The Danish Poet (2006)

Director:

Torill Kove

Writer:

Torill Kove (writer)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Romance

Plot:

A woman ponders over the strange coincidences that made her forefathers and -mothers meet and create the premises for her becoming the person that she is.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Norway | Poet | Father Daughter Relationship | Friend

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins

Cast

Liv Ullmann

...

Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

Den danske dikteren (Norway)

Runtime:

14 min | Germany:15 min (Berlin Kinderfilmfest)

Country:

Norway | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Company:

Mikrofilm

Trivia:

In-joke: When Kasper is looking in the book "Scandanavian Confusion," there is an entry about Liv Ullmann, the film's narrator.

Quotes:

Narrator: But had it not been for the Danish poet and Sigrid Undset, a rainy summer in Norway, a slippery barn plank, a careless mailman, a hungry goat, a broken thumb, and a crowded train, my parents might never have met and who knows I might still be a little seed floating around in the sky waiting for someone to come and get me.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV)

And the Danes complained that they didn't win an Oscar..

I know Susanne Bier and Søren Pilmark were also nominated for an Oscar in 2007 and didn't win, but this movie won instead, making it a good substitute, since the story is about a Dane.

The story is about a Danish poet, Kasper Jørgensen, who lives in Copenhagen, but one day runs out of creativity and goes to Norway on holiday to search for inspiration. There he finds a girl whom he falls in love with, but alas, she is engaged to be married against her will with a local farmer who is the son of her fathers best friend. Instead she vows to never cut her hair until she can be with Kasper again, a promise that she keeps (making her hair look like Marge's from "The Simpsons"). And the story continues from that point..I'm not gonna spoil anything else, but it's all about chance and coincidences.

Now, the animation itself isn't that great, although it is very different from how "normal" cartoons looks like, reminds me of the Alfons Åberg-cartoons (or Alfie Atkins as he's called in English).

I haven't seen the competition, so I can't say if it was worthy of winning, but it was certainly a very good short movie, with a classical love-story in a new environment. There were many funny details, like the people on the ferry between Denmark and Norway only being drunk (Swedes?) or backpackers, and that the postal office never can be trusted (just like in real life).. thank God for E-mails!