It's a mystery how Peter Schonau Fog manages to combine child abuse, a study of a rural community, affecting tragedy and black comedy into a satisfying whole, but in "The Art of Crying" he pulls it off. A gently offbeat study of a Jutland family in the early 1970s as seen through the merciless, innocent gaze of an 11 year-old boy, this refreshingly unconventional pic tackles its taboos with
compassion, grace and wit.
Jonathan Holland, Variety

Emotionally devastating and astonishingly mature, this is a unique feature debut. Steve Gravestock, Toronto International Filmfestival

A young Scandinavian genius tackles Bergmanesque themes of family taboos and relationships with pathos, humor, and a loving eye. Chiseko Tanaka, Tokyo International Film Festival

Sunday, October 29, 2006

THE ART OF CRYING at AFI FEST Hollywood

THE ART OF CRYING
KUNSTEN AT GRAEDE I KOR

Denmark, 2006, 106 min, Color, 35 MM
In Danish with English subtitles
US Premiere

DIR: Peter Schønau Fog
SCR: Bo hr. Hansen NOVEL Erling Jepsen
PROD: Thomas Stenderup
DP: Harald Gunnar Paalgard
ED: Anne Østerud
PROD DES: Søren Krag Sørensen
MUS: Karsten Fundal
Cast: Jannik Lorenzen, Jesper Asholt, Julie Kolbeck, Hanne Hedelund, Thomas Knuth-Winterfeldt

At times both horrific and comedic, THE ART OF CRYING is a stunning debut film. Director Peter Schønau Fog's film is filled with potent observations about the innocence of childhood and the starker reality.

South Jutland, the early 1970s, and life isn't easy for 11-year-old Allan. Allan reveres his father, Henry (Jesper Asholt), the local milkman, and can't understand why others don't feel the same way. His father has 'psychic nerves' and regularly threatens to kill himself. His mother has given up, his older brother has moved out and the family's small dairy store isn't doing well. When his eloquent eulogies that make mourners weep in chorus become his father’s only reason to live, Allan soon lends a hand to make sure the funerals keep coming. Schønau Fog adeptly peppers the plot with moments of comedy that are pitch black perfect.

Much of the film’s quiet intensity comes from the exceptional central performances, their authenticity adding layers of meaning. Fog displays a marvelous capacity for storytelling that combines lightness and darkness, people and place in a perfectly balanced composition.

- Shaz Bennett

Screening Schedule
Date Time Venue Tickets
Fri, Nov 3 7:00 pm ArcLight Theatre 12 $12.00
Sat, Nov 4 3:15 pm ArcLight Theatre 14 $12.00

AFM Screening
Fairmont 3 - November 5, at 11 am
Fairmont 2 - November 7, at 5 pm

Closing Ceremony of Tokyo International Filmfestival stream

Closing Ceremony of Tokyo International Filmfestival streaming video here:

14:00-15:20 Japan time

Cleveland and Marrakech invitations.

The Art of Crying has been invitated to the following festivals:


Saturday, October 28, 2006

Review in Tokyo

by Anthony Bradley
(Click on it to enlarge it.)

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Screening times at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival

The Art of Crying
Kunsten at graede i kor
2006 / Color / 106min. / 35mm / Danish

Here comes a rookie director with formidable talent! A young Scandinavian genius tackles Bergmanesque themes of family taboos and relationships with pathos, humor, and a loving eye.

Director: Peter Schonau Fog Producer: Thomas Stenderup

Jesper Asholt / Hanne Hedelund / Jannik Lorenzen / Julie Kolbech

Danish films stole the spotlight at both Berlin and Cannes this year. Danish filmmakers boldly take on the challenges of addressing themes of loneliness and misery and taboos. This film depicts life in South Jutland in the 1970s through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy. Through him, we learn about the personalities, idiosyncrasies, and vices of his family, relatives, and neighbors. Bespectacled Allan adores his timid, unstable father. His father is a master at reciting eulogies, capable of bringing tears to everyone at a funeral. It is at such moments that his father appears the happiest. This ambitious film cuts to the heart of human malice against a backdrop of beautiful Scandinavian scenery. Rather than being an ironic commentary on life, however, the building 35-year-old director insists that the film, with its understated sence of humor, will make you smile and cry.
(Programming director Chiseko Tanaka)

SCREENINGS:
10/27 11:00 - 13:36(open10:30)
Shibuya Bunkamura Orchard Hall
Guest: Peter Schonau Fog , Thomas Stenderup, Jesper Asholt

10/26 19:20 - 21:30(open19:00)
Shibuya Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon

10/25 20:20 - 22:36(open20:00)
TOHO CINEMAS ROPPONGI HILLS SCREEN6
Guest: Peter Schonau Fog, Thomas Stenderup

10/20 21:50 - 23:25(open21:30)
TOHO CINEMAS ROPPONGI HILLS SCREEN2

* The dates and times of the teach-ins, greetings from the stage, and film screenings are subject to change.

Reviews in Spanish, French and Euskara(Basque)

(Click icons for reading the original reviews - all texts are auto translated by Babelfish)
In french:


The art of crying of Peter Schonau Fog, Danemarck, Zabaltegi.
Masterly! Already the title: art to cry! Denmark, the Seventies. Still a history of family. Beautiful fair children, an attentive mother, a dairy father, who makes the round while his wife holds the cheese store. Nanan! With through the glasses of Allan, the little boy, we discover little by little as an onion that one peels skin by skin, the secrecies of this family. The father who threatens to commit suicide each night, the mother which throws the sponge, the girl which will calm her father, the big brother who comes and who leaves, the neighbors, customers, the priest, the cemetery and speeches of the dad who make cry everyone. Hard, hard to find itself there without charts, when one loves his father but whom one discovers little by little, which it is not the mast which holds the capital. An interpretation with the razor. Images on glazed paper of this so pretty Denmark, which, it should be said in passing, account the largest rate of suicidesŠ intimate Festen, distilled hand of Master by a realizer who can direct his actors. And an actor who plays the part of the father, parano and pervert with a little more nuances than our Nathalie Baye in My son with me.
In spanish

I LOVE (I CREATE) MY FAMILY

Terrible, desasosegante, the disquieting thing; what anesthesia in dry disturbs but you at the same time she is that in this Danish film everything seems to happen of a natural way, logical, traditional, atavic. As if the form to act of all and each one of their ambivalent, ambiguous and very cabrones personages were recorded in their DNA from the beginning of the times in the south of Jutlandia. The one that the father of Allan wants to commit suicide every five minutes, the one that the mother takes tablets and more tablets to disconnect, the one that Allan thinks that it is normal to make eróticos jueguecitos him to papi to console to him, the one that a doctor anyone, a generalist one immediately, decides the entrance of the sister in a frenopático, is things that are accepted because all suppose (rather, they have learned) that thus have been from always, it is and it will be.
The Art of Crying is of a coldness so that it leaves to the spectator with the generous soul. Of a chosen coldness, assumed and taken to the limit with all its consequences. No, they do not think about Lynch. He is not that. It is not that unhealthy world class. Here EVIL (capital and admiration) it has taken possession from souls and bodies. And those bodies, those souls, ignore that it is thus. The Horrible thing is already meat of its meat.
Addictive and awarded drama, the Volkswagen Prize of the Youth of the own festival of San Sebastián took, that treats a thorny subject as amply it is the child abuse. But this Danish film has osadía to portray to twigs with a certain interest for the somewhat Machiavellian spectators and victimas, incredible performance of the young person Jannik Lorenzen in its paper of the Allan upstart.
The action trascurre in Jutlandia, province of the south of Denmark, at the beginning of the Seventies. The family of the Allan young person is a true disaster. His father often has nervous crises and threatens committing suicide regularly. Her mother has thrown the towel and this in its world, its older brother has gone away of house and the small dairy of the family goes worse of every time. It will depend on Allan to maintain the family united. His father lives only for those moments in that he recites his famous and eloquent ones recited that make cry to all the assistants to a funeral. Soon, Allan will make use to make sure that there are sufficient funerales to maintain his contented father. But little by little it will see that his papa is not the person who he creates and when her older sister lets pass the nights in the sofa with her father, Allan will have to choose between the veneration that feels towards its father or the truth of which it happens between papa and his sister in the salita of house.
Film based on the novel of Erling Jepsen, where it counted his memories of childhood. Rolled to little distance of the places where it in fact happened the action and in dialecto that will cause that in own Denmark it is released subtitled. The director tries to give with a history with a humorous air to enter itself in the beginning in the dark side of the plot. But the force of the film is that there is no bloody nor ill-disposed scene, all this treaty of subtle form, but direct, there is no plane for the controversy. It is an intimist drama but that goes much more there that other films with the same subject, since all the personages overflow a humanity, as much the children as the own father. That causes that we do not feel like discomforts in happening of the action, somewhat non-uniform thing but that certain. As far as the distribution it is necessary to emphasize to Jannik Lorenzen by his paper of Allan and to Julie Kolbeck, like descarriada sister of Allan. They two, next to Jesper Asholt in the paper of afflicted family father, sustained the film with majestic interpretations.
Authentic surprise of the Festival of San Sebastián, this film is used for those incredulous ones that thinks that in Denmark the cinema only exists Dogma and nothing else.
Recently, in this same festival, we have had the opportunity to see the film aid "Mon fils to moi", that also it treated domestic subjects. It did front, showing the problem without adornments, and if it is wanted, without poetry. The film that now I criticize approaches a similar problem but of one more a more implicit way, mainly in the beginning, from the innocent vision of a boy. In my opinion he is superior, by the commented thing and other questions. Pain is one that we have not seen it aid, although at heart little matters.
Humor, black, cruel humor sometimes, flavors east familiar drama, making it thus more interesting and, simultaneously, obtaining a greater impact of its thematic one. With great scenes like the one of the first monólogo of the father in the cemetery, when the boy defies with his glance the person who can threaten her father.
A boy, the actor, who makes a work fantastic, specially for its age. Besides to have a perfect image, with its glasses and their so blond hair, very to tone with the ambientación. And like him, the rest of the actors. The father eats the film. The girl, with her face of going transmits a sensation of incredible resignation.
All this drawn with a fine and elegant photography, alive but nonestridentes colors. Two adjectives, fine and such elegant, can be applied to a direction that promises to obtain new good films that I hope bring to the festival and which they have the same scriptwriter. A counted history of original way but that speech of as old domestic horrors as the family.
With respect to my section, Zabaltegi, to emphasize the good mean level of the projections (far better that the official section to my to understand), in that I found the one who was better film to me from the festival in main lines, the Danish "The art of crying". It is history from the point of view of a small monkey, rubito and innocent of the life of his family, in which his father lacks all security in itself and night wants to force suicide on each (forward edge of dialogue is "in my house, is necessary to be well wide-awake at night because it is when my father is wanted to force suicide on"), the mother is bitter and the sister survives as she can. Sight thus, seems a melodrama to spurt, but nevertheless the film obtains an incredible balance between crude comedy, situations, and beauty of images, mounted with style, dynamism, intensity and a music to frame. When you take to several 4 days sleeping little and seeing pelis the day, and to 12 in the morning you stick 2 hours to the screen, they go flying, and all the room applauds to rage after reir and to cry... is that something has the film. It had raised well them but insuffrable, wishing that they finished. This no. He was agile and entertainment, treating several subjects like pedofilia from innate kindness to the man, as Stone in "World Trade Center" says (only reason why the its boring tear epic is acceptable, kindness and union arisen after badly from the attacks). It is difficult to describe to me I hope much that I liked "The art of Crying", and only to be able to return to see it to see if my enthusiasm is just. Although, to gain the prize of the young jury with as much difference speaking of which it speaks much... has is film that, of to have gone to official, safe, safe section, that it had won (although shared with the Iranian of gold, since there is no another one).
1 The art of Crying 10 Denmark
2 The boss of it all 10 Denmark
3 Babel 9 the USA of Iñárritu
4 Singapore Dreaming 9 Singapur
5 Glue 9 Argentina, produced by Isabel Coixet
6 Sleeping dog´s lie 8 the USA
7 Fair play 8 France
8 Sons 8 Noruega
9 Halfmoon 8 Iran
10- Elle´s bliss 7 Germany
11- Mon fils à moi 7 France
12- Delirious 7 the USA, better script and director to Tom DiCillo
13- Hana 7 Japan de Kore-eda "nobody knows"
14- Zulo 7 Spain
15- Factotum 7 Noruega/Francia/USA..., with the unjustifiable Donostia Matt Dillon doing well of tio hard
16- Children of men 7 USA/España... of Cuarón
17- The Old Garden 7 Korea, of Im Sang soon
18- Backwoods 7 Spain, with Gary Oldman and Aitana Sanchez Gijón
19- Chronicle of a flight 7 Argentina
20- Vete of my 6 Spain, better actor to Juan Diego
21- Prohibited to prohibit 6 Brazil
22- the way of San Diego 6 Argentina, special mention of the jury
23- Cashback 6 England
24- Little miss sunshine 6 the USA, prize of the public in front of Babel
25- ChineseGhosts 5 , inauguration
26- World trade to center 5 the USA
27- Lonely hearts 5 the USA, closing (good Gandolfini, boring script)
28- Children 4 Islandia
29- Copying Beethoven 4 USA/Alemania
30- Chinese One foot off theground 4
31- tail Tiger´s 3 Ireland, John Boorman
32- What I know of Lola 3 Francia/España
33- the lives of Celia 3 Spain
34- They are long! 2 Germany, original music of Mardi Grass
35- the distance 1 España
36- Eves 1 Argentina
37- the family turtle 1 Mexico



(Babelfish can be used to translate spanish and french. Copy the url(http:// ect.) into babelfish and change the language settings. )

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Capital Mag - review





The Art of Crying - This blackly funny Danish film begins like a Scandinavian version of Everybody Loves Raymond but slowly turns into Capturing the Friedmans. Narrated by a disaffected 10 year-old named Allan, the film details his wacky dysfunctional family and the quirky village they inhabit. The laughter gets progressively more nervous when it is revealed off-hand that Allan's father uses threats of suicide to elicit sexual favours from his daughter Sanne. Director Peter Schønau Fog's feature film debut catches you off guard with its disturbing and serious subject matter, yet never loses sight of its dark comedy sensibilities. The result is a powerful and morally ambiguous film shot through with a fresh, sardonic edge.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Time Out Movie Blog - review

Chris Tilly reports from the influential film festival.

(...) My favourite film of the festival was probably 'The Art of Crying', a Danish coming-of-age tale that follows 11-year-old Allan's efforts to hold his family together in the face of crisis after crisis. A dark (practically pitch black) comedy that owes an obvious debt to Lasse Hallström's marvellous 'My Life as a Dog', the film is anchored by powerhouse performances from Jesper Asholt and Jannik Lorenzen as father and son, and deserves to find an audience outside of Denmark.(...)

(...) 'The Art of Crying' deservedly won the Volkswagen Youth Award for Peter Schønau Fog's subtle, understated direction(...)

Variety - review

The Art of Crying
Kunsten at graede I kor (Denmark)

San Sebastian Posted: Thurs., Oct. 5, 2006, 2:33pm PT

A Final Cut Film Prods. production. (International sales: AB Svensk Filmindustri, Stockholm). Produced by Thomas Stenderup. Directed by Peter Schonau Fog. Screenplay, Bo hr Hansen, based on the novel by Erling Jepsen. With: Jannik Lorenzen, Jesper Asholt, Julie Kolbeck, Hanne Hedelund, Thomas Knuth-Winterfeldt, Gitte Siem Christensen, Rita Angela, Bjarne Henriksen, Sune Thomsen, Tue Frisk Petersen. By JONATHAN HOLLAND


It's a mystery how Peter Schonau Fog manages to combine child abuse, a study of a rural community, affecting tragedy and black comedy into a satisfying whole, but in "The Art of Crying" he pulls it off. A gently offbeat study of a Jutland family in the early 1970s as seen through the merciless, innocent gaze of an 11 year-old boy, this refreshingly unconventional pic tackles its taboos with compassion, grace and wit.

Item plays too many dangerously non-P.C. games to expect universal approval, but "Crying" could bring a smile to the faces of fest auds prepared to take its genre-bending and ethical risk-playing on their own terms.

Pic is divided into six sections, each focusing on a different character. Moustachioed milkman and pathetic monster Papa (Jesper Anholt), continually breaking down in tears and threatening suicide, is married to long-suffering Mama (Hanne Hedelund). They have three kids: bespectacled, blinking Allan (Jannik Lorenzen, terrific), troubled Sanne (Julie Kolbeck), and student Asger (Thomas Knuth-Winterfeldt).

Whenever Papa breaks down in tears at night, it's Sanne's job to go downstairs and console him -- encouraged by Allan, concerned for his father's well-being. On a visit home, Asger discovers what this consolation actually entails, but the emotionally numb Mama is not prepared to admit it.

Knowing that Papa is happiest when delivering over-the-top funeral elegies, Allan prays his father's hated rival, Grocer Budde (Bjarne Henriksen), will die, and Budde's son Nis (Tue Frisk Petersen) is duly killed in a car crash. Allan also indirectly causes the death of Aunt Didde (Gitte Siem Christensen). When Sanne finds a boyfriend, Per (Sune Thomsen), Papa is insanely jealous, and his punishment of Sanne leads her to take terrible revenge.

Years of isolation have meant this community has created its own, bizarre moral rules. The vast, deadening expanses of landscape are effectively portrayed, as are the insular rituals of Jutland life, largely built around repressive Protestantism -- one scene, involving the boy's funeral, ironically has a speech by Papa unlocking the village's emotions in an outpouring of grief.

Pic's bleakness is leavened by lovely observational, surreal humor, mostly generated by using Allan's p.o.v. -- through his innocent eyes, everything that is happening is quite normal. The script controls mood with great precision, expertly negotiating the tragicomic tightrope: tastelessness is never an issue. Perfs are fine, particularly from the blank-faced Lorenzen and vet Asholt, though on a couple of occasions, he allows the excesses of Papa's character to descend into caricature.

On the downside, some scenes are overlong, with unnecessary time devoted to characters such as Aunt Didde who are ultimately marginal.

Camera (color), Harald Paalgard; editor, Anne Osterud; music, Karsten Fundal; art director, Soren Krag Sorensen; sound (Dolby SR Digital), Henry Michaelson, Peter Schultz. Reviewed at San Sebastian Film Festival (Zabaltegi New Directors), Sept. 28, 2006. Running time: 106 MIN.

Quoted in Berlingske Tidende

Thursday, October 05, 2006

AFI FEST L.A. Complete '06 Lineup

Check out the lineup at indiewire.com: here!

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Video from the Award Ceremony



Receiving the Youth Award


Votes for the Volkswagen Youth Award


Volkswagen Youth Award
The Youth Jury consists of around 350 youngsters from 17-21 years of age, from all over Spain and abroad, collectively selected from schools and film academies, by means of draws or in reply to individual letters of invitation. Participation in the Jury is therefore voluntary and implies the compromise of viewing all of the movies screened in the New Directors selection opting for the Volkswagen Youth Award. Members of the Jury must therefore watch a daily average of three films.

The members of the Youth Jury vote for each film after its screening by means of a piece of paper featuring the different ratings. The result of the votes is announced in the Festival Rag, on its TV channel, and on screens and panels installed at key points such as the Kursaal foyer and the Zabaltegi offices.

It is the Youth Jury members themselves who organize presentation of the award, previously announced to the press at the same time as the Official Awards ceremony. The corresponding plaque is presented at the Youth Closing Gala in the Kursaal Centre prior to screening of the winning title.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Review in Festival Daily

The Domestic Horror
(Auto-translation by Babelfish)

Although it begins almost with an air of amiable comedy, it is not exempt of certain touches of surrealism and with a narration by a child who momentarily reminds us of the television series Cuéntame cómo pasó, immediately arises all the drama of this film, the abuses, the incest, the deceit. It is indeed a story of abuses without blows, without apparent violence, but buried, the violence of deceit, the emotional blackmail, the constant threat of a suicide that never comes. And there is something strange, because this mixture of the absurd and horror, of comedy and domestic tragedy, creates contradictions in the spectator who does not know whether to hate the paedophile and incestuous father or to feel sorry for a poor man. This is the same dilemma that all of the characters of this remarkable film face, Danish cinema removed from the classic form of the Dogma movement that lately seemed to dominate all Danish cinematography, although in its thematic core it is not distant from the excellent Celebration by Thomas Vinterberg. Nevertheless, in Celebration the adrenalin could be smelled from the beginning, harnessed possibly by the aesthetic principles of the Dogma, whereas here everything goes more slowly. In Vinterberg's film it was difficult to feel compassion for most of his prepotent characters, whereas here it is impossible not to see everyone as losers beyond salvation, losers whose only mistake was to be born in a nuclear family where it was assumed that the pater familias has the right to do as he pleases. And it is this which The Art of Crying - excellent title - brings attention to, another part is the lack of conscience which they have for the victims they are abusing, the absence of protests on the part of a mother who seems not to want to find out what happens in her own home, or even the fatality with which the chavales seem to accept their destiny provided the poor father does not begin to cry and threatens to commit suicide again. The Art of Crying elegantly combines its formal classicism with the courage of the denunciation of practices of patriarcal domination that are not exclusive to Denmark nor to the Seventies. It is a film that somehow camouflages the hardness of the subject by portraying the characters as more amiable, and it would be possible to be debated at length if this approach to the subject helps to disguise the gravity of the facts that it reflects, or, on the contrary, it emphasizes it. M.B.

Festival Daily - interview summary


Festival Daily - interview summary

28/09/2006
ZABALTEGI- NEW DIRECTORS
KUNSTEN AT GRAEDE I KOR / THE ART OF CRYING

Innocence is Not Always Bliss

The young Peter Schønau Fog has presented his first film Kunsten at graede i kor (The Art of crying) based on the successful novel by Erling Jepsen. The script was adapted by Bo Hr. Hansen and according to Schønau they had to make numerous changes while maintaining the focus and emotional content of the book. He points out that the author told him that his film was a faithful reflection of the book when he saw it. It is set in a small village in Denmark in the 1970s and revolves around an eleven-year-old boy who accepts the violent conflictive situation he lives in as being perfectly normal. Despite being a really bleak story, the child’s innocence results in some humorous scenes. In any case, Schønau wants to make clear, “the subject of child abuse is extremely serious for us so it was a real challenge to tackle this subject with appropriate seriousness while enhancing it with a bit of humour”.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

San Sebastian Festival



KUNSTEN AT GRÆDE I KOR/THE ART OF CRYING,
Peter Schønau Fog (Denmark)
The 70s in a small, closed Danish village from which there’s no escape. A dairy farmer discontent with himself and the family he has contributed to forming constantly threatens to commit suicide in his endeavour to earn the love of the kids who console him in rather unorthodox ways. The monsters he has nurtured will leave home and create their own atrocities. A story seen through the eyes of a boy who has his own explanation for his family’s unusual situation. What sets out as a grotesque comedy soon turns into a fable gone terribly wrong.
Screenings:
  • 27. sep. 21:30 Kursaal, 2. Original language with
    Spanish subtitles, English electronic subtitles.
  • 28. sep. 09:30. Principal. Only press and
    accreditation-holders. Priority Press.Original language with Spanish subtitles,
    English electronic subtitles.
  • 28. sep. 12:00. Kursaal, 2. Original language with
    Spanish subtitles, English electronic subtitles.
  • 28. sep. 20:30. Antiguo-Berri, 4.
  • 29. sep. 16:00. Príncipe, 7. Last
    screening.

The 55th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg

The Art of Crying has been invited to The 55th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg.

AFI FEST in Los Angeles

The Art of Crying has been invited to AFI FEST in Los Angeles.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

IMDB user comments

IMDB

A gem of a black comedy, 12 September 2006

Author: seraphyna84-1 from Ottawa, Canada
I had the privilege of watching this at its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Fest, and it's always great to discover new talent. Here, it's not just the discovery of Peter Schonau Fog, but also of the tremendous cast, especially young Jannik Lorenzen, who plays 11-year-old Allan to perfection with his cheeky bewilderment, and eventually with a heavy disappointment that accompanies his loss of innocence. The film reminds me of Schlondorff's The Tin Drum with its rather disturbing, yet comical theme of children growing up entirely too quickly, although The Art of Crying is, in my opinion, far more beautifully poignant as it is told through Allan's eyes.Henry (Jesper Asholt) is a milkman whose nightly suicide attempts and constant hysterics have driven his wife to taking sleeping pills every night to avoid him, and his son to university out of their sleepy rural village in Denmark. Henry's young son Allan (Lorenzen) adores him, and begins performing a series of bizarre acts in order to win his father's happiness, seeing nothing wrong with his father's manipulative actions and dysfunctional family dynamics.I enjoyed this portrayal of the tension between the rural and the urban, seen in Henry's interactions with his educated son Asger, his daughter Sanne's boyfriend the "moped rowdy" Per, and his neighbour the Buddes, who have introduced self-service at their rival grocery store. It's a compelling tale, grippingly suspenseful as you wait to see what Henry and Allan will do next, yet disturbingly funny as you watch Allan delight in the most unpleasant things (just as long as they make Henry happy). Strong performances all around, and a neat debut for Schonau Fog!

Riveting, if somewhat dark and disturbing movie. Incredible acting., 9 September 2006

Author: tdilkie from Canada
Watched the world premier at the Toronto Film Festival.You are drawn into this dark movie and cannot turn away. The performances by Jannik Lorenzen, Jesper Asholt and Julie Kolbeck are spellbinding. The movie is shown from the point of view of 10 year old Allan (Jannik), giving a very unique perspective on this messed up family. Director Peter Schønau Fog really pulls this together.Jannik Lorenzen is an incredible actor. This was his debut film, and I think that he's is equal most other child actors today. I really hope to see him in more films.Jesper Asholt plays a challenging role, the evil and disturbed father, with incredible conviction.The cinematography and directing are first rate, this is not a low budget or low quality film.Apparently based on the life of the book author, which is pretty disturbing too.It's too bad this Danish movie (with English subtitles) will be unavailable to most North American's...

Photo sessions

Indiewire - review


Indiewire

"The Art of Crying," as its name suggests, also toys with issues of grief. An occasionally shocking tale of a hugely dysfunctional family, the film revolves around a highly depressive father, who uses his overwhelming self-pity and threats of suicide to control and abuse his children. When the youngest boy - a cute kid whose own coming-of-age is the story's central spine -- discovers his father cheers up when giving eulogies, he welcomes the death of neighbors and family members. With certain echoes of Todd Solondz's "Happiness" by way of Scandinavia, Fog's script and direction is remarkable for its deft balance of comedy and tragedy.

Gimmethatremote - Blog

Art of Crying a Minor Masterpiece
THE ART OF CRYING was my second film at the Toronto International Film Festival. I’ve seen three, seven to go. I want to start with this one because it absolutely blew me away. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison, but afterwards I really felt like watching the Lasse Hallstrom film, MY LIFE AS A DOG. Peter Schonau Fog’s first feature has a darker subject matter and doesn’t have the same moments of pure joy the Hallstrom film gave us, but like MY LIFE AS A DOG, THE ART OF CRYING feels true and honest to the viewer. We are given a look at life inside the home of a rural Danish family during the seventies. A family where life has gone horribly wrong. It begins at a place we all have been in one way or another. Big brother is coming home from the university for a weekend. There are hugs and kisses and good natured teasing. During dinner Mom fusses over him. And then the movie turns. Dad, played brilliantly by vetern Dane Jesper Asholt, rips into his son for holding his fork in his left hand. The son tells his dad this is how it’s done in the rest of the world, fork in left hand, knife in right. Around the table everyone has only their fork in hand, in their right. Dad doesn’t let it go at this and accuses him of being fancy, then begins complaining that he wasn’t allowed an education. It is not this that frightens us, but how quiet the rest of the family becomes. Living in foxholes they have learned to keep their heads down.
There are a few small stolen moments of bliss for the two children, both first time actors to my knowledge, both wonderful to watch. The movie is in fact told largely from the point of view of the boy, played by Jannik Lorenzen. He is young, and younger than he would be today in a world of the internet and television. He doesn’t know, not at the beginning, even what his life is about. At times I felt angry with this little boy, how can you not know. But that’s the point, he doesn’t. He learns, the hard way. The girl, who looked much older in her fancy gown at the premiere made my heart hurt, old enough to know and understand, but not old enough to know what to do about it, Julie Kolbech is an actress to watch in the coming years.
Not the easiest film to watch because of it’s honesty and realism. This is a brilliant beginning for a director who will surely have a long and respected career. Bravo! Rated r, this gets 8* out of 10.

Notes from a Festival: Day Four
My back hurts, my legs are tingling. Seven heavy duty movies in four days, and really, three days since the first was nine pm Friday, and the seventh three pm monday. I ran into an old friend, he works for the festival and has worked the Tribecca, Sundance, and other smaller festivals. He’s up to 37 films already. He works a couple each morning, then they run movies all night for the industry guys and he sits and watches those. I mentioned how much I liked ART OF CRYING and his face got all funny. Like a junkie he speeded off five better movies and how that one was missing something. I agreed, noting it was a first film. My friends hit a little festival fever. He’s seeing so many movies so quickly that he’s not giving them time to sink in. ART OF CRYING is a very subtle film that takes a lot of effort to watch. You have to try and imagine what it would be like to be a child growing up in rural Denmark in the 70’s. As luck would have it I grew up in rural Northern Ontario in the 1970’s. Two channels on a black and white television. I didn’t know a lot about a lot of things. As soon as I remembered this a lot of the film made sense to me. That took some effort on my part. Effort I wouldn’t have energy to give if it had been my 20th movie in three days.

FESTIVAL DAILY

FESTIVAL DAILY(editor's picks):

THE PLEASURES OF CRYING

The Art of Crying is an affectionate yet toxic recreation of small-town Denmark in the early seventies. Amid the flowing blond locks and "moped rowdies" lies a brazenly despicable father: Henry (Jesper Asholt), a wretched, sour milkman. His shtick is to threaten suicide anytime he requires attention or does not get his way. He spends untold nights curled up brawling on the couch nearly inconsolable. A petty and small-minded instigator, he is the worst kind of manipulator. Everything is about him and his theatrical suffering. Needless to say, his impish young son, Allan (Jannik Lorenzen), inherits a skewed moral sense of the world, as does his doe-eyed, damaged teenaged daughter, Sanne (Julie Kolbeck).

What is so fascinating about The Art of Crying is that it presents a world in which laughter is discouraged and tears are rewarded, where Henry can achieve stature in Allan\'s eyes by sobbing paroxysms of dispair with eulogies. Divided into chapters named for characters - who each endure a trauma of sort (tearfully, of cource) - and elevated by phenomenal performances, Peter Schønau Fog\'s first feature film is a vivid portrait of a provincial family that has raised emotional contrivance to an art form. JD

Craig at the Toronto International Film Festival - Blog

http://filmfest.tnir.org/2006/tiff-2006-day-5

The Art of Crying
Next up for me was a Danish film called THE ART OF CRYING, and black comedy and family tragedy about child abuse. Using the word comedy may cause you to think that a serious subject was being trivialized, but that was not the case here. CRYING concerns a family whose eldest son has escaped to university while 14 year old daughter Sanne and 10 year old son Allan are left unprotected by their mother from the most insecure and manipulative father you ever seen, but can unfortunately believe. The comedy comes from seeing all of this through the eyes of the 10 year old who initially misunderstands what’s happening about him. As Allan starts to put the pieces together, the comedy begins to give way to tragedy, while never completely succumbing to it: Allan’s deeply desired hope for a normal life keeps utter calamity at bay. You won’t know the names of the people involved here, but all of the work is top notch and CRYING will likely launch some careers. Check out the credits on the CRYING page at bell.ca/filmfest if you’d like to know more.

NOW - review

NOW magazine

THE ART OF CRYING

DISC D: Peter Schønau Fog w/ Jannik Lorenzen, Jesper Asholt. Denmark. 106 min. Saturday, September 9, 6 PM PARAMOUNT 3; Monday, September 11, 3:15 PM CUMBERLAND 2; Friday, September 15, 4:45 PM VARSITY 5 Rating: NNN

An unusual and disturbing story about a young boy's coming of age is offset by some surprisingly well-placed moments of dark humour.

Poor little Allan (Lorenzen) thinks the only thing wrong with his family is that Dad (Asholt) cries every night, threatening to kill himself. What Allan doesn't realize is that the way his father gets cheered up is the real issue.

A showcase for everyone involved, this is an ideal Discovery selection. Lorenzen proves he has talent beyond his years, Hanne Hedelund has a poignant turn as the frustrated mother, and Fog's first feature establishes him as a kind of Danish Todd Solondz, able to wring laughter out of the most unsettling and truthful scenes.

Reviewed by: Lori Fireman

EYE WEEKLY - review

EYE WEEKLY

The Art of Crying (Four stars)

w/ Jannik Lorenzen, Jesper Asholt
Sep 9, 6pm, Paramount; Sep 11, 3:15pm, Cumberland; Sep 15, 4:45pm, Varsity
Despite its horrific scenes of familial dysfunction, The Art of Crying is often hysterically funny. Of course, the laughs are of the dark and bitter variety, a Danish specialty. An 11-year-old living with his family in a small town in the early ’70s, Allan (Jannik Lorenzen) is far too admiring of his milkman father Henry (Jesper Asholt), an egocentric monster who tyrannizes his family with his volatile moods and pathetic self-pity. Eschewing the clichés of cinema’s countless bad dads, Asholt and first-time director Peter Schonau Fog create a patriarch who’s plausibly awful, comically absurd and thoroughly memorable. JA
Run Time 106 mins.
Director Peter Schønau Fog
Program Discovery

Stars given in Eye Weekly

Friday, September 01, 2006

Toronto Film Festival: Description


Toronto Film Festival: Description

Film Title:
The Art of Crying
(Kunsten at græde i kor)

Programme: DISCOVERY
Director: Peter Schønau Fog
Country: Denmark
Year: 2006
Language: Danish
Time: 106 minutes
Film Types: Colour/35mm
Rating: 14A

SCREENING TIMES:
Saturday, September 09 6:00 PM PARAMOUNT 3
Monday, September 11 3:15 PM CUMBERLAND 2
Friday, September 15 4:45 PM VARSITY 5

Production Company : Final Cut Productions ApS
Foreign Sales Agent : AB Svensk Filmindustri

Producer: Thomas Stenderup
Screenplay: Bo hr. Hansen, based on the novel by Erling Jepsen
Cinematographer: Harald Gunnar Paalgard
Editor: Anne Østerud
Production Designer: Søren Krag Sørensen
Sound: Henry John Michaelsen, Peter Schultz
Music: Karsten Fundal
Principal Cast: Jannik Lorenzen, Jesper Asholt, Julie Kolbeck, Hanne Hedelund, Thomas Knuth-Winterfeldt

Peter Schønau Fog's intense and unsettling The Art of Crying is a domestic drama-cum-horror movie, based on the celebrated novel by the Danish writer Erling Jepsen. The film follows precocious, eleven-year-old Allan ( Jannik Lorenzen), who is trying desperately to keep his dysfunctional, rural family together during the social upheavals of the early seventies.

Allan reveres his father, Henry (Jesper Asholt), the local milkman, and can't understand why others don't feel the same way. His family life is so twisted he thinks it's perfectly normal to stay awake all night dealing with his father's hysterics and suicidal threats. Allan's older brother left town several years ago, and his mother gave up long before that, relying on sleeping pills to escape Henry's tantrums.

Allan is obsessed with a rival family, whom he considers foolish white trash - until they start taking away Henry's customers. He is frustrated that his mother doesn't take his father's complaints seriously, and is perplexed by the increasingly rebellious and bizarre behaviour of his sister, Sanne ( Julie Kolbeck). Incapable of understanding what's going on and heavily influenced by his father, Allan commits appalling acts, unaware of their import.

While Schønau Fog uses his powerfully austere style (the early scenes have an almost tableau-like feel) to heighten the sense of entrapment, he also leavens the proceedings with comedy, though it's very much of the dark and sinister variety. The few extended family get-togethers are horrific and comic. No villain could be more publicly unimposing than Henry, who is virtually anonymous to the townspeople - or more tyrannical at home, where his nightly tirades terrorize everyone.

The Art of Crying chillingly dramatizes the gap between the innocent idealism of childhood beliefs and the starker reality of adulthood. Emotionally devastating and astonishingly mature, this is a unique feature debut.

- Steve Gravestock

Peter Schønau Fog was born on the island of Fanø, Denmark and studied filmmaking at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague and the National Film School of Denmark. He has directed numerous short films, including Little Man (99), which won several international awards. The Art of Crying (06) is his first feature film.

Associated with European Film Promotion,
an initiative supported by the
European Union’s MEDIA Programme.

Tokyo Film Festival: Description




Tokyo Film Festival: Description of the film.

The Art of Crying

Kunsten at graede i kor

2006 / Color / 106min. / 35mm / Danish

Here comes a rookie director with formidable talent! A young Scandinavian genius tackles Bergmanesque themes of family taboos and relationships with pathos, humor, and a loving eye.

Director: Peter Schonau Fog
Producer: Thomas Stenderup
Cast: Jesper Asholt / Hanne Hedelund / Jannik Lorenzen / Julie Kolbech

Danish films stole the spotlight at both Berlin and Cannes this year. Danish filmmakers boldly take on the challenges of addressing themes of loneliness and misery and taboos. This film depicts life in South Jutland in the 1970s through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy. Through him, we learn about the personalities, idiosyncrasies, and vices of his family, relatives, and neighbors. Bespectacled Allan adores his timid, unstable father. His father is a master at reciting eulogies, capable of bringing tears to everyone at a funeral. It is at such moments that his father appears the happiest. This ambitious film cuts to the heart of human malice against a backdrop of beautiful Scandinavian scenery. Rather than being an ironic commentary on life, however, the building 35-year-old director insists that the film, with its understated sence of humor, will make you smile and cry.