(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Actor and singer Trine Dyrholm became well known to the public with the dogma film The party i 1998. Now she is up to date with a complex and provocative abuser role in the Danish film The queen. The similarities between the two films are the touching of themes such as concealment, sexual abuse and a strictly controlled family facade. Both are psychological dramas that have engaged a large audience. The stories are woven around the son as a victim. IN The party it was the father who was the abuser, i The queen it's the stepmother. Metoo helped to loosen up to change roles and thus also promote women's roles with greater dynamism. In the media, director May el-Toukhy has on several occasions, in connection with the launch of the film, emphasized the gender equality aspect by depicting darkness and boundlessness in women as well.
The Queen offers an unusually nuanced abuser. Letting a career woman, mother and wife have sexual and dangerous sides breaks with the film's femme-fatale convention. The dangerous seducer is no longer defined as one of the others, one who is outside, but one who stands in the middle of safe and respectable life – successful in both family life and career.
earthshaking
Anne (Dyrholm) is a lawyer for rape victims, and she knows all too well the pain and despair the victims feel by not being believed or getting justice. She is greatly gripped by the many who are crushed under the burden. Early in the film, she breaks out of the established attorney role and spontaneously confronts a rapist as he hovers over the acquittal. This abuse story is perceived as cruel because it allows the woman who is the defender of the abused to go astray – knowing full well the consequences. The story both irritates and shakes.
Where scenes at first suggest the prelude to something tender and confidential, the director brutally pulls us back.
Injured and vulnerable Gustav (Gustav Lindh) is the only one in the main character's life who does not match a successful class trip. During Anne's visit to a nail salon, a little too familiar conversation reveals that it is actually her own sister who files and paints. The film tones down the sister relationship and most anything else that is not about Anne's fascination with the stepson and his fiery opposition. Where scenes at first suggest the prelude to something tender and confidential, the director brutally pulls us back. The movie changes gears, and explicit sex scenes quickly remove any illusion of a romantic relationship. I do not fully recognize our heroine and feel that I have suddenly ended up in a conventional porn movie. I get associations with Lars von Trier Idiots, where the director used a real porn actress in one of the roles. This type of graphic presentation is a concept that deliberately provokes and distances the audience. At the same time, the seduction is perceived as unerotic and unreliable.
Cynical
In shelter silent pre-recording og metoo I respond to the rendition of the young male actor's most private parts. It seems speculative and cynical, since a theater school student has hardly had great opportunities to say no. Such a pivotal role against Denmark's beloved actress divine Trine Dyrholm gives a comet start to the acting career.
May el-Toukhy already had a deal with Dyrholm when she wrote the screenplay for the film. They also collaborated on el-Toukhy's first film Long story short. With such a fervent star on the team, el-Toukhy has been able to afford more. The role is almost tailor made for Dyrholm. There are few who can give life to this type of composite character without anything scurrying. The lead role is credible in the power play, but is nevertheless drawn with many contradictions and gaps.
Movies that debate abuse are never easy to watch. The queen does not defend the abuser, nor does she explain her behavior by adding a traumatic background story.
Just as completely, I miss a hesitation with the heroine, or some other inner resistance, who might have shown possible scruples the character might have had as she steps across the border with her stepson. These omissions mean that the spectator himself must interpret and fill in. Perhaps it is precisely this that has caused so many to be gripped by a story that is usually too painful to seek it out voluntarily.
The queen appears below Oslo Pix 3–9. June.
