Mads Mikkelsen
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“The Script Had to be Drunk — Drunk Alongside the Characters”: Director Thomas Vinterberg on Balancing Humor and Sadness In His Unexpectedly Life-Affirming Another Round
A besotted cinematic sub-genre consists of films about drinking — liquor, bars and the imbiber’s life. Whether the lives portrayed are rowdy and boisterous ones, or, as is often the case, destructively out-of-control, these films — ranging from Days of Wine and Roses and The Lost Weekend to Leaving Las Vegas — usually map their character arcs alongside their characters’ physical and social deterioration; they wind up as cautionary tales. A recent film that took a different approach is the Ross Brothers’s hybrid documentary, Bloody Noses Empty Pockets, which captured the woozy exuberance of one intoxicated day/night while not eliding […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 31, 2021 -
Back to One, Episode 44: Arctic and Polar Star Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Mikkelsen is perhaps best known for playing villains in Casino Royale, Doctor Strange, and the television series Hannibal, but he’s also been called the “face of the resurgent Danish cinema,” culminating with his Best Actor win at Cannes for his work in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt. In this half hour, he talks about performing some physically and emotionally wrenching scenes in two new movies he currently stars in, the pure survival film Arctic, and the live action adaptation of the popular graphic novel Polar. Warning: Spoilers abound. Arctic is in select theaters now. Polar is on Netflix. Back To […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Feb 5, 2019 -
“It Went from ‘He Can’t Breathe’ to ‘He is Really Cold'”: Director Joe Penna on his Cannes Survival Drama, Arctic
Los Angeles-based writer/director Joe Penna has made a name for himself in the YouTube world with his popular channel MysteryGuitarMan. Combining his passion for music and stop-motion animation, the channel, now over ten years old, boasts 2.8 million subscribers and over 400 million views. Videos such as “Guitar Impossible” have screened at the Guggenheim Museum. In addition to his many commercials for top brands, the native Brazilian gained further attention for his short films, including Instant Getaway, that was produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and Turning Point and was selected to play at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. […]
by Tiffany Pritchard on May 14, 2018 -
Through a Glass Darkly: Men & Chicken
I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because my family is German. And that also gave me some pleasure. So, I, what can I say? I understand Hitler….How do I get out of this sentence? Okay, I am a Nazi. As for the art, I’m for (Nazi architect Albert) Speer. This is a mild example of the comments reported from the 2011 Cannes Film Festival by Jada Yuan in a May 18 Vulture article entitled “The 10 Most Controversial Things Lars Von Trier said at the Melancholia Press Conference.” After an […]
by Howard Feinstein on Apr 19, 2016 -
Nicolas Winding Refn, Valhalla Rising
Valhalla Rising, which stars Mads Mikkelsen (best known for playing the much more suave devil Le Chiffre in Casino Royale) as a one-eyed, mute, enslaved gladiator who joins a group of Viking Christians on a conquest that turns into an existential journey to hell, is certainly not what one would expect from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. And that’s part of the beauty of the film. Before this latest atmospheric mood piece containing echoes of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Refn helmed the hyperkinetic Bronson, about England’s most dangerous criminal turned cult hero who never seemed at a loss for […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jul 14, 2010
