Foreign films generally don't get much attention Stateside unless they've been nominated for an Academy Award—which unfortunately results in American moviegoers frequently overlooking great films. However, there is one particular incident of this that I consider especially egregious. Y'see, there's this Danish film out now called Terribly Happy, which was adapted from a novel by Erling Jepsen, and it's fucking amazing. The film, about a disgraced ex-policeman from Copenhagen named Robert who has been offered a second chance as the marshal for a small town and gets dangerously tangled up with some of the locals, was Denmark's official selection for Oscar consideration; I have absolutely no clue why it wasn't nominated because it absolutely deserves to be up for Best Foreign Language Film. Apparently the film is now going to be remade in English, which is... a totally terrible idea, but at least this proposed remake has one saving grace: it will be helmed by the original film's director, the terrifically talented Henrik Ruben Genz, with whom I speak about the film in this interview. Enjoy.Hey, Henrik, it’s nice to meet you. First of all, I thought the film was fantastic and I just read in the press notes that you’ve actually been involved with the story in some capacity since the novel was being written.
Yeah. What happened was I was looking for material for a new film and my friend Erling had written a book which I wanted to do but it was given away when I tried to contact them but he told me about an idea of a new book he wanted to write and he called it like a western novel and I said “Oh let me hear about it” and we had a good talk about it and he wanted me to follow the process of it so he sent every chapter he wrote and wanted me to comment on it and put some ideas into it and I had the opportunity to figure out a treatment of the film so it was kind of a collaboration between the two of us.
And the character of Robert—I know that the story in general is based on a true story but that the character of Robert is fictional.
No, no, no.
Robert is not fictional?
Where did you hear that?
That was in the press notes!
Oh, well, I wondered where you heard that. Well, your question was which part of it is based on true events?
Yeah.
Erling writes stuff that is happening in his family in his first book, which is about his sister and his father. The next novel, on which this film was based, was a story about events in the family of his uncle, aunt, and cousin. And he uses their real names, so it’s the story of Jorgen and Ingerlise and Dorthe, and—I don’t want too give too much away, but I can say what happened with those parents when she was a little girl occurred in a tragic way, and that’s the real story. Of course Erling fictionalized it so it’s not straight reality, but it’s based on those incidents.
In the notes you mention that when you and Erling were originally talking about it you mentioned it as a Western, but to me it seemed a lot like those noir films from the 1950s. Like, private eyes like Sam Spade—those sorts of films.
It’s funny you say that. A lot of Americans have been saying the Coen brothers and David Lynch, but also Hitchcock. But you say Sam Spade?
Just—the old 1940s private eye detective movies. I could definitely see the David Lynch and the Hitchcock comparisons too, though.
But we are talking of the genres? Yeah, Erling immediately put in opening as a Western, but it translates and transforms itself into different genres. There’s some film noir, there’s kind of a little horror, there’s comedy, there’s drama, and I think that there’s no problem in that as long as you take the genres seriously and are not making a cliché out of it just to use genres. I think also it also helps to twist the story so that the audience is never really aware of where the story is going to end because if you stay to a genre I think it’s too predictable. When you mix it you get uncertain, and you have to keep following and figuring out what is going to happen next.
Well, I will admit that I was completely thrown for a loop at a couple different points in the movie. I was like, “Wow, wait, did that just happen?”
Yeah. [laughs] We had an experience with someone who said he never saw a film where someone got away with anything like how it happens there.
Yeah, me neither. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak; I was waiting for it to come around and bite this one character in the ass, and I was surprised that he got away with it.
Also, it depends: to some it is also serious, in a way, and he really does get into trouble; this is just a way on the spiral going down. Then he actually becomes someone in this society, and he sees he wants to be someone; he wants to belong.
And I definitely thought that it was interesting watching Robert's relationship with Dorthe, especially parallel to his remarks and his situation with his own daughter. I thought that was an interesting dynamic.
Of course—it is difficult to draw the words to explain in a foreign language, but the kind of reflection of his home and life in Copenhagen is what he is meeting in that landscape. He has to deal with his own demons and he has to mirror in himself what happened before he changed, and what he is struggling with right from the start is to be connected with his daughter. Of course there’s what happens in this incident, but he winds up being happy with his daughter, so it’s a story of a man wanting to belong and to be a good father. He succeeds in a way but not the way he wanted to succeed.
At the beginning they make a lot of mention about what the old marshal was like, and I don’t remember it ever being addressed what happened to the old marshal. Care to shed some light on that?
It’s a good question, but I think he’s not in the film and there’s nothing strange or nothing secret about what happened. I think he retired or died because they talk about his habits: he goes through the watering hole at specific times and he’s a good drinker and he doesn’t make any trouble about this stuff, he stays true to the morals of the place… Somebody asked me if he kicked the bucket, but I don’t think he was thrown into the bog; he just retired. He maybe died, but he died because he was old. We had him in one of the early scripts at the watering hole, which we cut out because he’s not part of the story.
Throughout the movie it seemed almost as if Robert was becoming one of the townspeople, with the exception of course of his getting involved with Ingerlise and Dorthe’s family. With the exception of that, he became more like the other members of the town, which gave me the impression that maybe the old marshal wasn’t from the town either. Kind of like repeating the story of the old marshal.
The old marshal was from the town in my interpretation, but my interpretation is that the old sheriff was part of a private [aspect of the] town. Someone who was not part of the private town is Zerleng, the doctor. So I think Zerleng has a lot to do with what he wants in this story because he’s actually the puppet master. He’s the one coming from Copenhagen, as Robert does, so he’s the guy who is social and the most reflecting prophet. So he is the one who is not laughing the most and is the puppet master of this story; he wants to have a soulmate or a guy whom he can commiserate with to stay there, so it’s not the local citizens. It’s not the local police. It’s Robert. That’s the guy who is reminding him mostly of himself.
I actually really like that bit of light you just now shed on the doctor because I thought that he was an interesting character as well.
Yeah, I liked him and—well, maybe I could have made that more obvious, but I think that’s my style; I like not to overexplain things—but I hope that people get the sense that the main objective is to say that.
Well, especially at the end you get a very sort of sinister feeling. Of course, I won’t explain what happens in the final scene in the middle of the interview, but the final scene definitely imparted a very sort of sinister feeling.
You are thinking that [the character who made the transgressions we discuss earlier (no spoilers!)] has gotten free—and instead he is sinking even deeper into this hole. But the doctor’s a very likable character, and I really like him.
I kind of like him too in a strange way, I just find him very odd.
Have you picked up that Dr. Zerleng is the real father of Dorthe?
Wait, he’s the real father of Dorthe?
You get some things, but a lot of people don’t get that; they don’t figure that out.
Wow, I never pieced that together. Wow.
Yeah, at the start Dr. Zerleng says, “I have been here for ten years. I should have only been here for two weeks.” And then we know that little Dorthe is only nine years old and that Jorgen is not her real father. But you’re not the only one who hasn’t gotten that!
Terribly Happy is out now in NYC, LA, and select other locations. See it, dude.
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