I don't know how it is where y'all live, but here in SoKy, it's cooooold. Or it has been cold. The last couple of days it's been quite a bit warmer than usual. I've been under the weather forevah it feels like. First it was this, then it was that, now I've got a nasty rattling cough that just won't go away. It's really getting me down, and I'm just walking on eggshells that it doesn't turn into a sore throat. I'd rather be shot than have a sore throat.
And naturally when I'm feeling down I turn to my favorite pass time: watching movies! Lately, I haven't been digging "American" movies. Feels like I've seen them all before. Not even indy movies are cutting it for me, so I decided to go back to my love of Foreign Films and my undeniable crush on Mads Mikkelson to find something to keep me occupied.
Flame & Citron was enthralling. Simply enthralling. It's the (mostly) true story about two Danish Resistance fighters during WWII, code named "Flame" and "Citron." They're best friends and always have each other's back.The two of them are basically hired killers by the Danish government. They are part of an resistance group fighting against the Nazi's, who are literally everywhere you turn. Their orders are given to them and off they go. Easy, pretty much clean, in and out. One Nazi at a time.
"Flame," who's real name is "Bendt" is played excellently by Thure Lindhardt. I knew I'd seen his face before the moment it popped up on the TV screen. Grabbing my iPhone and opening up the IMDb app I discovered the reason why he looked familiar. He played the ruthless super assassin "Rufio" in one of my all time favorite shows, The Borgias. He is the "muscle" of the two, in the beginning. He's so calmly lethal. No joke, he gets out of the car, walks up to the designated Nazi, and - not to mince words - blows their brains out. On the street, in their houses, hotel rooms... wherever they are, Flame kills them.
"Citron" is "Jorgen," and he is played yummily by Mads Mikkelson. Jorgen hates the Nazis. They've made him physically ill. He's the driver. When the film opens Jorgen hasn't pulled the trigger on anyone. By the end of the film, he's literally fighting pretty much the entire Nazi army single handedly...
There's a slew of supporting characters, including a double agent named Ketty that Bendt can't fight his attraction to, even though he's playing with fire. There's the head of the Gestapo, Hoffmann, and Flame & Citron's boss, Winther.
There is so much intrigue and who's really the bad guy in this film. It's hard to explain because I don't want to give anything away.
There is very little language in this film.... if any. It's in Danish and German, but of course it is subtitled. There is obviously some violence and there is one "adult" scene... and that was so awkward.
The end isn't happy. I'll just let ya know right now, but you can kind of expect that, considering it was WWII and all.
10 out of 10. BIG TIME.
I watched another Mads Mikkelson film called "Age of Uprising" and it wasn't very great at all. A lot like Braveheart, but it moved waaaaaay too slowly for my taste. Didn't even make it half way through.
For A Woman is a love-story that sort of reminds me of The Bridges of Madison County the way it's presented. It starts off with adult children going through a recently deceased parents belongings and discovering a secret love affair.Anne and Tania discover a mysterious ring and several photos in their mothers secret suitcase. Anne, a screenwriter, decides to turn her parents love story into a film and begins to write.
As she begins to unravel the story, she learns some amazing things.
Michel and Lena are Russian Jews. Michel is also a Communist and is very involved in a Communist group. Having met in, married in and fled a concentration camp they've immigrated to Lyon, France. Their story begins with them applying for French citizenship. Soon they're parents to Tania and Michel owns a suit tailor's shop.
Michel and Lena are obviously nuts about each other and love being together.
One afternoon Lena comes rushing down to the shop (from their apartment above) and tells Michel that his brother is upstairs. Michel is skeptical because he thinks his younger brother, Jean, died in Russia, but once he gets upstairs he sees it is Jean.
Jean is part of a secret group that is (also) killing Nazis. These Nazi's are trying to escape Europe and during their stop over in Lyon, Jean and his associate Sascha, kill them.
In both films the main characters express that they're not killing "people." The Nazis aren't "people."
Michel puts Jean and Sascha to work in the shop.
After some time, Lena can no longer hide her attraction to Jean, and kisses him in the kitchen. Jean insists he won't sleep with his brother's wife, that they're better than that.
After an argument Michel kicks Jean out. Jean begins living in a hotel room. The Germans are getting close to Jean, too close, and so he has to disappear.
Lena is depressed and upset that Jean has left. She loved his company, he was great with Tania.... Her friend gives her this advice "Sometimes we regret the mistakes that we don't make."
Who does Lena choose???????
This movie was BEAUTIFUL. I didn't know any of the actors in it, but right from the get-go I felt like the cutie-pie that plays Jean looked like a french Jamie Dornan - you know, Christian Grey? The woman that plays Lena is beautiful and very talented.
This whole movie is great. Really really beautiful. Like I said, it reminds me of The Bridges of Madison County the way that it goes back and forth between grown adult children and their parents.
There is some language. This film is in French and Russian and German, mostly French, and has subtitles. There is one adult situation scene, and it's pretty tame but there is a flash of a woman's bare chest, but it's very quick.
Again, 10 out of 10!!
I'm loving watching these Foreign Films! They give me something that regular American films just aren't giving me. You can bet that as long as I've got the rattling cough that I'll be watching these movies.... it helps that they have subtitles because half the time I cough the whole way through them! Haha!
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