"Please Think of the Children!"

The Hunt/Jagten (2012) - Vinterberg

Yes, Mads Mikkelsen is great as Lucas, a kindergarten teacher who's falsely accused of sexual molestation in a small, tight knit community. He deserved the best actor award at the Cannes and everything. But it's Vinterberg's regular Thomas Bo Larsen who plays Theo, Lucas's best friend and the father of a little girl whose little lie that starts up a shitstorm, really shines here. Vinterberg is smart not to make it a courtroom drama or about the loss of innocence. It still retains the sharp critique on the 'please think of the children' mentality and deals with thorny subject expertly without sacrificing the narrative. The Hunt is about simmering tension underneath the society that looks picture perfect. That even someone as well regarded and decent like Lucas isn't safe once the seed of doubt is planted. The Hunt is a less grandiose, down to earth Haneke film. It's a chilling reminder of once well to do northern Europe and its turmoil in a much more complicated world. The ending is really chilling.

Coco & Igor

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009) - Kounen

Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) debuts The Rites of Spring in Paris, 1913. The production (choreographed by Nijinsky) is very avant-garde. The reception is so terrible, by the end, there is a riot in the theater. Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) is there in awe of its dissonance. For her as a strong, independent, 20th century woman, his music is the way of the future, well fit for her sensibility. 7 years later, she, still in mourning her boyfriend's death, invites Stravinsky and his family (sick wife and 4 kids) to her estate outside Paris. Unbeknownst to him, she is the sole supporter of the entire season of his production.

Kounen paints a very complex picture in two artists whose feeling and respect weren't totally mutual. In the eyes of Stravinsky's wife and many others, Chanel was a collector of people, adulteress and a cold hearted bitch. For the composer, she was an object of desire, a mere 'shop keeper', not an artist of equal status.

The soundtrack is great, so as dark, sumptuous cinematography and production design. Mouglalis's dark, slim elegance is quite magnetic. Mikkelsen's tortured genius has a real weight and depth. Kounen paints the artists as tragic figures, as misunderstood geniuses and lonely souls. It's much better than fluffy fairy tale that was Coco Before Chanel.

Unleavened

Valhalla Rising (2009) - Refn

I gotta admit, Nicolas Winding Refn(The Pusher Trilogy, Bronson)'s macho posing looks and works much better in this period piece. Hell, any film looks much better if it took place in a desolate, stark, unforgiving nature background. Valhalla Rising almost rises above its thin premise by its beauty- a.k.a.; New World. Not even Mads Mikkelsen's one eyed mute warrior from Sutherland can save this hallucinogenic black metal music video. Granted, Refn's use of wide screen format is impressive and often breathtakingly gorgeous. But like his first and last American film, Fear X, it's muddled in Lynchian (but nowhere as intriguing) trippy-ness. Then again, it's not set in American Midwest and not about a small time security guard.