Mads Blog

So I have this sister who wrongly believes that children should be named for other people. And she named her daughter Soren. Why didn't my dad tell her that Soren is not only a boy's name (she didn't care), but a (relatively mild) swear word?

The Quebec equivalent would be to name your kid tabernouche.

Hey, Tabernouche, get over here!

See? No?

Well, tabernouche is a nice way of saying tabernac, which Quebecers say SO often that in Mexico, they call Quebecers "los tabernacos." Tabernac means damn, or whatever you say when you need to swear. It's a religious curse, taking the tabernacle's name in vain.

It reminds me of a Bill Cosby sketch where he says when he was little, his dad always called his brother Dammit and him Jesus Christ. And then one day he was out playing in the rain and his dad opened the screen door and yelled "Dammit, get in here!" and Bill said "But Dad, I'm Jesus Christ!"

Ba-dum-bum.

Anyway, Soren is a nice way of saying Satan. I worked with Niklas, a guy from Sweden, and I quickly picked up the habit of yelling "Helvete!" and "Satan!" whenever things weren't working well.

"Footie" being football being soccer, that is. The link is to some sort of community football club and camp

I think this is the latest-breaking news I've come up with. August 13, 2004.

In any case I've learned that football is "fodbold" and a baseball hat is "kasket" like in french, "casquette."

You know, just in case you were wondering, sometimes I do feel weird, looking up this stuff.

You put your left foot in
You put your left foot out
You put your left foot in
And you shake it all about
You do the hokey-pokey…

And thank god that does not sum up the movie, because it is a wretched song to get stuck in your head for any old reason (now, if someone could address a certain other song's presence in my head going on every day for three weeks now, I'd really appreciate closure on the matter). It isn't such a bad title for a film of its subject, there have been worse cross-language literary substitutions for film titles (BTW, I have no clue what this German or Flemish poster calls it). Of course, En Kort En Lang is the original movie title and not having a clue what it really means I can only guess "right side left side" or "on the right and left" or "one side to the other" or "AC/DC," "Swing Both Ways" or "I'm Bisexual and I Don't Know What to Do!" which essentially sums up Jacob's dilemma.

If you haven't read the film's synopsis, please do so before continuing (click the above link). While there, read this review (which I wrote while still under the feel-good influence of the first viewing of the movie).

So how was Mads' performance in this movie? Well, Troels Lyby respectfully blows him away - I think his part was more difficult and he shone. But that's not to say Mads did a middling job at all. There was one lack; in that I didn't see in his face or his eyes how compelling Caroline was to him when they were together until the stakes were raised; the most enchanted he seemed with her was just before the kiss, and then after that he became too furtive, especially for a lover whose affections are returned. Their actions together and apart spoke "I have to have you!" but obviously if he's so torn about it, there's gotta be something there that makes him continue. Clandestine affairs burn, and this one needs to burn a little hotter. Not Hollywood hot, certainly, that's just unrealistic. But I was sitting there wondering: is he so trepidated because he's having an affair, or simply because he's never been with a woman before? Maybe Mads was working from the second premise because the first is too plainly what the film is about, and that's been done in straight films aplenty.

There's scene when Jacob and Jørgen go to the airport to go to Paris but end up turning back. Jørgen plays a little game that means nothing, complimenting a hostess – but evidently sees not that Jacob is very much in love with him, but the (relatively trivial) fact that Jacob likes women and appreciates that the hostess is beautiful. I guess Jørgen is trying to find out if Jacob is turning straight now that he's had a taste.

So Jacob loves everybody and the camera loves him (and how!). Mads does a really good mooning-about lover. Though you don't always like Jacob for the stuff he does and says (a particularly stupid comment that gets him kicked out), you do like him when he's thinking about either Caroline or Jørgen; he redeems his character's weaknesses by these bits of truth that poke through. He also is good at physical comedy; when the two lovers jump each other he has absolutely no grace whatsoever, and when they are discovered at the Swedish skating rink by two friends, Jacob falls repeatedly, stuffs his face with Caroline's food while she's off in the Ladies', and when she appears he totally screws up and stomps off in his skates as if he's going somewhere.

The girl has guts, and she's quite tolerant of the situation she's in. As they're telling each other it can't work anymore, Jacob finally realizes something she's trying to tell him, and it's like he finally sees her. But Caroline is wiser, and her misgivings last even longer than his indecision. She loves him but she knows she's stuck.

Seeing as a few too many reviews have potentially ruined some movies that I have had to (and yet have to) see, I will stop talking about the film now. Are you looking for a date movie? Then this is it. But if you want to read more nit-picking other reviewers' comments, read on.

As I was cruising through other reviews to learn what is expected when I review films, I came across this rather mistaken and unnecessarily bitchy review at the Toronto Star (note: All Canadian reviews linked to this movie over at RottenTomatoes were rotten). The reviewer complained about how the costumes changed every scene and (shock!) a gay man co-ordinated his colours. Was this reviewer lacking a television, or a trip down to Jarvis and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village? Every TV show does that. And besides, he's wrong: Jacob wore the same overcoat in almost every outdoor scene, and he wore a purple frilly tuxedo shirt (sounds uglier than it was) in the party scene and then, surprisingly, again the next night at the bar, only with a jacket. I think the costumes were just fine. I could use a few pieces like Caroline had. And then, my only complaint is that she, a graduate student, had an ENTIRE WALL full of Clinique in her bathroom. Do you know how expensive that stuff is? And that it actually isn't appropriate for Caroline's age group? Clinique is something for a certain type of woman, usually in her late thirties and forties. Especially if they're going to be brand-loyal; what girl does that these days? Caroline was not that superficial. And honestly, I only noticed that detail on second viewing.

I must add that I saw someone make the bizarre comment in their review of the film that it had a kick-ass soundtrack. Yeah, um, whatever. That is one statement I could disagree with. On the first viewing at home, I switched off the TV because the rolling credits song was just…so…Ugh! No no no no no!!! NO! wayyyyyyy too soft and schmaltzy. So on second viewing on my trusty Mac, I switched off the sound so that I could see the lovely snapshots that show how the story resolved itself. Pics of Jacob and Jørgen and Caroline and their families, Dip-Inge gets a boyfriend, the randy boss gets a woman who can keep him in his place, and some boring pics in between. But music? Not kick-ass.

Like over at my personal blog, which I intend to use only as a discipline tool, I will post my notes and progress at learning Danish (a really tedious paper by Laurel Richardson said that keeping a diary of your work while you do it helps improve your writing, and the way I've struggled with my papers this past year, I think she's made a very good point).

Word = pronounciation key = translation
Jeg = Yai = I
Du = do = you
Vi = we = we
Nå = Naw = Oh
ja = ya = yes
nej = nai = no
år = ooh = year
fed = fel = fat, cool
fedt = fett = fat, cool
hva' = vah = hey
hvor = vohr with the r at the back of the mouth like h ( a real problem: NO ENGLISH R, ever!) = where
hvad = val = what
med = mel = about (?)
er = eh (remember that r at the back of the mouth) = am, is, are (?)
hvornår = vohr-naw =when
hvorfor = vohr-foh = why
hvem = vem = who
hvordan = vohr-dan = how
fra = fra = from
i = ee = in
by = bu-ee = town, village
kun = kun = only
det = day = that
ogsa = owza = also
og = oh = and
lærer = layer = teacher (?)
længe = leng-e = long
hedder = hether (soft th for d) = called, named

Real fun word to pronounce (I'm being sarcastic!) rigtigt = riktickt (say it real light and fluffy now!) = right

Århus means year-house.

Figuring out that like English (and unlike French) the accent always falls on the first syllable helped make my Danish more staccato and sped up my reading.

Jens Christian and I finished off the lesson (Day 1 from the link above) with a little conversation where I told him I'm from Montreal and I study arts (kundst) and humanities (hu-man-u-a) and he asked what kind of arts and I told him teater og skrive (theatre and writing). When learning a new language, stick to saying you're a student because it's too damn complicated explaining the day job in English anyway.

All that learning makes me hungry. Ska vi spiest?

Mads Mikkelsen as Tristan and Stellan Skarsgard went physically into new territory when they filmed a highly complex master shot of their fight, which lasted over three minutes. This would have been enough, but so into the scene were they both that the actors insisted on continuing filming and shot the whole sequence some ten times over. I think this dedication is a first in this fight directors career, if not in cinema history.
…
The fights have gone very well indeed with all of the actors throwing themselves into the action with great gusto! All the boys look great, including Raymondo, of course and Ioan Gruffudd. But special mention has to be of Mads Mikkelsen as Tristran who, with a little lucky help from his ever faithful horse, nearly steals the entire scene. When the film is released watch out for that moment of unplanned screen magic.

–Mark Ryan, 23 January 2004

CommanderBond.net has a thread (above link, must register to view it) that proposes Mads would be a good Bond henchman. I think a henchman is a villain. Do good guys have henchmen? I suppose they do. But I'm not a Bond watcher so I don't know if he even works with people. Whether Mads will ever play a good or bad henchman in a Bond movie, Clive Owen is being considered as the next Bond.

The month is not noted, and the site was not in English when I searched it out, but I assume it was the latest one, and late in the year, as I didn't find a reference to the 2004 Zulu Awards. When were the awards and what was he doing at the time? This is at least one of Denmark's entertainment industry award shows. It's televised, in any case.

It's really funny, but either I am the sole person in English who's interested in this actor, or Google has not googled the site. I submitted the link as soon as I staked it out. It's been 10 days or so. So what's up, Google?

It also occurred to me that yes, I might be the only one interested in Mads Mikkelsen. So I went on over to Cinema Montreal and looked up the user reviews for King Arthur. There were 394. Mads Mikkelsen receives no credit in the movie description page, totally erroneous as they listed every other first-billed (according to imdb.com) actor except Sean Gilder, whose part I have totally forgotten, so I'm going to fire off an e-mail to correct that omission only 12 weeks after opening. I searched through the reviews for any mention of Mads, Mikkelsen, and Tristan, and came up with ONLY ONE. Some 13-17 year old boy or girl said:

Pfou, je crois que c'est à peu près tout, la raison pour laquelle je mets 5/10 est que la musique vaut la peine (ça ressemble à gladiator? Tant pis c'est hans zimmer toujours, et ça me convient), la bataille sur le lac gelé est vraiment belle dommage que la finale soit un peu mal menée (surtout pour tristan, quelle poisse), et les décors sont plutôts pas mal. En somme, pas emerveillée, ni extremement déçue, bon divertissement mais j'aurais préférer ne pas mettre 6 euros pour le voir. J'ajoute que j'adore tristan et je trouve génial qu'ils aient choisi beaucoup d'acteurs anglais (pour un film se déroulant en bretagne, c'est mieux), dont la plupart sont peu connus (ce qui fait cette fois défaut à la hollywood touch)

pfft, I beleive that's just about it, the reason I'm giving it a 5/10 is because the music was good (resembling Gladiator? In any case, it's always Hans Zimmer, and that suits me), the battle on the icy lake was really good smash-up, like the final scene that was a little unfortunately managed (especially for Tristan, what bad luck!), and the sets were not bad at all. In summary, not a marvellous movie, not very disappointing [either], it's entertaining but I would have preferred not to pay 6 € to see it. Also, I adore Tristan and I find it really cool that they chose a lot of British actors (for a movie filmed in Britain, that's better), also most of them are not well-known (those who are, are due to the "Hollywood touch").

If I screwed up the translation, please comment. I'm still learning how to read/write proper french.

This is an unrelated thought that has occurred to me over and over again: by study the trajectory of an actor's work, can you yourself learn how to successfully act?

No offense to the iEmmys and their international winners, e.g. Unit One which must be somewhat more interesting than most of its American cop-show counterparts, but the article does have a point.

Ha! Serendipity, I guess, but sometimes when you set your mind to something, things fall into place to help you.

I met a musician from the Faroe Islands who's gonna teach me to speak Danish. In exchange, I will design and build him a website. That works out to my advantage, I think.

If you take a look at the link (above title) and do a search on Mads Mikkelsen, the articles almost always call him a "heartthrob." Don't they know that that word has a resounding ick factor? Poor Mads. He's caught in the Johnny Depp pigeonhole where all the girls coo no matter what kind of bastard he gets to play. But then again, Johnny Depp is really cool. And girls need sex symbols, too - Angelina Jolie isn't taken any less seriously just because she's the epitome of millions of teenage boys' wet dreams. (Still, no teenage boy likes, or would admit to like, an actress pushing 40, whereas girls of any age don't ever seem to care.)

As a sidenote, the link for Portrait of the Week is about Mads "Mad Dog" Mikkelsen, a biker who uses colourful language to describe what he's gonna do to some bureaucrats. In fact, the whole article uses colourful language. I commend them on their journalism.

Flickering Lights (Blinkede Lygter, yet to be reviewed) has a scene in which Mads' character, Arne (or is that Årne?), a real wingnut, goes out and shoots a cow - and it is unfortunately, graphically, and humourously depicted. I cringed. I hope, for all the hunting they did in that movie, that no animals were hurt! Anyway, I thought there's going to be some nutcase who thinks that's so cool and what have I always said? I'm always right! went out and did it himself.

A 33 year-old Ålborg man has been sentenced to eight months in prison for shooting and mistreating a horse. In court, the man claimed that he had been inspired to shoot the horse after seeing the Danish film 'Blinkede Lygter,' in which well-known actor Mads Mikkelsen shoots a cow. After seeing the film, the man took his shotgun and told his girlfriend that he was going out to shoot a cow - unfortunately, the first animal he came across was the unfortunate horse.

The researchers for World Values Survey … say happiness levels have remained virtually the same in industrialised countries since World War II, although incomes have risen considerably.

The exception is Denmark, where people have become more satisfied with life over the last three decades.

Rather than have my random Danish and Mads findings over in my persona blog (that's no spelling error, I mean persona) I will have them readily accessible in a place of relevance: here.

I need a little help in getting the template to match that of the rest of the site. Any blogger experts reading?