I anledning kinopremieren på Sorg og glede, hyller Cinemateket i Oslo den danske auteuren Nils Malmros med et retrospektiv i mars og april.

I ettermiddag vises Kjærlighetens smerte (16.00), mens Skjønnheten og udyret – som vi har valgt å trekke frem her – vises søndag 16. mars. Ved siden av Ozus Late Spring og Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum, er Skjønnheten og udyret muligens den aller fineste skildringen av et far-datter-forhold du kan se på et lerret, og innspillingen av denne filmen er en viktig del av historien i kinoaktuelle Sorg og glede.

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Beginning, as many young male filmmakers of his era have, with stories of his (male) childhood, Malmros has never left this filmmaking “phase,” and in fact has only matured it, turning with greater scrutiny, and greater resources (including an evolution from using non-professional actors to using pros), upon his life’s experiences. In fact, increasingly Malmros’ productions seemed to generate material—that is, inform his life—from which to create more films. The most profound, truly disturbing version of this is the tale of Line Arlien-Søborg, an actress who shows up as a child in the director’s best known film, «Tree of Knowledge» (1981), and whose talent and appeal put her in Malmros’s brilliant follow-up, «Beauty and the Beast» (1983), about a father’s protective, conflicted feelings for his maturing and increasingly sexualized teenaged daughter. The man’s relationship with the girl to a degree relates, fictionally, to the director’s own, and during the production Malmros’s wife, incensed by this relationship, went mad and killed the couple’s newborn daughter. This tale is told, fictionally, in his new film «Sorrow and Joy». – Daniel Kasman, Notebook