Telluride. Flame & Citron.

JJ of As Little as Possible, who introduced the screening: "Intricately epic 2.5-hour espionage flick, dirge-like, monotonous, incessant, featuring assassinations every scene by the title characters, two Danish operatives working against the Nazi occupation in Copenhagen.... Flame & Citron just got US distribution on Thursday at the festival, so you'll be seeing it sometime next year I bet."

At Cinematical, Eugene Novikov finds it "one of the most exciting films I've ever seen at Telluride: bold, brave and one of a kind."

Updated.

"Flame & Citron, directed by former Dogme 95 auteur Ole Christian Madsen, walks a thin line between ass-kicking assassin movie and dense WWII period drama," writes Kevin Buist at the SpoutBlog. "The film recounts the true story of Bent [Thure Lindhardt] and Jørgen [Mads Mikkelsen], code names Flame and Citron, as they cruise around occupied Copenhagen offing Danish Nazis and German officers. In addition to action flick and period drama, the film also features a healthy dose of noir."

Reviews in German.

Next stop: Toronto.

Update: Todd Brown at Twitch: "Flame and Citron is by far Madsen's biggest film to date - it's one of the most intricate and expensive productions in the history of Danish film - but throughout all of the intrigue and violence, throughout the chases, executions and espionage, Madsen never loses sight of what he does best, which is to tell real stories about real people. He never allows spectacle to overwhelm story and as a result Flame and Citron is one of the most effective and effective war pictures of recent days."

Posted by dwhudson at September 3, 2008 8:59 AM