La Communauté

Arather quality European drama from a renowned director, the movie The Commune is an acting spectacle of Trine Dyrholm, to whom the community she lives in got beyond. Thomas Vinterberg has convinced me many times that the Danish cinematography is one of the most realistic in Europe. The Commune is however a crazier trip than the lives of many of us. On the other hand, I’m not surprised that it was the Danish filmmakers who came up with it because the hippie attitude of the Danes concerning life, the fact that they are the happiest nation in Europe and at the same time they’re dominant in the usage of antidepressants with its free thinking, not arguing and personal freedom, have to conclude in personal failure and depression. (03/04/2019)

For all the enthusiasm I've been able to muster for other Vinterberg films, I find The Commune to be an outright disappointment. It may hold up as a retro flashback, but most viewers lack the context to really understand how far the film's subject matter is from the mood of Copenhagen's suburbs at the time. That leaves a story about one big ego that is just mind-numbing and sad. A better mastery of the theme can be found in And If We All Lived Together. (16/01/2021)

I had a very good impression of the acting performances because they felt natural to me, yet all along, you have the feeling that it's strongly emotive, that it's quite pressing on the emotional side. I'm not sure if it was necessary to have the whole commune there, if fewer characters had been enough, maybe it would have been even better, but this way, more actors could have had a chance to shine. And they did well. (03/08/2017)

I'm so ignorant! It wasn't until I was about halfway through that it dawned on me that I was probably watching a drama by my favorite Danish director. The Commune undoubtedly has its merits, including excellent performances by the central wannabe free-thinking couple of Trine Dyrholm and Ulrich Thomsen, but it is probably the weakest film I have seen from Thomas Vinterberg so far. Even so, I still rate it positively. In my opinion, the possibility that the community of people as presented here would have a chance of actually functioning to the satisfaction of all members is zero, which is confirmed especially in the last third of the film. The idea is tempting, but I would never go to such an establishment myself, if only because I like my privacy and the intimacy of a partner relationship. (70%) (07/05/2020)