Articles

Various articles found on the Internet:

German Film Feted As Opening Act Of Berlin Fest by Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuter) - A big budget German film, the thriller Smilla's Sense of Snow, was given the rare honor Thursday of opening the 47th annual Berlin Film Festival. Paying tribute to Germany's revived domestic film industry, the 12-day festival that in past years often ignored German films raised the curtains with the German-Danish co-production from Munich's Bernd Eichinger. The $35 million English-language detective story set in Denmark stars Julie Ormond, Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave. It was the first German-made film to open the festival in 10 years.

"I feel very honored that this film was selected to open the festival," said Eichinger, the head of Constantin Film whose earlier worldwide hits include The House of Spirits . Smilla's Sense of Snow was directed by Denmark's Bille August and also features many leading German actors, including Mario Adorf and Juergen Vogel.

"This is an international film, but it is also a German film and not just because of the financing but because we developed the creative elements," said Eichinger. The film, based on a best-selling Danish novel, is the story of a scientist played by Ormond who suspects foul play in the death of a 6-year-old boy. Against improbable odds, she tracks down the killers in Greenland.

From Hollywood Reporter, Jan 20

'Snow' falls on Berlin Film Festival

BERLIN -- The German-Danish thriller Smilla's Sense of Snow, helmed by Danish director Bille August, has been officially confirmed as the opening film for the 47th annual Berlin Film Festival (Feb. 13-24). Produced by German producer Bernd Eichinger (The House of the Spirits, which August also directed), the Scandinavia-set thriller stars Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne and Richard Harris.

Smilla to open the 47th Berlinale

Director Bille August's science fiction thriller Smilla's Sense of Snow has been selected to open the 47th Berlin International Film Festival (February 13-24). Based on the bestseller by Peter Høeg, the German production from the Danish director stars Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave and Mario Adorf.

August, best known for his films Pelle the Conqueror and The Best Intentions (both films won him the Golden Palm in Cannes) as well as The House of Spirits, spent two years working on this project.

Smilla's Sense of Snow was also selected to open the festival to honor Bernd Eichinger, one of Germany's most courageous producers. Eichinger's credits include such box-office successes as The Name of the Rose, The Neverending Story, Der Bewegte Mann, Last Exit To Brooklyn and August's The House of the Spirits.

From a Newsgroup Posting:

The 41st Berlin Film Festival, opening on February 13, will serve as a showcase for new pictures from five continents. The festival traditionally relies on a glittering array of international stars to boost its media coverage. The 12-day Berlinale, as the event is known, will show nearly five hundred films this year and stands just below Cannes and alongside Venice in terms of prestige on the international film festival circuit.
...

Smilla's Sense of Snow, one of the 25 features on the roster of competitors for the prestigious Golden Bear award, will open the festival. The Danish film based on the bestselling novel from Peter Høeg stars British actress Julia Ormond.

From the March issue of Premiere magazine:

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Jill Bernstein

Release date: February 28
Mystery; starring Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, Vanessa Redgrave, and Richard harris; directed by Bille August (Fox Searchlight)

Any actress who could communicate pain while kissing Brad Pitt had the right sensibility for Smilla's Sense of Snow. It was Julia Ormond's clinch with Pitt midway through Legends of the Fall that clinched her casting for Smilla's director, Oscar winner Bille August. "It's a forbidden kiss," August (Pelle the Conqueror) recalls, "and there is some kind of depth and pain and loneliness in her face, in her eyes. That scene really convinced me she could do it." As the title character in August's adaptation of Peter Høeg's bestselling literary mystery, Ormond is a solemn, half-Inuit scientist who suspects foul play in the death of an Inuit boy, who fell from the roof of her building in Copenhagen. Among other things, she can tell from his tracks in the rooftop snow that her young friend was not playing, but running from someone. "She reads [the snow] like music and responds to it like some people respond to music," says Ormond. Aided by another of her building's mysterious residents (Gabriel Byrne), she challenges the authorities' cover-up and penetrates what August calls a "dangerous, calculating, dark blue, male-dominated world" in search of the truth. Their investigation leads them to the icy terrain of Smilla's native Greenland, a "magical land," Ormond says, that she and August visited together before shooting began. "It's a world we're not used to seeing onscreen," she says.

Smilla also features an Ormond we're not used to seeing onscreen: There's a striking physical transformation from her Sabrina days, which was achieved through hair, expression, and carriage. "I had an image of a wolf for Smilla, and so we kind of played that through," Ormond says. The actress not only trained for her own stunts in the Arctic landscape, but also prepared to endure hours of shooting in temperatures that averaged minus-22 degrees Fahrenheit. With the exception of Byrne, who caught pneumonia, the cast grew fond of the cold, August claims. "Especially Richard Harris [who play a villainous scientist]. He wanted to buy a house up there."

From TV Guide, March 1, 1997

Julia's Sense of Timing by Ileane Rudolph

It's a big month for Julia Ormond, who has not one but two movies coming out. Hitting theaters is Smilla's Sense of Snow, based on the best-selling mystery by Peter Høeg, in which Ormond plays the title role. But she doesn't appear at all in the other: "Calling the Ghosts" (Cinemax, March 3), a searing documentary about two women victimized by ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. "It's a confusing war," says Ormond, an executive producer of the award-winning film, "and I wanted to raise awareness, because politicians need public support to arrest criminals indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal." As for Smilla - filmed partly in "incredibly beautiful but very, very cold" Greenland - the actress recalls it "one of the toughest but most rewarding shoots I've ever done." Currently she's on location in wintry Moscow and Prague for The Barber of Siberia. What is it with this woman and cold climes, anyway? Acknowledges Ormond ruefully, "I've learned a lot about thermal underwear in my career."

Ormond's Career Keeps Better in the Cold by Ruthe Stein, March 9, 1997

... Her co-stars in Smilla's Sense of Snow are Gabriel Byrne and Richard Harris, actors of lesser stature than those she worked with in Hollywood (Richard Gere and Sean Connery in First Knight, Harrison Ford in Sabrina). If Smilla has a star, it's the novel on which it was based, Peter Høeg's 1993 best-seller fascinated readers with its compelling if hard-to-follow mystery and descriptions of Greenland - a place Ormond never gave much thought to.

"It is somewhere I flew over between London and New York, but it never really occurred to me that people inhabited it," she says.

Ormond plays Smilla, who lived in Greenland until the death of her Inuit mother. At 6, her American father brought her to Copenhagen, where she grew up alienated from everything around her. The adult Smilla befriends a neighbor, a poor Inuit boy from Greenland. His untimely death causes her to go on a sleuthing mission that implicates everyone from the Danish government to one of the country's largest corporations.

Director Bille August cast Ormond after watching her kiss Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. "It's a forbidden kiss, and there is some kind of depth and pain and loneliness in her eyes" that convinced him she could do it, he told Premiere magazine.

What he didn't know was whether she could cope with temperatures of 22 below zero on the arctic landscape. While Byrne caught penumonia during filming, Ormond flourished in the extreme cold. She got to Greenland a week before shooting started "so I could get to know the people and develop my own sense of snow," she says. The story hinges on Smilla's ability to read tracks made in the snow.

Ormond didn't want to resort to prosthetics to make her look like a Greenlander. Makeup artists were able to transform her appearance "with different coloring, different shapes and by sort of highlighting my features," she says.

Smilla doesn't work, but her father is very rich, so Ormond gets to wear fabulous clothes. "Originally we had a look that was quirky, but it was too distracting on film, so we ended up using clothes by top Danish designers. We tried to work in things that were suggestive of Greenland - Smilla's sheepskin coat, for instance, is a designer coat, but we had it dyed khaki, the color of boats."

To be able to do her own stunts on ice, she worked out 2 1/2 hours a day, six days a week, for four months. "I can be quite undisciplined about working out. The sort of lifestyle I lead makes it hard to keep a routine going. Working out for the movie really taught me that to be fit is a wonderful thing, to feel so stong and have so much concentration."

From Elle magazine, Feb '97

In the press, [Gabriel] Byrne has been linked romantically to Julia Ormond, his co-star in the forthcoming Smilla's Sense of Snow, adapted from the bestselling novel by Peter Høeg. (When I ask Ormond about this, she laughs and says, "Why don't you ask him?")

"He's very wise and he's very balanced," Julia Ormond says, "and he's very witty. He gets cast in serious roles because of his looks. But he's incredibly funny. Part of his humor lies in his self-deprecating manner. It's not an act with Gabriel. He has a genuine disbelief in his attributes."

[about the film, Byrne said] "It was tough going to work with fifteen dogs pulling your sled up to the tops of mountains. Excruciatingly cold. We were flying in small planes between Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, Lapland. I didn't see my kids for three months."

The following articles were all graciously translated by Sune Keller

Bille's Sense of Production

by Susanne Johansen, in Berlingske Tidende, May 5, 1996

[Picture caption] On location in JukkasjNrvi, Sweden (67dg. 52'N 20dg. 37'E). A gigantic snow cave where the last scenes of the movie take place.

It has taken 2 years and 4 scripts to get here. To make the movie as fair as possible to Peter Høeg's book. For it was the writer himself, who asked "Knight Bille Of Denmark" if he wanted to do it.
...

Tørk hears the sound of crunching steps on the ice. He turns around. And says without the least bit of surprise in his voice: "I knew you'd come." And Smilla knows that he knew she'd come. And lets him talk. A long time. Until she can't hold back the question, which has been her motive power for so long. "What about the boy?"

"Cut," says Bille August. Not because Julia Ormond and Richard Harris didn't do what they were supposed to, but because the camera placement needs adjustment.
...

The real Julia Ormond has sat down in the green tent outside the cave. She lights yet another Marlboro and warms herself with a plastic cup of tea accompanied by her indispensable assistants.

"This is the longest winter I've ever experienced," she says casually and shakes herself and upturned eyes confirms her that she's right. But just the fact that she takes it as one of the boys, as Richard Harris put it, is supposedly quite unique. "Could you imagine Hollywood stars like Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan to put with these conditions?" he asks outside the tent.

"Besides being a fantastic actress she isn't genteel" says the 66-year old star. "Most stars would expect to be waited on hand and foot. But not Julia. She was also like that in Greenland."
...

In there Hansen presses a gun against Smilla's head. He forces her to walk in front of him and they walk towards Tørk. The dialogue is OK. Tørk nods at Hansen, a signal to him to take her away. Hansen grips her arm and begins to pull her away. Smilla is just about to burst into laughter. Once again.

A Man Called Tørk

In Smilla Richard Harris plays the scientist Tørk. And it's one of few roles the fine English actor has accepted. "I'm very choosey and critical," he explains. "It's more than 25 years ago he played "A Man Called Horse," the movie he's still remembered by.

All in all Richard Harris does a lot to be sure that the roles he accepts is not the usual Hollywood crap. Over there they (according to him) tend not to catch the essence of a story. He thinks it will be a good movie and thanks Bille August for his composure that makes it possible for the actors to concentrate on acting.

He only has good to say abuot his co-stars. Gabriel Byrne as well as Julia Ormond can't be praised enough for their qualities. "Fantastic," he says about them. "And Byrne is eminent at underplaying his role, well....." Also the story in Smilla he finds wonderful.

These are texts to storyboard drawings that were included in the article and describe some of the final scenes in the movie. I suppose this could be considered a SPOILER section if you haven't read the book.

Medium shot. Hansen and Smilla steps into the scene from the left. Thrown against the wall behind Smilla. Smilla steps aside.
Close-up Hansen as he hits the ice wall.
Close-up Smilla. Looks at Hansen as he hits the wall, and further to the left where she sees Lukas.
Medium shot. Tørk with his back turned. Suddenly grips his rifle, turns and shoots.
Medium close-up of Lukas,who points his gun at Tørk. But Lukas is hit in the shoulder by Tørk's shot.
Wide shot. Lukas as before as he is hit by the shot. He spins around and falls to the ice floor.
Medium close-up of Lukas. Shows him dying. He sits on the ice, bleeding. He tries to get up.
Medium wide shot. Loyen and Smilla at the end of the fight. Loyen falls into the water.
Close-up of Loyen, who is drowning.
Close-up Smilla, who looks at Loyen in the water. Dialog. Afterwards she turns and looks at Tørk.
Close up of the hand of the Mechanic. Sets the timer.
Medium close shot. Steadycam The Mechanic from the back, the camera moves fast towards the Mechanic, who turns around and stops Verlaine's icepick.

Smilla's Sense of Commercials by Sune Keller

As always when you see a film, there's commercials before the main event. The Danish brewery Tuborg has made one especially for Smilla's Sense of Snow. Around Christmas when you can get the special Christmas brew from Tuborg, which is popularly called Snow Beers, you can see a commercial, in which Santa Claus is riding along with his presents in snowy weather. He meets a Tuborg beer truck, and after a moment of thinking the music (Jingle Bells) speeds up, he turns around andd follows the beer truck at high speed. Then a text roles down saying: Merry christmas and a happy Tuborg. (In Danish Tuborg rhymes with nytaar, the Danish word for New Year.) In the Smilla commercial you see the same snowy picture, also with Jingle Bells playing, but there is no Santa Claus. Then a text comes down saying:

Tuborg's Sense of Snow

It really hits it spot on, 'cause it makes the crowd laugh and applaud.

In the Danish Youth magazine Chili (and probably in others too) there is a 2-page ad for Danish pork meat with the title in English: Miss Piggy's Sense of Snow. And it uses a picture from the film. This most likely will not be the last company using Smilla in their ads and commercials - at least not in Denmark.

Greenland Approves of Smilla

by Bent Askjaer, from Politiken, March 2, 1997

Spontaneous applause at the Smilla premiere in the new Cultural House of Nuuk. Julia Ormond is believable as an Inuit and a product of a mixed relationship. And Bille August has created pictures of a nature so fantastic, that even people that live in it every day are amazed.

3,400 tickets had been sold in advance (only 55,000 people live in all of Greenland). The crowd clapped when Ormond said one of the five Inuit words correctly. She should have taken the time to learn them all, but otherwise she gave a top performance.

Ivalo Egede said "Julia Ormond meets my expectation of a typical Copenhagen-Inuit. I was one of those who found many wrong details in the book's description of Greenland. I feel a lot better about the film, it was good."

Rassi Thygesen thought "Julia Ormond looks like an Inuit, but it would have suited her if she had learned her few Greenlandic lines a bit better."

Agnethe Davidson (the Mayor of Nuuk), said "It was a fantastic experience. I had tears in my eyes after this fabulous drifting between the icebergs. I have never seen them more wonderful. And Julia Ormond was really good. Fantastic."

Grant Us a Bang From the Ice-Green Sea (a satirical commentary)

by Jakob Levinsen in Berlingske Tidende, Feb 28, 1997

You only see the top of the iceberg. That's how it is with the present debate about Smilla's Sense of Snow. You only see the massive, cold rejection of the film. So even though Smilla specifically points out that you can only survive a few seconds in the polar sea, we dive under the remains of the avalanche and hold our breath, ready to harpoon arguments, logics, and hidden agendas:

1. Badly sold is badly created. - Since the publicity is so massive when Bille August makes a film and the reviewers have to sign a statement about when to write about the film, then it can be no good. How could it be different?

2. What is gained outwards must be lost inwards. - The media in Denmark love it when Danes like Bille August become famous outside of Denmark, and the advance self-consciousness is so huge for each new film, that the only good newspaper story is if the film is bad.

3. The man is the style. - August has given lots of interviews saying mostly banalities, and so that must be how his films are. So when you want to tell that he is burned out, you look at his image - not what story he is trying to tell.

4. We're boooored! - That's what we are when we don't get the Breaking the Waves-style or something young and new. When we get something else, it is not our problem. We don't want to sit back and think it over. Or wait until we have seen a copy - unlike the one used at the first press showing - with Danish subtitles and an OK synchronization of picture and sound. It's now that we're going into action, so let's kill it, not weigh the plusses and minuses.

5. The book is the film. - There's no asking if the film has changed or dropped something for the better, or if the director is pointing out other things than the writer. No, everything has to be by the book.

6. The name of the game. - Danish cops speaking English, Smilla a beautiful young star - it's wrong! The fact that the film could only be an international project because of economics is irrelevant. No, we want a national production with a pedal boat in the small lakes of Copenhagen.

7. Bille, come home! - It's OK that Pelle the Conquerer made Bille August a big name in the whole wide world for making big epics - but it's too expensive to go on making big international films. The best Bille August was his youth films of the 80's - do that again.

8. We stick together. - When the concept "reviewers" gets recognition just by knocking off one of the most prominent Danish directors, it's great.

When people then storm the cinemas to see for themselves, and TV programs interview leading cultural personalities (before they've seen the film) about their opinion about the opinion of the reviewers, it's worth it all.

Heart of the Ice

by Jakob Levinsen in Berlingske Tidende, Feb 28, 1997

Smilla's Sense of Snow is in the span between James Bond action and philosophica - a thriller far from steady on its legs. In return, the movie succeeds in getting the many words of the society-criticizing novel turned into big, drawn pictures. It's a film about ice all the way through.

It's felt in the movie that it breaks into two when Smilla is put to sea. To make it different, then the screenplay should have been made much more independently and drastically different from the story of the novel, instead of Ann Biderman's loyal version.

In spite of the weaknesses of the layout, the filming is an astounding success. Not only the first time, but also the second and third time, when it becomes a bigger and bigger delight as you learn to live with weaknesses and respect the strengths. There's excitement all the way through.

And Julia Ormond is not only adequate as Smilla, but she also creates a balance between Smilla the divided and Smilla the strong. Bille August had brought forth some qualities in her acting that were hardly spotted in her earlier films. The role of the Mechanic seems created especially for Gabriel Byrne, and Clipper Miano as Isaiah is good.

It's not a masterpiece, but could any filming of "Smilla" be? We see a director who dares to take chances and send his themes out on slippery ice to see if they are steady on their own legs. With a great sense of picture story-telling and direction of characters, that in itself is a pleasant experience.

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