Winner of the Cannes “best-debut” prize, director Cristoffer Boe’s Reconstruction is a twisty and entertaining urban love story that plays with form and style in ways that will surprise you and keep audiences talking for a long time. –Palm Pictures
Christoffer Boe (born 1974) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is an established and well-known not only in Denmark, but all through the world. Among his international awards there are FIPRESCI Director of the Year at San Sebastián International Film Festival and Golden Camera at Cannes Film Festival in 2003. He is also co-founder and director of the film production company AlphaVille Pictures Copenhagen.
Boe was born in Rungsted just north of Copenhagen, Denmark. After school in Denmark, he went to study the history of cinematography in Indiana University in Bloomington, USA. Then, he continued his studies in Copenhagen University. In 1997 he decided to go deep into movie making and was accepted at the National Film School of Denmark director’s course.
During that time he directed a trilogy of short films: “Obsession” (1999), “Virginity” (2000) and “Anxiety” (2001). They were 20 to 30 minutes long and starred Maria Bonnevie and Nikolaj Lie Kaas. They’re all… read more
Unsure what to extract. On one hand, Boe’s presented meta-film - a construction - proffers an enigma of endless outcomes in its overlaying paths, characters and romance (recalling Hong’s Virgins Stripped Bare). On the other, its emotions dance with heartstring banalities, amidst Boe’s glorified, versatile but patchwork formal arsenal, until reigning opacity, on the part of its surrealist final (re)construction, prevails. Resultant non-effect of its broader lessons; or, perhaps Boe’s constructs have merely flown this coop. Allegro awaits.
A mournful love story that continually deconstructs its own narrative in an attempt to find the truth behind the clichés, reminding us - via its third-person narration, or through a series of jarring ruptures that recall the Godard of Le Mépris (1963) - that all cinematic emotion is artificial, but no less affecting. These characters, created to express someone else's sadness, become conscious that they are at the mercy of others; that their loves and failures are there for a viewing audience, capable of receiving love, but incapable of expressing love in return.
Generally when I watch a new film, I like to know what it’s vaguely about to prepare myself for what I’m about to watch. I needed to know what Blue Valentine was about, I needed… read review