Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Green Butchers (2003) DVD Review
The DVD has the usual subtitles and sound options, the US and Danish trailers and two featurettes, a Making Of and a special on the make-up and prosthetics.
As Svend stands there with a sausage on his head, the line in the film is, "The sausage has gone to your head." This is in the Danish trailer. In the US trailer, the line is far less subtle: "You have a sausage on your head." I wonder if the subtitles are radically different for the US release. Answers via the ether, please.
The Making Of doc is very good, a mixture of cast and crew interviews, Behind The Scenes footage and a few outtakes. The interviews include the director, the stars, the DOP and designer. The picture was shot on film and digitally processed (and I assume edited), which accounts for the high quality that is apparent from the first. Also intriguing is the director's claim that the film is "about love."
Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who plays the grotesque Sweaty Svend, says this is a stylistic film, which has not been attempted in Denmark before, without mind-numbing farce. This time, it works. The farce is intentional and not overplayed. As the make-up artist says in the equally interesting tertiary featurette - silicone casts of limbs and body parts that make the flesh creep and a mask so realistic it fooled the actor's brother! - it is important to strike a balance, and that is what this movie does beautifully.
An enjoyable suite of extras and one of the best Making Of doc's I've seen for a while. Highly recommended
Reviewed on: 05 Feb 2006