Palm Springs

Leave it to the Danish, once again. The little country between Sweden and Germany is a giant when it comes to international cinema.

With its national cinema state funded by the DFI (Danish Film Institute), Denmark has been a mainstay on the cinema scene for decades, having produced some of the world’s most influential and greatest directors of contemporary film- Carl Th. Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928; Vampyr, 1932), Erik Balling (Qivitoq, 1956), Gabriel Axel (Babette’s Feast, 1987), Bille August (Pelle the Conquerer, 1988), Lars von Trier (Epidemic, 1987; Medea, 1988; Melancholia, 2011), Susanne Bier (After the Wedding, 2006; In A Better World, 2011), Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, 2011), Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration, 1998; The Hunt, 2012), Per Fly (The Woman that Dreamed About a Man, 2010), Ole Christian Madsen (Superclassico, 2011), Chistoffer Boe (Beast, 2010), Lone Sherfig (Italian for Beginners, 2000; An Education, 2009), Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2009), Christian E. Christiansen (The Roommate, 2011), Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair, 2012).

The latest Danish film to make it’s way to the Academy Awards is Nikolaj Arcel’s ‘A Royal Affair’ (2012). Inspired by the 1999 novel 'The Visit of the Royal Physician' by Per Olov Enquist, it is based on the events surrounding Johann Friedrich Struensee's time at the Danish court. This Eighteenth Century period piece tells the story about British princess Caroline Mathilda (Alicia Vikander) who comes to live in the Danish court to marry Danish King Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), a puerile amateur royal addicted to alcohol and women. German stud and academic Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) enters the scene when he is hired as Christian’s personal physician. Christian and Struensee form an unlikely friendship and his presence helps the king tame his unseemly behavior, but the impressionable and starved for attention young Caroline falls madly in love with the charming gentleman Struensee, thus igniting an inevitable and scandalous royal affair.

The film made its international premier at the 2012 Berlin Film Fesitval where Mikkel Følsgaard won the Silver Bear for Best Actor and Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg won the award for Best Script.

The film recently screened to sold out audiences at the 24th Palm Springs International Film Festival. 

DIRECTOR: Nikolaj Arcel 
Producer: Meta Louise Foldager, Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Louise Vesth
Editor: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, Kasper Leick
Screenwriter: Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
Cinematographer: Rasmus Videbæk
Music: Gabriel Yared, Cyrille Aufort
Principal Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Trine Dryholm, David Dencik
Filmography: Truth About Men (2010), Island of Lost Souls (2007), King’s Game (2004)

Written by Vanessa McMahon

Visit the film's official website here: http://www.magpictures.com/aroyalaffair/