.
After she'd slapped them, they all acted really well.
And their cheeks were very red.
The incident with the conductor who gets drunk
is something I've experienced myself on a sleeping car
where I met a conductor, who was bald, German and very punctilious.
For the first time ever, I was asked what I wanted for breakfast.
And he wrote everything down.
I gave him my passport and my ticket. Everybody adored him.
Then he suddenly disappeared, and we didn't see him again.
Until the next morning when two men forced open his door.
He'd been drinking all the booze, and they carried him off at Cologne.
But apparently that's quite common there.
There she is!
I remember your first meeting, where you both got really agitated.
Your first meeting with Barbara Sukowa ended in a fierce argument.
Normally I don't yell, but -
I don't remember that. - It was because -
On the same trip, I picked up Barbara and Jean-Marc at the airport.
And he said he wanted his character to be more intellectual.
There we have some of the beautiful color pictures.
We must have thinned out the colors. How did we do that?
I don't know. It was probably expensive to do, don't you think?
We probably used the lab on Nordisk Film and this was the result.
We asked them to develop it -
"Do as you normally do." Then it gets that Eastern European look.
It had to be in full color.
If you don't ask them for specific things, this is what you get.
What was the Russian negative called? Deva, or-
It's crystal clear compared to this. The Russian one.
The background is black and white, the foreground is in color.
Well, it would be difficult to make it the other way around here.
This is due to the investors who insisted we make a color picture.
In this scene they walk in and out, and it was really difficult to shoot.
- The two hanged people, remember? - Oh, yes.
We wrote it laterally reversed, as it was to be reflected in the window.
Everything had been meticulously storyboarded.
And we could only do it this way and write it laterally reversed,
because back then you couldn't manipulate the reflection.
Or maybe we had two signs. And the second time,
we wrote it laterally reversed so we could superimpose it afterwards.
- But the dead bodies looked great. - Yes.
They just disappeared, and we'd paid 75,000 Danish kroner for them.
We could have found a Pole who would have let us kill him for less.
That's the way it is, when you're unfamiliar with the area.
We had a little incident with the two bodies.
We were bringing them home, and we had to reload them -
That was later used as the logo of the film company Zentropa.
You'd written some scary-looking letters across it.
It was really funny, and people were laughing at it.
But since our next films were so boring, we had to change the logo.
That logo indicated some sort of drive.
And then it was followed by a deadly dull Scandinavian film.
No, that didn't really correspond.
Here we have a dissolve, which is -
Look! - Hell yeah.
Now Jean-Marc's got something to think about.
This is where he tries to make his character seem more intelligent -
Can you see the sign to the right?
It's to the left of the window and it says "Steckenpissestrasse."
No, I never noticed that -
Bahs said that in the bars in Munich people often pissed on their barstool legs.
And that's called "Steckenpisse." - Yes, but I couldn't see it.
No. Well, it was, of course -
Well, it was a mere request from the producer.
Those things always wind up in the dark.
In this film, it's easy to hide things in the dark.
Here they're driving a car. They actually drive in many of the scenes.
And we were working so hard to shake all the different parts.
That was before we realized that we could just shake the camera.
Let me tell you, it is most frightening.
His left ear is very bright.
And it looks a little square.
The symbolism is -
He tries to appear more intellectual by letting his ears shine.
He was a nice kid. That shot, goddamn it!
It took ages to do that shot.
Overtime, overtime, overtime. 600% overtime.
We wanted the shadow on the wall to be projected through lith film.
Do you know what "lith film" is?
You shoot footage and convert it to a deep contrast look
by copying it onto lith film. Look. The train is down below.
Beautiful. After all, it was relatively difficult -
It was extremely difficult.
The rails had to look right, because they couldn't be changed afterwards.
- No, no, no. - No, they couldn't.
In the old days, you had to -
He needs to keep the light close by, otherwise he can't read the note.
If the light is placed right in front of your eyes you can't see a thing.
The kid looks tired. It's probably the 56th take,
and Ernst-Hugo has just slapped him.
Once he became furious and left the shoot
because he didn't get the room he normally had when visiting Denmark.
During another take, where he stood on a box, he also left the set.
Then I told him we should have used Max von Sydow instead.
- That wasn’t quite - - The gentleman didn't agree.
The box just stood there.
- Shit, it's your former wife. - Yes.
She was tough when it came to negotiating her salary.
I bet she was. But you finally did reach an agreement, right?
Well, she's in the film, right? And there's Jønke.
He spoke German fluently.
The people who did his dubbing said
it was impossible to follow his mouth movements in German.
Somehow he had these mouth spasms -
And he forgot his lines. He was terrible.
He was difficult to handle. - Couldn't he remember his lines?
No, that's why it was so pathetic. He spoke German fluently,
but he couldn't remember his lines. And his acting was terrible.
What were the extenuating circumstances again?
Maybe that it was Jørgen? And there's Udo.
He was so pretty. And we mustn't forget Erik Mørk.
He played the Father. - He died shortly after this.
He spoke German fluently, and he knew his lines.
And somehow we didn't have any problems with him.
With a group of actors like these - and later we'll see -
- Eddie. - Eddie Constantine and Ernst-Hugo.
Somehow they pick their different roles.
One is difficult, one is funny, et cetera.
The good thing about Jørgen was that he was the only troublemaker.
And we could just dub him. - And nobody tried to take his place.
- Even Barbara was almost kind. - They were all meek as lambs.
Erik had these long monologues. - He knew them by heart.
- He'd probably read the script. - He was a very meticulous man.
Did you make your former wife play servant on purpose?
She was also in Epidemic where she played a nurse.
She had a permanent job elsewhere during both films,
so she probably just wanted to make some extra money.
And the sideboard and the table are from Matador.
I can recognize this dining room set from Matador.
You can recognize it because we got an invoice from Nordisk Film.
This was difficult, because we had to move backwards.
Out and - - And Jørgen forgot his lines.
Stop it. You weren’t even there.
But you were there - - When things had to be rocked.
We superimposed an explosion in the background.
"The Americans are clever."
By the way, Erik Mørk was a Catholic, thus the role was perfect for him.
"Pathetic, at best," as Claes Kastholm would have said.
We could say the same thing about his life and his career.
We probably shouldn't get into that.
I've mentioned it on all the commentaries I've done so far.
Claes Kastholm is a recurrent figure on these commentaries.
- There comes the train. - It's called a "trolley."
It's called a "bogie."
- Then what's a "trolley"? - I don't know.
Anyway, there was a wipe, and we used that a lot when editing.
- And you did those with Gislason. - Yes.
You could say that.
Oh, and here - - Here he comes.
Yes, he does.
He said this long line without checking the cardboard signs at all.
I remember Reenberg -
Eddie was an American, but he corrected him nevertheless.
He didn't think his American accent was quite right.
Jørgen needed to remove the attention from his own German.
I think he was quite satisfied with his German.
Sometimes Eddie fell asleep during the shoot.
He loved to sit in his uniform on the stage.
He realized he could be an actor,
when he managed to evade military service during World War II.
He realized that his special gift was to pretend things.
- I see. - At first, he was a bar pianist.
At the medical, he realized that he could limp his way out of it.
Then he thought, "I'll make this my living, "and then he went -
There's the windows from the Olsen Gang film once more.
- Third invoice, same copy. - Yes, the third invoice.
And there were people pulling those sticks. My, we were busy.
It was difficult to zoom in on Kier because of the anamorphic optics.
Our French assistant had a fishing rod -
He used more money on tape, than we did on his salary.
He used 600 pieces per setting.
The camera is easily moved.
And the little details -
Isn't the train passing by here?
I'm sure it's called a "bogie."
- I still believe it's a "trolley." - Let's make a bet.
The company is at stake. The loser gets the company.
Isn't a trolley the thing with the handles they use in "Donald Duck"?
I'm not sure, but -
I look forward to the sex scene later on -
to see Jean-Marc's and Barbara's carnal lust.
And?
I won't reveal too much
before we see her in the scene with the model railway.
- You never reveal anything, right? - It's against my principles.
Right.
- You shouldn't ruin people's fun. - Or jeopardize our earnings.
And a light breeze.
Look. The painters have made the windows look all greasy.
Around the edges of the windows. What's it called?
Shit! There he is. He was really cranky here in the tub.
I remember it all too clearly.
He used to be a boxer, and after that scene -
- He wanted to punch you. - He said, "Receive a punch."
To him it was almost like talking slang.
He acted a bit crazy and he actually treated me like a friend.
There's Henning Jensen. He's been in many of your films.
This was before they threw Down syndrome actors out of the Royal Danish Theatre.
Sweet Henning.
Those people in the background probably worked at Nordisk Film.
It looks like the line in the canteen.
Perhaps we've used some of-
The fools working at Nordisk Film at that time. There were quite a few.
Right.
- And the train is moving. - We're busy with the beam here.
- A cute little detail. - And Holger Perfort.
Of course, he spoke German too.
The people from Nordisk were great. But they always had to leave at noon.
There's our friend from The Element of Crime.
He was a dramaturge at the Swedish Film School.
Strange. - Why did you use him?
He had a great face and he looked like a specific type of Jew.
The kind Jew, which is a controversial thing to say.
It's a beautiful set. - Yes.
Jean-Marc looks like he doesn't understand a word.
It's his way of showing how intelligent his character is.
I've read the reviews doormen.
And the critic wrote that Arden has managed
to get Jens Albinus to look desperate in three different ways.
"Wöllstadt doesn't look too good." No.
The Jews have a lot of children.
Well, you need to keep up with -
The extermination camps? Well, this was after the war.
- There will be other wars. - You're probably right.
- He was good at yelling. - And Baard Owe.
They're removing the heaters. War debts to Scandinavia.
A funny detail. - Yes, it was.
- He seems worried. - Now Jean-Marc acts.
- Here we look in from the outside. - And there's smoke and steam.
This scene must have been extremely difficult to make.
And the silhouettes look right.
- For how many weeks did we shoot? - An infinite number of weeks.
I don't think it was that bad. Wasn’t it about 14 weeks?
Well, nobody had bothered to direct the actors anyway.
At that time, that was a mere detail.
That was before that kind of nonsense became in fashion.
Bang! Then there's a train.
I think Gislason shot this scene. It was a part of their second unit.
He wanted to become a director, right?
Yes, what happened to him? Is he still in the business?
I've been told, he's still "newcomer of the year."
Then they're just left there.
We rented all the weapons and the uniforms in France.
We had to spend some money there. German uniforms from France.
That makes a lot of sense.
The French have always been very Nazi-like, so it does make sense.
Vichy and the like. Who the hell is that?
The short one lives in Denmark. What's his name?
In a moment, we'll see our most challenging front projection.
It's the one with the bullet which he drops.
We did a front projection - or rather a back projection
which was two inches by one. It was incredibly small.
It's right there. Well, it's somewhat larger than I thought.
No, the front projection is very small, well-
Look. Foreground and background. - It's beautiful.
We made the bridge there -
That night the entire railway service
in the southwest of Poland had been suspended.
Yes, they were quite nice about it.
Those two extras had been flown in from France.
They were there for 30 minutes. We listed them as two French actors
in order to get the money from CMC. It was really clever thinking.
Max von Sydow is also in the film. He talks -
Right, but we don't talk about him here.
No, because, as usual, we're only listening to ourselves.
He was lying down. We made -
He was lying on his back in order to make his voice as deep as possible.
Per Streit, the sound designer-
Look! We pan him out and the background is almost in sync.
Here we didn't succeed.
Well, that's how it is.
What the hell? It creates a little life.
For sure.
But you wouldn't do it like this on a computer today.
No. But then again, it probably wouldn't have the same charm.
His lines caused him a lot of trouble here. There were signs everywhere.
Well, it's difficult -
I insist on a return game today, Colonel Harris.
Jønke looks a little angry.
He looks at his watch. He wants to go home.
...could be proud to be German.
Udo brought different things to the halfway point party.
He was stopped by the customs officers with his inflatable dolls.
Do you remember when he fell down the stairs?
Head first. He was really drunk. A sweet guy.
...even entertaining,
but to a disbeliever it's simply a sophisticated waste of time.
Shoddy too, when the sacrament is nothing but a dry cracker.
She's flirting with you.
A bit scheming, don't you think?
Why not dance with her?
Not today. I'm a little tired.
This film is too storyboarded,
so there wasn’t really any way out of-
When the storyboard was made, you felt, you'd already made the film.
And, as far as I remember, it was almost identical with the film.
The shots looked almost identical.
- Where's the storyboard now? - I think we've misplaced it.
I don't think we'll find it again.
Well, you won't find much passion in this film.
Look, there he is, in person.
Shit yeah.
The eternal Jew.
"The Jew is - "
He's not happy about this.
At this point, did you still believe you were Jewish?
No, the reason why they are called Hartmann -
Right. It had been revealed by that time -
I was the only one who knew. My mother had just died.
And your biological father visited you while you wrote the script.
Oh, yes, that's how it was.
- On your Amiga computer. - Right.
His name was Hartmann,
and Cæcilia thought it would be fun if the family was called Hartmann.
Katharina Hartmann.
Look! Oh, no!
That was called"Persilscheins."
You needed somebody to sign a document
to prove that you weren’t a Nazi.
I must ask, do you know this man?
Max Hartmann is my friend.
I, too, insisted that I spoke German fluently.
They dubbed me, and I never forgave Jørgen Reenberg for that.
No, it was the other way around. - They dubbed him too.
- I met him in Nærum, and - - He didn't understand why?
He just looked far into the distance when he passed me.
Hear the violins. Your brother-in-law was in charge of the music.
Yes. Look, here we have a nice shot. A real Bahs shot.
It was his kind of film.
It really was.
We made it because of him.
And while he stands there, we go through here.
Look.
And Søren Gam and Peter Grant are removing the different parts.
It was really great. - At that time.
At the film school people just loved those things.
Søren Gam loathed physical labor.
He probably just whispered "now" to the others.
Is it my move?
What am I doing? No.
I think I'll retire now.
No need to disturb the Father and Alex.
Good night to you both.
Good night, Father.
Your uncle has always been a good man.
Don't forget that whatever happens -
That's typical Jørgen. He touches your shoulder when he leaves.
It's something actors do to get all the attention.
You couldn't see it. If the scriptwriter wants to get rid of them,
they try to avoid this by touching each other's shoulders.
If his line is - people will focus on the wrong things.
Right, there was a secret door here.
Oh, yeah.
It was the same place the guy from Matador fucked the girl.
This was the place they fucked in Matador.
It was Moesgård.
Holger Juul. - Yes.
That nice man.
We'd made a system with different beams, which went down here.
We did a camera move which followed the radius of the crane.
Yes, it had to meet the technical limitations.
The beams were operated by 10 men. Unfortunately, you can't see it.
The film format doesn't allow it. Well, here we go.
That's right.
They often carry lamps around despite the bright light.
Yes, but what the hell.
Look. Now.
It's a railway family.
And then we go down - It looks old-fashioned.
And down into the bathroom. And we don't just stay there, but -
Oh, I thought there was a back projection, but - Yes, look.
At that point, we used my hands,
because Jønke was so annoying that we had to send him home.
If I'd known that, I would have sharpened the knife even more.
We borrowed one part of the model railway from Märklin.
And Søren Gam built the other part.
Did Märklin exist before the war? They probably did.
I'm sure they produced things which could be used in the war industry.
You're probably right. Toy trains.
They trained small children to perform different tasks.
Jønke and the special effects crew argued about this scene.
Yes, I remember that.
He walked around with wires covered in blood.
Goddamn it. - It was very difficult.
The atmosphere was quite tense...
because we didn't know how intense the love scene would be.
I don't remember. Look! The blood comes from down below,
and we've turned the camera upside down.
That was the only way we could get this shot.
It was extremely complicated. - Well, you managed to do it.
Yes, and nowadays it would have been a piece of cake.
Today young people can do everything on their computers.
Thus, it's wise of them to refrain from making films like this one.
That model railway cost 300,000 - 400,000 kroner.
Nowadays, you can shoot a few weeks for the same amount of money.
She's taken down her hair.
The buttons in her shirt caused us great difficulties.
There were too many buttons, so it's only every 10th that is buttoned.
It seems like she's already- - Unbuttoned some of them.
Every time you see a film you're sure it was the most difficult to make.
But then again, it was difficult. How much time did we have to shoot it?
Between 12 and 16 weeks.
And four weeks in Poland with the backgrounds.
Sixteen weeks? That's a long time.
Back then, all Danish films were made in 14 weeks.
We were quite fast, considering all our difficulties.
And you always complain that I spend too much time.
Well, you had to raise the level of efficiency. Even back then.
Right. At least, it used to be that way.
One day we'll have to make it faster than one to one.
That's when we have to make a 90-minute film in 60 minutes.
I'm sure you'll ask me to do that one day.
In the name of industrialization, we need to keep speeding things up.
Or you could need to do slow motion.
She gives it all she's got, and I was afraid she would ruin the trains.
Oh, my God, he cuts himself everywhere now.
What did we call this scene? "The death of the woodcock"?
Jørgen told us a touching story about the woodcocks.
When they lay dying in his hands -
- They gave him a reproachful look. - No, a grateful look.
Because they'd been killed by such a great hunter.
And he tries to re-create that feeling in the bathtub.
Maybe there's a woodcock that has died that way once.
But I sincerely doubt it.
With so little dignity. - It must have been very patient.
It had to wait for hours before he hit it with the razor.
Woodcocks are difficult to shoot. They fly in a zigzag course.
But if somebody knows how to do it, it's Jørgen Reenberg.
There we have the bloody windows once again.
I wish I'd never heard about them.
Maybe we ought to - Oh, here comes a great shot.
But I'd like to tell people the story about why the film was even made.
The thing with the contract. - Right.
That was fun. It was just one of the stunts on this production.
We'd begun to make the film at Nordisk Film
in a halfhearted way.
And they were more interested in making Sofie.
I kept getting new contracts.
All the contracts had a time limit, and if I didn't meet it,
the deal would be canceled
and I wouldn't make any money on it.
A lawyer from FAF read the different contracts,
and they were very discontented with this.
At some point, Rubin invited me to a meeting.
Kolvig was there too. - And Michael Havemann.
The genius who had written the contract.
They wanted me to sign a new contract.
I wanted FAF to check it, but they said that I should just sign it.
Then I discovered that they'd forgot to change the date,
thus if they didn't cancel the film at midnight the same day,
they had to pay my entire salary. They hadn’t noticed this error,
and then I just signed the contract.
Then I met you and said, "I think the film will be made now."
You and I sat by the phone until midnight, but they didn't call.
Now Nordisk Film had to pay me, whether I made the film or not.
- That was so much fun. - Kolvig called me the next morning.
"Hello? Lars?"
"We've made a small error in the contract.
Are you willing to ignore that?"
"Yes, but my lawyer won't."
I really looked forward to saying that to him.
That way the film became a reality.
Actually, we owe it all to Havemann.
It really is Michael Havemanrs doing.
The law is behind everything.
Yes. It was.
What the hell. - Yeah.
There were many things -
We promised Nordisk Film to leave Germany alone.
They wanted to sell the film there and make a lot of money.
Nevertheless, Philippe Bober helped us sell the film to the Germans.
And Nordisk Film didn't know anything about this.
A few weeks before the shooting started, we were short of money,
and they wanted to cancel the film.
Then we could show them our secret contract.
This film is mainly the result of-
Somehow, we managed to wangle things.
Imagine if you hired cads like us nowadays.
Today everything is done by the book.
- Complete transparency. - Yes.
We didn't see our favorite scene, because we talked.
The crane shot where Ernst-Hugo stood on the box in the end.
The crane shot, which goes from the little train and up.
There were roofs that opened and two cranes -
He had that long monologue, where he was moving from side to side.
We shot the scene over and over again,
and right before we came to Ernst-Hugo, I said, "Cut."
Finally, we got to him, and then he forgot his lines.
I said we should have used von Sydow instead,
and then he just disappeared.
This is the scene where I had to ask the public to help us.
We told the media that we needed AIDS and cancer patients.
I got in so much trouble for that.
People found it disgusting that we wanted to use sick people.
We said we needed "skinny people."
We said we preferred sick people because they are so skinny.
On the other hand, sick people are rarely offered any jobs.
It's in fashion to help minority groups,
and we ought to get an award for our effort.
- It would have been nice. - There's snow, movements and -
None of your later films were that complicated.
Europa is the most complicated one.
But it was less expensive to make. It's very strange.
This is the same - No, yes, it is the same.
- There are projections on the sides. - No, it's an optical bench.
- Paul- - Yes, what was his name?
What was his name? In the optical bench room -
And he always said it couldn't be done, after we'd already done it.
He was often angry. Almost like Uncle Kessler.
Never mind. On the other hand -
Yes, yes, yes.
This was the first day of shooting.
I showed it to Rubin and Bo Christensen. They were furious.
- Yes, they weren’t impressed. - The coffin looked too light.
That was their only comment. - Yes.
It was 18 below, and it was really awful.
And you shot one of the crane shots yourself,
because the cameraman, Edward Klosinsky, said it couldn't be done.
No, that wasn’t the reason why.
You'll see the shot in a moment.
I asked him to do different things.
One of the shots is made sideways, and maybe he let me do it,
because the Polish railways were terribly bumpy.
I asked him to do several different things,
and in the end he said, "Why don't you just do it yourself?"
"Since you seem to know everything yourself. "
No, I thought he was being nice to me.
Later on, I realized that it was because he was furious.
Here's the scene with the light coffin.
That was the scene I shot.
When he asked me to do it, I said, "I'd love to do it."
I'm shooting the scene, and then it was just because
he was really mad at me.
Yes, the coffin looks too light, but can you do it better yourselves?
It was incredibly difficult, that shit.
If it had weighed 550 pounds, you probably couldn't -
Look at the snow we made.
There were old locomotives everywhere.
When reading the script, I wondered if we could afford it.
But we found all these wrecks in Poland.
The plains were filled with old locomotives.
Herr Leopold!
Over here.
Kat is a lovely girl.
I just wanted to thank you.
My nephews' journey went splendidly.
What would they have done without you?
Our superiors appreciate your help in the Ravenstein assassination.
It was fun to watch the Germans who dubbed the Danish actors.
They almost spoke like real actors.
They were great at it. I think they did it in Rostock.
"The Rostock Theater." - Yes.
This was difficult too. We wanted to make the picture rotate -
- Why did we make it so complicated? - I have no idea.
Look. It took several hours.
- It's not even good. In theory- - In theory, it was great.
We wanted it to be as difficult as possible. And it most certainly was.
- It's Gislasors fault. - Of course it was.
He probably often regretted it during the second unit shoot.
Those shots of the rails -
They'd built a special train in order to shoot that footage.
We'd been shooting for hours when I went to see the result.
In the shots the rails weren’t in the middle of the frame,
and the camera operator asked me if it was okay.
"You must be joking. On the storyboard they're in the middle. "
At that point, they'd been working on the train for two weeks,
but they just tore it apart after that.
This is a textbook example of
why you shouldn't place a leading part in the background.
Ernst-Hugo is standing there singing "Tannenbaum, Tannenbaum."
And he tries to attract all the attention -
From Erik Mørk's monologue. This is the only take
where we don't see smoke coming out of Ernst-Hugo's ears.
He tried all kinds of things.
He couldn't stand it when the lens wasn’t focused on him.
Well, I just think it was a natural reaction.
He wanted to complete the shot.
Once we tested if he could actually stop being the center of attention.
I used a stopwatch and told him to stay low for five minutes.
After three minutes he was sound asleep.
- Only the eternal rest was left. - His psyche couldn't handle it.
Do you have any contact with Kat?
I really must go now. We will meet again.
- Several lines in German. He was - - He was really great.
Since Ernst-Hugo stood almost still, we could actually use the scene.
At this point, I just prayed that Ernst-Hugo would keep standing still.
Ernst-Hugo got cigars if he behaved himself.
- Did he ever behave himself? - He got one every day.
He kept them and the taxi bills from the airport in his pocket.
This is the church.
Yes, and it's very much inspired by Vertigo,
which all connoisseurs will know.
We shot some of it from above.
And we'd placed a huge, unsteady wooden tower in the top.
But we went even higher and shot this scene from there.
Tómas Gislason stood on the floor and I operated the camera.
I asked him to move people a little to the right.
Then Tómas said, "I don't think so. Just shoot the scene."
It turned out that people had gone on a strike,
and they were very unsatisfied with the film company.
The Polish production team had fled in a car,
and Tómas Gislason was all alone with all those angry people.
It was right before the big change of the political system.
"I don't think so", he said.
They were cold, hungry, and they hadn’t been paid for months.
There's a Plumrose tin somewhere here.
Bahs ate the contents and made a lamp of the tin.
It was a great sacrifice. Considering how much he liked -
It was mock turtle soup.
- From Beauvais? - Yes, only the best is good enough.
- Is that a bridge? - Yes.
It was extremely difficult to shoot. There's snow in the background -
Snow, water and darkness.
And leaves and -
In a moment, we'll see a sickly- That looked strange.
And our theory didn't hold water. The leaves should go from his shot -
And then they were suddenly married.
The leaves landed in the current under the bridge,
but they should have - I simply don't get it.
Now we'll see a small puff of air.
And then they should float - Come on, leaves!
There's not a single leaf.
Yes, there! Well, not really.
And here's the most sickly dissolve ever made in the history of films.
It's simply too much.
It's not... good.
And pigeons and whatnot?
It was in this church - Some of the footage was mislaid,
and you lit a candle for "The Saint of Lost items."
The priest in the church was a dreamer.
The church was ruined during the war. It was a huge church.
He was named after a saint, but I don't remember which one.
You can read it in the credits.
You pray to this saint when you've lost something.
All Catholics, except me, know whom I'm talking about.
Then we prayed and against all odds we retrieved it.
It was terrible, because we thought we'd lost some important shots.
He kept saying that the church,
which was nothing but a bit of rubble, should be restored.
In the credits it said how you could donate money to the restoration.
We put the information in the end, but nobody reads all the credits.
- How much did we donate? - Probably not that much.
But now we have a little film we can show St. Peter.
"We did actually contribute."
But a few years ago I spoke to a young man -
a student at the Polish Film School, who was born in that village.
Here we see two different hands. The reflected image is wrong.
It was his village church, and he had been inspired by our shoot.
I asked him, "What about the church?" "It's been restored."
So miracles do happen.
- And maybe people - - Have read the credits.
They've sent money to the church.
Well, you'll know for sure on the Day of Wrath.
Now she's in the mood for love.
In a moment we'll see a Nordisk Film speciality. Rime.
Remember when Egon Olsen sat in a freezer with his cigar?
It's the leftovers from that scene, and we got yet another bill.
The copying machines have been busy.
Damn right.
I really liked the rime. We'll see it in a moment.
I think we did a crane move - as we always did.
After all, we've only had two shots since the last difficult scene.
Yes - But was this really that difficult?
Here we spend some time on the dialogue.
You must be young and daring, if you decide to make such a film.
It's here. Look.
There's rime on the window. This is beautifully done.
That's so beautiful.
We're at Bergen-Belsen or something like that.
It's really beautiful. And this is a -
- A "Rodney Hall." - We didn't have any in Denmark.
But if we look out the window now we'll see nothing but Rodney halls.
We've already torn down 37 Rodney halls, because they were rust-eaten.
Rodney designed them,
but I'm not sure the brick wall was an authentic part of it.
- She's a bit frisky here. - Yes, SS llsa.
Oh, yeah. And she's got the iron in her hand.
That she does.
The shot doesn't make any sense. We've overdone it.
There's no communication at all. Oh, that's a classic movie scene.
But it's nice. Henning Bendtsen, the DP,
made sure to soften her a bit.
I was very impressed by his light test of her.
She came to Denmark
because the director of photography and the leading lady
were like the big -
It was a big deal.
We'd put out many different lights for the test,
but he only used a 60-watt bulb.
He waved it in front of her face for 15 seconds.
"Thank you. That'll be all." Then she went back home.
I've never heard about a light test before.
It was very important that he knew how she looked with -
"Thank you. That'll be all."
It was very impressive.
He was of the old school.
Here we used the crane which was operated by remote control.
What was it called?
The entire film was made with a gear head.
It was the first one in Scandinavia. What's it called?
A remote -
Probably something with "cam." Something with "cam."
There lies Udo on a crochet blanket.
He probably crocheted it himself. - If not, he would have loved to.
He crocheted all of it.
He was nasty- The darkest hours of the war.
We've used a cubistic pattern here.
"All you have to do is place some explosives underneath your carriage. "
It doesn't get any easier than that. He's got an Adolf hairdo.
He sure does.
Here we go.
That's the shoeshine from the main station.
Our friend, who's been in several films.
There's Claus Flygare. With brushed-back hair.
Directly from the Mammut Theater.
Yes, known from the Mammut Theater.
An unforgettable scene.
Ernst-Hugo is already cross. And I don't blame him.
He's received a parcel. - He's cross because of the bomb.
He's already unwrapped it,
and it doesn't meet the requirements for real bombs.
What were those sleeping cars called?
I can't remember a thing.
What they were called?
What was the inventor of the sleeping car called?
Niels and I have laughed at my forgetfulness so many times.
And I can't remember the name.
They mention it in the film - - There's "front and back pussy."
Erno Müller.
- Or "top pussy." - No, "back and top pussy."
And Benny Poulsen. He died recently.
- Erno Müller- - He had many theories.
Yes, and as a counterpart to "dick and swelled dick,"
you had "back and top pussy."
I never figured out how those two things were paired.
I met him at the film school, where he taught us about those things.
You were young men and you didn't know anything about those things.
That's one of the best lines.
And we still feel the same way.
Look at that. It's beautiful.
Maybe he ought to check that paper-wrapped parcel.
The wrapping paper, yes.
Here comes the classic movie shot taken from above.
We had to lay down the entire scenery.
I really don't remember that -
At the point where they hold hands.
It is so very beautiful.
Why did it have to be laid down? - Otherwise we couldn't make it.
We couldn't make the back projection -
Oh, no, of course not.
We got the front from a British guy.
Right, it was a front projection.
The difference between a front and a back projection is purely technical.
Either it comes from the front or from the back.
It's the exact same thing with a top and a back pussy.
But the definition is unclear. - It's kind of blurry now.
The definition of top and back pussy depends solely on fashion and taste.
Look at that.
Oh, yes.
Sentimental music.
It was difficult to shoot that scene from another train.
Gislason and I had to change it one night where I was extremely drunk.
It was the last night, and the Poles had got me drunk.
Gislason fought a heroic battle, all by himself.
He made it as a reshoot. - I see. A reshoot?
We'd shot the train when it went the wrong way.
...what you would do if the cleaner handed you a green card
filled in like this.
Now he has to hurry.
Another crane shot. There are quite a few camera moves in this film.
What do you think? Do you think we're in Urmitz now?
I guess somebody is trying to tell us something.
We didn't hear the narrator, but he probably said, "We're in Urmitz now."
Finally, just to be on the safe side, it's included in somebody's line.
It's not that easy to get through the carriage with that bomb.
What's the MP called? - Michael Simpson.
He was in Epidemic, where he talked about "tight pussies."
And he falls into Mølleåen to the sound of Wagner.
That was a pool in Fredensborg Slotspark.
- He's good with his hands. - Yes, he's great with bombs.
According to Bahs, it's plastic explosives when you do it like that.
He knew about that.
He is quite busy on the platform in Urmitz.
Somebody took his hat. That's really great.
It's really funny. It's the only funny thing in this film.
Somebody took his hat. That's funny.
Why did he take his hat? - I have no idea.
That's a beautiful model. - I don't know.
It was huge. About 16 - 21 yards.
- Look. It's a Hellesen. - Yes, I thought so.
The Hellesen factory is in Køge. On "Tiger Road,"of course.
And what's that? A small watch?
Now he just needs to set it.
Ernst-Hugo is soon dying to get some attention.
- He's hid the bomb well. - Yes.
No one will find it there.
And once again the railway service was suspended
for four nights in the southern part of Poland.
People were freezing and the train service had just stopped.
You probably won't find cups hanging like that in other trains.
In that case, you need to make sure that the cups don't touch each other.
What was the story with the handkerchief?
Oh, yes, you had to keep your head covered.
His examination depended on it. It's something from my Jewish past.
You must cover your head when visiting a Jewish graveyard.
So there you were, with a handkerchief.
So you used a handkerchief if you'd forgotten -
Your hat.
This scene is extremely beautiful.
I think Søren Gam arranged the grass he's lying on here.
- It's very beautiful, and the - - He looks up upon the stars.
It's inspired by The Night of the Hunter.
Look at that. We had to improvise here.
We made a frame of grass and shot it from the bottom of it.
It's beautiful. We could have used shots like that in our thriller.
If you hadn’t revealed the ending. - Nature, grass -
The best films are never made.
The most mythological projects.
And there was a shooting star.
I didn't plan it that way, but it looks like it.
This was extremely difficult to shoot. That's a stuntman.
He's running on a bridge,
and there's nothing but slats. If he falls, he ends in the water.
Right behind him there's a small train carrying the camera.
- It's at night, and it's freezing. - It was extremely dangerous.
We did use safety advisers. They didn't care about the stuntman,
but they wouldn't allow people to sit on top of the train.
Then I told them we would leave. We got into the car,
and when we looked back, there were people all over the train.
They always acted quickly.
People weren’t that proud back then.
Look at that. - It's probably-
And he just keeps running.
He cut himself here. And Bahs was furious
because they'd put real glass in all the window frames.
Instead of artificial glass. So he cut himself on the door.
Then Bahs said, "A-a-a-re you in-in-insane?"
I remember that one.
The Polish assistant directors kept yelling, "Uwaga! Uwaga!"
"Careful! Careful!"
Tómas was sick when we did the shot of the Berlina in the woods.
Then I got sick.
I was sitting in the woods, taking a crap on a slope.
Then I fell backwards down the slope and rolled around -
- In the crap. - I'm not sure.
The area was so contaminated that you couldn't really tell,
but I just remember sitting there and then everything went black.
It wasn’t always easy.
You shouldn't take a crap down a slope. Do it up the slope instead.
As far as I remember, it was always 20 below while we were there.
Well, the crap won't have time to freeze before you fall into it.
I think it's because, right after you've relieved yourself,
your knees start to relax.
That's when you need to pay extra attention.
But apparently it's quite common in Poland, because nobody-
What the hell.
Did I tell you about the time I had to empty the toilet in the camper?
In Western Europe there are special places where you can empty-
In Germany, you were actually shown the way to these places.
I asked one of the assistants to help me.
He looked at the toilet and said:
"What do you want me to do?" "I want you to empty it."
Then he just emptied it next to the car.
"Is there anything else I can do?" "No."
There weren’t that many environmental regulations back then.
Look, that's difficult. Difficult, difficult, difficult.
And now the camera turns. It's extremely difficult.
He's nauseous and therefore the room spins.
Your uncle kindly got a card for you.
We now want you to make bed 42.
Now he just needs to make the bed.
And the clock's ticking.
It's actually a fun film, though most people would deny it.
Those two men are so self-righteous.
Yes. But what the hell.
Well, an examination requires a certain amount of respect.
But you don't really want those three as your examiners, right?
And he's also busy looking at the back projections through the window.
But they won't accept that kind of behavior.
Bahs wanted the curtains to be down.
Then we didn't have to concentrate on those surroundings too.
The old hand really took you by surprise there.
Yes, he knew that it was important to keep the curtains down.
In that sense, it's really a Bahs film.
- We made it for his sake. - But he also did a great job.
And if he hadn’t recommended the film at the meeting,
it would have been dropped.
Despite the fact that Georg Metz wanted to make Sofie.
Which Liv Ullmann directed.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
- "Sleep well." - "With compliments."
- "From Zentropa." - No kidding.
- We could use that now. - We could use the blankets.
But they're probably at Nordisk Film.
They've been used in several films since then.
Now he climbs a small ladder. - He's testing the bed.
He's just testing -
You find the film amusing. Havert you seen it before?
Not while I've been awake. It's quite funny.
Oh, my.
At the premiere I slept with my head on Bo Christensers shoulder.
He was also managing director at Nordisk Film. A nice old man.
There she is. She is not that passionate here.
Whoops.
She's tied to the chair.
You couldn't say the same thing about the audience in Cannes.
Those who stayed
did so because they wanted to criticize it from beginning to end.
The train company is called Zentropa.
- It reminds me of something. - It reminds me of something, yes.
Niels and I were worried about Mitropa -
That they would sue us.
And then Niels came up with Zentropa.
So he came up with the name? Then we probably owe him something.
But he's never made any demands.
Here's one of the color shots which ensures the term "color film."
Yes, and I think it was - It was a wipe.
It had to be in color, because it was very emotional.
Did we follow certain rules concerning when -
It depended on the importance. The emergency brake is in color.
- What's important in this scene? - Their love. Those two together.
Seriously, how can she love Jean-Marc?
Well, we did pay her to love him.
The nice kid with the handkerchief on his head.
Did I tell you that it was a reminiscence of my Jewish past?
Right. You used it instead of the skullcap.
Now we're repeating things for those who have just started watching this.
Maybe the viewers haven't listened to everything we've said.
Let's hope so.
The company name is the same as our company's name. Why is that?
I believe it was because we couldn't come up with a better name.
We had to put a name on the registration form
to the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency.
And we wrote "Zentropa."
I thought it should sound more industrialized,
so we added "entertainments."
Not that our films have ever entertained anyone.
Why did we write it in plural?
Because it was different kinds of entertainments.
But several teachers of English have told us that it's incorrect.
There you can see how difficult it was to focus.
Yes, especially when it moved back and forth.
Niels and I had a company called "Element Film."
It was inspired by Bergman who had a company called "Persona Film."
After he made Persona, he used the name as a company name.
Therefore, we decided to call it Zentropa.
And in many ways, Denmark lies in the center of Europe.
So it isn't inspired by something Buddhist?
No, but we would have liked to have a network called "Zen."
"Zentropa Entertainments Network."
We did - - We've had many dreams.
We did.
Fortunately, most of them were shattered.
There's the logo. We should have kept the eagle.
Yes, the logo could have -
That's Hardy Rafn. - "Schuhe putzen."
"Schuhe putzen."
He had a bad temper too.
That was after Hummer Højmark hit his forehead with a piece of glass.
Yes, it's always dangerous to be around the special effects guys.
He also knew his lines.
That he did.
And Benny- The old man is still asleep.
That was yet another funny element.
In addition, of course, to Ernst-Hugo, who was brilliant.
Now he's asked different things. Oh, the examination is over.
Now he tells him that he probably won't pass.
Actually, it was a script filled with humor.
You and Niels giggled a lot while you wrote it.
That was the history with -
What's with the movement of the nose?
I got it from our chiropractor.
Right, the one from Rødovre. He had a "death machine."
It could break your neck. Right before he turned your head -
That's right. - He used to -
He wrinkled the bridge of his nose.
But this film was, as mentioned earlier, produced by Nordisk Film.
Yes, and they've just sent us a reminder.
They've bought the copyrights to the film,
but now they claim we owe them money.
So maybe we are marketing their product right now.
It's a mistake, of course.
They haven't done much to market it themselves.
Didn’t Harvey Weinstein drop it too?
Yes, his company, Dimension, bought it.
I think he bought it just to keep it on the shelf.
To prevent things from being shown.
He paid 150,000 dollars for it. That was a lot of money back then.
Especially if he just wanted to keep it on the shelf.
In America, the film was called Zentropa too.
Because there was another European film called Europa, Europa.
Then it couldn't be called Europa.
Then it should have been called Europa, Europa, Europa.
Now Jean-Marc gets angry. - Finally.
It's always fun to make something with guns.
Now everybody's quiet.
He's no longer angry about the shoes.
After our argument the other day, everybody was quiet afterwards too.
They were really angry with him.
And he takes a little nap.
Despite the fact that he just fired his weapon.
And the snow is falling outside. It's really pretty.
I've been told that American directors were inspired by this film.
Who?
Spielberg and - Maybe it's just a tall tale.
To hell with that. Tales are -
When he made the film about the concentration camps.
Schindler's List.
It's probably a tall tale. But what the hell?
It's a good story. - Tall tales are great stories.
We did our best. And that has been patinated by a happy painter.
Here we pass by some uprights.
And we probably spent two weeks on each.
- Here we go. - The Märklin train.
Or is it a real train? - It was on a bigger scale.
Yes, it was big.
Goddamn it! The wheel.
One of the cameramen was almost killed here.
It fell off its hinges.
The entire compartment hung on a wheel which fell down.
It was fastened with a split pin which was about half an inch long.
That was pretty drastic.
- Jean-Marc was great with water. - He'd just made a film in water.
He was excellent
when it came to holding his breath underwater.
And he knew how to take a breath
so you could see the bubbles underwater.
- That shot is flawed. - Yes.
Shit. And you could actually tell.
That bothers me. It wasn’t an attempt to lengthen the shot.
There's Max again.
There's a rat in the cage.
This was shot at
"Dansk Hydraulisk Institut" in Hørsholm.
You paddled around with snorkels - No, with oxygen tanks.
Yes, that was a lot of fun.
We got all the underwater things from an English company,
and there's an end scene which I just couldn't get right.
But they were sure that they could.
There was a scene where he was to stand on a sandbank.
The entire studio was filled with sand
and you could see this Ken doll hanging in the distance.
It looked like shit.
We spent a lot of money on that. Look! He takes a breath.
You need to be really determined to do such a thing.
He's really acting here.
Yes, because he tries to make the character seem very intelligent.
Look! - That hurts.
Do you remember what people said in Cannes afterwards?
No. Was I in Cannes too?
Yes, you were there.
I think you took the train. - How wise of me.
- You crossed bridges. - It's really great.
It really is. Yes.
- Look at that! - Yes, tell us about that.
There were a lot of faces, but the superimposition isn't too good.
It's a back projection underwater.
Yes, and the screen was floating on top of the water.
Then there was a projector up in the air
and the images were shown on the screen.
It's beautiful.
And it's inspired, especially the thing with the aquatic plants,
by The Night of the Hunter.
- We saw it on VHS. - It was a great film.
It was the only film he ever directed.
Who was it? Was it Charles Laughton?
Yes, wasn’t it? Yes, he was in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Look at that. It's truly beautiful.
Then he drifted out to sea.
- And then - - Nordisk had had it with us.
We'd surpassed the budget by two million.
In Element of Crime, the end scene didn't succeed either.
No, it was the opening scene.
You've got a thing for those underwater scenes.
Compared to today's standards, that's a lousy shot.
That almost makes it even more beautiful.
It almost becomes a bit naive.
It's a superimposition.
It's not a matte painting. It's a superimposition of-
of something which had been drawn.
He was called Finn, the guy who drew it.
Look at that! And in the end we have a great song.
In the beginning, we wanted Sinéad O'Connor to sing it.
Because Lars Kolvig had heard her sing "Nothing Comes to You."
"Nothing Compares to You." Did he like it?
Yes, but she didn't want to sing it.
So we had the German punk - - Nina Hagen.
We didn't have anything to do with that.
It was Joachim Holbek. - Your brother-in-law.
I spoke to Mørk's son the other day. Christian.
- He's an American now. - He lives in New York.
Max von Sydow should have played Uncle Kessler.
You wanted him to play the character.
But we avoided that by offering him a low salary.
Then Ernst-Hugo got the part instead.
János Herskó. That was the man from the film school in Stockholm.
They're all dead.
Yes, the eternal Jew.
Bo Christensen. He played the villain in several Olsen Gang films.
He always wore a white jacket and a hat.
Why- Why isn't he credited as "operator"?
In order to get the money from France
Jean-Paul was listed as a director of photography.
When they were upgraded in the credits we got more money.
Henning Bendtsen has made a beautiful black-and-white film.
His blood pressure suffered from it, but he said it was my fault.
- He was probably right. - Probably.
Philippe Bober. - And Erik Crone.
Do you remember Philippe Guez? The chubby French guy?
Yes.
Mital's right hand.
Who was the "Remember me" guy?
It was a producer I talked to - - He scared me to death.
Let's not bad-mouth him. Maybe he sees this.
- He was a French - - I won't say his name here.
I just remember he came up to me in Cannes:
"Remember me?" - He almost had his Magnum ready.
He didn't need it. He was so scary all by himself.
He's asked me to work with him since, but I'm too scared to do it.
- Those French guys. - They've got that Latin temper.
Can you read that? - No.
Not even if I raise my head -
I think the expenses ended at about 27 million kroner.
That was a lot of money back then. - How did we get all that money?
It was Sweden, Germany and France -
They've all gone bankrupt. All our partners.
We tried to find the German company recently.
- But it doesn't exist anymore. - We've caused a lot of trouble.
And Nordisk Film was sold to Egmont afterwards.
It was?
Panavision. - Yes, it was important.
That it was Panavision. Back then, some things were very important.
Things that didn't have anything to do with profit.
"Mega."
Yes, Kjeld Wennick did the soundtrack.
It hasn't been a hit on the charts.
But we'd hoped that it would be a hit on the request programs.
"We would like to hear Europa. "
"We've collected some money in a conductor's hat. "
Well, that was great. I haven't seen it since, have you?
No. It wasn’t too bad. But I'm really tired now.