La panchina

We've all of us seen them: the alcoholics wasting their lives sitting on our cities' benches. What we don't see is the drama behind the alcohol.

What struck me while watching Baenken is that it is all so believable and therefore the more painful to watch. The story of this film becomes less important than the leading character's death wish. His cynical attitude towards life and suicidal drinking habits are what sticks in one's mind.

Jesper Christensen is masterful in portraying the misery, the shame and hopelessness that go with alcoholism. The drinking bout in which he cries while lying wounded in his apartment is gut wrenching to watch.

Not an easy film to watch but definitely worthwhile if one has the stomach for it.

The most stunishing thing about this movie is the acting of the drunk guy. Several times during the movie I pondered whether they had brought in a real drunk, or if it really was an actor? All his moves, the way i talked etc. were so real.

The story as far as I recall it, is about a drunk guy on dole, with no future. Suddenly he meets a person which makes his internal flame of live rise and burst.

We as spectators get a view of how it is having no future, no family and nothing to do. Its a story without any special effects or explosions (not even a telly which is thrown out of the window from the second floor explode upon impact with the sidewalk!) But still, the story is so much better than of most multi-billion dollar movies from Hollywood.

I can see on the message boards, that this film does not come with English subtitles - only Danish for the hearing impaired, so foreigners don't get much help ... however, the Cinema version should have English subtitles.

It is actually a great shame, because this film is not really about something special Scandinavian.

Above all, it is good to see, that really good movies touching important themes can be done without a Hollywood budget.

There is an old quote in Danish culture: "People say that Jeppe is drinking, but they don't say why Jeppe is drinking". This film illustrates this point very well.

But the film is part of a trilogy, so maybe they make a boxed set in the future with English subtitles ... one can only hope.

This movie is about forgiving, decay, hope, love and death. The main character is played to perfection by Jesper Christensen, one of the best performances i've ever seen in any movie. I was 100% convinced that he was a deathdrunk alcoholic, what a masterpiece of acting!!! 10 stars on his acting alone.

The story is beautiful, sad but very very true. Many of us close our eyes to these kind of people and tend to forget that behind the sad drunken facades are real people with real stories and emotions. This movie smacks these people right in your face. Some people find it disgusting, but the rest of us find that this is a masterpiece of a movie. Its in my top 3 of all time favourite movies.

I have recently watched this excellent Dannish movie on satellite channel.Regrettably I was deprived of the opportunity to understand dialogs as there was neither English translation nor subtitles. Nevetheless, that language barrier had not prevented me from understanding the essence of the movie and conversely watching this movie in Dannish emphasized scenes regarding alcoholics, contradictions and attitude towards lonely poverty-stricken generally in Europe and particularly in Denmark. The problem of solitude is pivotal in this movie. Loneliness kills us faster that whatever disease. The movie is full of sadness and sympathy. I recommend everybody to watch it.