Kærlighed på film
Denmark
Synopsis
Jonas is a nice, but worn-down husband and father, with a wife, two kids and a house in the suburbs. One day, his life takes a dramatic, unexpected turn when he is the likely cause of a young woman, Julia, crashing her car. The next day, Julia wakes up in the hospital with amnesia and Jonas comes to visit. In a grotesque mix-up, Julia and her family mistake Jonas for her new exotic boyfriend Sebastian, whose return from abroad they had all been expecting. Jonas assumes the other's identity, Playing the part of the man Julia considers the love of her life. A whole new identity, a whole new life, a wide open, boundless world opens up to Jonas. But life is not lived on fantasies and exotic dreams - and one day truth comes knocking at the door.
Director's Statement
The idea for this film came to me on a mountain road in the northern part of Norway.
Wencke Foss, Maria Bonnevie and Depardieu were in the car.
Wencke had a small bottle of wine in her handbag. Maria and I were singing. Gerard was snoring.
I gazed out of the window and saw the Lofoten Islands out behind the horizon of the sea. The snow-covered mountains threw the sun back at me in a chalk white longing and I felt a sense of complete ease.
Behind me - somewhere far away in Denmark - was my family, some place completely different, my wife and my three wonderful children.
I felt an immense sense of shame over being able to sit there in the car and feel happy without them. For they should always be there - right there by my side ... always.
I was on my way to see a woman I had fallen in love with. She would wait for me when I reached the ship. We would look out of the cabin window together at night and watch our reflection in the northern lights.
I left my family - but not my children.
Today we live a shared existence like so many other failed couples - it is not an ideal situation - it is, however, better than marriages without love.
JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY was born out of this experience.
Life is full of disappointment, pain, dire defeats, audacious hopes and despairing lies.
There is no way around these.
Here, the family father, Jonas - leaves all that is good in his life - to search for something better.
The dreamer - he who always hides himself away somewhere in the mind and who whisperingly tempts you with new landscapes, different men and women and refreshingly diverse identities.
We have all stumbled over the thought:
what if I was someone else? If I could let go of all the old ties and start afresh, start again?
Continue south down the motorway - not turning off at a boring suburb and going to work - but just leaving it all - up and run away - with the risk of being found 20 years later on a TV programme similar to without a trace - one searching for those that disappeared.
My Jonas - in JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY - is that dreamer in us all.
Thank you for that, Jonas.
The ad of this film shows us all the actions we are too afraid of ourselves - it gives us this experience without us having to answer for it.
Jonas just goes too far:
He doesn't just leave the life he knows - he lies his way to a new one - stealing another man’s identity and taking his woman in the process.
There is a wildness within him, driven by a passionate and untameable dream -one which has consequences. Bloody, brutal, ruthless consequences - for the man whose name he has stolen turns out to be a lovesick monster, a freak in love - a sensitive psychopath.
I have attempted to create an unrestrained piece of modern drama, which -while seriously derailing - is still recognisable to us in the inner chambers of our souls.
It is a seriously bloody drama about love - yes, that is what it is: a bloody drama about love.
We shot for 10 weeks filled with raging excitement.
In Copenhagen, on Fyn and in Kampuchea.
With fantastic actors at the height of their careers and a dancing filmcrew. And Dan, who once again created his - without comparison - masterful palette of cinematography - even if I stole the camera away from him once in a while.
We were in love - with making a film - with making this film - the best we have all done.
And afterwards, some of us returned to our wives, husbands and lovers.
Wencke Foss, Maria Bonnevie and Depardieu were in the car.
Wencke had a small bottle of wine in her handbag. Maria and I were singing. Gerard was snoring.
I gazed out of the window and saw the Lofoten Islands out behind the horizon of the sea. The snow-covered mountains threw the sun back at me in a chalk white longing and I felt a sense of complete ease.
Behind me - somewhere far away in Denmark - was my family, some place completely different, my wife and my three wonderful children.
I felt an immense sense of shame over being able to sit there in the car and feel happy without them. For they should always be there - right there by my side ... always.
I was on my way to see a woman I had fallen in love with. She would wait for me when I reached the ship. We would look out of the cabin window together at night and watch our reflection in the northern lights.
I left my family - but not my children.
Today we live a shared existence like so many other failed couples - it is not an ideal situation - it is, however, better than marriages without love.
JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY was born out of this experience.
Life is full of disappointment, pain, dire defeats, audacious hopes and despairing lies.
There is no way around these.
Here, the family father, Jonas - leaves all that is good in his life - to search for something better.
The dreamer - he who always hides himself away somewhere in the mind and who whisperingly tempts you with new landscapes, different men and women and refreshingly diverse identities.
We have all stumbled over the thought:
what if I was someone else? If I could let go of all the old ties and start afresh, start again?
Continue south down the motorway - not turning off at a boring suburb and going to work - but just leaving it all - up and run away - with the risk of being found 20 years later on a TV programme similar to without a trace - one searching for those that disappeared.
My Jonas - in JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY - is that dreamer in us all.
Thank you for that, Jonas.
The ad of this film shows us all the actions we are too afraid of ourselves - it gives us this experience without us having to answer for it.
Jonas just goes too far:
He doesn't just leave the life he knows - he lies his way to a new one - stealing another man’s identity and taking his woman in the process.
There is a wildness within him, driven by a passionate and untameable dream -one which has consequences. Bloody, brutal, ruthless consequences - for the man whose name he has stolen turns out to be a lovesick monster, a freak in love - a sensitive psychopath.
I have attempted to create an unrestrained piece of modern drama, which -while seriously derailing - is still recognisable to us in the inner chambers of our souls.
It is a seriously bloody drama about love - yes, that is what it is: a bloody drama about love.
We shot for 10 weeks filled with raging excitement.
In Copenhagen, on Fyn and in Kampuchea.
With fantastic actors at the height of their careers and a dancing filmcrew. And Dan, who once again created his - without comparison - masterful palette of cinematography - even if I stole the camera away from him once in a while.
We were in love - with making a film - with making this film - the best we have all done.
And afterwards, some of us returned to our wives, husbands and lovers.
Cast & Crew
Directed by: Ole Bornedal
Written by: Ole Bornedal
Produced by: Michael Obel
Cinematography: Dan Laustsen
Cast: Anders W. Berthelsen (Jonas), Rebecka Hemse (Julia), Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Sebastian)
Nominations and Awards
- Feature Film Selection 2008
