DRUNK by Thomas Vinterberg © Henrik Ohsten
Another Round: the drinks are on Vinterberg!
Thomas Vinterberg is back in the Official Selection following on from 1998, when he won the Jury Prize for Festen, and 2012, when Mads Mikkelsen's performance in The Hunt won him the Award for Best Actor. With Druk (Drunk), the Danish director returns to his preferred busy atmospheres, serving up a provocative and bittersweet inebriation that scooped three awards for Best Foreign Film this year, at the César Awards, the Academy Awards, and the BAFTA Film Awards. Druk (Another Round) will be back in French cinemas from 19 May. To be enjoyed without moderation!
How might a fifty-something take hope in sunny days to come, when life seems destined to unfurl in humdrum mediocrity set against a fear of impending death? Drawing on the theory put forward by a Norwegian psychologist, who claims people are born with an alcohol deficit of 0.5g/ml, four friends set themselves a challenge: to counteract this deficiency with daily scientific rigour…
The poster and name say it all: Druk (Drunk) is a knees-up, a politically incorrect film brimming with side effects that range from hilarious and liberating to desperate. While the film is indeed an ode to drunkeness in all its euphoric, inspiring and emancipating headiness, it is also a clear-eyed portrait of the devastating consequences of alcohol. A serious issue handled with a faux light touch that sends the characters reeling from the comedic to the dramatic as each life chapter unfolds, the camera unflichingly capturing the realities of their experiment. A movie that will make you laugh, cry and reflect on the hypocrisy of an increasingly puritanical society with incredibly high levels of alcohol consumption…
Well served by a stellar cast that has already been applauded by the press, Druk (Drunk) walked away with the Award for Best Actor jointly awarded to Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang and Lars Ranthe at the festival in San Sebastian. With no fewer than 37 international prizes and awards under its belt, this is one of the Cannes 2020 Official Selection’s most acclaimed films.
