FLAMMEN AND CITRONEN (FLAME AND CITRON)

Denmark, 2008, 130 minutes, Colour.
Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen, Stine Stengade, Peter Mygind, Christian Berkel.
Directed by Ole Christian Madsen.

World War II stories are still very popular on screen. Germany continues to make them (Downfall and the recent John Rabe). The Austrians made The Oscar-winning The Counterfeiters. The American contributions range from the serious Valkyrie to Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Smaller countries are also making memoirs of the war era and focusing on their Resistance. Paul Verhoeven's The Black Book did this for Holland. Flame and Citron is in the same vein and does it for Denmark.

Flame and Citron is a continually interesting film. Audiences outside Denmark do not know the impact these two men, Flame (because of his red hair) and Citron (because he had worked for Citroen), made in their Resistance actoivities in 1944 and the subsequent state honours and funerals they received as well as American medals.

The film opens with a voiceover from Bent (Flame was his codename) about the presence of the Nazis in Copenhagen in 1944. There is newsreel footage to remind us of Denmark's occupation. Almost immediately, there is an assassination of a Danish Nazi sympathiser. Flame, although only in his early 20s and working for the police, is one of the Resistance's chief killers. He is played by Thure Lindhardt . Jorgen (codename Citroen) is the driver who will soon have to kill as well. He is played by top Danish actor (Mads Mikkelson: After the Wedding and internationally known as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale).

The events in the film take place over six months. The film builds up an atmosphere of tension, especially when seemingly contradictory orders are issued. The Resistance is controlled by the Copenhagen police chief who is under orders from Britain. However, visits to neutral Stockholm are not so difficult, so there are orders from the Resistance movement there, including not killing Germans but only Danish Nazis or collaborators. When Flame and Citron are ordered to kill Germans and when Flame encounters a young woman who knows his name and, despite wondering whether she is a spy for the Germans, falls in love with her, the film creates tension for the audience who does not know whom to believe.

There is a back story for Citron, a seeming loner who has a wife and daughter. Flame is caught up with the mysterious woman. Because of betrayals and executions, they decide that the principal target should be the Gestapo chief in Copenhagen (Christian Berkel).

Quite long, with plenty of local atmosphere and a reminder of the ambiguous ethics of resistance movements, this is a worthwhile World War II film.

1.Danish memories? World War Two? Occupation, Resistance, heroics? The memory of the 20th century? In 21st century retrospect?

2.The film based on actual events, six months in 1944? Bent and Jorgen? As persons, in the Resistance, following orders, the consequences? The experience of betrayal? Deaths? The posthumous honours, from Denmark and from the United States?

3.The film recreating 1944, the city of Copenhagen, apartments and streets, offices, official buildings, the Nazi occupation? Sequences in Stockholm? The safe houses, the countryside, the summer? The musical score?

4.The voice-over and Bent asking the questions about April 44? The end and their being part of his letter to Ketty? The irony of his experience and her betrayal?

5.The credits, the range of war footage, the effect of immersing the audience in the Danish experience?

6.Bent as Flame: his orders, the envelope, the photo and documents about the target? Seeing him in action? Jorgen and the car, the getaway? The Resistance and the methods? Winther and his role with the police? Issuing orders? His claims that he was in touch with the British? The Swedish exiles and their not wanting Germans killed? The meetings in Stockholm? The local meetings in the bar, the introduction to all the other members of the Resistance group? Their strategies, the killing of Danish collaborators and not Germans?

7.The killings, the method, the knock on the door, the shooting, the getaway, no witnesses? The reaction of the Gestapo? The Gestapo chiefs, their offices? Hoffmann and his being in charge? His reactions? His contacts with Winther?

8.The orders to kill Germans, allegedly British orders but not from Sweden? The woman shot in her house? Bent and his memoirs of his not shooting a woman, her later betrayal? The importance of not being emotional? The failure to kill and Jorgen stepping in? The warnings about Gilbert, his plausibility? His inviting Bent in, the talk, patriotism, Resistance, his philosophical reflections, Bent not killing him? The puzzle about his innocence, Winther claiming he was in league with Hoffmann? The later revelations about Winther and Gilbert? The following of the officer on the street, his turning round and firing, Bent being wounded?

9.The story of Jorgen and his wife, her visit to the headquarters, his daughter’s birthday, borrowing money from his friends, the small gift, the food, their eating it? The later discussions with his wife? Her desperation and fear? Another man? His robbing the store, the fear of the storekeeper who collaborated with the Germans, getting the food, the gift of the doll for his daughter? His later visiting his wife, seeing the other man, asking him to look after his daughter? Jorgen as a character, a loner, his motivation to be in the Resistance, change, with Bent?

10.The scene in the bar, the encounter with Ketty, her knowing his name, his following her, the discussions, her wig, her being a courier, the question whether she was a spy, her contacts with Winther, the visits to Sweden, relaying information? Bent’s attraction to her? She being older, wary? The affair and its effect? Her telling the truth or not? Persuading Bent to go to the meeting in Sweden? Seeing her with Hoffmann, her explanation, uncertainty whether she was telling the truth or not? The final betrayal, the money, the letter from Bent and reading it – and the information about her life after the war?

11.Winther, his role in the police, going to Sweden? The revelation about his deals, money-making? The killings? Yet still being used by the Swedish Resistance?

12.Resistance members, their missions, being rounded up, the torture, the executions, the killings in the back of the trucks? Winther’s wanting to find the traitor, his test with the member of the group and the gun at his head?

13.The decision about killing Hoffmann, the information from Ketty, his route, the ambush, the wrong car, the young boy and his death?

14.Bent and Jorgen dressed as police, their arrest, the line-up, Jorgen being shot, Bent’s escape? Jorgen, his injuries, the recovery? The siege of the safe house, the elaborate shootout, Jorgen’s death? Bent with the family, going to the cellar? His taking the cyanide pill?

15.The information at the end of the film about the aftermath of the war, the honours?

16.The film and its morale for Denmark? For 21st century memories? A memorial to the heroism of the Resistance in the war?