"L"m Pernille Bech Christensen, the editor." " Morten Søborg, cameraman." " L"m Susanne Bier." "L"m the director." "This was added quite late in the production process." "Before we started shooting, we discussed   whether we could find a type of images   that didn"t simply tell the story." "Isn"t that right?" "Yes." "We talked about things like split-screen." "Pernille, how did we start on this?" "We tried split-screen, but it was not a good idea." "It made you schizophrenic." "And it was inaccurate." "We wanted to decide whom you should be watching." "So we ditched that." "Then some time elapsed   during which we were busy getting the structure in place." "But we felt that there was something missing." "We took a break in the editing for other reasons." "During that period, a lot of work went into finding material." "Then we found out that we wanted material   which wasn"t concrete in scenic terms." "All those sequences with eyes and reeds and stuff." "There is a connection to the story,   but they"re not necessarily part of individual scenes." "We talked about time lapse, remember?" "We talked about flowers." "You should explain what time lapse is." "It"s when you film a single image every day for a week and play it   at normal speed." "So the pupa turns into a butterfly   in seconds." "The same with a flower." "But we couldn"t find those at first." "And now it seems like a strange choice." "Going back to the film,   perhaps we should talk about the music for a bit." "It"s really characteristic here." " It wasn"t easy." " We kind of had the same debate." "We wanted something with a tone that was a bit different." "Part of the film takes place in Afghanistan." "We wanted to incorporate that into the music." "At the same time, the film is based is Denmark,   so there also had to be this Scandinavian..." "We spent a lot of time trying to make that connection." "Ulrich and Nikolaj are in their stride now." "Maybe we should explain why we chose two actors   who don"t look like each other to play brothers   in a film called "Brothers"." "I feel that there"s something in their eyes that is similar." "And their parents, Bent Mejding and Solbjørg Højfeldt,   each resemble one of them." "That often happens in families." "One child looks like one parent, the other child resembles the other." "That"s why we did it this way." "Morten, would you like to say something about shooting in cars?" "Here it"s difficult to see where the camera is." "After some thought we altered a longer car so it looked..." "We put the front seats where the backseat was   and the backseat in the boot." "So we turned an estate into a small family saloon." "The car is being towed." "L"m where the wheel and pedals are." "We took out the front seats." " I think it worked very well." " The viewers won"t think about it." "If you know a lot about cars, you"ll see that the doors look different." "But you really get the feeling that they are driving in their Polo." "Maybe you should explain why?" "Normally, you shoot this with a camera fixed to the car outside." "Or the camera is on a crane on the car   towing the one with the actors." "But this film is shot with hand-held cameras." "We wanted to be close to the actors." "In the car with them." "We wanted to preserve this hand-held feel   and be able to pan from one to the other." "The funny thing about a film which is hand-held and and has..." "Not that it is a Dogma film, but there is a certain Dogma look." "It took a lot of technical stuff to keep the nearness of Dogma   but still be free from it." "Like in the car." "Here we"re in a house up in Farum,   which we rented and redecorated." "In a Dogma film, you find an actual house." "We could make it look exactly the way we wanted." "That gives a certain freedom." "But also a compulsion to think about   what this family looks like and how they live and so on." "Why did you choose this, rather than building it on a soundstage?" "Because of people walking in and out and stuff." "And the texture of a real house." "This house has three floors." "You can look out of the window." "The sense of reality is far better   than a studio set." "And you can let the scene go on   when they leave the room." "Another thing we kept from Dogma was..." "We shot the scenes..." "This scene starts with someone ringing the door." "We follow them all the way in until they"re seated at the table." "In a traditional shoot, it would be divided into different positions." "Like you film the brothers saying hello at the door   and their mother coming in." "It gives the acting a different flow." "The same goes for the sound." "We took care that every line   is in the same good quality, even if the actor is off-camera." "So the mike is on them all the time, so they have to keep acting." "This means that they have microphones in their hair." "You can"t cover a whole scene like this with a boom mike." "So they have mikes in their hair, which annoyed them at times." "But they are necessary if you want good sound   and if they are to go on acting   even though they are not in a close-up." "This way of shooting, doing a whole scene from start to finish,   gives you freedom..." "You don"t have to decide about a scene   until you"re sure you"re happy with it." "It"s possible to change the acting." "Whereas traditional shooting   would mean that you"d be stuck with a certain beginning." "So they have to play in a fixed direction   even though new ideas might come up." "We used this very often." "For example, with the master shot." "We nearly always changed it when the acting really buzzed." "Started with that, then try to get closer and finishing with the same." "Maybe we should explain the master shot." "In a traditional film, you start with an establishing shot   with all the people in the scene, then move in closer on individuals." "In a traditional film, you"re tied down by this establishing shot." "We often do this wide shot and then make close-ups." "Sometimes you don"t know what a person feels..." "Or rather, the director doesn"t know what the actor should feel   until the close-ups." "You can"t really see it until you see the eyes." "Once we"ve seen that, we often change the establishing shot." "And then it"s easy to do." "You can"t just change the order." "You have to be aware of all the characters" physical relations   before shooting close-ups." "When you get the feeling right,   you can keep the physical pattern, but with much stronger feelings." "But this presumes..." "If you want that freedom,   it"s nearly always..." "This scene was completely ad-lib." "Nearly all the light comes from lamps you can tolerate in the frame." "Usually, you rig up the lights and change it scene by scene." "This means you can"t go back and change the establishing shot." "Here we are in Afghanistan, which is actually Spain." "This is a closed airfield in Spain." "While we were shooting, a plane suddenly came in." " Yes." "It tried to land." " Putting us all in great danger." "So it wasn"t quite closed." "But it was interesting to have this mix of Copenhagen   and something that was totally different and deserted." " And not safe." " Copenhagen?" "We cut back and forth to pictures from Copenhagen   to create a mix of the two worlds." "Jens Peter Johansen." "Hardly knows how to wipe his own bottom." "Here we tried one of the interesting things that happen in every film." "There are always scenes that are meant to provide information   on certain people and actions." "You feel tied down by them   when writing the script, and also when editing." "But as you go along, you realize how much information you can take out." "And people still understand." "It gets you every time." "If you knew this in advance, you could axe a lot of scenes,   which would make the producer happy because he saves money." "But you can"t do that because you only find out as you go along   what information can be discarded." "Here we had much more information about his mission which we axed." "You just see that he"s arrived and stuff." "You don"t get to know much." "Here"s a helicopter that is not there." "It was computer-generated." "So I shot a non-existent helicopter." "This was shot at Værløse airbase." "Yes, in a real helicopter." "But the scenery was shot in Spain without a helicopter." "It will crash in a moment." "Talk us through the technical stuff." "This explosion is just a flash and smoke, and me shaking the camera." "This is the C.G. Helicopter crashing,   but the explosion was made by our special-effects people." " In Spain?" " Yes." "So the smoke and the fire are real." "And the computer guys shot   debris falling into the water and ripples and stones." "We spent half a day throwing stones into the water and stuff..." "Here"s a scene which was in the script." "But the editor was sure we didn"t have it." "She"s usually right, but the director was happy   to discover that it actually was that scene." "I could say something about editing..." "No, I"d better not." "Go on." "In the old days, we used to cut film which had more detail." "Now we edit on a computer." "We hadn"t spotted that " " Connie"s breasts were visible." "She had a contract dealing with nudity." "We were not allowed to show it." "But we almost didn"t see it until we viewed the final film." "Then someone shouted: "Help!" "What"s that in the bathtub?"" "So we had to hide them digitally under some water." "No one had seen it when we were editing." "This scene just now had a very long dialogue, which was cut too." "Because when two men in uniform come   and she cries, we understand what has happened." "On the other hand, you can"t do it like that in a script,   so you do write a long scene, which you shorten afterwards." "You know that when two men in uniform ring the door,   it"s bad news." "And we"ve just seen a plane crashing." "This is the scene where Nikolaj Lie Kaas had really been drinking   before playing drunk." "I don"t think it came as a shock to anyone." "Actors use different tools to reach a certain state." "It"s quite normal to want to feel a little alcohol when playing drunk." " He does a really good job." " He really was drunk." "Well, he remembered his lines." "It wasn"t that bad." " He didn"t make a single mistake." " A car will come by in a moment." "I had arranged for that, so you could see him." "He came up to me:" ""Amazing!" "The same car keeps driving by at the same time."" "I played along. "Yes, it"s crazy." "Are you serious?"" "He believed it." "I told him the next day that we had arranged it." "So he must have been a little drunk." " She looks so damn great." " Yes, it"s so annoying." " And practically without makeup." " It is without makeup." "We tried to find things where she looks ugly, but we couldn"t." " It"s so unfair." " It is, in a way." " She looks better on film." " No, she looks great in real life." "Yes, but there"s something on film that..." "She can really carry a close-up." "We have to hand her that." "Here comes the car." "The advantage of working with a hand-held camera is   that we can actually shoot in such a small house." "In the traditional way it would be nearly impossible to shoot." " Isn"t it a terraced house?" " Yes." "When you work like that, you can consistently choose   what benefits the story and the characters the most." "If you let the parents live in such a house,   you don"t have to choose what is practical for the crew." "You normally end up with solutions that are practical for the crew,   but not the best thing for the story." "Michael"s dead." "I think the smaller, the better." "The narrower and lower it is, the better." "It gives the images a three-dimensional effect." "I think this is one of Anders Thomas" most brilliant lines." "When she talks about Mozart and The Beatles instead of expressing grief." "Anders Thomas can really be human without being mawkish." "Here we discussed for a long time   when to let the audience know that he was alive." "Since it"s Ulrich Thomsen, it"s kind of obvious   that he doesn"t die that soon." "We..." "This scene went in and out of the movie a few times." "It got back in because we wanted to prolong the grief." "We wanted the audience to realize   what it meant to the relatives." "You constantly have to weigh the pros and cons   of taking the plot further, or whether to focus on the characters,   so you"re with them when you move on." "Here we made a very distinctive choice   to let them feel their emotions   before we continued with Ulrich Thomsen"s story." "Those children are so great." "They"re just..." "Maybe you should talk about how to get them to cry." "It varies." "There are different methods of getting them to cry." "You can use makeup for their eyes and so on." "But that doesn"t work if they don"t act it well." "In American films you often see fake tears rolling down a child"s cheek,   and you don"t feel anything." "But these girls really dug into their roles." "Here we made a really beautiful scene." "We had been cutting to Ulrich being found and driven to the camp   in a Godfather-like way." "So it switches back and forth." "It was very beautiful,   but it was sacrificed for the sake of the story." "And it was the right thing to do." "But it was tough." "That day, the editor and the director had a major falling-out." "It was difficult to do." "But it was a bit too much format." "It makes you puke when you hear this "kill you, darling"." "It"s so damn annoying." "But in a way it is true." "Because sometimes you have to sacrifice something you like   to take the story further or to outline the characters more." "Sometimes you have to discard something for the sake of the whole." "It would be distracting to know here that he was alive." "It would ruin the dialogue." "Because the other part kept coming in." "I can"t feel it." "Don"t you think I"d feel it if he was dead?" "This line, of course, fits nicely with the fact that we know by now   that he is alive." "Here"s one of my favourite scenes." "There has been some criticism of the parents." "Bent Mejding and Solbjørg Højfeldt." "I think they played fantastically." "People felt they were clichéd." "It is not the way they act, but the way they are written." "I think that"s unfair, too." "They"re terrific." "Seeing how little space they get,   they create an image I think is very recognizable." "I think this scene is absolutely superb." "Do you understand?" "Do you?" "And the minor parts have to be forceful." " Let"s go, for Christ"s sake." " Give me the keys." "L"ll drive." "Give me the fucking keys!" "I think he"s touching and very funny, too." " But not in this particular scene." " Yes, he is. "Move over."" ""Daddy sits here." That"s funny." "The reeds again." "This is in Spain." "We alternate between them driving home while he is found." "So we still alternate between Denmark and Spain, like we did on the bus." " Denmark and Afghanistan." " We did say it was Spain." "It was a pleasure to work with these English actors." "Yes, they were really good." "And I think they enjoyed it, because they"re used to more rigid methods." "It stimulated them that things were so flexible   and that the camera was so flexible." "And the chance to play something else than a doctor or a lawyer." "One of them said the only calls he got were   for minor parts as a doctor or a lawyer in TV-series." "If you"re an Indian or look ethnic, you"re always in a hospital   as a doctor or lawyer." "That"s what they said." "So I think they really had fun playing the bad guys." "It was a gigantic project to build this camp." "We were terrified that it wouldn"t work, that it would look bogus." "We had all sorts of military and ethnic experts   to keep us from making mistakes." "We suddenly had our permit for the first location withdrawn." "So after we"d started filming in Denmark, the set designer had to   go back to Spain to find a new location." " The house was there." " Yes, with a couple of changes." "This room didn"t exist, and there wasn"t much of a roof." "So they made some changes." "But again, we started with a location." "We didn"t build it on a sound stage." "Then we couldn"t have followed him into the room and improvised." "Everything would have been settled:" ""You look out there."" ""In two months, we will shoot what you see."" "We discussed whether those palm trees belonged in Afghanistan." "They have palm trees." "Maybe not as high, but they do." " Kurt said so." " We believe Kurt." "But it"s not that important for the story where it is." "This is another scene that..." "I love scenes like this, where she irons his shirt although he"s dead." "I don"t know why." "It just has something very simple about it that"s really beautiful." "But quite unrealistic." "Not many living men get their shirts ironed." "Well, okay..." "Here"s more parallel action." "We use that a lot." "It"s a balancing act to keep so many balls in the air." "We had quite a few screenings along the way   where opinions differed on when to go to which story." "It"s a balancing act." "You can"t make everyone happy." "In the end we decided that we had to be happy with it." "Some felt we should stay with Connie and Nikolaj longer   before going back to..." "Ulrich again." "There were many different versions." "But we ended up simplifying it." "We started by cutting back and forth many times,   but we reduced it more and more." "And we watched other films too,   such as "The Deer Hunter" and "The Godfather"." "They are our role models." "The DVD also had a commentary." "And they actually had the same issues in both films." "There had been much more cross-cutting at first." "You might say that..." "It"s interesting to have parallel progress." "Cross-cutting works really well in thrillers,   where the story is really driven by the plot in both locations." "When the story is about emotion, too much alternation..." "It"s the same in novels." "You never get pause with the characters and their emotions." "So you sort of lose interest." "That was our dilemma." "We talked about abrasive cutting between scenes." "They"re still there, only a lot fewer." "Here we are in a car at night, which entails many interesting things." "Let"s not forget our stuntman, who waited until 4 in the morning   only to be edited out." "She was supposed to hit a cyclist." "Evil, evil editor." "Many films have big scenes   which were very important during filming,   but end up being edited out." "That"s because film is an organic process,   which develops its own truth at different moments." "Lots of important things just don"t work." "Or rather, the focus shifts to something else." "I don"t think it"s that bad, the stuff we end up cutting out." "Actually, we use most of our material." "On this one we didn"t cut out nearly as much as on "Open Hearts"." "We really cut a lot on that one." "The script was too long as well." "It"s one page per minute average." "I can"t remember the number,   but we knew it was too long." "But it was difficult to say in advance:" ""Should this scene stay in ahead of this one?"" "Here the girls can flip pancakes in a big way." "They loved that." " And Nikolaj has a hangover." " A real hangover?" "No." "But he did it very well." "It"s tough to get little girls who are flipping pancakes   to stand in the same spot when they say their lines." " And making them say it." " No, they were fantastic." "Yes, they were." "When we read the scene we thought: "Oh dear."" "But it was a positive surprise when we shot it." "Granddad!" "Hi." "Come on, girls." "Granddad"s waiting." "We also put the kitchen in the place where we wanted it." " It"s not actually there at all." " We moved it to a better spot." "We put up a kitchen there." "I think it was in their TV-lounge." "We did it because their kitchen was far from the story." "This kitchen is very central, and it can be seen from above   and from the side." "I completely forgot about this." "Sometimes when the actors turn up in the morning in their own clothes, " " I get annoyed." "Because Nicolaj should be Jannik, not himself." "It"s the same with places in the film." "And with deleted scenes." "Sometimes you totally forget   that they were there at all." "Once they"re on the cutting room floor,   they disappear from memory." "Don"t be like your mother!" "What"s done is done." "It"s no good crying over spilt milk." "I just want to be left in peace!" "I don"t want to listen to any more crap!" "I think this is great, too." "And I love these double shots with both characters,   so you don"t have to cut to see the other one"s emotion." " It"s a pleasure to edit this." " It"s due to the way they act too." "Usually, people just stand there and look at each other." "It"s great to see them looking away." "I mean, you can"t look at someone all the time while talking to them." "When you have a flexible and moving camera,   you get much more natural body language." "I also think the actors feel more responsible for being present." "They can"t lean on not having to do anything for a while." "But it"s hard on them." "Those dinner scenes really wore some people out." "We shot them 12-14 times." "Let"s talk about the film"s only purely comical scene." "This scene was much longer." "I fought until the very end   to keep it long." "I knew it wasn"t possible,   but as a director, you do get fed up with watching your own stuff." "It"s really nice to have a funny scene, so you really try to keep it." " And it really is funny." " But it was very long." "You ruined my pants!" "Aren"t you a bit of a moron?" " What"s going on?" " I spilled paint on him." "Where"s the toilet?" "Again, how do you balance this comic relief with the narrative?" "You can only do it by maintaining the dramatic red thread." "Keeping the scene relevant because..." "Here she gives Michael"s clothes away,   where she still ironed them earlier because she thought he was alive." "Now she accepts that he won"t be coming back." "This means that..." "like you can accept a funny scene." "There is great pain beneath." "Here Nikolaj sees it too." "That Sarah is giving Michael"s clothes away." "It sort of confirms that Michael is gone." "Why don"t you take everything?" "After this scene we edited out quite a lot." "There was a complicated sequence where he left, then called,   then she called and he came back." "We made it simpler   by cutting to them sitting by the fireplace." "It"s coming in a moment." "So he actually never left." "Here we changed things around." "The scene after this one   was originally before this." "It was where he arrived." "It"s the same thing again." "When you read a written script you have to make sure   you and everyone else is clear on what"s going on." "Then when you actually look into someone"s eyes, it says so much." "It means you can do without a lot of lines and other information." "That"s great, because you really are inside the story." "I still get..." "It"s really funny to see   how much is possible." "What a broad framework you have." "But here was something that could not be done." "This story starts with the two brothers in the car   and Michael telling Jannik   that he has to apologize to the girl at the bank." "At some point we wanted to take that out,   but then this scene wouldn"t make sense." "It was important for the understanding of Jannik"s character." "That when his brother died, a lot of things happened to him." "This little, rebellious and destructive boy he had been   becomes irrelevant." "He wants to be constructive and caring." "But if we took out one small scene,   a lot of things about his character wouldn"t be clear." "So it"s a very fine line." "Yes, it is." "This is the arrival scene turned into a farewell scene." "There are many close-ups in this film, and I just love it." "You made some great close-ups, Morten." "This was another example of..." "You need some scenes to show the passing of time." "Again..." "There"s a sensuality about the characters, which isn"t informative   but..." "You might say that the whole process from the script   to the filming process is about sensualising the story." "This can be done in different ways." "The more..." "The more sensual it becomes, the more you can empathize." " Isn"t it also the body language?" " That"s the same thing." "You can cut out the explanatory lines." "A look, or two people avoiding eye contact, says so much." "Like when these two don"t look at each other." " A bicycle!" " It was the girls" idea." " Isn"t it lovely?" " It"s beautiful." "It"s got a little giraffe." "Here Connie used a bit of a funny accent when she said bicycle." "We wondered if we could dub that, because the girls are shouting." "But we could." "We were a bit worried about the girls,   but they did a great job." "You can"t see that it"s been dubbed." "When we"re talking about music and what have you..." "Here again..." "Traditionally you turn up the music when people kiss." "But I think we learned from Dogma." "It has a kind of nakedness   that makes it more moving than when you pile on all sorts of things." "Here we practically removed the sound." "Only the intimate sounds remain." "So you enter their space or whatever." "Here we cut a really nice scene that we can discuss later." "Shall we do that later?" "Here Nikolaj trips." "He"s just so good at that." "In this image we see the advantage of using a real house instead of a set." "This was shot while the kitchen was redecorated." "If you look carefully, you can see spatters of paint." " Luckily, people don"t." " We made it a bit dark on purpose." "We did." "I think this next scene is so cute." "This is really a romantic comedy scene." "Here we have two people insisting that there"s nothing going on between them." "While their eyes are telling a different story." "Especially Nikolaj"s." "He can"t help looking at her   even though he"s saying "Yes, that"s right."" ""Lt"s absolutely platonic." "It"s just because we miss my brother."" "I always thought you were a bastard." "Well, I always thought you were a boring, petit bourgeois dyke." "I would really like to be able to come here." "You can come any time you want." "You can have a key." "Often..." "I"m thinking of how the editing process used to be." "We cut away from a scene earlier and cut into scenes later." "The decision on where to do it..." "You have to feel that after you"ve put the whole structure together." "That"s why we have a beginning and an ending to every scene." " They come through the door..." " Even though it"s not in the script." "Yes, we always do that." "And there is exactly the number you need." "Even though you only do it in 8%% % of the film, you have to do it,   because it"s fatal when it"s not there." "It"s good for the actors as well to start a little bit earlier." "Here we have Ulrich"s fantastic blue eyes." "They"re quite shocking in real life, too." "But here in the sun..." " Are they genuine?" " Yes." "Apart from a little extra colour." "They"re absolutely fantastic when you face him." "Here we do montage again, which was great   after having edited Dogma films." "It was marvellous." "Not that I missed it." "It was just nice to do." "Another example of Susanne as an action director." " Oh, well." " You developed a taste for it." "Yes, it was fun." "We had a group of English actors to play Afghans   and some Arabs." "In the Taleban camps both groups are present,   and they speak both languages." "Pashtun and Arabic." "People asked why they don"t speak Afghanistan"s main language." "That"s because they speak both languages in the camps." "It was interesting with those actors in that they felt..." "They represented their most macabre side." "They thought it was interesting and perhaps a little bit frightening." "And we had the military with us at all times." "Special officers from..." "From the special forces." "So everything they do is accurate." "You shouldn"t fabricate too much." "It has to be credible." "We got very competent assistance in that respect." "And it was fun, wasn"t it, Morten?" "We learned a lot." "Like, this was not scripted." "But when military people show you the ropes   it becomes nicely concrete..." "In the script, it"s not explained what he does." "And in the script they spoke English." "We changed that." "It felt more alienating that they spoke a language   our characters didn"t understand." "We put in an interpreter." "It felt much more authentic." "He translated the things that were significant for the story." "Release the gyro, you hear a high-pitched tone." "You elevate." "And sometimes he doesn"t translate." "It has to work both ways." "It"s a stressful scene to shoot, taking place in the sunset." "The sun sets quickly out there, so we had to hurry." "We got it at the last moment." "Here we tried to blur time   and make intangible how many days they"ve been there." "By cutting "discontinuously"." "But, Morten, we could say that whole thing in Spain..." "We had five days for something that should take nine days to film." "So I felt we were fighting against the setting sun constantly." "That"s why there aren"t many pictures of the scenery." "What there is we did in ten minutes, on a day   when we had finished before the sun went down." "We used the same shot, graded differently." "But it was lucky that you managed it." "It works." "And it was a lovely day." "I must say that..." "The whole Spain thing was..." "We kept our fingers crossed." "And we were so relieved when we were done." "It was like jumping off the deep end   and hoping for the best." "What we had to do was so difficult, and we had so little time." "Wasn"t there something about Paw coming in at the last minute   because the original actor was ill?" " Yes." " He had an eye infection." "We were an actor short the day we were scheduled to start." "So Paw Henriksen was flown in." "Luckily, he had time..." "Quite brilliant that he could take over like that." "Sometimes I feel that things   that are the biggest gamble and most fragmented   turn out better." "When you have plenty of time,   there"s a kind of slackness." "I like that kind of adrenalin rush   when you simply can"t afford mistakes." "It"s exciting." "To live he must be of use." "He"s of no use." "Now you can"t imagine it being any other way." "It was quite revolting to do this scene, right?" " I thought it was fun to do." " I believe you." " But I felt..." " This is how it should be." "I thought it was fun to do, too, but it was revolting as well." "I can always tell by looking at my assistant, Michael." "When he starts to get queasy, it"s good." "It looks different through a camera, but he"s watching with his own eyes." "So he"s a pretty good yardstick." "I seldom feel affected when I edit, but this was unpleasant to do." "And the sound." "Every time we got to it..." "It"s funny." "When you"ve been editing footage for a period of time   and then have public screenings, it starts to leave you a little cold." "But every time I was at a public screening " " I left the room here." "I just had to pop to the toilet." "There"s something about this scene..." "It"s hardest on the cameraman." "Like here." "The place where there is the most power   automatically sucks in the camera." "So I don"t think..." "People, who film real people being shot, just do it too." "It"s something else when you see it through a camera." "At first we had a lot of effects here like two simultaneous images   and a jump in frames and all that." "We discovered that it got most intense by keeping it clean." "I was just a bit worried about Ulrich swinging that iron rod   because here it"s a real one." "And I"m quite close." "We had a real iron rod and a foam rubber one." "Some shots were done with the fake one, others with the real rod." "We had a few stunt experts to help us make it look violent   and at the same time ensure that nobody got hurt." "But we really..." " Because Ulrich really let rip." " Yes, he did." "I remember we discussed that it had to be certain that he was dead   before you left." "I was worried that you might choose a solution that left any doubt   whether he was dead or not." "I remember you said, "He has to be killed good and proper."" " I did." " And he was." "He has to, if we are to understand what Ulrich has gone through." "You can always cut it out if it goes too far." "Do you remember I said I was so glad we made interior pictures of Ulrich alone." "You got really fed up with me, because we"d shot killings   and big scenes with 50 extras,   and I was absorbed by these shots of him alone." "It"s because I feel it"s his story." "This must be the cheapest rescue operation in movie history." "Don"t knock it!" "It was very expensive." "Well, the explosion is someone shovelling dirt through the window   while we shake the camera." "I think it works quite well." "You can put it this way:" "We had very competent special-effects people." "When you have that, small means can be enough." "You can spend millions of dollars on effects..." "Two of the soldiers were runners who had been in the army." "And two of the actors were real soldiers." "They had been in the American army." "That was what worried me most:" "How to create a war in Afghanistan   with such limited resources." "We can"t compete with the big, American set-up." " Nor do we want to." " No." "Captain David Ward, British Army." "Here we removed the sound, too." "Where the soldiers free him." "But there is music." "I want to speak to my wife." "This was shot in the studio, but in a tent." "It was the only time I was allowed on set." "The editor must retain objectivity towards the material." "There are certain traditional things." "We may speak deprecatingly about traditional methods of filming." "But we do stick to some traditions." "One of them is   that we don"t mix the processes." "If you keep the editing and the shooting separate,   so we don"t know too much about each other,   you keep an element of objectivity." "Our method of shooting, albeit different,   is still the traditional Hollywood way with master shots, pans,   close-ups and ultra close." "It"s really good for telling a story." "But we have made it more flexible." "It creates so many possibilities when you"re editing." "You know you have the images you need to tell the story." "Without cross-cutting you would be tied down in a different way   by the sequence of shooting." " The girl was really sleeping here." " Snoring, in fact." "You can"t hear it because of the music." "It was fantastic." "Here"s a traditional shot of someone walking in through a curtain." "It doesn"t work as well as when you follow him all the way in." " But it"s fine just for once." " Of course." "But if it was like this all the time, it would get boring." "Here we put in a plot twist which wasn"t in the script,   i.e. That his family doesn"t know he"s alive yet." "He learns that they think he"s dead." "The plot was different in the script here." "There was another..." "To put as much distance between the storylines as possible." "Again, there"s a telephone ringing,   they are playing, so the family have found a life together." "Then the phone rings, and we don"t need to know the message." "We know that he has been found." "This, too, would be incredibly difficult to shoot   if it hadn"t been a real house." "That"s right." "It would have looked totally different." "And changes wouldn"t be possible." "If you feel that it must possess a large extent of truth,   the circumstances of filming should reflect truth." "I thought this was fun." "Planes and soldiers and stuff." "You don"t normally get the chance to play with those." "Here are some of the very few surviving extras." "They tend to disappear." "Susanne once was an extra in her film, but she gave it up." " We always edited her out." " I do appear in some films." "It became a nuisance having to change into costume." "There was much debate here on   whether his homecoming should be "bigger"." "But I feel that part of the drama is that there"s a down-to-earth..." "I can"t imagine how it should be bigger." "We could have reporters and a red carpet and the prime minister." "But I like it that it"s small because that"s where the drama is." "And it would be irrelevant to the story." "And I think he would ask for something small." "We create a psychological frame for the characters." "He would..." " As a character, he would..." " Yes." " It was shot on the airbase..." " Yes." "It was all done the way it would have been if it were real." " Who made that?" " Jannik." "It"s three little pigs." "There"s a continuity error in a moment." "I wonder if anyone notices." "Normally, I don"t care much." "But here:" "Oops, no scarf." "Frankly, I never noticed when I edited it." "It wasn"t until..." "Somehow it nagged me, and then I saw." "I didn"t." "And now we keep seeing it." "Hey, she"s wearing it again." "Many continuity errors are the script girl"s fault, like here." "But often it"s me because I switch the order of the scenes." "Then people say there was a mistake." "It"s unfair to the script girl." "Nine times out of ten it isn"t her." "Or they write it in the report, but then it gets used all the same." "As a rule, they"re really good at this." "Ours is really good." "I think this is a really beautiful scene." "Sometimes one scene is the reason for making the whole film." "I think this particular scene was the reason I made the film." "Here"s this man who has returned from the dead." "It"s all unreal." "Has Daddy died again?" " You can"t die more than once." " Yes, you can." "No way." "A lot of these close-ups were also used in our montage." "Yes." "We discussed this a lot because it"s like the start of a new film." "Now we"ve had two parallel stories developing." "This is a new film." "Now we have to tell one story." "How he functions with his family." "Again, it"s the little things." "He re-orders the cupboard." "It must rile him that someone else has built that kitchen." " Hello, Michael." " Have you got a minute?" "Of course." "We"ll go to my office." " Well, are you all right?" " Yes." "Many people asked here why he is not seeing an psychologist." "There are several sides to it." "First of all,   there are no visible signs that he"s sick." "You can"t force him into treatment when he claims he is fine." "And although the army offers people returning from foreign missions   a session with a psychologist, I think   if you don"t want to reveal your inner dilemma   and you have his rank, then you don"t." "He wouldn"t talk if we sent him to a psychologist." "His pressure is too big for him to be able to sit and talk about it." "He is not just a man." "He"s also an officer." "But this is as close as he comes to talking about it." "And his superior..." "Mainly to protect him, he stops him." "And I believe it is debatable." "It"s not always best to talk about everything." "If you"ve been through an ordeal like he has, you have to." "But it"s not straightforward." "I think this scene shows   the humanity in his superior." "You know, like: "Think twice."" "They don"t know what he has been through." "Here"s some added footage of a more comical type." "Nikolaj is allowed to run amok." "Wasn"t Ulrich terrific at skating, according to himself?" "And Nikolaj was much better than we see here." "And Connie said she couldn"t skate at all." "But she turned out be very good, as she is at everything else." "Annoying!" "It was a difficult scene to shoot." "There were all sorts of suggestions." ""Let"s do it inside."" "But I wanted to be physical for once, and out in the open air,   where you sense that you can have fun even though life is hard." " It was in Tivoli at one point." " The ice rink, yes." "But we shot before Christmas, so it was full of ornaments." "It would be wrong when this is supposed to be after Christmas." "Or, we don"t want to pinpoint exactly when it is,   so we don"t want to show too many indications." "Like how long he has been away..." "You used to be pissed off because I hated her." "Now I"m trying to work out why you think she"s so great..." "We changed the order so many times I"ve forgotten what the idea was." "Maybe that"s for the best, Pernille." "Well, it"s out now." "Let"s go." "Here Nikolaj is really clowning." "Tobias is stupid." "But Arne never hits anyone." "The children are fantastic, aren"t they?" "He"s got a dog with big, floppy ears." "It"s really cute." " I can"t remember what it is." " An elephant." "An elephant is not a dog." " It was just a joke." " Well, it"s not funny." " Talking stupid nonsense like that." " Michael, calm down." "It"s okay." "Don"t be frightened." "And don"t be upset." "Here is another scene for which we had this stunt thing." "Ulrich grabs Connie by the throat." "How do you make this look intense?" "But without anyone getting hurt." "It"s easy to get hurt in these scenes." "When actors really identify themselves,   there"s a certain boundlessness." "You have to increase that   until they dare to give in, but without feeling unsafe." "When he moves his hand, you can see the imprint on her neck." "Yes." "In a way I think Connie became frightened for a short moment." "Because it was really rough." "Let go of me!" "Let go of me!" "He"s a professional soldier, so he knows what he"s doing." "So it had to look realistic without becoming dangerous." "Have you lost your mind?" "You"re all crazy!" "We couldn"t have done it like this if it hadn"t been a real house." "Here"s another one we expected you to edit out." "But it didn"t happen, and we"re grateful for that." "This was one of the scene endings we kept." "The girl doesn"t belong there, but we wanted her to be active too." "That she"d heard what happened." "So we took her from another scene." "Here we are at the airbase again." "People had trouble recognizing it at some screenings." "Again... again..." "This is another narrative aspect." "How concrete should we be?" "He"s looking at pictures of young soldiers." "Should he be looking at the guy he killed?" "I think it"s enough to let him look at those pictures of soldiers   to show that he"s really in a bad state." "And we have the reeds again, which are a symbol for Afghanistan." "Here the children..." "This dead father coming home." "He"s scary and strange." "Don"t be afraid of me." "Your hair looks nice." "Did Mummy do that for you?" "Sometimes, even as a director, you can get moved." "I have to admit that this scene moves me very much." "It"s really gripping with these children." "They"re out playing, they"re not obviously traumatized." "But they"re so fragile because they face this violent upheaval." "Don"t be upset." "You mustn"t cry." "I want you to be happy." "We should be happy together." "Promise me that you"re both happy." "Do you know this one?" "What"s white when you throw it and yellow when it falls down?" " Eggs." " Have I told this one before?" " At least 100 times." " Not that often." "The joke and the children"s reaction are ad-lib." "It"s really quick-witted of her to say at least 100 times." "They were good at improvising." "Often, children are not." "I loved them." "Of course, we could have left out the ending of the children"s bit." "But you"ve seen their sorrow, so you should see that they play on." "But you"ve seen their sorrow, so you should see that they play on." "Michael, we have to talk about this." "Won"t you tell me what happened?" " Nothing happened." " Come on!" "Can"t you tell me a little bit?" " Try to tell me." " There"s nothing to tell." "I was in a dark room, thinking." "Thinking of you." "And I thought about the time we split up." " This is improvised too, isn"t it?" " No." "We chose the scene that was in the script." "We did some other ad-libs." "Often, ad-libs don"t make it to the film." "A few do, most don"t." "Here again, there might be some lack of precision." "This is part of some extra scenes you shot without knowing..." "We often shoot stuff that"s not in the script." "Things we"re not sure how to use,   but they are right for the characters." "We"ve always done scenes like that." "And we"ve used them in practically all our films." "Come in." " Ditte." " Michael." "One of the strangest scenes in the film." "We had to find the balance of when he had to lie." "Remember?" "How long he can keep believing that his mission can succeed." "We had to edit out a lot, because it became clear too soon   that he would fail." "Thank you." "And here"s the sweetest baby in the world." "I..." "I saw Niels-Peter." "He was down there." "It doesn"t actually matter what they say here." "The main thing is that he sees the baby." "That affects me the most." "He gets pushed one step further because he..." "Because he sees the baby, so he suddenly realises what he has done." "When he..." "He was transferred to another camp." "But he was alive and he was fine." "That"s that." "Would you like some cake?" "We spent a lot of time together." "He told me about Gustav." "And you, of course." "It was a very well behaved baby." "It was funny to see the footage." "To hear you rattling with things." "There"s a close-up of the baby assisted by the director." "Wasn"t this another one of those extra scenes?" "Lt"s something that was done during shooting." "Ulrich said he needed to do something normal, and he does." "He has some cornflakes." "It"s funny, because it"s totally normal,   but at the same time it"s really sick." "He really seems to be over the edge." "This is a funny scene too." "Again, we intensified it and..." "It was originally supposed to be low-key   and not particularly funny." "But after shooting it a few times " " I got the idea that of course they had to be really tipsy." "It will make it much more embarrassing." "And again, it"s easier to do with a hand-held camera." "And again, this fine line Anders Thomas Jensen gets spot on   between humour and gravity." "In my book, it adds something to the intensity of the story." "And we"re not really trying a lot of things." "It"s almost like a rehearsal with the camera rolling." "We agreed where people have to walk and where they should stand." "And we just make changes as we go along." "And I get all the footage." "Of course, there is a preliminary sorting." "But everything is available." "That was really funny." "You didn"t get that one." "You"re really good at these family scenes." "They"re terrific fun to do." "There"s just so much energy." "And Henning is really entertaining after 1 ½ bottle of red wine." "There is just so much happening on different levels." "It was a living hell to get people to look at each other." "The axis and all that." "It wasn"t easy here." "Normally, it doesn"t concern us much, but here it was vital   that they looked at each other correctly." "This is stupid." "She"s just upset." "How long were you in India?" " Four months." " Did you ride an elephant?" "It was invented to have a shot to cut to." "But sometimes they"re on the wrong side of the axis." "Who do you think you are?" "I just remembered I have another engagement..." "Basically, there have to be three on each side." "Then you have to shoot on both sides to make it consistent,   if you want to get close to the direction of the eyes." "That may be a bit technical." "What this is all about is that it"s Camilla"s birthday." " Yes, it is!" " So now we"re going to have cake." "Mum!" " Mum!" " Shut up!" " Why aren"t you sleeping?" " I can"t sleep." "This was the worst birthday of my life." "We"ll have a new one." "That"s a promise." "What about you, sweetie?" "L"m sorry I said it." " Why did you say it?" " Dad is so stupid." " I want Jannik to be my Daddy." " Me too." "Dad will come round." "When you start to demolish a kitchen,   there are quite a few things you have to decide in advance." "What you can smash and what you cannot smash." "As a matter of fact, there was a misunderstanding." "We hadn"t asked whether we could smash the window, which we did." "But..." "It was really violent, the whole smashing up scene." " A lot more got broken than planned." " This thing with the cupboard." "Nobody had expected that." "I think I stopped a take, because I was surprised by it." "This was the take you stopped." "When the cameraman got fed up with the director because it was so good." "I was slightly confused because it was something else." "But of course all this is carefully choreographed,   so he throws her about and hits her without hurting her." "Connie is awfully good at this." "American actors learn it to a tee." "And the girls were really afraid." "What window did you smash?" "It wasn"t so much the window as the frame we worried about." "But it"s not in the film." "It is." "You can see it"s been broken the next day." "L"ll kill you all!" "Again, we"ve got a man who could kill them all with his bare hands." "So it has to be scary." "But at the same time he"s still a decent man." "So he"s in a big conflict." "He"s violent and desperate." "But he would rather die himself." "This reflects everything that happens in that scene." "He goes crazy, but it"s really himself he wants to..." "If he could get the kitchen to attack him he would." " What the fuck are you doing?" " Let"s all talk about it." " Sarah, get in the car." " Go to your rooms!" "Nikolaj did get hurt in this fight." " Not here, later on." " That"s right." "Their fight was really violent." "Wasn"t it here?" " No, it"s at the end." " It"s where Ulrich punches him." " It doesn"t happen on the table." " L"m sure it"s coming now." "I could be wrong." "We stopped and contacted a doctor." "Nikolaj got a huge black eye." "It"s around here." "It"s coming..." " It"s over now." " No, isn"t it this?" "No, no." "He did that himself." "It"s where Ulrich punches him while he"s down." "You strike past him..." "No, we"ve past it." "He doesn"t hit him anymore." "He accidentally glanced him with his knuckle or something." "As you can see, he"s really bleeding." "We kept filming." "He was really tough, but he was actually hurt." "We were worried about whether we could go on shooting with his eye." "This was before a weekend, so it wasn"t..." "I always thought it was somewhere else." "He"s good here." "Come on!" "Michael, drop the gun." "Here he hopes that one of the cops will pull his gun and shoot him." "This scene was scripted in a certain way,   but then we had real policemen who told us what they would do." "We used a lot of it." "We got real cops to tell us that they"d do this or that." "And then change it very drastically in scenic and dramatic terms   because of certain bits of information." "You change the story a little bit." "It doesn"t change the fact that he wants to be put out of his misery." "It"s more things like what the cops would do and how they stand." " They have to lie down and stuff..." " I would have liked some more lines." " If I"m allowed to be critical." " You"re not." "It"s just a feeling that I have." "There was actually a lengthy explanation of..." " Where"s the music?" " It"s just very low." "It"s very atmospheric." "All this about when people go to prison..." "We had done research and found out you"re not jailed right away." "They take him away, he"s dangerous and all that..." "But it was difficult to keep tabs on how it was." "We also discussed whether he would go to prison or not." "You do if you take a policeman"s gun and threaten someone with it." "No matter if you"re an army officer or not." "He"s not planning to break down in prison and tell them   what he has been through." "So he does go to prison." "Not for very long, though." "But I think he wants to go to prison too." "He feels he"s dangerous." "Funny with the chair that can"t stand up." "We considered the options many times here." "We actually shot him going to the bathroom and seeing her." "We also filmed that they kiss, and then he leaves." "But in a way, it all becomes so muddled." "We chose to let him walk to the door and then leave." "That way you show what you have to show:" "That there is a longing." "But you also show that Michael stands between them." "That was much more important than the rest." "And Nikolaj"s choice becomes clearer." "Not that it"s not the same but..." "We discussed why Sara, Connie"s character..." "Why doesn"t she just put Michael out of her mind?" "But you can"t." "This monologue about love doesn"t just apply to him, but to her, too." "We don"t decide who ends up sharing a bathroom with whom." "We do take a stand on there being a kind of love that goes beyond practicality." "It"s also about caring." "It"s not about right or wrong, good or evil." "Here we"re back where we started." "Yes and no." "It"s not the same shot." "Only the words are the same." " But the film could end here." " We didn"t think so." "It"s just..." "In terms of form, yes." "But in terms of content, no." "You can"t just end in disintegration." "You have to find out what happens to all those emotions   and where does it go from here." "So I feel that the final scene gives the film meaning." "Visitor for 00412." "Again, it was nice to be in a real prison." "It was great to be there but..." "Do you want to go for a walk or would you rather sit down?" "It wasn"t completely without problems to shoot in a prison." "No." "There are things you cannot do." "People who shouldn"t be in the frame." "And telling people to be quiet is not something you like to do there." "But of course it adds something..." "It gives a feeling of gloom to the actors and the crew." "And we were so happy that it was sunny." "I had been hoping for sunshine for this scene." "The weather forecast wasn"t too promising,   but we were lucky with the weather for a couple of hours." "And there"s this thing that it is in a prison,   but you get a beautiful ending as well   rather than shooting in a..." " What time of day is this?" " Late afternoon." "This bench..." "After each take, two men would run up and move it   because the sun was setting so fast." "This was another scene we just managed to shoot   while the sun was still shining." "We wanted to extend this, but there wasn"t any more..." "The moment before..." "It was a kind of scene where you thank divine providence   that everything worked out." "We had very little time there." "L"ve shot films in November and December." "Short days and a good chance of rain." "So that was great." "We discussed the ending a lot." "I actually feel that   this ending gives the film meaning in a way." "I know my editor disagrees,   but the fact that she asks him to tell her what happened..." "It"s a not a question of that redeeming everything,   but it means that he"s not so alone anymore." "She takes part of his loneliness off him by sharing it with him." "And she takes a part of the responsibility." "I know you disagree." "You"re wrong." "That"s not what I disagree with you about." "In any case, that"s why I think people should watch the film   in Denmark today." "I agree." "We discussed whether he should say something at the end or not."