Cinema
Take What You Want
Ta', hvad du vil ha'
Ole Palsbo · 1947
Synopsis
The Bergholtz family awaits the inheritance of the consul's old widow. Kurt, a car salesman and unscrupulous womaniser, fully intends to snatch it: he manipulates his relatives one by one and discovers, through a former classmate, the secret of his uncle, a secondary-school teacher too drawn to his pupils, which he uses to blackmail him. Around him, a couple of alcoholics, an editor and his wife, sink into poverty.
Context
The film adapts a novel by the Swede Mårten Edlund, from a screenplay by Edlund and Fleming Lynge, and was released by Nordisk at the Palads in 1947. Ebbe Rode begins here a series of dark roles as a calculating outsider. The film shows, in a way rare for the time, a character whose attraction to boys is clearly signified; the scene in which the family's alcoholic couple turn on the gas has remained famous.
Who it is for
One hour forty, in Danish, forbidden at the time to those under sixteen. A harsh drama, with no truly sympathetic character.
Prizes and reception
Bodil Award for best supporting actor for Ib Schønberg and for best supporting actress for Ellen Gottschalch in 1948; the film that made its director the leading filmmaker of those years.
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