Arts & Entertainment

Thomas Vinterberg: Another Round is about living as opposed to just existing

By David Villafranca

Los Angeles, United States, Apr 17 (EFE).- A movie about alcohol, but most of all about life. This is what is served up by director Thomas Vinterberg in Another Round, a story of four friends who embark on a quest of always being at least a little bit drunk at all times, and one tipped to fare well in this year’s Academy Awards.

Another Round (Druk, in Danish, or “binge drinking”) is vying for two coveted Oscars — Best Director and Best International Feature.

Vinterberg, co-founder of Dogme 95 film-making movement with Lars von Trier, is no stranger to the Academy Awards — his 2012 title The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen, was tipped for an Oscar.

In Another Round, Vinterberg is reunited with Mikkelsen who stars alongside Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, and Lars Ranthe in a tale of four teachers confronting middle-age by trying to maintain a blood alcohol level of 0.5 as an experiment.

Although a tragicomedy, Vinterberg told Efe in an interview that the movie, for him, was life-affirming.

The Danish director was struck by personal tragedy just as production began when his 19-year-old daughter, Ida, who had been due to debut in the movie, died in a car crash. The movie is dedicated to her.

QUESTION: The experiment in Another Round explores the liberating power of alcohol, but does that not happen with many types of drugs? What makes alcohol different?

ANSWER:  I feel that this movie, weirdly enough, is not that much about alcohol. I mean, spirit means more than just alcohol. I know that we initially wanted to make a movie about alcohol, and they are drinking a lot and they’ve embarked on this drinking experiment. Hopefully the movie has become life-affirming. A movie about living as opposed to just existing and a movie that virtues the element of the uncontrollable.

When I ask her (my wife), ‘give me an example of what the uncontrollable is,’ she says that’s like falling in love, you fall, then you meet something which you cannot buy on the internet, which you cannot plan for, which you cannot study for at the university, which is called love.

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