Queen of Hearts (Dronningen)
"Sometimes what happens and what must never happen are the same thing."
I could probably count the Danish films I have seen on one hand – Festen, a few Dreyers and Brotherhood (a film about gay neo-Nazis that was nominated in a film tournament on here once upon a time (remember tournaments – what we had before we had halls of fame
)). I should probably watch more Danish films – recommendations welcome! In fact there's a lot of countries I should watch more films from, perhaps some country-specific hofs are due...
Anyway...at the start of David Copperfield, he says something about whether he will turn out to be the hero of his own life. Here, instead, we have a protagonist who turns out to be the villain of her own life. The film plays with perspective and sympathy well – by the time Anne’s villainy begins, we have sympathy for her, so its all the more jarring – although there are signs earlier on in both her conversations with her husband and at work, that Anne is an uncompromising character and will do what she wants to stay in control. There are also hints throughout about Anne’s past which are intriguing (was she abused as child? Why doesn’t she speak to her mother?). In the aftermath of the affair, we are still rooted firmly in her perspective so the tension from her fear of discovery remains, even as that sympathy is turned upside down like the trees in the opening shot.
The most shocking part is not even the seduction, but her callous and calculating treatment of Gustav afterwards. She of all people who should know the damage she has done, and the further damage of denial. Only earlier she is confronting a rapist in a car park after he is acquitted, she then effectively becomes him. At one point, Anne says to her husband, “you think I’m a monster.” It’s an interesting line, because of she hasn’t been portrayed as a monster, but more as selfishly, disgustingly human. It is human nature, the dark side of it, that is being explored. Also because she defines herself so much by her ‘perfect’ life – job, marriage, children, house – that she cannot imagine herself without it, cannot admit to the monstrous thing she has done ("What are you most afraid of?" "That everything will disappear."). Towards the end, Anne shows such a lack of empathy that you wonder whether the empathy she has shown to clients earlier in the film is all fake. Her children, too, sometimes seem more like trophies of her life rather than people with whom she has empathetic interactions with as people in their own right.
One thing that made me think was the reaction of Anne’s sister. How much is she complicit by not telling someone else what she has seen? In an affair between adults, perhaps it would not be her place to interfere, but in the circumstances, shouldn’t she have done something more? She might still, beyond the timeframe of the film, and there is always that possibility hanging over Anne. It’s a horrible position for her to be in, it could make a film in its own right.
There is a sense of subtly creeping tension throughout the whole film; even from the start there is this feeling of something about to go wrong. It’s very well shot – the lighting and the way it switches from cold to warm, and the unflinching close-ups of trees. The sex scenes are pretty unflinching too – I wasn’t expecting them to be quite so explicit. It’s certainly a brave performance by the lead actress, Trine Dyrholm, and as a lot of the drama is her inner drama and conveyed through her expressions and physical performance, I thought she was fantastic.
All in all I thought it was a gripping film, not an easy or a pleasant watch but very well made and thought provoking.
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