We’ve made no secret of the fact that we’re big fans of Danish director Susanne Bier. The likes of “Open Hearts,” “Brothers” (remade last year, to diminishing returns, by Jim Sheridan) and “After The Wedding” are some of the strongest pictures in European cinema in the last decade, and her English-language debut “Things We Lost In The Fire” is terminally underrated. She’s been M.I.A. since that film, however — the romantic comedy “Lost For Words” collapsed after star Hugh Grant pulled out days before shooting.
Fortunately, she’s returning; Twitch Film have found a trailer for her next feature, “Haevnen,” or as it will be known in English speaking territories, “In A Better World.” The picture, which Sony Pictures Classics acquired the U.S. rights to a little while back, sees release in Denmark in August, and is rumored to be playing at the Venice Film Festival (and, we imagine, the likes of Telluride and Toronto as well). It also marks Bier’s reunion with Anders Thomas Jensen, who wrote many of her previous works, as well as the likes of Lone Scherfig’s “Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself,” Thomas Vintenberg’s “The King Is Alive” and the Keira Knightley vehicle “The Duchess.”
Casting details had been kept under wraps until now, but the trailer reveals Ulrich Thomsen (“The International”), Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt and Trine Dyrholm (“Troubled Water”) to be among the cast. Our Danish not being what it was, we’re a little hazy on the plot, but a previous Sony press release revealed that it “revolves around the lives of two Danish families who cross each other, and an extraordinary, but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait. Soon, friendship transforms into a dangerous alliance and a breathtaking pursuit in which life is at stake.”
It looks pretty good, even without subtitles, and we’re looking forward to seeing the finished product later in the year. Bier meanwhile has two other projects lined up: a four-part TV biopic of Ingmar Bergman and the Hollywood rom-com “Which Brings Me To You.”