The Danish director Thomas Vinterberg shows the many faces of alcohol in his film “Der Rausch”. A conversation about the allure of the uncontrollable.
At “Søløb”, the “lake run”, teams of two sprint across the riverside path, dragging a case of beer between them. All-girls teams can also consist of three members. There are 20 benches to rest on the two-kilometer stretch around Lake Gentoft. Participants have to throw down a bottle of beer at each bench. Teams that vomit synchronously on the route receive special points. Whoever runs and drinks the fastest receives the bottle deposit as a winner’s bonus. The competition starts in the afternoon at 3:45 p.m. – because the competitors do not want to miss a school lesson beforehand.
Thomas Vinterberg’s new film “Der Rausch” begins with scenes from this drinking game, a tradition at Aurehøj-Gymnasium attended by young people from the middle-class north of Copenhagen. For so many years it always took place in May at school, and Vinterberg’s daughter Nanna also took part. She and her sister Ida went to high school, where the director shot his film.
The film “Der Rausch” is the most important cultural event in Denmark
In Denmark, “Druk” (“drinking”), as the film is called in the original, was the most important cultural event in the Corona year 2020. 803,000 people went to the cinemas in autumn within a few weeks until they were closed again due to the pandemic – an enormous number with just 5.8 million inhabitants. Superficially, it’s about the midlife crises of a high school teacher, played by Mads Mikkelsen, and three of his colleagues. But above all, it’s about the alcohol culture in Denmark. It determines society like hardly any other country: Those who don’t drink have to justify themselves. It is considered strange at gatherings not to have alcohol in the glass. Teenagers in Denmark start drinking earlier than in other countries and they drink a lot. According to a study by the WHO, 42 percent of 15-year-olds have already experienced at least two noises: this is a record in Europe.
Four teachers hear about the theory of a Norwegian psychiatrist who writes that people were born too little with 0.5 per thousand alcohol: That is the starting point of the film. In a joint experiment, they level themselves accordingly every morning, then increase the dose. Burned-out men are turned into rousing fathers, teachers, and husbands again.
Oscar-winning film “Der Rausch”: The special thing is that the idea becomes more than slapstick
The special thing is that this idea becomes more than just slapstick. The film shows the experiment in simultaneously trivial, tragic and funny scenes, the proximity of which hardly anyone can evade. “Six percent of all deaths in Denmark are due to alcohol and it has extensive social, human and health consequences,” writes Aleksander Krag, professor and senior physician for gastrointestinal and liver diseases at Odense University Hospital, in the editorial of a Danish medical newspaper. who dedicated an issue to alcohol. But he too judges: “The film is provocative, frightening and at the same time fantastic.”
“Der Rausch” has won around three dozen festival prizes to date, in addition to the Oscar for “best international feature film”. In his acceptance speech, Vinterberg dedicated the film to his daughter Ida. She was supposed to play the daughter of Mads Mikkelsen’s character. Four days after filming began in early May 2019, the 19-year-old was killed in a car accident.
Thomas Vinterberg, at the beginning of the film you show a text panel: “What is youth? A dream. What is love? The content of the dream ”. A quote from the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Why?
I only know Kierkegaard superficially. But my clever wife is a pastor, she wrote her master’s thesis on Kierkegaard. And since the film is basically also a kind of tourist film, a promotional film for Danish culture – for example with young people singing old patriotic songs – I found it plausible that there should be room for Kierkegaard as well.
Thomas Vinterberg: “Genius includes allowing himself to be outside the control of others”
Then let’s go back to quotes from Kierkegaard in this interview: “Genius is like thunderstorm: it walks against the wind, frightens people and purifies the air.” Is that true?
Genius involves allowing himself to be beyond the control of others. To forget yourself, to lose yourself in the moment. Seen in this way, the quote fits the film and drinking. Because you can say that alcohol promotes this self-forgetfulness.
Yes, but: “It is so easy to step into the dance of lust; but later, when it is pleasure that dances with people against their will: that is a difficult dance! “
This is what the film tries to examine: how much should you drink? When should you drink? How to drink When you open a bottle, you make a kind of pact with yourself and the environment: you enter a room where you can lose control. You open a door to something that is a little dangerous. This is where love is found. Or at least sex. In fact, it is not even necessary that there is alcohol in the bottle. There have been studies where people were given a placebo drink and still felt intoxicated. It is important to understand the agreement: Now we can overcome our shyness. With alcohol, people build self-confidence, here they have the courage to woo others, to ask about the first kiss. When I talk about the film, I like to ask one question: “Were you sober when you first kissed your loved one, your loved one?”
Director Vinterberg: “We live in a very controlled society”
What’s the answer?
Almost no one was sober.
“To dare means to lose your grip for a moment. Not to dare means to lose yourself ”?
With this quote, it is not certain whether Kierkegaard actually said it that way. But yes: my clever wife tells me that the film is about the uncontrollable. I ask her: “What is the uncontrollable?” But there is great wealth where we lose control. ”In English, to be in love means falling in love. There is no control in falling. Or if you have an idea: You can’t control ideas.
Does your wife explain your film to you?
To person
Thomas Vinterberg, born in 1969, is one of the most important Danish directors: together with fellow directors Lars von Trier, Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, he signed the “Dogma 95” manifesto – a movement that primarily opposes the alienation of reality in cinema directs. They set up ten rules for this, such as not using artificial lighting.
His most important films include “Das Fest”, “It’s All About Love” and “Kursk”. His film “Der Rausch” won the Oscar in the category of best international film in 2021, and Vinterberg was nominated for best director. It can be seen in German cinemas from July 22nd.
That I made the film doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m sure what it means. My job is to describe feelings and examine situations. But we filmmakers shouldn’t take the analytical point of view, otherwise we run the risk of censoring ourselves and thereby destroying what we are doing. Sure, we need a dramaturgical overview. But it has to be curiosity alone that drives us.
Thomas Vinterberg: “Drinking can often be a solution. But it cannot be the only solution “
“The big thing is not to be this or that, but to be yourself. And anyone can do that if they want to. ”But especially among Danish young people, fear and depression are on the rise. 15 percent of young people will be diagnosed with a mental illness before their 18th birthday. Do you understand why?
At school, on social media: the amount and speed of how often young people are measured and weighed has accelerated a lot. That creates a lot of pressure.
In one scene in your film, a teacher gives vodka to a nervous student while taking an exam. And now the tongue loosens, the pupil speaks without hesitation about what Kierkegaard said about fear. But don’t get stuck with the audience: Is alcohol your helper against exam anxiety?
It’s too cheap. Yes, drinking can often be a solution. But it can’t be the only solution. Striving for an inspiring life is the key! Forgetting yourself – forgetting to judge and evaluate yourself – that is what matters.
According to a study, nine out of ten young people say they were pushed to drink by friends when they had already said no. Is your film part of the solution or part of the problem?
I hope my film is part of an investigation into the problem. A lot of high school teachers asked me the same question at an event the other day. And they asked: What should we do? I believe the film categorically avoids answering and only asks questions.
“People come from the cinema – and want a drink. Is that supposed to be the message? “
A friend of mine has a partner who is an alcoholic. After going to the cinema, she said: “I’m really mad at Vinterberg. People come from the cinema – and want to have a drink. Is that supposed to be the message? “
Who am I to have a message? I insist: I am about to do an investigation with the film. And you as the viewer decide for yourself what the message is. In the final scene, Mads Mikkelsen can be seen jumping into the Copenhagen harbor basin. I know there are anonymous alcoholics in the room who think he’s falling into the water. And I know there are 19-year-olds sitting there with a bag full of beer that they want to drink in town afterwards. They think Mads is flying. And they think we want to fly with him. But if my film is a campaign, it’s not for drinking, but for the uncontrollable. We live a life that is extremely sensible and concrete. Maybe especially in Denmark, which is considered the happiest and safest country in the world.
“Life is lived forwards and understood backwards.” This Kierkegaard word is often quoted in Denmark. Her daughter died after the driver of a van looked at her cell phone on the highway. Can you ever understand such a stroke of fate?
I’ve talked a lot about control now. Well, that’s the ultimate loss of control. I just have to surrender to life. It was like living in a bubble of safety before. And it has now been crushed. For the first time, reality presented itself to me. How it really is. Because it also includes tragic death. For the first few weeks it was as if I could hear the birds from a distance of several kilometers. All senses were extremely heightened. Because reality has been unlocked in a very cruel way. I don’t know how to get any further after what we’ve experienced. There are people who say you can get through it but never get over it. But I do not know.
Thomas Vinterberg: Love remains. But in a new and very painful way.
Can you accept that some events are meaningless?
I have to accept that it’s pointless. Because it’s pointless! But I have to hold on to the fact that the pain I experience is an expression of love. About the great love that I feel for my daughter and that she received from her. Without this love the pain would not be there. The pastors and Kierkegaard talk about this again and again: Love remains. But in a new and very painful way.
So that’s why the quote about youth and love at the beginning of the film?
The quote is also on my daughter’s grave. For me it sums up the intoxication and weightlessness of being young. And the love that springs from it. And yes, of pain too. He is still unbearable. The success of the film helps in a certain way. It is meaningful, because with the film we honor your memory. But that won’t bring Ida back.
Interview: Bernd Hauser
