Thomas Vinterberg’s “Drunk” ends with a heady dance scene by Mads Mikkelsen. A sequence that was not easy to shoot for the actor with a past as a dancer.
Drunk, the alcoholic experience
Director of Feast (1998) which revealed it, or even The hunt (2012) which confirmed all the good that we thought of him, Thomas Vinterberg obtained his greatest rewards with Drunk (2020). Despite a release in the midst of the Covid pandemic, it had great success around the world, winning the César, the Oscar and the BAFTA for best foreign film in 2021. The film also allows the filmmaker to collaborate once again with the excellent Mads Mikkelsenwhich he directs alongside Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang and Lars Ranthe.
Together, they play four longtime friends. Cultivated men who are going to put a theory into practice. That of the Norwegian psychologist Finn Skårderud who assumes that the man would be born with a deficit of alcohol in the blood of 0.5g/L. The four friends will therefore try the experience of being constantly slightly drunk. As a result, the disinhibition offered by alcohol should make them happier.
At first there is something extremely joyful that emanates from Drunk and truly intoxicating. However, Thomas Vinterberg does not not the apology of alcohol since things quickly get out of control and different dramas occur. Thus, as explains the director“if the film is a form of celebration of drunkenness, it is obviously also a lucid portrait of its devastating effects“.
A painful and liberating moment for Mads Mikkelsen
Drunk nevertheless wants to be quite optimistic as evidenced by his final scene. Because after having lived through a tragedy, the group of friends manages to get up and celebrate life again alongside young graduates. Alcohol flows freely, and Thomas Vinterberg presents a cultural reality that can be problematic but without judging his characters.
Drunk is thought of as a tribute to life. Like a reconquest of irrational wisdom freed from all anxious logic, which seeks the very desire to live… With sometimes tragic consequences.
If this sequence marks the spirits, it is also and largely thanks to Mads Mikkelsen who launches into a fascinating dance on the piece What a Life by Scarlet Pleasure. A scene that was not so easy to shoot for the actor.
During an interview with VarietyMads Mikkelsen returned to this passage, explaining that it had been for him a “strange challenge“ given that his past as a dancer went back thirty years – he made ten years of ballet before becoming an actor. Moreover, Thomas Vinterberg had a specific idea in mind. He wanted to show a man who wanted to soar and fall at the same time.
I was afraid it would be pretentious in such a realistic film. But eventually, I realized that Thomas was right. (…) It’s not so much about the aesthetics of the dance as about the inner journey of this character. He lost something dear to him and also gained something important, all within an hour. So we wanted that to be reflected in the dance. I hadn’t danced in 30 years and it was difficult and painful, but also liberating.
How to play drunk?
This liberation described by Mikkelsen is felt perfectly on the screen. From a point of view ofacting acting, Drunk featuring slightly drunken characters, one could wonder whether alcohol was actually used for filming. Mads Mikkelsen confirmed that this was not the case and that it would have been, on the contrary, counterproductive. He and his colleagues simply used their own experiences with alcohol.
For this to pass on the screen, the actor sought to slow down your movementsto make them “a little more precise” while letting through “something wrong“, he told Canal +. On the other hand, for the passages where he had to be totally drunk, he both inspired by Charlie Chaplin and Russian Youtube videos.
