Candle Wax From Cashmere

Flammen & Citron (Ole Christian Madsen, 2008) Poetry

Two wolves without herd

Building

movies based on true characters of war is a task full of pitfalls. On the one hand, the war hero (even anti-hero) is wired completely with the viewer emotionally direct. One when shooting movies about them going to have to choose their treatment, especially if you intend to make him an epic hero or a person of flesh and bone. This is one of the first problems: one must choose one or other record, still doing the two simultaneously operating a very difficult task. Second, if one covers a real war (and is not intended to handle a ucronia, as beautifully made Tarantino Basterds ), be aware if you intend to make an epic fantasy movie or a more contemplative, with some control to the spectacular But what when the stories and are themselves, in actual fact, spectacular, epic, amazing? We use the example of Audie Murphy, most decorated American soldier the Second World War that after it acted itself in To hell and back , having to, at the suggestion of the same directors and producers, down a little under-reported because it beyond being true, was too unbelievable. That is, who believe, among many of the situations experienced by him, a kid of less than twenty years and five feet five inches, which, after being gunned down his friend was released and killed unarmed with his hands to a group of artillery German, getting into a burning tank to take their bullets and protection, giving battle for several hours. lurking Enemy (Jean Jacques Annaud, 2001) tells the story of the duel between Soviet sniper Vasily Grigoryevich and Edwin König German, but few would be encouraged to tell the story of Simo Hayha (also known as "white death"), a moose hunter, no scope, it would become in the strength of the Finnish army, the best sniper in history, having killed an estimated seven Russian soldiers, in time just under a year. Rounding

, there are heroes and heroes, as there are wars and wars, and that is where a very interesting point and Citronen Flammen. Directed by Ole Christian Madsen, best known for his lower-budget films (related to Dogma 95 '), usually focused on becomings of romantic relationships, Citronen Famma and is almost the opposite of what made him known. With more than eight million budget, the film portrays the true story of Bent Faurschou-Hviid (Flammen) and Jørgen Haagen Schmith (citron), the two most famous members the Holger Danske , Danish resistance group during the German occupation of that territory, since April 1940. The film begins with archival footage, with the voiceover Flammen of asking someone unknown, if you remember the day the Nazis arrived (remember that Denmark was declared neutral, but soon he was known collaborator with the Hitler's forces.) Then we hear the voice of Flammen that says "I know I'm doing the right thing" and after opening the door, posing as a postman with flowers, shoots a bullet between the eyes to an informant Danish collaborator.

The first half of the film is mired in a perfect pulse, navy based on a dynamic that does not have an accurate map, but what happens to and in the stars of a hit to another. Flammen, skinny, young, fast, accurate, takes its name from the red of her hair (in Danish means "flame"), who shakes his hand to shoot their enemies. In this pair, Citronen is almost the opposite, driver official blows that becomes a murderer, always sweating, tormented by doubts and emotional debts to his family. The episodic structure is filmed with sobriety, elegance and an enviable time management. The film itself never leaves this sequence, only in the second half of the film, begins to overturn different atmospheric and emotional. Far from the sympathetic presentation of several members of the Danish resistance presented in the table of a bar at the beginning of the film, it soon begins to find the intrigues, the informers and the pursuit of ends other than the mere struggle against the Nazis . In this world noir, money, betrayal and double or triple agents, appears expected femme fatale, a woman who never, as in all good genre film, know what are their real purposes and that drags the protagonist to his ultimate destination. Here comes the film's neurotic stage (as Gilbert points out in a perfect confession Flammen about the different types of soldiers) and the rhythm is broken, starting to introduce us to characters from his doubts, not as figures. There is a time when Citronen Flammen and do not serve anyone as too crazy to resist, obviously dangerous to the Nazis. Is that so strange and Citronen Flammen, the two anomalies, lines of flight between two systems corrupt (both Nazi like mere resistance), they end up being a crazy, two wolves who lost the pack and, like the protagonist of The Hurt Locker (in an entirely different war, as war Iraq) in the bottom crave his death as the Nazis. There are moments that seem more typical of the heroes of comics, with a talk between Flammen and Hoffmann (leader of the Gestapo ), hunter and prey each other, which has much of the dynamic between Batman and the Joker in the stories of Alan Moore or, if you like the film event, the relationship of mutual completion which occurs in between the antagonists The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008).

But the time when the rises from this place, they are also providing one last go of remorse and failure. And that is where the most relevant, which is that, despite the contraindications mentioned in the beginning, the film never stops working (although the second half has some bumps, like the shooting that Madsen is going out of hand, seeming at times to the famous scene of Scarface.)

You end up understanding their lights and shadows the reality of a historical fact not widely used in the film (the chiaroscuro of the resistance, which only with the black book began Verhoeven out to be), while Flammen and Citronen would like to continue killing, surviving the blows, with the possibility of sequels and sequels. But that is asking too much to the story.