The Face of Truth

I've wanted to see this film for quite some time. I liked all the other Bodil Ipsen/Lau Lauritzen-collaborations. This one was the last film, they directed together, but it's still unavailable on VHS/DVD. Lucky me, it was "on cable" the other night, in Denmark. Anyway Lau Lauritzen plays an ordinary architect, with a wife and a son. He gets accused for killing a 10-year old girl, and of course nobody doubts he's the one. Even his wife and his uncle has trouble believing him, but at least they don't tell him. I've never seen such powerful performance from Lau Lauritzen, who changes attitude, almost from scene to scene. Lisbeth Movin also makes a brilliant performance.

Accused of a dreadful crime, the rape and murder of a small girl, the architect Troels Rolff sees all the world turn against him. As more and more pressure is brought to bear, only his wife and his uncle, a pastor, stand by him. In an intense denouement, he is exonerated - but taken to task by his uncle. The message of all this horror, the uncle says, is that such acts are possible for anyone to commit. The capacity to commit awful crimes is resident in all of us - and the architect is no different. The only good thing to have come of it, the pastor judges, is that the architect has been taught a lesson in humility. An excellent film, with a bit of unevenness in the acting and dialogue, but with an intense, Kafkaesque atmosphere that is unusual and captivating (especially for a Danish film from this period). Highly recommended.