The Green Butchers. Great Film. Horrible Trailer.

Posted by Todd Brown at 7:26am.

Posted in Film News .

Anyone who has followed the Dogme movement will tell you that Anders Tomas Jensen is a genius. As the author of Open Hearts, The King is Alive and Mifune you could argue that Jensen is actually a more important figure in the movement than are the directors simply because he’s been the source of the very best scripts. What Dogme fans may not be able to tell you, however, is that Jensen is a very funny man. Funny in a bleak, Scandanavian sort of way, but very funny nonetheless.

Enter The Green Butchers, a film both written and directed by Jensen which is just getting a limited theatrical run in North America now. I missed this one when it played the Toronto Film Festival opting instead for another fantastic Jensen offering (Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself) which impressed me so much that I immediately went on a quest to find The Green Butchers on DVD. Thanks to Denmark’s restrictive export laws this was more difficult than you might think, but it was well worth the effort. Very bleak, very funny, with an incredible cast and very tight writing.

And now Apple has posted the North American trailer. And it’s horrible. Not only is the video bleached and bled out but it’s been subjected to a horribly cheerful soundtrack and irritating text panels. The only thing they didn’t do is lay Mr. Movie Voice on it. Making matters worse the old Danish website has been taken over by an actual butcher shop so I can’t even point you to a GOOD trailer. Sigh ... don’t let the crappy trailer fool you. This is a very good film. Check it out if you’re lucky enough to have it playing in your neighborhood.

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Reader Comments

Triflic 01/29/2005 @ 8:55am

Friends of mine caught this at the TIFF a couple years ago and it was their favorite film of that years Festival

...I’m surprised it’s not easily available on DVD…

I’ll be looking for this if it plays at the Carleton or Cumberland over the next little while.

KuRt.