project film school

home movie : brodre (directed by susanne bier)

since i first saw imitation of life, i have been interested in the genre of the melodrama. my love of the genre has only grown since viewing douglas sirk's technicolor gem about two women, their daughters and their differing social conditions. from there i dove into rainer werner fassbinder, finished out douglas sirk and moved towards any films with the word melodrama in their description that dealt primarily with women.

this led me to susanne bier's oscar nominated film after the wedding - a mix of melodrama and the more realistic approach of her dogme films - the film excited me not only because i enjoyed it immensely but also because it was a film, dealing with women's issues in the genre of women's issues actually created by a woman.

i have always been frustrated that my favorite films have been directed by men - specifically films that deal with strong female protagonists. so whenever i find a female director that speaks to me, i cling to her and start to watch all of her films.

i began with her dogme film open hearts recently and last night took a shot at her dogme'esque brothers - the film has a female protagonist, but inherently deals with the relationships between two male siblings. michael and jannik couldn't be more different in practice - michael is a strong family man with a stable job in the army and jannik is a drifter who has just gotten out of prison. despite his love for his older brother, jannik is haunted by his position in michael's shadow; he is never able to overcome the good deeds that define the family man.

this all changes after michael is sent to afghanistan and is wrongly presumed dead - with the weight of his brother gone, jannik begins to find his place in the family and assumes a comfortable sense of self. his contentment is put a risk when michael returns home after being found alive in an enemy prison.

what strikes me most about bier's authorship is her ability to read both men and women - after years of seeing films authored by men that accurately portray women, it's wonderful to see a woman succeed at the reverse. her woven narrative of emotional upheaval based on circumstance never falters, thanks in part to her actors but mainly because of her even-handed storytelling. the tragedy of bier's work never crosses the line, making you all the more uneasy and making her films all the more satisfyingly unsatisfying.