MEN & CHICKEN: Anders Thomas Jensen Director Profile

Did you know that Anders Thomas Jensen is one of the filmmaking community's most prolific screenwriters? It's true!

Go check out his IMDB profile. We'll wait.

See what we mean? Since 1996 he's written 50 screenplays. That's like, a LOT of screenplays.

Some of these scripts have been for hugely successful and/or critically acclaimed films: Mifune's Last Song, In China They Eat Dogs, Open Hearts, Stealing Rembrandt, and Brothers. Several of these films have been directed by Danish dynamo Susanne Bier. More recently Jensen wrote A Second Chance (with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Kristian Levring's epic Western The Salvation (with Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Eva Green).

Although Jensen has only directed four of his own screenplays, that doesn't mean that those four movies are any less wonderful.

All right boys, we're gonna swim the HELL out of this lake!

Flickering Lights sets the stage for Jensen's ability to elicit empathy towards the most screwed up, unlikable characters you can imagine. It's also terrifically funny and touching, but not maudlin or cliché.

Mads Mikkelsen's very bald forehead just needs a few minutes to collect itself.

The Green Butchers was Jensen's next directorial effort and like Flickering Lights, itincludes Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Ole Thestrup, and Nicolas Bro. And nothing on the menu is vegetarian.

Hannibal Lecter is amused by your cannibal references.

Did you eat the last cookie?

Adam's Apples, again starring Mikkelsen, Thestrup, Bro, and Kaas, is another movie about severely dysfunctional people led by a dysfunctional pastor whose dysfunction is literally the only thing keeping them all from complete mental breakdowns. It's a whole lot funnier than it probably sounds and again, is surprisingly poignant.

The cheese will never stand alone if these three have anything to say about it.

Men & Chicken takes the same Jensen trademarks and amps them up to become even crazier and more hilarious and perhaps most shocking of all, genuinely heartwarming.

Don't miss Men & Chicken's final screening. It's a movie you won't soon forget. Trust us. We know these things.

MEN & CHICKEN Final Screening!
Sun. Sept 20, 3:30 PM SCOTIABANK 1

MEN & CHICKEN Premieres Tonight!

Fans of Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen and Mads Mikkelsen and chickens rejoice! Men & Chicken premieres tonight!

You've seen Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter cooking and eating people on Hannibal, and you might have even seen a poultrygeist version of Jack Nicholson doing strange things in a theme park in The Chickening, but Men & Chicken is a wholly other animal. Possibly a chicken. We can't be sure.

Knowing the unique personas that Mikkelsen has created for Jensen on film, there will be dark, twisted comedy. There will also be at least one giant block of cheese, there will be moustaches, there will be tennis whites, and there will be chickens.

MEN & CHICKEN Screening Times:
Mon. Sept 14, 9:00 PM SCOTIABANK 1
Wed. Sept 16, 10:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sun. Sept 20, 3:30 PM SCOTIABANK 1

Mads Mikkelsen in Danish Cinema

Although many audiences know Mikkelsen as the titular character on NBC's Hannibal, or the brooding Bond villain Le Chiffre in 2006's Casino Royale, his work in his home country of Denmark is extensive and impressive, with several movies as well as a television series under his belt. 

Coming to Vanguard in the next coming days--Mikkelsen will star as Elias in the Anders Thomas Jensen-directed dark comedy Men & Chicken, a story of two brothers who seek out their father (who is known among elders as "The Wiener of Death.")

Looking for a little more Mikkelsen in your life? (But really, aren't we all?) Then check out some of his other work in Danish cinema: 

Pusher - 1996 

One of the first big roles that Mikkelsen has on his resume is as Tonny the drug dealer in 1996's Pusher. There are three movies in the Pusher series, all depicting the dark under-belly of Copenhagen. Tonny is a low-level criminal, who is deeply affected by drugs and his relationship with his cynical father.

Open Hearts (Elsker dig for evigt) - 2002

Open Hearts follows two couples who are tangled in a web of unfortunate circumstances, immediately following a car crash. Joachim is wounded by the other driver Marie in the crash, making him hospital-bound indefinitely. Marie's husband Niels (Mikkelsen) is a doctor treating Joachim, but in the process falls in love with Joachim's fiancee, and they have an affair. Open Hearts is also a TIFF alumni! 

The Hunt (Jagten) - 2012 

Mikkelsen stars as the lonely teacher Lucas, who is trying to get his life together during a lengthy custody battle for his son. When things are starting to look up finally, his life crumbles when a little girl tells a seriously damaging lie about Lucas, saying that he was sexually inappropriate to her. This film is definitely not for those who are adverse to sad cinema, but it is a captivating story with some of Mikkelsen's best work (especially during the Christmas church scene). 

MEN & CHICKEN screens: 

Mon, Sept 14, 9:00 PM SCOTIABANK

Wed, Sept 16, 10:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Sun, Sept 20, 3:30 PM SCOTIABANK 

MEN & CHICKEN First Look: Poster and Trailer

Writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen returns with his dark comedy Men & Chicken, which is coming to Vanguard this September. The film follows two brothers who discover unsettling secrets about their family by seeking out their father, who is known among elders as "The Wiener of Death."

Do we have your attention yet?

Check out the trailer, complete with chickens, laugh-out-loud quick dialogue and Hannibal's Mads Mikkelsen.

MEN & CHICKEN screens:
Mon, Sept 14, 9:00 PM SCOTIABANK
Wed, Sept 16, 10:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sun, Sept 20, 3:30 PM SCOTIABANK