Cinema
Ballad of Carl-Henning
Balladen om Carl-Henning
Sven and Lene Grønlykke · 1969
Synopsis
In a village in southern Jutland, Carl-Henning, eighteen, an apprentice at the dairy, is cheerful, naive and defenceless, and is everyone's laughing stock. The dairy manager ill-treats him, and his father does not understand him. When he is not working, he tinkers with an old car and dreams of a girl from the folk high school. His only support is Poul, the mechanic, who leaves to try his luck in Aalborg. Left alone, Carl-Henning lets himself be drawn, one evening when he has drunk too much, into taking money from the dairy's till.
Context
Written and directed by the couple, who then owned the studios where it was produced, the film is their second, after a children's film of 1967, and draws on the French New Wave. Shot in black and white in the far south of Jutland, with images by Jesper Høm and music by Patrick Gowers, it was released in Denmark on 7 April 1969, with Jesper Klein in the title role and Paul Hüttel as the friend.
Who it is for
About an hour and a half, in Danish. A village chronicle that mixes comedy and drama.
Prizes and reception
Bodil for best Danish film and for best actor for Jesper Klein in 1969; presented at Berlin the same year, then submitted by Denmark for the Oscar for best foreign film.
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