Following in the wake of their brush with intellectually challenging cult-fiction in ‘Creature from the Faeces Lagoon’, their stop-over in the world of high-end television shows with the critically acclaimed ‘Sex and the Zombie’ pilot episode, as well as the painstakingly experimental and highly artistically filmed ‘Onde Jakob’, it seems there is no end to the surprises that FOKING FILMS can throw at us.
Just the facts
| Production year | 2010 |
| Running time | 11 min |
| Written by | Rasmus Skat Andersen |
| Directed by | Daniel Fog'ed |
| Starring | Hans Bruntt |
| Starring | Anna Murray |
| Starring | Arne |
Somebody check my brain…
Having evolved into an expanding brand no longer restricted to a discrete class of movie connoisseurs, their latest stroke of genius – COMFORT CLONES – now sends FOKING FILMS marching towards the scene of mainstream cinema like an implacable horde of anti-authoritarian machines, hell-bent on proving their worth in rising to previously unreachable levels of fame.
Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds staked against them just years ago, by a conservative corps of reviewers, movie analysts and state-licensed movie censorshipmakers – for whom creativity is an anachronism exterminated with the merging of the twin banes of any artform: the capitalistic pay-off by directing all efforts towards the lowest common denominators among the masses, and straight-out-of-the-box state-governed consumer control – this reviewer finds that FOKING FILMS has emerged bloody, but unbowed, on the other side of this punishing ordeal, with a movie that is both a stunning tour-de force of eerie suspense that reveals layer upon layer in an intrically woven tapestry of critique of modern society, as well as a superboxofficesmashhit that is sure to pave the way for FOKING FILMS’ future. One reason behind this development may be the subtle machinations of Daniel Foged. Ever the aloof and perspective-fixated visual rationalist, his cold, calculated and stern advice took Hans Bruntt’s direction of the movie to new standards that enriched the entire story-telling technique so important in an action movie.
Roskilde festival and the perfect party
In the opening scene, the perverse grandeur of ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 2010 is revealed to the audience in all its glory, as the sun sets on a kaleidoscope of tents, parties and the free world of hot young lives, pleasure-seeking morons and hard rock music. As the inate existential dilemmas quickly reveal themselves in the restless search for the nonexistent ‘perfect party’, Hans Bruntt once again delivers a stunning performance as the sad, no-hope hippie whose close encounter with true reality sends his drug-numbed mind on a collision course with his own lack of resolve.
As the soundscape of hard rock descends into coils of constricting terror, the ominous sounds of metal grating against metal signals the end of his innocent world view. Having at first found the mysterious Comfort Zone of Roskilde Festival, a burgening romance quickly turns to abject terror as the emotionally lobotomized armed guards brutally tears apart both the Jehova’s Witnesses-camplike illusory sense of security, as well as the love of his life.
A completely meaningless world
In a series of disturbing shots filmed in such a haunting manner that it brings forth ghastly memories of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, the true nature of the Comfort Zone is revealed to be the staging ground for remorseless scientific cloning experiments with young people, turning them into faceless morons with no musical opinion of their own.
Thus commenting on both Roskilde Festival’s obvious desire to force future generations to become mindless followers of politically correct, boring and creatively starved as well as completely meaningless world music, and at the same time reflecting on the movie industry and its bonds of creative restriction – COMFORT CLONES nevertheless sends its audience reeling backwards in their seats as the action-packed end draws near, and the full consequences of an aimless life without Heavy Metal takes its full toll in the mind’s eye.
With the sinister guards tracking his every move, the protagonist must face his own lack of resolve: Hide among the crowd – or strike back. With. Heavy. Metal.
The text above are excerpts from a paper by by “Dr. Mindstripper” in The English Journal of Psychoanalysis, May 2011 issue.
Reviews
“FOKING FILMS has done it again. To us, ‘Hell’ is just a word. Reality,
however, is much, MUCH WORSE…” – Sam Neill, Horizontal Reviews, March 2011
“Man fornemmer endnu en gang Bruntt, Foged, Jørgensen & LarsBP’s
barske og kompromisløse indsats bag hvad der kun kan betegnes som
dette årtis største filmkunst. Grunden til at jeg i Cannes 2011 skabte
skandale med min post-humoristiske nazi-sympatiudmeldinger var hverken for at fjerne fokus fra hvad jeg egentlig fra min egen hånd følte var en mainstreamfilm – hvilket jeg hadede – og ej heller for at sætte mine egne manglende sociale færdigheder ud i rampelyset så skandalen kunne komme filmen til gode. Det var udelukkende i vrede over at COMFORT CLONES var blevet forbigået af en traditionsbunden presse og et indspist selskab af venstreorienterede filmkritikere, der ikke selv tåler kritik.” – Lars von Trier, Zentropa, 2011
“Rasmus Skat Andersen imponerer endnu en gang. Jeg er vild med den mand. Jeg kan ikke forklare hvorfor!’ – Steen Baastrup, DR nyhederne, 1 April 2011
Comfort Clones production photos
