Susanne Bier

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Susanne Bier
Born (1960-04-15) 15 April 1960 (age 53)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Occupation Film director
Years active Since 1991
Spouse(s) Philip Zandén (1995-?; divorced)
Jesper Winge Leisner (?-present)

Susanne Bier (born 15 April 1960) is a Danish film director best known for her feature films Brothers, After the Wedding and the Academy-Award-winning In a Better World.

Contents

Life and work [edit]

Susanne Bier was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her father, Rudolf Salomon Bier, was a German Jew who left for Denmark in 1933, and her mother, Hennie Jonas's, family were Russian Jews.[1] She studied art and architecture at Jerusalem University before her acceptance to the National Film School of Denmark from where she graduated in 1987. She went on to direct various films in Denmark and Sweden, her first commercial success being the romantic comedy The One and Only in 1999. Later films include Brothers (2004), After the Wedding (2006) and In a Better World (2010) which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) is her only American film to date, however it was recently announced that she will direct the American adaptation of Rapt.[2]

Career [edit]

Bier studied at the Bezalet Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem and read architecture in London before enrolling for the film direction course at the National Film School of Denmark. De Saliges (1987), Bier’s graduation film, won first prize at the Munich film school festival and subsequently distributed by Channel Four.[3]

Finding immediate success in Denmark with her features Frued Flytter Hjemmefra (Freud Leaving Home, 1990), Det Bli’r Familien (Family Matters, 1993), Pensionat Oscar (Like it Was Never Before, 1995) and Sekten (Credo, 1997), Bier’s major breakthrough came with Den Eneste Ene (The One and Only, 1999). A comedy about the fragility of life, the film won a clutch of Danish Film Academy awards and established Bier’s relationship with actor Paprika Steen. The film remains one the most successful domestic films ever released in Denmark.

A sidestep from the easy going charm of Livet ar en schlager (Once in a Lifetime, 2000), Elsker dig for evigt (Open Hearts, 2002) brought Bier’s work to much wider international attention. Acutely observed and beautifully written by Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen, the film is a perceptive and painful exploration of broken lives and interconnected tragedies. Made under Dogme 95 regulations, the film also marked a move towards a more minimalist aesthetic.

Since the completion of Open Hearts, Bier’s reputation has continued to ascend with the harrowing Brødre (Brothers, 2004) and the emotional and engaging Efter Brylluppet (After the Wedding, 2006), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2007 Academy Awards. After her somewhat disappointing first American film, Things We Lost in the Fire (2008) starring Benicio del Toro and Halle Berry, Bier went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film for In a Better World (2011).

Also a maker of shorts, music videos and commercials, Bier’s films typically meditate on pain, tragedy and atonement. Susan King[4] describes Bier’s films as “infused with an intimate concern for family yet often play out on a global stage.”

In 2013 she will be a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.[5]

Influences [edit]

In Susan King’s article,[6] Bier claims her Jewish heritage embedded a strong sense of family in conjunction to a sense of instability and turmoil. This pertains to her father’s need to flee Germany in 1933 to Denmark, where he met Bier’s mother. The two of them fled by boat to Sweden after Nazis began rounding up Jews in Denmark.

Originally, Bier imagined herself married to a nice Jewish man with six children. She later decided that she wanted to pursue a career. She has been married twice and has two children, Gabriel and Esther. Despite this, she still holds family as her biggest influence and claims she would have never become a filmmaker without her children.

To Bier, “family is a sense of identity”. “I speak to my parents every day. I have a very close relationship to my aunts and uncles, but also my ex-husband…who comes to stay with us. I have this almost obsessive desire to whomever is close to me, I want to have a very intense, close, intimate relationship with them. That way of living definitely informs the stories I tell.”

Although she frequently depicts international stories in third world countries, Bier had never been to Africa or India until she started making movies there. On her frequent interest and depiction of the Third World, Bier insists that “it is sort of pointing out that the Third World is really a part of our lives. It is unavoidable, and we need to relate to it… My particular world is not Copenhagen, Denmark. It has to be broader than this. My world is larger than it used to be.”

In Sylvaine Gold’s article,[7] Bier claims she doesn’t like to be in a state of comfort when working. Typically in her films, happy and comfortable characters are met by situations of extreme sadness and catastrophe. She attributes this obsession to her parents experience during World War II when “society suddenly turned against them” because they were Jewish.

Despite this obsession with tragedy, Bier says “I’ve had a very fortunate, very privileged life [but] I say that with all humility, because it could change tomorrow. But I have a very strong ability to empathize, to understand what things feel like.” Her frequent writing collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen confirms this “humanness” in her, that “She’s very good at putting herself in a character’s place, which is really a gift.” Bier also insists that despite her negative depictions in her films, she always wants to end a film with some vestige of hope. She never wants to alienate her audience, that it is always key to “have an ability to communicate”.

Filmography [edit]

Reputation [edit]

Bier has been praised as being a director capable of making films that appeal to an international market (although she has yet to make a successful transition to Hollywood filmmaking). This is reflected by the fact that After the Wedding (2006) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and In a Better World (2010) went on to win the award.[8] In her native Denmark, however, her films are sometimes considered overly commercial and lacking in artistic value.[9]

Awards and Nominations [edit]

Academy Awards

In a Better World (2010) won the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2011.

After the Wedding was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2007.

European Film Awards

2011

Won the European Film Award for Best Director for In a Better World (2010).

Nominated for Audience Award Best Film for In a Better World (2010).

Nominated for European Film Award Best Film for In a Better World (2010). Shared with: Anders Thomas Jensen (writer) Sisse Graum Jørgensen (producer)

2006

Nominated European Film Award Best Director for After the Wedding (2006).

2005

Nominated European Film Award Best Director for Brothers (2004).

Full list of Awards and Nominations at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0081540/awards

Bibliography [edit]

Wood, Jason. Talking Movies: Contemporary World Filmmakers in Interview. London: Wallflower Press, 2006. Print. p. 3-13

Gold, Sylviane. “A Director Comfortable With Catastrophe.” The New York Times 25 March 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/movies/25gold.html?pagewanted=all

King, Susan. “’In a Better World’ widens director Susanne Bier’s world.” Los Angeles Times 20 February 2011. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/20/entertainment/la-ca-susanne-bier-20110220

References [edit]

  1. ^ http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/12/the-best-in-the-world/
  2. ^ About 6 hours ago (2011-02-23). "Oscar-Nominated Susanne Bier Remaking French Thriller ‘Rapt’ –". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2011-03-11. 
  3. ^ Wood, Jason. Talking Movies: Contemporary World Filmmakers in Interview. London: Wallflower Press, 2006. Print. p. 3-13
  4. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/20/entertainment/la-ca-susanne-bier-20110220 King, Susan. “’In a Better World’ widens director Susanne Bier’s world.” Los Angeles Times 20 February 2011.
  5. ^ "The International Jury 2013". Berlinale. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 28 January 2013. 
  6. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/20/entertainment/la-ca-susanne-bier-20110220 King, Susan. “’In a Better World’ widens director Susanne Bier’s world.” Los Angeles Times 20 February 2011.
  7. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/movies/25gold.html?pagewanted=all Gold, Sylviane. “A Director Comfortable With Catastrophe.” The New York Times 25 March 2007.
  8. ^ "Denmark's 'In a Better World' wins foreign Oscar", Associated Press, 28 February 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  9. ^ "Robert ignorerer Biers Oscar-film". Filmmagasinet Ekko. Retrieved 2011-01-25. 

External links [edit]

Films directed by Susanne Bier
Authority control
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