THE CIFF GAZETTE 23
DIRECTOR
FASANDRÆBERNE « THE ABSENT ONE » (2014) KVINDEN I BURET « THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES » (2013) BORGEN [4 EPISODES] (2010-2011) KLOVN THE MOVIE (2010) KLOVN (2005-2009)
Mikkel Nørgaard Mikkel Nørgaard created the longest running modern sitcom on Danish television and transformed it into a huge movie success. And then he surprised everybody by turning the Scandi-noir genre inside out – something he’s in the process of doing once again. But how? By Jacob Wendt Jensen Photography Nikolaj Møller Stylist Denise Wilke Juhl
M I K K E L N Ø R G A A R D I S the director behind the very successful TV series Klown starring Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen and the feature film of the same name. The success has been so phenomenal that some people in the film industry doubted whether Nørgaard would be able to direct films in other genres. There were no such doubts at the film company Zentropa, and now they’ve been proved right as the energetic and imaginative Nørgaard has made another big success out of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s crime thriller book The Keeper of Lost Causes. In Denmark and around the world, people are eager to see the sequel The Absent One, which premieres in Danish cinemas on 2 October. “How did you go about creating a new dimension for Scandinavian film noir?” This and many other questions were on the tip of my tongue when I walked into Nørgaard’s office at Zentropa in Avedoere. The first thing that caught my eye was the “mood board” with its collection of images designed to provide inspiration for the film series.
How far has Keeper of the Lost Causes travelled around the world?
The film has been sold to many countries, but the major difference for us was that selling significant rights before we made the film meant that we had more money available while shooting. Usually in Denmark
we make a movie for 20 million DKK - maybe 25 million if we get really lucky. We’ve had 40 million DKK for each of our two films so far: an unusually large amount of money, which meant we could be better prepared and make the films in a slightly different way from the average Danish film.
different way. Usually we shoot in the streets as much as possible and dress a few fixed locations as well as we can. Here we went the opposite way and made reality fit with the things production designer Rasmus Thjellesen and I started preparing a full year before we began filming. It was a unique situation.
Are you happy to be working in Denmark?
How much of the visual universe is from the books and how much is your invention?
Yes, I am. We’re very privileged here in terms of the influence we have on the whole filmmaking process as directors. But it’s tempting to tackle the development of a film in a whole new way. This was something both I and the screenwriters Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg found very attractive. Often we only get eight weeks’ preparation time, because we usually get the green light for a movie very late in the process. No matter how many visions you have, there just isn’t much time to let them blossom. Because Zentropa could see the potential in the long run with four movies, we could afford to build Department Q where Carl works, and we built his home and so on. These kinds of investments are possible because they can be amortized through four movies—it wouldn’t have been possible with just one movie. It’s all about economies of scale.
How did more money and more time help you?
We could deal with the visual universe in a completely
On the whole it’s very much our invention. I have great respect for the original book: if you don’t have that you might as well find your own story. On the other hand it’s equally important to create your own work. You don’t want to deliver a copy of the original work. First of all because it’s boring. Secondly, because the audience doesn’t want to watch a seven hour movie. Thirdly, because you want to create your own work. You have to respect the essence of the story and the characters and use that as your starting point. Nikolaj Arcel and I have taken out large parts of the book, and those decisions in themselves create a new universe. We found out that the private layer in the books was what interested us the least, whereas Carl’s work was of great interest to us. Also because in the Scandinavian tradition of making films and TV series we’ve been very good at creating pretty much a fiftyfifty balance between the personal and professional lives in the stories: Borgen is just one example. »