DVD OF THE WEEK

FLAME AND CITRON ****
Dir: Ole Christian Madsen
Starring: Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen

In Northern Europe there has been a revival of films that explore the role of resistance fighters during the Second World War. We are still waiting for The Norway's Max Manus and Dutch/ Belgian co-production Winter in Wartime, but the film this one most resembles is Paul Verhoeven's Black Book which similarly explored the psychological effects of the constant fear of betrayal and all-pervasive suspicion on members of the resistance.
This time we're in Denmark and the title comes from the names of that country's two most famous WW2 folk heroes whose job was to assassinate key Nazis and collaborators. Lindhardt and Mikkelsen (he was the Bond villain in Casino Royale) are fantastic as the two beleaguered fighters, caught in an ever-tightening web of paranoia and double-dealing, increasingly unsure whether they can trust even the people who give them orders from London through secret wires.
The big budget allows for a wonderful period recreation, while the action is tense and well-planned. This is a masterfully made film and, if it was in English hailing from Hollywood, should be universally known. If Quentin Tarantino's brilliant Inglourious Basterds has softened you up for a few subtitles then you could do a lot worse that watch this tense film-noir-like take on similar events, which has considerably more respect for historical accuracy while sacrificing nothing of the excitement that a good war film should bring.

Tilda Swinton is an extraordinary actress, not averse to making the most of her unusual and slightly scary features. In Julia (***) she gets to show off the full range of her powers and turns in a simply sensational performance which in a cuddlier film would probably have netted her an Oscar. But Julia is not cuddly, she is an out-of-control alcoholic so bitter and far gone that she agrees to help a clearly crazy Mexican woman kidnap her son. Things – as expected – do not go smoothly or well. This is a very well-made film and the scratchy relationship that develops between drunkard and boy is never sentimentalised. It is, however, kinda taxing to spend two hours in the company of such a hopeless loser, always wilfully destroying any hope of salvation.

What Just Happened (***) is the latest in a run of recent films that take factual books and convert them into fictional movies (Fast Food Nation, Julie and Julia, Yes Man, and the upcoming Men Who Stare at Goats also fit the bill). The book in question here was by Hollywood producer Art Linson and told behind-the-scenes stories ranging from the difficulty of getting Alec Baldwin to shave his beard to Robert De Niro's peculiar methods of auditioning and picking films. Now De Niro himself plays the put-upon producer and a veritable deluge of stars provide cameos. And it's very likeable if you're into movies, but at the same time really too tame to catch fire at any point.

Between making the blockbuster likes of the Danny Ocean films, director Steven Soderbergh has a side company for small semi-experimental indie projects. The Girlfriend Experience (**) is one of these, a largely plotless look at five days in the life of a top-end New York escort. The 'gimmick” is that the escort is played by real life porn star Sasha Grey who, sadly, brings noticeably blank acting chops to a film that is largely devoid of sex, nudity and, ultimately, any great insight.