The film was very capably directed, very capably acted, the production was beautiful, but it was still a bit off. The problem was either in the screenplay, or it was in the edit. There were either too many parts or not enough, depending on how you look at it.
I went in expecting a very gritty tale about a violent land dispute, but what I got instead was a very thoughtful tale about about a classist society and man trying to rise to nobility in a corrupt system without being corrupted himself....and then suddenly it turns into a gritty tale about a violent land dispute...and then back to a somewhat unnecessary epilogue about the life of this farmer in the aftermath of it all.
I think what it needed to balance it out a bit was a battle scene in the beginning, showing the hells of war the Kahlen had struggled to only to deal with someone like De Schinkel. Then maybe a little bit less of the Ann Barbara story, which I understand is the focus of the book it's based on, or just cut the gypsy kid out to tighten it up.
And I have to praise Simon Bennebjerg's performance, he brought a lot of character to a very unlikeable creep. He and Mikkelson were a great contrast of stoicism and hedonism. There were no poor performances, not to an English speaker's eyes and ears at least.
I went in expecting a very gritty tale about a violent land dispute, but what I got instead was a very thoughtful tale about about a classist society and man trying to rise to nobility in a corrupt system without being corrupted himself....and then suddenly it turns into a gritty tale about a violent land dispute...and then back to a somewhat unnecessary epilogue about the life of this farmer in the aftermath of it all.
I think what it needed to balance it out a bit was a battle scene in the beginning, showing the hells of war the Kahlen had struggled to only to deal with someone like De Schinkel. Then maybe a little bit less of the Ann Barbara story, which I understand is the focus of the book it's based on, or just cut the gypsy kid out to tighten it up.
And I have to praise Simon Bennebjerg's performance, he brought a lot of character to a very unlikeable creep. He and Mikkelson were a great contrast of stoicism and hedonism. There were no poor performances, not to an English speaker's eyes and ears at least.