Susanne Bier (; born 15 April 1960) is a Danish filmmaker. She is best known for her feature films ''
Brothers
A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...
'' (2004), ''
After the Wedding'' (2006), ''
In a Better World
''In a Better World'' ( da, Hævnen, "The Revenge") is a 2010 Danish drama thriller film written by Anders Thomas Jensen and directed by Susanne Bier. The film stars Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, and Ulrich Thomsen in a story which takes ...
'' (2010), and ''
Bird Box'' (2018), and the TV miniseries ''
The Night Manager
''The Night Manager'' is an espionage novel by British writer John le Carré, published in 1993. It is his first post- Cold War novel, detailing an undercover operation to bring down a major international arms dealer.
Plot summary
Jonathan Pin ...
'' (2016) on
AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** ...
, ''
The Undoing
''The Undoing'' is a 2020 American Mystery fiction, mystery psychological thriller television miniseries based on the 2014 novel ''You Should Have Known'' by Jean Hanff Korelitz. It was written and produced by David E. Kelley and directed by S ...
'' (2020) on
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
, and ''
The First Lady'' (2022) on Showtime. Bier is the first female director to win a
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
, a
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
, and a
European Film Award
The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mo ...
, collectively.
Early life and education
Susanne Bier was born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in Copenhagen, Denmark on 15 April 1960. The family of her father, Rudolf Salomon Baer (born 1930), emigrated from Germany to Denmark in 1933 after Hitler's rise to power. The family of her mother, Heni (née Jonas; born 1936), emigrated to Denmark from Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, to escape rising
anti-semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. In 1943, the two families fled from Denmark to Sweden,
together with most Danish Jews, to escape the deportation to the Nazi death camps. Three years after the end of World War II, they returned to Denmark. The effects of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
caused Bier's parents to instill the strong moral values and principles into their children. Later, the importance of human resilience and dignity would be a recurring theme in her films.
During her schooling, she went to Niels Steensens
Gymnasium. In interviews for the media as an adult, Bier describes herself as lacking in social skills as a child, who liked to play football with boys and preferred reading books to interacting with others. After high school, citing a desire to reconnect with her Jewish roots, she studied art at the
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design ( he, בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב) is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldes ...
in Jerusalem. Later she would study architecture at the
Architectural Association
The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...
in London before finally returning to film and graduating from the
National Film School of Denmark
The National Film School of Denmark ( da, Den Danske Filmskole) is an independent institution under the Danish Ministry of Cultural Affairs. It was established in 1966 and is based on Holmen in the harbour of Copenhagen.
History
The National ...
in 1987.
''De Saliges'' (1987), Bier's graduation film, won first prize at the Munich film school festival and was subsequently distributed by
Channel Four
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...
.
Career
After directing music videos, commercials and the feature films ''Freud Flytter Hjemmefra'' (''Freud's Leaving Home'', 1990), ''Det Bli'r i Familien'' (''Family Matters'', 1993), ''Pensionat Oscar'' (''Like it Was Never Before'', 1995) and ''Sekten'' (''Credo'', 1997), Bier made a breakthrough in her home country of Denmark with the film ''
The One and Only'' in 1999. A romantic comedy about the fragility of life, the film won a clutch of Danish Film Academy awards and established Bier's relationship with actress Paprika Steen. The film remains one of the most successful domestic films ever released in Denmark.
A sidestep from the easy going charm of ''Livet är en schlager'' (''Once in a Lifetime'', 2000), ''Elsker dig for evigt'' (''
Open Hearts
Open or OPEN may refer to:
Music
* Open (band), Australian pop/rock band
* The Open (band), English indie rock band
* ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969
* ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999
* ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001
* ''Open'' (YF ...
'', 2002) brought Bier's work to much wider international attention and acclaim. Acutely observed and beautifully written by Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen, the film is a perceptive and painful exploration of broken lives and interconnected tragedies. Made under
Dogme 95
Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" ( da, kyskhedsløfter). These were rules to create films ...
regulations, the film also marked a move towards a more minimalist aesthetic.
Since the completion of ''Open Hearts'', Bier's reputation has continued to ascend with the harrowing ''Brødre'' (''
Brothers
A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...
'', 2004) and the emotionally engaging ''Efter Brylluppet'' (''
After the Wedding'', 2006), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language film at the 2007 Academy Awards. After her first American film, ''
Things We Lost in the Fire'' (2008) starring Benicio del Toro and Halle Berry, Bier went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film for ''
In a Better World
''In a Better World'' ( da, Hævnen, "The Revenge") is a 2010 Danish drama thriller film written by Anders Thomas Jensen and directed by Susanne Bier. The film stars Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, and Ulrich Thomsen in a story which takes ...
'' (2010).
In 2012, she returned to romantic comedy with local Danish smash-hit ''
Den skaldede frisør'' (''
Love is All You Need
''Love Is All You Need'' ( da, Den skaldede frisør, Lit.: The Bald Hairdresser) is a 2012 Danish romantic comedy film directed by Susanne Bier and starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm.
Plot
Danish hairdresser Ida ( Trine Dyrholm), who ha ...
'') (2012) starring Trine Dyrholm and Pierce Brosnan. And in 2014, she directed her second American feature, dark romantic drama
Serena starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, and shortly after followed up with Danish drama ''
A Second Chance'' starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Maria Bonnevie.
Also a maker of shorts, music videos and commercials, Bier's films typically meditate on pain, tragedy, and atonement. Bier is signed as a commercial director with international production company, SMUGGLER.
In 2013 she was a member of the jury at the
63rd Berlin International Film Festival
The 63rd annual Berlin International Film Festival took place in Berlin, Germany between 7 and 17 February 2013. Chinese film director Wong Kar-wai was announced as the President of the Jury and his film '' The Grandmaster'' was the opening fil ...
.
1990s
''Freud's Leaving Home''
After graduation, Bier was invited to Sweden to direct ''
Freud's Leaving Home
''Freud's Leaving Home'' ( sv, Freud flyttar hemifrån...) is a 1991 Swedish comedy film directed by Susanne Bier. The film won ten awards and was nominated for three.
The film follows a girl, Freud, from a Jewish family in Sweden. It was the fir ...
'', which was critically acclaimed by film critics. The film follows a girl, Freud, from Sweden who comes from a Jewish family, and it became the first feature film in Sweden to depict Swedish-Jewish culture. With its heavily Jewish focus, the film "addresses the Jewish experience to an extent that is in rare in Scandinavian cinema". The film won ten awards and was nominated for an additional three.
''Family Matters''
Her next film ''Family Matters'' continued exploration of complex, tabooed family relations begun in ''
Freud's Leaving Home
''Freud's Leaving Home'' ( sv, Freud flyttar hemifrån...) is a 1991 Swedish comedy film directed by Susanne Bier. The film won ten awards and was nominated for three.
The film follows a girl, Freud, from a Jewish family in Sweden. It was the fir ...
'', including an incestuous relationship between brother and sister.
''The One and Only''
Bier returned to taboo subjects with the film ''
The One and Only'' in 1999. The film is a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
starring
Sidse Babett Knudsen
Sidse Babett Knudsen (; born 22 November 1968) is a Danish actress who works in theatre, television, and film. Knudsen made her screen debut in the 1997 improvisational comedy '' Let's Get Lost'', for which she received both the Robert and Bodi ...
,
Niels Olsen,
Rafael Edholm
John Rafael Edholm (born 8 May 1966) is a Swedish actor, film director, screenwriter and model. In the SVT series ''The spiral'' which was broadcast in 2012, Edholm played the police Gunnarson, where one of his opponents was Tuva Novotny.Skå ...
, and
Paprika Steen
Kirstine "Paprika" Steen (born 3 November 1964) is a Danish actress and director best known for her performances in Dogme 95 films ''Festen'', '' The Idiots'', Mifune, and ''Open Hearts''. Steen was the first Danish actress since Karin Nellemos ...
in a story about two unfaithful married couples faced with becoming first-time parents. The film was considered to mark a modern transition in Danish romantic comedies,
The film earned both the
Robert Award
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, hono ...
and
Bodil Award
The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by the Danish Film Critics Association. The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe. The awards are given ...
as the Best Film of 1999.
2000s
''Open Hearts''
Following the influence of
Dogme 95
Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" ( da, kyskhedsløfter). These were rules to create films ...
manifesto, Bier directed the film ''Open Hearts'' in 2002. ''Open Hearts'' tells the story of two couples whose lives are traumatized by a car crash and adultery.
''Open Hearts'' received a 96% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
movie review website. Susanne Bier received the International Critics Award at the 2002
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
"for the fact that it proves that Dogma has come of age and matured into a potent cinematic language that skillfully captures the freeing of real emotions that extreme trauma creates within the lives of the characters in her film." The film won both the
Bodil and
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
awards for Best Danish Film in 2003.
''Brothers''
In Bier's
next film we follow the story of two brothers, Michael and Jannik. The character of Michael has a promising military career, a beautiful wife and two beautiful girls; Michael is shown preparing for a deployment to Afghanistan early in the movie. His younger brother, Jannik, has recently been imprisoned for an attempted bank robbery. Michael picked up Jannik from prison the day before being deployed to Afghanistan; their already strained relationship is shown to be especially tense. While in Afghanistan, Michael's helicopter is shot down- all soldiers are presumed dead, but Michael and a fellow soldier below him are imprisoned. Michael is ultimately forced to kill his fellow soldier. Sarah is supported by Jannik who, against all odds, takes care of the family. Soon, Sarah and Jannik become closer as he fulfills the space/role previously held by his brother. Michael is ultimately rescued by US forces and is able to return home, but to disastrous results. The film tackles the theme of the
war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC)
*Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709)
*Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...
in 2001 and the psychological aftermath of prisoners of war. The plot shows inspiration from
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
''. It won several awards, including the audience award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival UCMF Movie Music Award. An opera based on the story of the film by Icelandic composer
Daníel Bjarnason
Daníel Bjarnason (born 26 February 1979) is an Icelandic composer and conductor. He has garnered widespread acclaim for his debut album, ''Processions'' (2010), with TimeOut NY writing he "create(s) a sound that comes eerily close to defining ...
was premiered in Aarhus on 16 August 2017. It was commissioned by
Den Jyske Opera
Den Jyske Opera, also known as the Danish National Opera, is based in Aarhus, Denmark. Established in 1947, it's Denmark's largest touring opera company, and the second only to the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.
Description
Founded in Aarhus ...
. Kerstin Perski wrote the libretto and the director was
Kasper Holten
Kasper Holten (born 29 March 1973) is a Danish stage director. From 2011 until 2017 he was Director of Opera for the Royal Opera House in London. He is Vice President of the Board of the European Academy of Music Theatre.
Career
Born in Copenhage ...
. To celebrate Aarhus as the
European capital of culture 2017 three stage works were produced; a musical, dance and an opera all based on films by Bier were commissioned and performed in
Musikhuset
''Musikhuset Aarhus'' (Aarhus Concert Hall) is a large concert hall complex in Aarhus, Denmark. Located in the city centre, Musikhuset is Aarhus' main venue for music and with seating for more than 3,600 people in total, it is the largest concert ...
.
''After the Wedding''
Bier's next film tells the story of Jacob Petersen who manages an Indian orphanage. With a small staff, he works as hard as he can to keep the orphanage afloat and is personally invested in the young charges - in particular, Pramod, a young boy Jacob has cared for since the boy's birth. The film was a critical and popular success and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine's
Richard Schickel
Richard Warren Schickel (February 10, 1933 – February 18, 2017) was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for ''Time'' magazine from 1965–2010, and also w ...
named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #4, calling it a "dark, richly mounted film". While Schickel saw the film as possibly "old-fashioned stylistically, and rather manipulative in its plotting", he also saw "something deeply satisfying in the way it works out the fates of its troubled, yet believable characters."
The film was remade as the English-language ''
After the Wedding'' in 2019, starring
Julianne Moore
Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, a ...
,
Michelle Williams, and
Billy Crudup
William Gaither Crudup (; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He is a four-time Tony Award nominee, winning once for his performance in Tom Stoppard's play ''The Coast of Utopia'' in 2007. He has starred in numerous high-profile films, inc ...
.
''Things We Lost in the Fire''
In this film we follow the character of Audrey who has been married for eleven years with Brian and leads a well-to-do life, but suddenly her husband dies after trying to defend a woman from an assault. Left alone with two children, Audrey has to face the terrible pain of loss, so she decides to welcome Jerry, her friend's friend, with problems of drug addiction. The two will establish a relationship that will force them to unite their pains, helping each other to make a change in their lives, the difficult search for happiness.
Critics gave the film generally favorable reviews. As of 29 January 2008 on the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 64% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 117 reviews. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film had an average score of 63 out of 100, based on 30 reviews. The two leads received praise for their performances, particularly Benicio Del Toro as he received immense acclaim for his portrayal of Jerry, considered one of his best roles to date.
2010s
''In a Better World''
''In a Better World'' ( da, Hævnen, "the revenge") is a 2010 Danish
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
written by
Anders Thomas Jensen
Anders Thomas Jensen (born 6 April 1972) is a Danish screenwriter and film director. His film ''Election Night (1998 film), Election Night'' won the 1998 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Life and career
Jensen was born in Frederi ...
and directed by Susanne Bier. The film stars
Mikael Persbrandt
Mikael Åke Persbrandt (; born 25 September 1963) is a Swedish actor. In Swedish films, he is perhaps best known for playing Gunvald Larsson in the ''Beck'' series of movies. He is internationally known for his starring role in the Academy Award ...
,
Trine Dyrholm
Trine Dyrholm (; born 15 April 1972) is a Danish actress, singer and songwriter. Dyrholm received national recognition when she placed third in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix as a 14-year-old singer. Four years later, she again achieved national r ...
, and
Ulrich Thomsen
Ulrich Thomsen (born 6 December 1963) is a Danish actor and filmmaker, known for his role of Kai Proctor in the Cinemax original series ''Banshee'' (2013-2016).
Biography
Ulrich Thomsen was born in (Næsby) Odense, Denmark and graduated from th ...
in a story which takes place in small-town Denmark and a refugee camp in Africa.
A Danish majority production with co-producers in Sweden, ''In a Better World'' won the
2011 Golden Globe Award for
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
as well as the award for
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
83rd Academy Awards.
Director Susanne Bier said: "Our experiment in this film is about looking at how little it really takes before a child – or an adult – thinks something is deeply unjust. It really doesn't take much, and I find that profoundly interesting. And scary."
Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reports that 77% out of 114 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with the site consensus stating that "''In a Better World'' is a sumptuous melodrama that tackles some rather difficult existential and human themes."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
gave the film a score of 65, indicating "generally favorable reviews."
Kim Skotte called the film a "powerful and captivating drama" in ''
Politiken
''Politiken'' is a leading Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1884 and played a role in the formation of the Danish Social Liberal Party. Since 1970 it has been independe ...
''. Out of the four collaborations between Jensen and Bier, he considered ''In a Better World'' to be the one most similar to Jensen's solo films and compared the combination of biblical themes and high entertainment value to Jensen's 2005 film ''
Adam's Apples
''Adam's Apples'' ( da, Adams Æbler) is a 2005 Danish black comedy-drama film directed and written by Anders Thomas Jensen. The film revolves around the theme of the Book of Job. The main roles are played by Ulrich Thomsen and Mads Mikkelsen ...
''.
Peter Nielsen of ''
Dagbladet Information
''Information'' (), full name: ''Dagbladet Information'' (), is a Danish newspaper published Monday through Saturday.
History and profile
''Dagbladet Information'' was established and published by the Danish resistance movement in 1943 during ...
'' called ''In a Better World'' "in all ways a successful film", and although there "is no doubt that Susanne Bier can tell a good story", he was not entirely convinced: "She can seduce, and she can push the completely correct emotional buttons, so that mothers' as well as fathers' hearts are struck, but she doesn't earnestly drill her probe into the meat."
''Love Is All You Need''
In 2012, Bier directed ''Love Is All You Need'' (''Den skaldede frisør''), Lit.: The Bald Hairdresser) a 2012 Danish
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film starring
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan (; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 (''GoldenEye'', ''Tomorrow ...
and
Trine Dyrholm
Trine Dyrholm (; born 15 April 1972) is a Danish actress, singer and songwriter. Dyrholm received national recognition when she placed third in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix as a 14-year-old singer. Four years later, she again achieved national r ...
.
In 2013, ''Love Is All You Need'' was selected as best comedy film at the
26th European Film Awards.
''Serena''
In 2014, Bier directed ''Serena'', based on the
2008 novel of the same name by American author
Ron Rash
Ron Rash (born September 25, 1953), is an American poet, short story writer and novelist, is the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University.
Early life
Rash was born on September 25, 1953, in C ...
. The film stars
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2015 and 2016, her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide to date. She appeared in ''Time''s 100 most influential people i ...
and
Bradley Cooper
Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and two Grammy Awards, in addition to nominations for nine Academy Awards, si ...
as newlyweds running a timber business in 1930s North Carolina.
''Serena'' has received negative reviews from critics. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a score of 16% based on 106 reviews with an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's critical consensus states "''Serena'' unites an impressive array of talent on either side of the cameras – then leaves viewers to wonder how it all went so wrong." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film has a score of 36 out of 100 based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
''A Second Chance''
In 2014, Bier directed ''A Second Chance'' ( da, En chance til), a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
. The film stars
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau (; born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor and producer. He graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen in 1993, and had his breakthrough role in Denmark with the film '' Nightwatch'' (19 ...
,
Ulrich Thomsen
Ulrich Thomsen (born 6 December 1963) is a Danish actor and filmmaker, known for his role of Kai Proctor in the Cinemax original series ''Banshee'' (2013-2016).
Biography
Ulrich Thomsen was born in (Næsby) Odense, Denmark and graduated from th ...
,
Maria Bonnevie
Anna Maria Cecilia Bonnevie (born 26 September 1973) is a Swedish- Norwegian actress. She was born in Västerås, Sweden, but grew up in Oslo, Norway. Her parents are Norwegian actress Jannik Bonnevie and Swedish actor Per Waldvik. Bonnevie wa ...
,
Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Nikolaj Lie Kaas (; born 22 May 1973) is a Danish actor whose career rose in the 1990s. Kaas graduated from the National Theater School in Denmark in 1998. He first appeared on screen in Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's film ''The Boys from St. Petri'' i ...
and
Lykke May Andersen. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the
2014 Toronto International Film Festival
The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duv ...
.
''The Night Manager'' (TV series)
Taking a break from film, Bier directed ''The Night Manager'', a British television serial starring
Tom Hiddleston
Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with ''Thor'' in 2011 and most recently in the Disney+ series ''Loki'' in 2021 ...
,
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two men acted together in a ...
,
Olivia Colman
Sarah Caroline Sinclair ( Colman; born 30 January 1974), known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. Known for her comedic and dramatic roles in film and television, she has received various accolades, including an Academy A ...
,
David Harewood
David Harewood MBE (born 8 December 1965) is a British actor and presenter. He is best known for his roles as CIA Counterterrorism Director David Estes in ''Homeland'' (2011–2012), and as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter and Hank Henshaw / C ...
,
Tom Hollander
Thomas Anthony Hollander (; born 25 August 1967) is an English actor. As a child Hollander trained with the National Youth Theatre and was later involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Soci ...
, and
Elizabeth Debicki
Elizabeth Debicki (born 24 August 1990) is an Australian actress. After studying drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, she made her film debut with a brief role in the Australian comedy ''A Few Best Men'' (2011). Debicki's role in Baz Lu ...
. It is based on the 1993
novel of the same name by
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
and adapted to the present day by
David Farr.
The six-part series began broadcasting on BBC One on 21 February 2016. In the United States, it began on 19 April 2016 on AMC. It has been sold internationally to over 180 countries, and a second series was commissioned by the BBC and AMC. Scripting duties for the second series were handled by Matthew Orton,
Charles Cumming
Charles Cumming (born 1971) is a British writer of spy fiction.
Early life and education
Cumming was born in 1971, in Ayr, Scotland, the son of Ian Cumming (b. 1938) and Caroline Pilkington (b. 1943).
He was educated at Ludgrove School (1979 ...
, Namsi Khan and Francesca Gardiner.
The first series of ''The Night Manager'' was nominated for 36 awards and won 11, including two
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
s (for director Bier and music composer Victor Reyes)
and three
Golden Globe Awards
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
(for Hiddleston, Colman, and Laurie).
The series received widespread critical acclaim. Adam Sisman, le Carré's biographer, wrote in UK daily newspaper ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'', "It is more than 20 years since the novel was published, and in that time two film companies have tried and failed to adapt it, concluding that it was impossible to compress into two hours. But this six-hour television adaptation is long enough to give the novel its due." He added, "And though Hugh Laurie may seem a surprising choice to play 'the worst man in the world', he dominates the screen as a horribly convincing villain. Alert viewers may spot a familiar face in the background of one scene, in a restaurant: John le Carré himself makes a cameo, as he did in the films of ''
A Most Wanted Man'' and ''
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by British author John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of taciturn, aging spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has receive ...
''. But he is on screen only for an instant: blink and you'll miss him."
''Bird Box''
Returning to film, Bier directed ''Bird Box'', an American
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
. The screenplay, by
Eric Heisserer
Eric Andrew Heisserer (born 1970) is an American filmmaker, comic book writer, television writer, and television producer. His screenplay for the film ''Arrival'' earned him a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at the 89th Academy Awards in 201 ...
, was based on the 2014
novel of the same name by
Josh Malerman
Josh Malerman is an American novelist, short story writer, film producer, and one of two singer/songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. He is best known for writing horror and his post-apocalyptic novel, '' Bird Box'', which was the inspir ...
. The film stars
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock (; born July 26, 1964) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Sandra Bullock, various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, Bullock was ...
, and had its world premiere at
AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fun ...
on 12 November 2018. It was released worldwide on 21 December 2018 by
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
, and went on to become the most-watched film in Netflix history.
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, ''Bird Box'' has received mixed to positive reviews. ''Forbes'' called it a "truly terrible movie."
2020s
''The Undoing''
Bier directed the TV series ''The Undoing'', which premiered on HBO in October 2020 and starred
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
and
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as both a charming, and vulnerable romantic lead and has since transitioned into a dramatic character actor. Among his numerous a ...
. ''The Undoing'' became the first HBO original series to grow its audience each week and the network's most watched show of 2020.
''The First Lady''
Most recently, Bier directed the Showtime limited series ''
The First Lady'', starring
Viola Davis
Viola Davis (; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, she is the only African-American to achieve the Triple Crow ...
,
Michelle Pfieffer, and
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson ( ; born August 9, 1968) is an American actress. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the series ''The X-Files'', ill-fated socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies's film ''The House of Mirth'' ...
. ''The First Lady'' premiered in April 2022.
Style and themes
Bier's films often deal with the traditional family framework, with the collapse of the bourgeois middle class under the pressure of globalization, terrorism, and war, and the way in which people deal with a disaster or a formative event outside their lives. She notes that the moment that interests her in characters' lives is when their sense of security cracks and the outside world knocks on the door. The main questions in her films are questions of morality: whether it is moral to leave a partner who has become disabled, whether personal good precedes the general good, and how to respond to the violence directed at the individual. Bier often raises questions about how far one would go for a child is in distress, if social services appear to be unable or unwilling to help, and the limits one exceeds to get their own desires fulfilled.
Bier's style of direction gives the players a great deal of freedom, allowing improvisation in both texts and presentation. Her films have a common visual code - all of them are filmed in a shoulder camera, and emotional peaks use extreme close-ups of eyes, lips, and fingers. In addition, the editing method is not faithful to the continuous editing tradition, and it adds to a more free and random feeling.
Bier's films are characterized by the fact that, despite their tragic structure, there is a "flattening" of the dramatic events, or, alternatively, no dramatization of the major events. For example, in the scene of the first encounter between the father and his daughter in ''After the Wedding'', the two of them are silent for most of the scene, and talk about a bottle of water he brings to her. This style of direction creates the feeling that nothing happens in her films, but a thorough analysis of the events shows that the films are faithful to the dramatic structure of the
theatre of ancient Greece
Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...
.
Moreover, Bier makes sure to finish her films with a slightly optimistic tone, saying that although her films are not purely commercial, they are also not pure art, and therefore she should communicate with her audience and give them some light to lean on.
Influences
In Susan King's article,
Bier claims her Jewish heritage embedded a strong sense of family in conjunction to a sense of instability and turmoil. This pertains to her father's need to flee Germany in 1933 to Denmark, where he met Bier's mother. The two of them fled by boat to Sweden after Nazis began rounding up Jews in Denmark. Originally, Bier imagined herself married to a nice Jewish man with six children. She later decided that she wanted to pursue a career. She has been married twice and has two children, Gabriel and Alice. Despite this, she still holds family as her biggest influence and claims she would have never become a filmmaker without her children. To Bier, "family is a sense of identity". "I speak to my parents every day. I have a very close relationship to my aunts and uncles, but also my ex-husband…who comes to stay with us. I have this almost obsessive desire to whomever is close to me, I want to have a very intense, close, intimate relationship with them. That way of living definitely informs the stories I tell.”Although she frequently depicts international stories in third world countries, Bier had never been to Africa or India until she started making movies there. On her frequent interest and depiction of the Third World, Bier insists that "it is sort of pointing out that the Third World is really a part of our lives. It is unavoidable, and we need to relate to it…" As she writes in a public letter after winning the Oscar for ''In a Better World'', "My particular world is not just Copenhagen. It had to be broader than this. My world is larger than it used to be." In Sylvaine Gold's article,
Bier claims she doesn't like to be in a state of comfort when working. Typically in her films, happy and comfortable characters are met by situations of extreme sadness and catastrophe. She attributes this obsession to her parents experience during World War II when “society suddenly turned against them” because they were Jewish. Despite this obsession with tragedy, Bier says “I've had a very fortunate, very privileged life
utI say that with all humility, because it could change tomorrow. But I have a very strong ability to empathize, to understand what things feel like." Her frequent writing collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen confirms this "humanness" in her, that "She's very good at putting herself in a character's place, which is really a gift." Bier also insists that despite her negative depictions in her films, she always wants to end a film with some vestige of hope. She never wants to alienate her audience, that it is always key to "have an ability to communicate".
Personal life
Bier was married to Swedish actor and director Philip Zanden. After her divorce from Zanden, she met her current partner, the Danish singer and composer
Jesper Winge Leisner ( da), who wrote the music for several of her films. Bier has two children. Her first child is Gabriel Bier Gislason (born 5.7.1989), son of Bier's first husband, Danish/Icelandic film director
Tómas Gislason ( da). Gabriel works in the film industry like his parents. Her second child is Alice Esther Zanden (born in 1995).
Filmography
Film
Television
Music video
*''Summer Rain'' by
Alphaville (1989)
Awards and nominations
;''Freud's Leaving Home'' (''Freud flytter hjemmefra...'') (1991)
* 1992 Angers European First Film Festival
** Audience Award: Feature Film
** C.I.C.A.E. Award
* 1992 Creteil International Women's Film Festival
** Grand Prix
* 1992
Guldbagge Awards
The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...
** Best Director (Nominated)
* 1991 Montréal World Film Festival
** Montréal First Film Prize – Special Mention
;''Brev til Jonas'' (1992)
* 1993 Robert Festival
** Best Short/Documentary (Årets kort/dokumentarfilm)
;''Family Matters'' (''Det bli'r i familien'') (1994)
* 1994 Rouen Nordic Film Festival
** ACOR Award
** Audience Award
;''Like It Never Was Before'' (''Pensionat Oskar'') (1995)
* 1995 Montréal World Film Festival
** FIPRESCI Prize: Official Competition
;''The One and Only'' (''Den eneste ene'') (1999)
* 2000 Robert Festival
** Best Film (Årets danske spillefilm)
* 2000 Bodil Awards
** Best Film (Bedste danske film)
;''Open Hearts'' (''Elsker dig for evigt'') (2002)
* 2002 Toronto International Film Festival
** International Critics' Award (FIPRESCI) – Special Mention
* 2003 Bodil Awards
** Best Film (Bedste danske film)
* 2002 Lübeck Nordic Film Days
** Baltic Film Prize for a Nordic Feature Film
* 2003 Robert Festival
** Audience Award
* 2003 Rouen Nordic Film Festival
** Press Award
;''Brothers'' (''Brødre'') (2004)
* 2005 Boston Independent Film Festival
** Audience Award: Narrative
* 2005 Creteil International Women's Film Festival
** Audience Award: Best Feature Film
* 2004 Hamburg Film Festival
** Critics Award
* 2005 Skip City International D-Cinema Festival
** Grand Prize
* 2005 Sundance Film Festival
** Audience Award: World Cinema – Dramatic
;''After the Wedding'' (''Efter brylluppet'') (2006)
* 2007 Festroia International Film Festival
** Jury Special Prize
* 2006 Film by the Sea International Film Festival
** Audience Award
* 2006 Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival
** Audience Award
;''In a Better World'' (''Hævnen'') (2010)
*
2011 Academy Awards
** Best Foreign Language Film
*
2011 European Film Awards
** Best Director
* 2011 Golden Globes, Italy
** Best European Film (Miglior Film Europeo)
* 2010 Rome Film Festival
** Audience Award
** Grand Jury Prize
;''Love is All You Need'' (''Den skaldede frisør'') (2012)
* 2013 Robert Festival
** Audience Award: Comedy
[ ]
;''The Night Manager'' (2016)
*
2016 Primetime Emmy Awards
The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2015 until May 31, 2016, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at the ...
**
Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bier, Susanne
1960 births
Danish film producers
Danish women writers
Danish Jews
Danish people of German-Jewish descent
Danish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Living people
Film directors from Copenhagen
Danish women screenwriters
Jewish women writers
Danish women film directors
English-language film directors
Primetime Emmy Award winners
European Film Award for Best Director winners
Directors of Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners
Jewish film people