The year is 1963. Beatlemania grips the world and Denmark is not immune. Against this background Bille August has made a most remarkable film about teen angst, loss and redemption.
Twist and Shout was made in 1984 but it stands the test of time well. The story revolves around two high-school friends: Bjorn and Eric. Bjorn is good-looking, vivacious and has an easy way with girls. Eric is reserved, awkward and shy. It would be easy at this point to continue along the Beatles & rock and roll motif and make a conventional movie about growing up but Bille August has painted a dark masterpiece on the sterile fabric of Danish society.
This film could be a darker progenitor—if that’s possible to imagine—of the 1999 American Beauty. The parallels are clear: nasty secrets are often hidden in the most respectable of places. In Eric’s case it is the loss of childhood because of a mother who has never gotten over her postpartum depression and spends most of her time in her nightgown in bed being spoon fed by a controlling father who has business meetings every Friday night. With frightening alacrity it becomes obvious why the mother never improves and that the father is an absolute monster. The scenes with Eric and his father are charged with such menace that I held my breath. Is he going to strike him or worst? In comparison Bjorn comes from a relatively happy, if chaotic, home. His desires in life are simple; playing the drums in a Beatles-like band and trying to dress like them. He’s pursued relentlessly by the blonde Kirstin, played with a wooden aplomb by Ulrikke Bondo, who in turn spurns Eric’s feeble advances. Into Bjorn’s life enters the altogether earthy Anna, seen at a school dance and then pursued on a bus on his moped. There is an electric chemistry between Bjorn and Anna and the scenes between them are some of the best portrayal of teenage love. Their love is consummated with horrible consequences and Anna refuses to see the heart-broken Bjorn. Kirsten seizes the opportunity and gets engaged to the listless Bjorn.
Now both Eric and Bjorn’s lives are mired in dark unhappiness. One longing for a lost love and the other watching his mother starve herself to death. They combine to try and save Eric’s mother and in a memorable scene Eric confronts his father and discovers his Friday night secret. In that minute Eric claims both his childhood that he never had and his manhood. When Hollywood next makes a “coming of age” movie, and it’s not a question of if but when, Twist and Shout should be required viewing for the director.