Movie review; Dirch

Erh.. look. I know, there are probably none outside of me country who cares for this one, or have even as much of heard of it.

But it just so happens this is a movie that from the beginning was a subject matter very dear to me, and handled it in a surprisingly tragic-ironic way. And hell, this is my blog, I can do what-ever the hell I want.

Oh, and something more mainstream done as Video review should be get released tomorrow, done better than my top ten video for sure, I am actually spending time on it! any feed back would be appreciated!

Well, Movie, just came home from it, and it really was from the beginning a movie very close to my own heart.

"Dirch Passer." is probably the most famous name in all of Denmark, despite him being dead for over 25 years, we all know who he was, we all know his face, his voice.. his acts. He is probably the funniest man who ever lived in Denmark, and here, two and a half decades later, the entire country of Denmark still laughs of the old filmed theatre sketches and tons of old movies, which they keep on re-running in television to this date.
He was my first inspiration and idol when I was a child, I early on learned to mimick his words and faces, my dad had an old LP with him singing, and I could stand in front of the player with a wig on acting out the comedy numbers. All of my life, his work has made me laugh and has inspired him. The entire Danish comedy culture has been influenced. That is how big he is. Still today.

So all this put aside... who was he? How was he as a person? Was he as energetic and funny off stage as on stage?... Hardly.

The biographic picture of Dirch Passer, so simple just called. "Dirch." to keep it informal, shows a more tragic picture.
A vulnerable insecure man, who just happens to have the gift, that all he needs to is to walk out on that stage, open his mouth, and people will laugh of him.

"There are people out there willing to give their life to be able to do what you do!" a theatre producers exclaims to Dirch in one of the many scenes in the movie. And he is quite right, I for all of my life have pursued to be able to do what Dirch Passer did, and of cause I can't yet. But Dirch just sits there, and he asks the good question several times. "Why?" he asks. "Why is it they like me so much?" and the people he asks sit stunned back, lacking an answer. "Well erh.. because... because..."

People see Dirch, they only need to watch his face, and they expect to laugh. How-ever, he is not that kind of man who can take just being happy as it come and take in strives, he's insecure, about himself and his work.

A particularly heart breaking scene, which is ripped out of reality, this is what really happened.
Dirch wanted to make a break out of all the comedy, trying to do something more serious, so he went for it, and decided to play Lenny in the classic theatre play. "Of mice and Men." by John Steinbeck.
Now, if you know anything about litterature, you should know. "Of Mice and men." it's very much a classic, and a very serious play. Lenny is the halfwitted tragic giant who can't control his own strength, it's a story to be taken very seriously.
Dirch plays Lenny, he re-hearses and as always is very nervous if he is good enough, finally it's opening night, and the moment he steps out on stage... people laugh and applaud by the sight of him. As he starts on his dialogue, people keep on laughing. And it continues until Dirch breaks together and starts crying ten minutes straight on the middle of the stage. And this really happened, it's a true story.

The movie shows the story of this insecure man, who has been handed this position and of cause goes with it, doing the best he can't, but is i'll equipped to deal with it, he has trouble saying no, taking far more plays and movies than should be allowed, in real life, his thirty years in the profession, he made over 200 movies and stage plays.. that's a lot. It would not be unusual for him to do a movie in the day time and then two plays in the evening driving from theatre from theatre. As a result the private life suffers, and though he doesn't mean to do bad, he almost jumps from wife to wife.
And it all ends up in Dirch, slowly but surely burning himself out, he could never say no, he could never cope, he resorted to the wrong sort of ways to solve his problem, which lead to his early death of heart failure, which happened. On stage in the middle of one if his shows, he fell down, and he died.. this is true.

The story really got to my head, and I shed tears three different places, perhaps it's because I all ready know of the real person, and his work always meant so much to me, he made me laugh.

The movie has nothing but love and respect for "Dirch Passer." and goes out of its way to be as true to the real him as humanly possible, which is probably also why the story could have been just a tiny bit tighter. well, compromising some facts to get a tighter story would have helped.
Yet, it's such a good looking movie! it re-creates so many scenes from the most classic Dirch Passer perfectly.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas, who plays Dirch is.... nothing short of absolutely amazing. He nails it! he doesn't just play Dirch, he is Dirch. The way he movies, his face mimick, the was he talks, that constant look of vulnerability in his eyes and awkwardness shyness in his behaviour. The Sketches perfectly re-told second for second and you could sometime have sworn it was Dirch it, it's the same!

Everybody else, also great casted! We don't have that many excellent big stars Danish actors, does we do have tends to be hijacked to the US, but they collected them anyhow here.. or perhaps it's the direction that looks so bloody good. It really looks like we are back in the sixties and move our way up to the early eighties, as supposed to. Having recently seen Captain America which also takes place in the sixties.. it's kind of amazing. "Dirch." Doesn't in any way have a budget coming as much as close to Cap America, and yet they pulled it off with the sets and looks of the sixties. (Dirch must have cost like 30,000 Dollars, that's the biggest budgets we deal with in this country)

I liked the movie, I am glad they handled Dirch passer so well. I don't think the movie will go on outside of the country, it's not exactly another contender for "Best foreign picture." at the Oscar's.. but, it is kind of a national treasure, the subject was treated with much love and caring, with a little fright of ever getting something wrong.

If you want to know what kind of man I grew up with, and who inspired my comedy acts the most.. check this movie out. It's definitely not a waste of time.

Doc Brown.. got himself lost into 2011

The hell??? o_O


Somehow that made me happy.. does this mean... does this mean new movie? I mean.. anything big enough to pull Christopher Lloyd out of retirement is good enough for me.

Not to mention pulling Robert Zemenckis, or how ever the hell you spell his last name, out of those stupid not at all good Capture motion animated movies he has been doing and back to what he did so great is invaluable!

I made a drawing

Yeas, this is what I did on the many bus trips I had to take around Vietnam