Selvmordsskolen

"Selvmordsskolen" is one of the best Danish films of its period inspired by the cinematic French New Wave. It uses the ideas and aesthetics employed by French filmmakers of the time - Godard in particular - but at the same time it is, very much, a Danish film. In the Sixties, Danish film basically meant comedy, and the actors who appear in "Selvmordsskolen" are all well-known comedy actors in Denmark. Axel Strøbye in particular gives a noteworthy performance (actually several noteworthy performances), but Jørgen Ryg is also well-casted as the main protagonist, credited simply as "the man who wants to kill himself". The film, however, is by no means an ordinary Danish comedy, and many Danish audiences were confused by it. Watching its darkly humouristic portrait of a modern welfare society which has no room for individuality or artistic ideas is very much like reading a book by the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno - or watching an episode of the British TV series "The Prisoner". There are many moving scenes, and the end is deeply disturbing. Not before or since has Danish cinema produced anything like "Selvmordsskolen" (the title literally means "School for Suicide"). It is a true masterpiece and is highly recommended.

This is the film about being caught in a nightmare that never ends. Even a visit to an amusement park frightens the poor man to death. He lives in a world, where people no longer matter, the system is self-sustaining and dehumanising - an almost Kafkan universe. In that world suicide is no longer a taboo, actually people are making a living out of instructing people how to kill themselves. The only question that does not matter, is why people commit suicide, how they do it is so much more important. The setting of this film is important as to how frightening the film is, then usually you connect the setting with pleasant things, now everything is strangely different - and thus scary.

This movie surprised me, and perhaps I'm going to give this movie more praise than it deserved. It's a mostly forgotten movie, and I only stumbled over it by chance. It is about a man who is lonely, unhappy and struggling to find his place in the world. It's a surreal film, but it follows the emotional journey the main character is on in a mostly straight forward way.

The movie is an obvious critique of modern life. It is at time maybe a bit too heavy handed, but I found myself forgiving it for it. One scene is a modern art exhibit where three balloons, representing faith, hope and love, are popped as they are not to the audience's liking. Another scene has a classical pianist being interrupted by a man claiming to play modern and true music - and doing so by chopping the piano to pieces with an axe. This theme runs though the entire movie, along with themes of loneliness, isolation and loss of identity.

I was surprised by how much I liked the visuals in this movie. It has some really nice shots, that would probably look gorgeous in an HD restoration (as compared to the VHS-quality I saw this in). The soundtrack (partly by the marvelous Fabricius-Bjerre) was also mostly good.

Now, lots of praise, but I also have to mention: this movie is probably about 20 minutes too long. Several scenes started to drag after a while, and I found myself getting bored several times throughout.