Programme Notes
Monday 9th August 7.30pm
Another Round (Druk) (15)
In this highly enjoyable award-winning Danish film, four middle-aged men deal with life’s disappointments by experimenting with alcohol, with mixed results. Faced with stale careers as teachers, failing marriages and mid-life crisis, Martin, Tommy, Nikolaj and Peter decide to try out a pseudo-scientific theory – that people’s lives can be improved by maintaining a low level of alcohol in their system at all times. Taking the project seriously, the friends set themselves strict rules and conduct research into how many successful public figures were habitual drinkers. Initially, they find that sipping during the day and sustaining a low-level of alcohol in the workplace makes them more relaxed, happier and self-confident. But when they start to pursue the idea further, are the risks of the intoxicating social experiment worth taking? Another Round is the latest collaboration between director Thomas Vinterberg, co-writer Tobias Lindholm and Mads Mikkelsen, who plays Martin. In 2012 the trio made The Hunt, an award-winning film which in which Mikkelsen played a kindergarten teacher wrongly accused of being a paedophile. In the hands of many directors Another Round could easily have descended into an absurd broad comedy or a tedious polemic about alcoholism. But Vinterberg avoids the pitfalls of both – he never makes fun of his protagonists and the story makes it clear that drinking can bring pleasure as well as pain. Mikkelsen, always an exceptional actor, is perfection throughout, brilliantly but subtly showing Martin’s transition from depression to rejuvenation – and then beyond. Another Round is a nuanced view of the joys and risks of drinking and a delightful look at male camaraderie. Stories centred around male friendship are rare, and the genuine emotional depth presented here welcome. And the finale is one of the most exultant, triumphant moments in recent cinema memory.
REVIEWS Mischievously unruly in tone (“scandalous” is Vinterberg’s preferred word), yet shot through with a flinty shard of sadness, it’s the Danish director’s finest and most personal film since 1998’s Festen – a heady cocktail of ecstasy and grief, buoyed by a superb ensemble cast. At the centre of its maddening spell is a magnificently modulated performance by Mads Mikkelsen, who excelled in Vinterberg’s 2012 drama The Hunt, and offers here the performance of a lifetime in a role that sees him dancing (literally) through the heart of darkness … It’s a brilliantly ambiguous affair, woozy but precise, profound yet playful, confronting matters of life and death with equal vigour, while ultimately raising a toast to the redemptive power of cinema. Mark Kermode, The Observer
Breezy and boozy, joyful and melancholic, occasionally wild and often wise, Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round is a heady cocktail swiftly downed, with a late kick like a particularly euphoric mule … Another Round is, of course, when you get right down to it, not really about drinking at all. Instead, as loosely signalled by the opening Kierkegaard quote about youth, love and dreams, it’s about male friendship, midlife crisis and the cruelty of a modern condition by which we spend our first couple of sentient decades figuring out who we want to be, and the rest of our lives not living up to that vision. Jessica Kiang, Sight and Sound
[Director Thomas] Vinterberg, writer Tobias Lindholm, and a pitch-perfect cast breathe boozy life and texture into the idea, creating a film that flits between farce and melancholy to create a nuanced picture of the joys and pains of the demon drink ... It’s perhaps surprising given Vinterberg’s nose for shock and controversy that he takes the moral high ground here, but the result is a familiar but more mature, nuanced take on the dangers of drinking. Vinterberg is aided by a great cast led by a never-better Mikkelsen … Another Round is funny and rich, a fresh, perfectly played, clear-eyed take on middle age ennui. Intoxicating. Ian Freer, Empire
Cast Crew
Mads Mikkelsen Martin Director Thomas Vinterberg Thomas Bo Larsen Tommy Writers Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm Magnus Millang Nikolaj Producers Kasper Dissing, Sisse Lars Ranthe Peter Graum Jørgensen
Maria Bonnevie Anika Cinematography Sturla Brandth Grøvlen Helene Reingaard Amalie Editing Janus Billeskov Jansen, Neumann Anne Østerud
Film Facts
Another Round won Best International Feature Film in the 2021 Academy Awards as well as the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language. The film’s Danish title, Druk, translates as “binge drinking” in Danish. The writers were inspired by a theory put forward by Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud that humans are born with a blood alcohol level that is 0.05% too low. Director Thomas Vinterberg, always provocative, initially planned the film to be purely a celebration of alcohol. However, he decided to change this approach. Vinterberg says: “We found that making a pure sort of provocation was a bit too arrogant, too young, too limited, and we felt it was more grand and truthful to tell the whole story about alcohol. This is something I normally steer away from, but I felt the moral obligation. I know people who have lost their lives to alcohol, and so has (writer) Tobias Lindholm.” The film is dedicated to Vinterberg’s daughter Ida who was tragically killed a car crash four days after filming started. She had been meant to play Mads Mikkelsen’s daughter in the film and some of the classroom scenes were filmed at her school. For Thomas Vinterberg, the dance at the ending is a mirror of the journey that Martin was on: “It’s a mix of emotions: Part of him wants to fly, part of him wants to drown.” Mikkelsen trained as a gymnast and was a professional dancer in his early career.
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