Danish director Ole Christian Madsen certainly threw subtlety to the wind in making his World War II revenge epic,”Flame & Citron.” The film, which chronicles the murderous exploits of two famous Danish resistance fighters, boldly walks the line between historical period piece and a action-packed graphic-novel.
Danish actors Thure Lindhardt (“Into the Wild“) and Mads Mikkelsen (“Casino Royal“) play the fabled citizens turned assassin team of Bent Faurschou-Hivid and Jorgen Haagen Schmith, known simply as Flame and Citron, while actress Stine Stengade plays the seductive double-agent Ketty Selmer.
Beginning with grainy footage of Germany marching into Copenhagen accompanied by an ominous voice-over by the protagonist, Flame, the film doesn’t focus on the specifics of the Occupation, or even the atrocities of the fascist invaders, only the rage felt by the few citizens who find the sight of their country being overrun sickening. We are introduced to the two famous Danish assassins as they carry out an execution of a traitor to the Danish resistance, ordered by their shadowy bosses who claim to be operating on direct orders from mysterious sources in the British government.
After the hit we see Flame become enamoured with an unknown woman who may be an agent for his side, the Germans or both. At this point the action suddenly shifts from the gestapo filled streets of Copenhagen to dark basements, red-tinted hotel rooms and crowded bars as we attempt to unravel the plot that becomes increasingly twisted as Flame begins to realize his dispatcher may have less-than-noble intentions in his selection of targets and that the mysterious femme fatale he is involved with may be turning into a sinister acquaintance.
In the midst of this moral confusion, Flame’s murderous obsession with Hoffman, the chief of the Gestapo, who is played by German actor Christian Berkel, also in “Inglorious Basterds,” grows, creating a rift with his higher-ups, who insist the general must be immune from any assassination attempts.
If Andrzej Wajda’s 1958 film about a Polish, morally confused young resistance fighter “Ashes and Diamonds” is on the realistic end of the war movie spectrum then “Flame & Citron” could almost be classified as a fantasy, a sensationalizing of the actual events told in lurid detail. This is a world where high intensity shootouts occur without mass causalities, our heroes, despite being the most wanted men in their country do little to disguise themselves (the most Flame does to mask his distinctive red hair is wear a fashionable beret once and while). To a certain extent, it embraces the post-modern Tarantino-school of cinema, aware of its own status as a film, not a retelling of events as they actually happened, becoming a gigantic reference to those who came before it.
While the story, for the most part, is riveting and does do a fantastic job of documenting the personal torment felt by the two men over their morally questionable acts, it seems as though it stretched itself too thin, attempted to cover too much ground while not rooting itself firmly enough in one place. Not that anyone will really notice, since cinematographer’s Jorgen Johansson’s stunning photography steals the show. His stylized vision doesn’t attempt to recreate wartime Denmark, instead it embellishes its dark, rich colors, using the once beautiful cityscape turned war zone as a symbol for loss felt by the loyal Danes. “Flame and Citron,” despite its overly-stretched plot has a solid story, taut suspense and breath-taking visuals to go along moral confusion of the main characters, leaving the audience with, if nothing else, a highly interesting and ascetically pleasing view of a war torn nation. [B+]
“Flame & Citron’ opens Friday, July 31 at the Lincoln Plaza and Sunshine Cinemas in New York.
