Max Manus: Fangirling Post
Mar. 5th, 2010 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caramelsilverAt the moment this is my favorite movie. It was filmed and released in Norwegian theatres in 2008 and is one of Norway's most watched films.
Click her to read without the annoyance of my layout. I advice you to do that.
Max Manus on wikipedia ⎮ Max Manus on IMDB
The true story about one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II and his battle to overcome his inner demons.
(I get chills just watching this!)
Summary of the plot: After fighting the Soviets in Finland, Max Manus returns to Norway, currently occupied by the Nazis. He joins with the Norwegian resistance movement in their fight against the Germans but is arrested. He manages to escape to Scotland where he receives training before being sent back to Norway to carry out sabotage missions against the occupying forces.
Returning to Norway with his friend Gregers Gram, his first mission is an attack on German supply ships. He is spectacularly successful, and soon he becomes a special target for the Gestapo commander Siegfried Wolfgang Fehmer. Manus, however, avoids capture, and with Gram and Gunnar Sønsteby he forms the so-called "Oslo Group".
Stockholm becomes a meeting point for Norwegians in allied military service. Here Gram introduces Manus to Tikken, who works as a Norwegian contact for the British consulate. The two soon develop a special relationship.
As the war becomes more and more brutal, many of Manus' friends lose their lives in the struggle against the Germans, and he starts to blame himself for being the one who survives. In a meeting with Fehmer he realises that everyone is just a victim of the meaninglessness of war.
The Cast
Max Manus
played by Axel Hennie
Max Manus is the main character and this is his story. The movie is based off the books he wrote right after the war ended. He was a resistance fighter and saboteur during the war. He was also rude, arrogant and a drunk.
Gregers Gram
played by Nicolai Cleve Broch
Gregers Gram was one of Max's best friends. They met during the war and formed a strong friendship while training in Scotland. Gregers believed that propaganda was just as important as saboteur missions and was one of the main men behind the paper "Vi Vil Oss Et Land" (roughly translated: We want our country).
Ida Nikoline "Tikken" Lindebrække (later Manus)
played by Agnes Kittelsen
Tikken was a Norwegian contact in the British consulate in Stockholm. She was an important bond between the Norwegian saboteurs and the British Army. During the movie she is married to an English diplomat and has a five-year-old son.
Kolbein Lauring
played by Christian Rubeck
Kolbein Lauring was Max Manus childhood friend. He spends years in prison, but joins back up with the resistance the minute the Germans are stupid enough to release him. He fought in Finland with Max.
Gunnar Sønsteby
played by Knut Joner
Gunnar Sønsteby was the man who knew everything! He had contacts all over and was the guy the official Norwegian government talked to. (Today he is Norway's most highly decorated citizen.)
Siegfried Fehmer
played by Ken Duken
Siegfried Fehmer was a German Gestapo officer that was stationed in Norway during the war. He genuinely wanted to live in Norway in peace and learned the language very quickly. He thought Max and his group as terrorist, and believed that the Norwegians soon would see that the occupation was for their own good. He is one of the most despised Germans in Norwegian history and was executed at Akershus Fort after the war was over.
The filming in this movie is truly gorgeous. They have captured an Oslo that no longer exists, but I have no problem in believing in its authenticity. I especially adore the costumes the actors wear, in particularly Gregers Gram, who I think looks dapper and yummy throughout the entire film.
I really, really adore this movie. Just this last month I've watched it twice. I've watched all the extra on the dvd and watched the movie with both sets of commentary. (One with the script-writer and the main actor and one with the two directors.) I even bought a book about the differences between the movie and reality. And I'm not even sorry about my obsession because I'm learning things about my country's history that I previously knew nothing about. It's really getting me interested in World War II.
My grandmother, dad's mother, was ten-years-old during the war and I remember her telling me stories about how she had to go to school and learn German, and how they ate a lot of potatoes and her shoes were made of newspapers... and I guess I've been kind of traumatized by that because I was never really interested in learning more. But then this movie came out Christmas 2008. We'd heard a lot about it; the huge budget, and how they had closed down Karl Johan (the main street in Oslo) to film a scene where they raised the Nazi flag on the paralament and all that kind of stuff. I was really excited. When we got into the theatre it was absolutely jammed backed, and this was a week after the opening. And the weird thing was the average age of the people sitting there must have been about sixty. So this movie got the old folks to leave their home to go watch a movie. Now that's pretty impressive in itself. (My grandfather tells, me every time I bring up the movies, how loud he thinks it is and he just won't go any more.)
And the movie was mindblowingly awesome. I had pretty low expectations, though, since Norwegian movies always sucks. In my opinion that is. Norway just can't make any good movies. But this one... Well, as I told my dad: This is a good movie, not just a good Norwegian movie.
The movie is really pretty to watch; I liked the cinematography. It was funny, engaging and exciting. The actors did a wonderful job. Of course, it did help that I spent a lot of time drooling over Nicolai Cleve Broch, who played Gregers Gram. He was so gorgeous in this film and his clothes as well! I want a guy that dresses like that!
It just makes me happy to watch this movie. And things that makes me happy are automatically good things.
FUN FACT: The Finland scenes were filmed 1 km from where I live.
So... Did any of this make you want to watch this movie? If the answer is yes, then please, please do. I have found a link where you can watch it online with English subtitles. I am begging you to watch it. Like I said yesterday: I WILL WRITE YOU FIC, AND SEND YOU CHOCOLATE! (No, I seem to have misplaced my shame today, why do you ask?) I just... I need someone to tell me that my slash-goggles are not malfunctioning and that someone else can see the massive chemistry between Max and Gregers. (All the scenes in Scotland, my god!), I need someone to just squee with me about the prettiness that is Nicolai Cleve Broch and the awesome clothes he wore. And if you don't want to watch the entire movie, at least watch the scenes between 18-26 minutes into the film. What do you see?
You can watch the movie here with English subtitles. Maybe not the best subtitles in the world. But I've watched it, and it does the trick.
ETA: I found it on Youtube with English subtitles that are a little easier to read. I made a playlist here.
And that ends my massive fangirling for today. I am exhausted.
Click her to read without the annoyance of my layout. I advice you to do that.
Max Manus on wikipedia ⎮ Max Manus on IMDB
(I get chills just watching this!)
Summary of the plot: After fighting the Soviets in Finland, Max Manus returns to Norway, currently occupied by the Nazis. He joins with the Norwegian resistance movement in their fight against the Germans but is arrested. He manages to escape to Scotland where he receives training before being sent back to Norway to carry out sabotage missions against the occupying forces.
Returning to Norway with his friend Gregers Gram, his first mission is an attack on German supply ships. He is spectacularly successful, and soon he becomes a special target for the Gestapo commander Siegfried Wolfgang Fehmer. Manus, however, avoids capture, and with Gram and Gunnar Sønsteby he forms the so-called "Oslo Group".
Stockholm becomes a meeting point for Norwegians in allied military service. Here Gram introduces Manus to Tikken, who works as a Norwegian contact for the British consulate. The two soon develop a special relationship.
As the war becomes more and more brutal, many of Manus' friends lose their lives in the struggle against the Germans, and he starts to blame himself for being the one who survives. In a meeting with Fehmer he realises that everyone is just a victim of the meaninglessness of war.
The Cast
Max Manus
played by Axel Hennie
Max Manus is the main character and this is his story. The movie is based off the books he wrote right after the war ended. He was a resistance fighter and saboteur during the war. He was also rude, arrogant and a drunk.
Gregers Gram
played by Nicolai Cleve Broch
Gregers Gram was one of Max's best friends. They met during the war and formed a strong friendship while training in Scotland. Gregers believed that propaganda was just as important as saboteur missions and was one of the main men behind the paper "Vi Vil Oss Et Land" (roughly translated: We want our country).
Ida Nikoline "Tikken" Lindebrække (later Manus)
played by Agnes Kittelsen
Tikken was a Norwegian contact in the British consulate in Stockholm. She was an important bond between the Norwegian saboteurs and the British Army. During the movie she is married to an English diplomat and has a five-year-old son.
Kolbein Lauring
played by Christian Rubeck
Kolbein Lauring was Max Manus childhood friend. He spends years in prison, but joins back up with the resistance the minute the Germans are stupid enough to release him. He fought in Finland with Max.
Gunnar Sønsteby
played by Knut Joner
Gunnar Sønsteby was the man who knew everything! He had contacts all over and was the guy the official Norwegian government talked to. (Today he is Norway's most highly decorated citizen.)
Siegfried Fehmer
played by Ken Duken
Siegfried Fehmer was a German Gestapo officer that was stationed in Norway during the war. He genuinely wanted to live in Norway in peace and learned the language very quickly. He thought Max and his group as terrorist, and believed that the Norwegians soon would see that the occupation was for their own good. He is one of the most despised Germans in Norwegian history and was executed at Akershus Fort after the war was over.
The filming in this movie is truly gorgeous. They have captured an Oslo that no longer exists, but I have no problem in believing in its authenticity. I especially adore the costumes the actors wear, in particularly Gregers Gram, who I think looks dapper and yummy throughout the entire film.
I really, really adore this movie. Just this last month I've watched it twice. I've watched all the extra on the dvd and watched the movie with both sets of commentary. (One with the script-writer and the main actor and one with the two directors.) I even bought a book about the differences between the movie and reality. And I'm not even sorry about my obsession because I'm learning things about my country's history that I previously knew nothing about. It's really getting me interested in World War II.
My grandmother, dad's mother, was ten-years-old during the war and I remember her telling me stories about how she had to go to school and learn German, and how they ate a lot of potatoes and her shoes were made of newspapers... and I guess I've been kind of traumatized by that because I was never really interested in learning more. But then this movie came out Christmas 2008. We'd heard a lot about it; the huge budget, and how they had closed down Karl Johan (the main street in Oslo) to film a scene where they raised the Nazi flag on the paralament and all that kind of stuff. I was really excited. When we got into the theatre it was absolutely jammed backed, and this was a week after the opening. And the weird thing was the average age of the people sitting there must have been about sixty. So this movie got the old folks to leave their home to go watch a movie. Now that's pretty impressive in itself. (My grandfather tells, me every time I bring up the movies, how loud he thinks it is and he just won't go any more.)
And the movie was mindblowingly awesome. I had pretty low expectations, though, since Norwegian movies always sucks. In my opinion that is. Norway just can't make any good movies. But this one... Well, as I told my dad: This is a good movie, not just a good Norwegian movie.
The movie is really pretty to watch; I liked the cinematography. It was funny, engaging and exciting. The actors did a wonderful job. Of course, it did help that I spent a lot of time drooling over Nicolai Cleve Broch, who played Gregers Gram. He was so gorgeous in this film and his clothes as well! I want a guy that dresses like that!
It just makes me happy to watch this movie. And things that makes me happy are automatically good things.
FUN FACT: The Finland scenes were filmed 1 km from where I live.
So... Did any of this make you want to watch this movie? If the answer is yes, then please, please do. I have found a link where you can watch it online with English subtitles. I am begging you to watch it. Like I said yesterday: I WILL WRITE YOU FIC, AND SEND YOU CHOCOLATE! (No, I seem to have misplaced my shame today, why do you ask?) I just... I need someone to tell me that my slash-goggles are not malfunctioning and that someone else can see the massive chemistry between Max and Gregers. (All the scenes in Scotland, my god!), I need someone to just squee with me about the prettiness that is Nicolai Cleve Broch and the awesome clothes he wore. And if you don't want to watch the entire movie, at least watch the scenes between 18-26 minutes into the film. What do you see?
You can watch the movie here with English subtitles. Maybe not the best subtitles in the world. But I've watched it, and it does the trick.
ETA: I found it on Youtube with English subtitles that are a little easier to read. I made a playlist here.
And that ends my massive fangirling for today. I am exhausted.