English, no thanks!
Danish film directors don't seem to be hitting it off with the English language of late.
The latest English-language feature to flop is Lars Von Trier's Dogville [+see also:
trailer
film profile] which significantly underperformed at the domestic box office during its five weeks on general release.
A total of 80,000 tickets were sold in Denmark's 27 screens (and just 2,215 during the fifth and last week out): a disappointing start to von Trier's first instalment of his American trilogy.
Although Dogville is currently 4th in Copenhagen, cities situated further to the west like Esbjerg, Herning and Holstebro gave the film, distributed by Nordisk Film Biografdistribution, the cold shoulder.
The Danish Film Institute reacted with caution, attributing the reason's for the film's relative failure to good weather encouraging the Danes to stay in the country. They also blamed the intrinsic difficulty of the plot and the fact that it was made in a foreign language (although almost all Danes speak perfect English).
However the Nordisk Film Biografdistribution said it was satisfied with the fact that von Trier's film was seen by 120,000 people.
Other first English-language features that divebombed included the aptly-entitled Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself himself [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Lone Scherfig, Thomas Vinterberg's It's all about love [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's Skagerrak and Nicolas Winding Refn's Fear X. They were all huge disappointments, especially when compared to the 30 per cent market share taken by Inheritance by Per Fly (400,000 tickets sold) and Morten Arnfred's Move me (200,000 tickets).
(Translated from Italian)
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