Reconstruction

Reconstruction
Directed by	Christoffer Boe
Produced by	Tine Grew Pfeiffer
Written by	Christoffer Boe Mogens Rukov
Starring	Nikolaj Lie Kaas Maria Bonnevie Krister Henriksson Nicolas Bro
Music by	Thomas Knack
Cinematography	Manuel Alberto Claro
Studio	Nordisk Film
Release date(s)	September 26, 2003
Running time	91 minutes
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish Swedish

Reconstruction is the psychological romantic drama film and the debut of Christoffer Boe, who also wrote the screenplay together with Mogens Rukov. It was filmed in Copenhagen and won the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003 Golden Plaque for Manuel Alberto Claro's luminous wide-screen cinematography.

Plot

The central character is Alex (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a Danish photographer with a Stockholm-bred girlfriend, Simone (Maria Bonnevie).

Late one evening Alex suddenly abandons his girlfriend, Simone, to pursue the beautiful Aimee (Maria Bonnevie). In his encounter with Aimee time and place dissolve for him and he becomes a stranger to Simone, to whom he cannot return.

“It’s all a film. It’s all a construction,” announces the narrator, who is soon revealed to be a noted Swedish author, August (Krister Henriksson), as well as the tale’s apparent inventor.

Shooting

The film was shot almost entirely in available light. Using available lighting is not merely stylistic. Boe doesn't work with storyboards or set schedules. ^[1]

They shot Super 16 on an Arri SR3 using three different stocks. Then the film was scanned, color-graded, and digitally masked to CinemaScope. The scan was a simple one-light, and the team did no color correction, the opposite of today's trend to perform a digital intermediate. They also pushed the emulsion for extra grain.^[2]

Trivia

• In one interview Christoffer Boe said that the film was inspired by Jacques-Henri Lartigue's photograph of a woman standing in a room with empty bookcases. "Looking at that picture, I immediately felt I wanted to do a story about a man who comes home and his apartment has disappeared. And I knew it had to be a love story" ^[3].

• Characters do not use mobile phones or other means of modern communication. However, the story takes place nowadays. This emphasizes the fact that the plot is artificial and constructed.

• The scene where Alex and Aimee are talking in a cafe was shot in the Copenhagen Mojo cafe which is one of Boe's favorite and is close to where he lives.

Cast

• Alex David -- Nikolaj Lie Kaas
• Simone,Aimee -- Maria Bonnevie
• Leo Sand -- Nicolas Bro
• Monica -- Ida Dwinger
• Nan Sand -- Helle Fagralid
• Journalist -- Isabella Miehe-Renard
• Fru Banum (Mrs. Banum) -- Malene Schwartz
• Mel David -- Peter Steen
• Tryllekunstner -- Klaus Mulbjerg
• August Holm -- Krister Henriksson
• Mercedes Sand -- Mercedes Claro Schelin
• Waiter -- Jens Blegaa
• Bartender -- Katrin Muth
• Bartender -- David Dencik

Soundtrack

• Samuel Barber - "Adagio for Strings"
• Cole Porter - "Night & Day"
• Charles Paul Wilp - "Madison Avenue Perfume Ad"

References

External links

• Reconstruction at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Reality of Feelings" by Claus Christensen
• "A Man and a Women" by Mark Jenkins

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