Sweden 1, Denmark 0
Quite by chance Netflix delivered both a Danish and a Swedish film this week. The Danish one is a certified Dogme95 production, the first I've actually seen, called Italian For Beginners.
From Sweden, it was A Song for Martin. Both films turned out to be love stories but that's where the similarities end.
Dogme95 supposes to be a radical filmmaking approach to get back to the essense of storytelling. However, the manifesto reads to me like something those kids in junior high write -- you know the ones who didn't have any talent? -- to justify their poor performance. The film doesn't look radical it looks amaturish and after seeing the Swedish entry in this ad hoc competition I have to wonder if the Danes didn't cook up their rationalization not to counter Hollywood but their cousins in Sweden.
"Italian for Beginners" is not as interesting a story as "A Song for Martin" and the performances are far inferior. It's like putting up a professional singer against an American Idol reject. The Swedes put out a professional, elegant, polished product while the Danes show why they have lagged behind for centuries.
"A Song for Martin" has two terrific lead actors who turn in great performances, Sven Wolter as Martin and Viveka Seldahl as Barbara. This one had me wondering why I put it in my queue (for the Swedish, it turns out) as the plot sounds like a TV Disease of the Month movie but it is far more endearing than I expected.