This Week’s Recommendation: The Commune

11 Dec 2020
Online

The Commune

Denmark

2016, 111 mins, Danish language

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg

The Commune was 758th film screened by RFS on 1st November 2016.  It was the equal third ranked film of Season 54, with an approval rating of 89%.

The setting is a commune in bohemian 1970s Copenhagen. Anna, a local television newsreader, is married to a university lecturer Erik. When Erik inherits his father’s large family home, Anna suggests they invite various friends and professional acquaintances to move in with them to try and stave off middle-aged, middle-class tedium with an experiment in collective living. What follows is a clash between their personal desires and the dream of communal solidarity, as their ideal of tolerant socialist living is shattered by a love affair that puts their relationship, their community and the commune to their greatest test.

The strengths of the film can be seen as its attention to period detail, in particular the clothes and décor and the powerful portrayal of Anna by Trine Dyrhrolm, who won the Silver Bear award for Best Actress at the 2016 Berlinale.

Full film notes available in the Twickenham & Richmond Tribune - http://twickenhamtribune.com

The Commune can be streamed from Mubi, Amazon Prime and Curzon Home Cinema and the discs are available from Amazon and others.

Presented by Richmond Film Society