Nils Malmros
Encyclopedia
Nils Malmros a Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

 film director and screenwriter, is considered a leading auteur of realism in Danish cinema. Malmros is noted for his detailed focus on the common growing pains of adolescence and the loss of innocence, which he draws from his childhood experiences growing up in Århus, Denmark. His most notable films form a trilogy about schoolchildren in 1950s Århus: Lars-Ole 5c, Boys and Tree of Knowledge. The latter film, 1981's Tree of Knowledge
Tree of Knowledge (film)
Tree of Knowledge is a 1981 Danish coming-of-age drama directed by Nils Malmros. The film details the lives of 17 teenage schoolmates in 1950's Denmark. Shooting on location at the high school which he had attended, Malmros took two years to film the action, so the cast members reflected the real...

(Kundskabens træ), is one of ten films listed in Denmark's cultural canon by the Danish Ministry of Culture.

Malmros, self-educated as a filmmaker, is formally trained as a surgeon. In his film Facing the Truth
Facing the Truth (film)
Facing the Truth is a 2002 Danish drama written and directed by Nils Malmros. Shot in black-and-white documentary style, and based on the real life of Malmros' father, the film relates the hardships of a young neurosurgeon struggling through a medical lawsuit...

(At kende sandheden), he performed all of the film's brain surgery sequences himself. Malmros is a 4-time recipient of the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...

 and a 3-time recipient of the Robert Award
Robert Award
The Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...

 for Danish Film of the Year.

Early life and medical training

Nils Sigurd Malmros was born on October 5, 1944 in Århus, Denmark the son of Richard Malmros, professor of neurosurgery at University of Aarhus
University of Aarhus
Aarhus University , located in the city of Aarhus, Denmark, is Denmark's second oldest and second largest university...

, and Eli Cold. As a young man, Malmros wanted to be a furniture designer and applied for admission to architecture school in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, but was not accepted. Instead, Malmros followed in the path of his father and, in 1965, began studying medicine. However, after viewing François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...

's Jules and Jim
Jules and Jim
Jules and Jim is a 1962 French film directed by François Truffaut based on Henri-Pierre Roché's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel about his relationship with writer Franz Hessel and his wife, Helen Grund....

and reading a film analysis by Klaus Rifbjerg, Malmros became inspired to pursue film making. Malmros eventually completed his medical training and graduated from the Århus University medical school in 1988—after 23 years and the completion of five feature films.

First films

In 1968, using his own money and his friends as actors, Malmros wrote and directed his first film: A Strange Romance (En mærkelig kærlighed). The film about the problems and philosophical discussions of some youths in Århus received a premiere at a Copenhagen theater but passed with little notice. After opening in Århus, critics panned the movie for being amateurish and a plagiarism of Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...

. Malmros was hurt, but pushed forward with his next movie project: Lars-Ole, 5c.

In 1969, Malmros sought financial support from the Danish Film Fund, first for script development of Lars-Ole, 5c, and again later for production. Both times he was turned down—the Film Fund would not support what they considered a children's movie. Malmros again self-funded his project. The movie revolved around the social life and development of a fifth-grade schoolboy. Malmros filmed on location at the Finsensgades Skole in Århus where he once attended, and he reduced costs by using children from the school as actors and extras." In 1971, he appealed for support to transfer the film from 16-mm to 35-mm and was again refused. The film premiered in 1973 to critical praise and was hailed as "a little film miracle." Malmros' treatment by the Danish Film Fund became a scandal and was discussed within the Danish parliament. Subsequently, the Film Fund was dissolved and replaced by the Danish Film Institute
Danish Film Institute
The Danish Film Institute is the national Danish agency responsible for supporting and encouraging film and cinema culture, and for conserving these in the national interest....

 which awarded Malmros 335,000 dkk in settlement in 1974. In August of that year, Malmros won the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...

 for Lars-Ole, 5c.

Professional career

The positive results and financial success of his Lars-Ole, 5c permitted Malmros to pursue his first professional film: Boys (Drenge). Once again, Malmros used his own childhood experiences to relate his story, this time about an Århus schoolboy's sexual development told in three phases from child to teenager to young man. The film premiered in 1977 and in 1978, Malmros won his second Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...

.

In 1981, Malmros released the third film of his trilogy: Tree of Knowledge
Tree of Knowledge (film)
Tree of Knowledge is a 1981 Danish coming-of-age drama directed by Nils Malmros. The film details the lives of 17 teenage schoolmates in 1950's Denmark. Shooting on location at the high school which he had attended, Malmros took two years to film the action, so the cast members reflected the real...

(Kundskabens træ). Like Lars-Ole, 5c and Boys, Tree of Knowledge was an examination of Danish schoolchildren in Århus during the 1950s. However, this time, the story revolved around the lives of 17 young teenagers during a two year period. Shooting on location at the Århus Katedralskole where he went to school, Malmros took two years to film the action, so the cast members reflected the real life physical and emotional development of their characters. Malmros originally wanted to film over a four year period but ran into financial difficulties with the film's funding from the Det Danske Filminstitut. The film received critical acclaim but garnered only two awards: a Bodil Award for Jan Weincke's cinematography and an audience prize at the Lübeck Nordic Film Days. However, Tree of Knowledge is one of the top 100 Danish films listed by the Danish Film Institute and is one of ten films listed in the cultural canon of Denmark by the Danish Ministry of Culture
Culture Minister of Denmark
Culture Minister of Denmark is the Danish political minister office responsible for culture, head of the Ministry of Culture of Denmark.The political responsibility for culture, as well as church and education, was with the Kultus Minister from 1848 to 1916 when that post was split up into the...

.

Malmros made Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1983 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1983 Danish drama film written and directed by Nils Malmros. The film stars Line Arlien-Søborg as a sexually active 16-year-old and Jesper Klein as the father who struggles to accept his daughter's relationships with boys as well as his own jealousy...

(Skønheden og udyret) in 1983. The film describes the tensions between a father and daughter when he becomes over his daughter's developing relationships with boys. In 1984 Malmros won his third Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...

. The movie was also awarded the newly established Robert Award
Robert Award
The Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...

 for Danish Film of the Year. He followed this with his 1989 film Århus by Night. The film was inspired by Malmros' experiences during the filming of Boys and many of the characters were obvious portraits of those involved from the earlier film. During filming Malmros came under criticism from the Actor's union for employing amateur actors. Malmros held a preview of the movie and was criticized for the surrealistic Freudian ending by reviewers, for example critic Klaus Rifberg. However, without Rifberg's knowledge, Malmros had seen the review and one week before the official premiere he removed the film's ending, thus shortening the film by 5 minutes. Malmros received pleasant but mild reviews of the film.

In 1992, Malmros shifted from his usual milieu and made the dramatic tragedy Pain of Love
Pain of Love
Pain of Love , , is a Danish dramatic tragedy written and directed by Nils Malmros. It stars Anne Louise Hassing and Søren Østergaard in a beautiful but bitter story about a young college student whose small setbacks in school and relationships lead her toward an inexorable descent into suicidal...

(Kærlighedens Smerte). Departing from Malmros' usual sentimental view of childhood, the film tells a beautiful but bitter story about a young college student whose small setbacks in school and relationships lead her toward an inexorable descent into suicidal depression. The film won both the Bodil and Robert
Robert Award
The Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...

 awards in 1993 for Best Danish Film. Both Anne Louise Hassing
Anne Louise Hassing
Anne Louise Hassing is a Danish actress best known for her award-winning roles in the films, The Idiots and Pain of Love .- Career :...

 and Søren Østergaard
Søren Østergaard
Søren Østergaard is a Danish film, television and stage actor.- Selected Filmography :* Facing the Truth * Pain of Love - External links :* at the Danish Film Institute*...

 received the same awards for their leading roles and both supporting actors received Bodil awards as well.

For his next film, Malmros for the first time chose a story from outside of his childhood environs. Malmros' Barbara (1997) is an adaptation of the classic Danish novel by Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen set in the Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...

. The film about a minister who falls in love and marries a promiscuous woman received the Audience Award at the Rouen Nordic Film Festival as well as the 1998 Robert Award
Robert Award
The Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...

 for Best Film. For his 2002 film, Facing the Truth
Facing the Truth
Facing The Truth was a British television programme. Partly based on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the three part series was presented by Fergal Keane and Archbishop Desmond Tutu...

(At kende sandheden), Malmros returned to his personal experience with semi-biographical tale about his father who was a pioneer in brain surgery. Shot in black-and-white documentary style, the film relates the hardships of a young neurosurgeon struggling through a medical lawsuit. Malmros, intent on the film's realism, used his surgical background by performing all of the film's brain surgery scenes himself. The film was nominated for the 2003 Bodil Award for Best Danish Film and Malmros accepted the 2003 Danish Film Academy's Robert Award for Film of the Year.

In 2009, Malmros released another coming-of-age story, Aching Hearts (Kærestesorger). Filmed over a three year period with teenagers in Viborg
Viborg
Viborg may refer to:*Viborg, Denmark, a city in Jutland, Denmark**Viborg Municipality, a Danish municipality named for the city**Viborg County, a former county of Denmark**Diocese of Viborg**Viborg FF, a professional football team based in Viborg...

, the movie repeated the filming techniques and themes from Malmros' Tree of Knowledge.

Personal life

Malmros was married on June 5, 1982 with the teacher Marianne Tromholt (01-07-1950).

Filmography

Year Title Original title Credits Notes
1968 A Strange Romance En mærkelig kærlighed Director
Writer
Cinematographer
Producer
Editor
1973 Lars-Ole, 5c Lars-Ole, 5c Director
Writer
Actor ... Music Teacher
Producer
Editor
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...

1977 Boys Drenge Director
Writer
Sound
Editor
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...

1978 Kammesjukjul Kammesjukjul Director
Writer
Television
1981 Tree of Knowledge
Tree of Knowledge (film)
Tree of Knowledge is a 1981 Danish coming-of-age drama directed by Nils Malmros. The film details the lives of 17 teenage schoolmates in 1950's Denmark. Shooting on location at the high school which he had attended, Malmros took two years to film the action, so the cast members reflected the real...

Kundskabens træ Director
Writer
Listed in Denmark's Cultural Canon
1983 Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1983 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1983 Danish drama film written and directed by Nils Malmros. The film stars Line Arlien-Søborg as a sexually active 16-year-old and Jesper Klein as the father who struggles to accept his daughter's relationships with boys as well as his own jealousy...

Skønheden og udyret Director
Writer
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...


Robert Award for Danish Film of the Year
Robert Award
The Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...


Entered into the 34th Berlin International Film Festival
34th Berlin International Film Festival
The 34th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 17 to February 28, 1984.-Jury:* Liv Ullmann * Jules Dassin* Edward Bennett* Manuela Cernat-Gheorghiu* Lana Gogoberidze* Tullio Kezich* Steffen Kuchenreuther...

.
1989 Århus by night Århus by night Director
Writer
1992 Pain of Love
Pain of Love
Pain of Love , , is a Danish dramatic tragedy written and directed by Nils Malmros. It stars Anne Louise Hassing and Søren Østergaard in a beautiful but bitter story about a young college student whose small setbacks in school and relationships lead her toward an inexorable descent into suicidal...

Kærlighedens smerte
Pain of Love
Pain of Love , , is a Danish dramatic tragedy written and directed by Nils Malmros. It stars Anne Louise Hassing and Søren Østergaard in a beautiful but bitter story about a young college student whose small setbacks in school and relationships lead her toward an inexorable descent into suicidal...

Director
Writer
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
Bodil Award for Best Danish Film
The Bodil Award for Best Danish Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics . It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes in Europe. The judging committee can decide not to give out the award if no deserving films are...


Robert Award for Danish Film of the Year
Robert Award
The Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...


Entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival
43rd Berlin International Film Festival
The 43rd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 11 to 22, 1993.-Jury:* Frank Beyer * Juan Antonio Bardem* Michel Boujut* François Duplat* Katinka Faragó* Krystyna Janda* Naum Kleiman* Brock Peters...

.
1997 Barbara Barbara Director
Writer
2002 Facing the Truth
Facing the Truth (film)
Facing the Truth is a 2002 Danish drama written and directed by Nils Malmros. Shot in black-and-white documentary style, and based on the real life of Malmros' father, the film relates the hardships of a young neurosurgeon struggling through a medical lawsuit...

At kende sandheden Director
Writer
2009 Aching Hearts Kærestesorger Director
Writer



Awards

  • Danish Film Critics Bodil Award for Best Danish Film, for Lars-Ole 5c, 1974
  • Krebs' School Award, 1975
  • Danish Film Critics Bodil Award for Best Danish Film, for Boys, 1977
  • Preben Franks Memorial Award, 1982
  • Gjest Baardsen Award, Olso, 1982
  • Audience Prize of the "Lübecker Nachrichten", Lübeck Nordic Film Days, for Tree of Knowledge, 1982
  • Niels Matthiasen's Memorial Award, 1983
  • Albertslunds Cultural Fond's Honorary Award, 1983
  • Danish Film Academy Robert Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay for Beauty and the Beast, 1984
  • Danish Film Critics Bodil Award for Best Danish Film, for Beauty and the Beast, 1984
  • Otto Rungs Authors Award, 1990
  • Danish Playwrights Guild (Danske Dramatikere) Honors Award, 1993
  • Danish Film Critics Bodil Award for Best Film for Pain of Love, 1993
  • Danish Film Academy Robert Award for Best Film, for Pain of Love, 1993
  • National Art Council's Lifetime Award, 1995
  • Danish Film Academy Robert Award for Best Film, and Rouen Nordic Film Festival Audience Award, for Barbara, 1998
  • Hartmann Award, 1998

Further reading

  • Breuning, Ulrich and John Mogensen, At kende sandheden - En bog om Nils Malmros' film & Filmens manuskript, 2002, 104 pg, ISBN 87-91078-17-2
  • Karen Conrad: Drengedrømme. Nils Malmros - en auteur. Amanda 1991, s. 25-36.
  • Lars Daneskov og Kim Kristensen: Nils Malmros, portræt af en filmkunstner. Hovedland 1989.
  • Finn Thrane: Interview med Nils Mamros. Kosmorama 123-124/1974.
  • John Mogensen: Kundskabens træ - en film bliver til. Centrum 1981.
  • Søren Birkvad: Syndens huler. Kosmorama 157/1982.
  • Oluf Gandrup og Peter Kirkegaard: Malmros' erindringsmagi - Bringing It All Back Home. MacGuffin 41-42/1982.
  • Niels Olaf Gudme: Interview med Nils Malmros. Tusind Øjne 47/1981.
  • Henrik Jul Hansen: Fortiden på nethinden. Levende Billeder 7/1981.
  • Klaus Rifbjerg: Kærligheden er en by i provinsen. Levende Billeder 8/1981.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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