OPEN HEARTS

Denmark, 2002, 114 minutes, Colour.
Mads Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Nikolai Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen, Stine Bjrregaard.
Directed by Suzanne Bier.

Open Hearts was particularly successful in its native Denmark. It is a story of contemporary life and relationships in Denmark.

The film was directed by Suzanne Bier who made the popular romantic comedy Den Eneste Ene remade in Britain as The One and Only. Her first Hollywood film is Things We Saved From The Fire (2007).

The film is a dogme film, using natural light, nothing artificial according to the dogme principles of 1995. This means that the film has no artificial lighting to give tone and colour to the film. Sometimes it is particularly dark, there are also some split-screen scenes as well as bleached-out and grainy close-ups which are for fantasies. However, the dogme style contributes to the strong focus on the central characters.

The characters are five, an engaged couple, the man suffering an accident and becoming a quadriplegic, in a car accident driven by the wife of the doctor in the hospital. The doctor meets the fiancée, begins an affair with her – leaves his wife and is found out by his teenage daughter.

The strength of the film is in the dialogue, the revelation of character, inner attitudes and stances, love, betrayal and hurt.

The film transcends its Danish context and is an interesting film in terms of relationships at a universal level.

1.The popularity of the film? The dogme style, photography, editing, pace, the lighting, the bleached-out effects, reality and fantasy? The use of close-ups?

2.The Copenhagen setting, the musical score – and the closing song, ‘Little Things’?

3.The title, the indication of the audience seeing into the variety of characters, their emotions, their relationships?

4.The accident as the catalyst for the change in relationships? Joachim as a student, his being engaged to Cecily, her being a cook? The car being driven by Marie? The paralysis, quadriplegic? Cecily, the cook, her love for Joachim, coming to visit him? Niels, his work in the hospital, his relationship with Joachim? His relationship with Cecily? Marie, her guilt? The change in relationships? The focus on Stine as the teenage daughter? A catalyst for the revelation of the truth?

5.Joachim, before the accident, his lovemaking with Cecily, the underwear, the possibility of a future? The accident and his injuries? His behaviour in the hospital, especially his aggression towards the middle-aged nurse, the sexual insults? His own emasculation? Harassment? The break with Cecily? Relationship with Niels? His future?

6.Cecily, her age, as a cook, her not having any family or friends, focused on Joachim? The meeting with Niels, his age, the difference? His invitation for her to phone him? The frequent calls? The decision to begin an affair? Joachim removing the furniture? Niels and the new furniture? Cecily and the continuing relationship, her encounter with Stine? Her phone call and this forcing an admission of what was happening? Niels and his moving in with Cecily, Joachim wanting her to come to the hospital, to resume the relationship? Eventually Niels breaking up, his leaving Cecily? Joachim and his advice, Cecily and her own life, independence? The final discussions with Niels? Her leaving, driving away?

7.Marie, the accident, her feelings of guilt? Her relationship with Niels, with Stine? The fragility of the marriage? The shock of Niels’ betrayal, his moving out?

8.Stine, her relationship with her parents, finding the delivery note for the furniture, the visit to the apartment, her seeing her father, Cecily? Cecily ringing the home to tell the parents where Stine was? The effect of the experience on Stine?

9.Niels, at the hospital, kindness, the fragility of his marriage? The phone calls from Cecily, their discussions? The credibility of the beginning of the affair, the progress of the affair, the issue of the furniture? Stine and her discovery of the truth? His confession? His allowing Cecily her independence? His own future?

10.A contemporary look at contemporary relationships, strengths and weaknesses, love, commitment, betrayal?