Flame & Citron, directed by former Dogme 95 auteur Ole Christian Madsen, walks a thin line between ass-kicking assassin movie and dense WWII period drama. The film recounts the true story of Bent and Jørgen, code names Flame and Citron, as they cruise around occupied Copenhagen offing Danish Nazis and German officers. In addition to action flick and period drama, the film also features a healthy dose of noir. The spare lighting and superb camera work showcase solid performances.
The film opens with several scenes of Bent and Jørgen carrying out their grim duty, knocking on doors, killing their mark, moving on, all overlaid with voice-over by Bent, which is both informative and moving. The plot steadily thickens, scene by scene, as more characters, each with their own motivations, begin to play a role. The ballooning cast of players is too much to keep track of in a first viewing, but this may well be the point. As the sabotage and double-crossing mounts, we’re forced to trust that Bent and Jørgen are doing the right thing, even if it’s confusing and ugly.
New developments in the case of an artist arrested for bioterrorism (from the doc Strange Culture), lead us into a web of noir (Murder, My Sweet) and an unexpected look at No Country for Old Men. All of which reveal the sinister culture of PARANOIA!
(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)
I’ve never seen Richard Fleischer’s CinemaScope Noir Violent Saturday, but with a name like that, how can it not be great? Film Forum here in New York will be screening it for a week starting February 29; their press release describes it as star-studded day-in-the-life of a small town, where a trio of bank robbers (including Lee Marvin) collide with a larcenous librarian (Sylvia Sidney), Tommy Noonan as voyeuristic bank manager, and “the usually menacing Ernest Borgnine as a gentle Amish farmer.” WOW.
I’ve embedded the film’s title sequence above. It’s not much, but it’s enough to start to get a feel for the amazing look of the picture–it’s like a 1950s noir dressed up as a 1970s Western. Again: WOW. I’ll be at True/False and then SXSW for most of the film’s run at Film Forum, but I’ll definitely try to catch a press screening and report back.
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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