Movie review : FLAME AND CITRON [Ole Christian Madsen, 2008]
World war two movies seem to have become very popular in the new century. In this case we are dealing with a danish drama about the resistance, and the accusations of the danes as going a bit too easily along with the german occupasion powers, need to bring out the very few "heroes" we had, to make up for it.
Luckily the director does not fall into this trap easily, he is very much aware of the moral consequences of the main characters actions and focuses on all aspects of their deeds. The heroism is almost not there and they are even a bit on the dark side if you ask me... which is obviously closer to reality, since only those who have nothing to loose, become a lone wolf fighting against an extreme disparity of power. The truth is probably, that the resistance did not make much difference after all, except from a moral standpoint. Denmark was not going to end up as a vasal state of totalitarianism, that being Germany og Russia.
Flame is the nickname of Bent Christensen (Thure Lindhart) and despite a very young age, he is the most prolific assassin of german friendly danes. The Holger Danske resistance group organises the liquidations from various tips and spies around the city, and Flame, together with his friend Citron (Mads Mikkelsen), drives off to locations, and Flame shoots them dead.
As the plot progresses we discover that there may be more to the leaders motives than just a love of freedom and their country. A female cureer, Betty Selmer (Stine Stengade), becomes entangled with Flame and when he ends up needing to execute her, he starts to have doubts about what is really going on. Through Betty he learns that his leader is probably serving his own interest and is trying to eliminate people he owes money from a failed business adventure.
Flame and Citron often disguise themselves as policemen, to get into areas they otherwise would not be able to enter. But by sheer unluck, they are dressed as policemen on a job, on the day the nazis arrest the whole danish policecorps. They are in a fix and there seem to be no way out now.
The plot is very close to the real story of the main characters and even the supporting cast and the locations. A lot of effort has been put into creating a feel of being transported back to Copenhagen of 1943-44. Like in the scene where Citron enters a nazi-frindly storeowners shop, we see him cross the road, Walk through the door and start talking all in one shot. This makes it very believable and less like stagefilm.
The cast is well chosen in my opinion. Both Thure and Mads play their roles well, even if Thure is a bit on the soft side. The real Flammen (in danish, was rumoured to be a really cold killer. They try to enter their characters but without sounding like clichés we have seen over and over again. We do get to know a bit about their personality and their family life, without focusing too much on those aspects. There is a good flow in the plot and the final scenes are climactic in a very sort of underplayed style, maybe even too underplayed. But there is no Hollywood here, no gunslinger mentality, which is an aspect that the director have been very careful to avoid.
The only real negative thing is a feeling of an empty city. I do not get a feeling that there are too many people in the streets and so on. From what I have seen of stockfilm from back then, there seemed to be lots of people in the streets. Also I needed a bit more emotional depth in the main characters to really bring it to another level. I know that it is always difficult to find the balance between the true story and artistic freedom, but thise freedoms that he does take, does not really feel believable. Like the confrontstion between Flame and the gestapo chief Hoffman.
Like its brother in arms "Max Manus" from Norway, it is a fine movie, well executed and well played by the cast. But it cannot be much more than a glorified semi-documentary. The emotional depth that is necessary to get a movie to the top level, can never be achieved in this kind of film, even worse with emotional numb types like those portrayed. It comes recommended for its good entertainment value and sober portrait of life in the resistance.
Rating: 7/10
