Jon Bang Carlsen

Directing

Jon Bang Carlsen

Born 1950-09-28 · Vedbæk, Denmark

Jon Bang Carlsen is a Danish filmmaker, director, screenwriter, producer, actor, photographer and author. In the drama/documentary "Déjà Vu" (2016) he depicts parts of his life and his filmmaking.

Acting credits

The Element of Crime poster
6.4

Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn.

The Element of Crime

1984

Født til Filmen poster
NR

What are the consequences of a young person to be famous at an early age, being a public person? "Født til Filmen" is about the Danish actress Stine Bierlich's (1967 - 2007) life and career. Through interviews with herself, with her family - Ann Bierlich (mother), Asger Leth (brother), Jørgen Leth (stepfather), friends and people from the film industry it tells us about Stine's life from being a child actress to becoming a celebrated young star of the 80's. The film is a comment on today's worshipping of stars, and how fame has almost become a drug in itself. It’s as if here’s every answer to any doubt. But as Stine's story shows, reality can actually be the opposite.

Født til Filmen

2015

No artwork available
9.5

It has hardly been seen before that a 83-year-old actor has starred in a Danish film, but it is the case here, where Kai Holm says goodbye to a long life in film and theater service. He plays an old peasant who on his deathbed is waiting for his son (Jon Bang Carlsen). In a few days he relives the village life, he comes from, and which was marked by a hard and authoritarian upbringing. He is at his father's deathbed despair because it is still impossible to make contact, and in a crisis situation, he recognizes his father's brutality in itself. The film draws a bitter picture of human relationships where dreams while they die, degenerates into power relations.

Dreams Don't Make Noise When They Die

1979

The Boys from St. Petri poster
6.5

A group of school-mates form a resistance group in nazi-occupied Denmark.

The Boys from St. Petri

1991

How to Invent Reality poster
NR

Jon Bang Carlsen's essay about his way of approaching reality with a camera. Following the filming of "It's Now or Never", the story of an Irish bachelor's quest for love, Jon Bang Carlsen elaborates on how he manipulates reality in order to get to the core of it. " Staged documentary " he calls his method.

How to Invent Reality

1996

Addicted to Solitude poster
6.5

I traveled to South Africa to find a white family living on a desolate farm. I wanted to film how they faced the new days of equality after the fall of Apartheid. But I soon lost my way both on the endless roads and in my way. Instead, the film became a story about two very different women who both experienced a tragic loss in the midst of a white community not too fond of the future.

Addicted to Solitude

1999

No artwork available
6.7

Clemens has escaped from prison. The first thing he does is seek out his wife Maria. He dreams of the two of them traveling away, but Maria does not want to. In the end, he leaves using his friend's passport.

Achilleshælen er mit våben

1979

Portrait of God poster
8.3

Portrait of God is a documentary road movie about the manhunt for the most wanted person in the world. The film is constructed as a classic detective story. A middle-aged detective shadows the suspect through the highs and lows of South African society until he ends up in a gigantic prison in Cape Town bursting with murderers, thieves, and rapists.

Portrait of God

2001

Déjà vu poster
NR

To what extent does a director stay objective and anonymously hidden behind the camera? The Danish director Jon Bang Carlsen knows for sure that the choices he makes in his films aren’t accidental. Several excerpts from his own work show that events in his personal life have a major influence on his work. In fact, he appears to be using images that he recognizes in particular. It’s a revelation for this filmmaker, who used to think he could stay objective and invisible. Topics such as doubting his faith, his runaway father and impressions from a carefree childhood are recurring themes in his diverse oeuvre. Showing us individual scenes, Carlsen comments in voice-over on the images and muses about his life and work.

Déjà vu

2015

Behind the camera

Lovely Is the Blue Sky poster
7.0

In the lead-up to Christmas 1974, an army of about seventy Santa Clauses, male and female, paraded through the city of Copenhagen, singing carols, handing out sweets and hot chocolate, and asking everyone what they wanted for Christmas. After spending a few days cementing the good image of Santa Claus, their generosity became increasingly radical. Among other things, the Santas climbed a barbed wire fence surrounding the recently shutte red General Motors assembly plant with the purpose of giving jobs back to “their rightful owners.” The week-long performance reached its crescendo inside one of Copenhagen’s biggest department stores when the Santas started handing out presents to customers directly off the shelves. The performance exposed the radical implications of the myth of Santa Claus’ boundless generosity, demonstrating that true generosity is impossible within the narrow terms of capitalist society.

Lovely Is the Blue Sky

1975

Lovely Is the Blue Sky poster
7.0

In the lead-up to Christmas 1974, an army of about seventy Santa Clauses, male and female, paraded through the city of Copenhagen, singing carols, handing out sweets and hot chocolate, and asking everyone what they wanted for Christmas. After spending a few days cementing the good image of Santa Claus, their generosity became increasingly radical. Among other things, the Santas climbed a barbed wire fence surrounding the recently shutte red General Motors assembly plant with the purpose of giving jobs back to “their rightful owners.” The week-long performance reached its crescendo inside one of Copenhagen’s biggest department stores when the Santas started handing out presents to customers directly off the shelves. The performance exposed the radical implications of the myth of Santa Claus’ boundless generosity, demonstrating that true generosity is impossible within the narrow terms of capitalist society.

Lovely Is the Blue Sky

1975

Baby Doll poster
6.7

A young woman goes on a vacation at an old farm, which once belonged to her deceased grandmother. Childhood traumas and the memories of her strict and authoritarian grandmother haunts the young woman and leads her to scary delusions and a mental breakdown.

Baby Doll

1988

Cats in Riga poster
NR

While current events are being discussed in the news and the residents of Riga are plagued by their everyday worries, cats are fully occupied with aimlessly wandering around staircases, offices, and apartments, completely indifferent to the absurd hustle and bustle of our civilization. This clever pseudo-documentary play on words comments on the role of subjectivity in our perception of the world around us.

Cats in Riga

2015

Cats in Riga poster
NR

While current events are being discussed in the news and the residents of Riga are plagued by their everyday worries, cats are fully occupied with aimlessly wandering around staircases, offices, and apartments, completely indifferent to the absurd hustle and bustle of our civilization. This clever pseudo-documentary play on words comments on the role of subjectivity in our perception of the world around us.

Cats in Riga

2015

How to Invent Reality poster
NR

Jon Bang Carlsen's essay about his way of approaching reality with a camera. Following the filming of "It's Now or Never", the story of an Irish bachelor's quest for love, Jon Bang Carlsen elaborates on how he manipulates reality in order to get to the core of it. " Staged documentary " he calls his method.

How to Invent Reality

1996

How to Invent Reality poster
NR

Jon Bang Carlsen's essay about his way of approaching reality with a camera. Following the filming of "It's Now or Never", the story of an Irish bachelor's quest for love, Jon Bang Carlsen elaborates on how he manipulates reality in order to get to the core of it. " Staged documentary " he calls his method.

How to Invent Reality

1996

How to Invent Reality poster
NR

Jon Bang Carlsen's essay about his way of approaching reality with a camera. Following the filming of "It's Now or Never", the story of an Irish bachelor's quest for love, Jon Bang Carlsen elaborates on how he manipulates reality in order to get to the core of it. " Staged documentary " he calls his method.

How to Invent Reality

1996

Carmen & Babyface poster
5.2

Set in 1962 during the Berlin crisis, the contented lifestyle of Carmen and her kid brother, whom she's nicknamed Babyface, comes to an abrupt end when their parents acrimoniously separate.

Carmen & Babyface

1995

Carmen & Babyface poster
5.2

Set in 1962 during the Berlin crisis, the contented lifestyle of Carmen and her kid brother, whom she's nicknamed Babyface, comes to an abrupt end when their parents acrimoniously separate.

Carmen & Babyface

1995

Ophelia Comes to Town poster
9.0

During a production of "Hamlet", the withdrawn lead actor and the girl playing Ophelia, who has just escaped a life of drugs and prostitution, spark an unlikely and low-key romance.

Ophelia Comes to Town

1985

Ophelia Comes to Town poster
9.0

During a production of "Hamlet", the withdrawn lead actor and the girl playing Ophelia, who has just escaped a life of drugs and prostitution, spark an unlikely and low-key romance.

Ophelia Comes to Town

1985

No artwork available
NR

Sara is a 4-year-old mentally deficient living with her parents and a little sister. Sara was never institutionalized as her parents decided that it had to be possible to live an everyday life with the child in spite of the doctors' warning that it would ruin their lives if she was not sent off to an institution.

Idiot Sara

1973

It's Now or Never poster
8.0

On the windswept planes of the Burren, fifty-something bachelor Jimmy McEvoy spends his days constructing dry stone walls and waiting for a call from the matchmaker, as he muses on life and love.

It's Now or Never

1996

It's Now or Never poster
8.0

On the windswept planes of the Burren, fifty-something bachelor Jimmy McEvoy spends his days constructing dry stone walls and waiting for a call from the matchmaker, as he muses on life and love.

It's Now or Never

1996

It's Now or Never poster
8.0

On the windswept planes of the Burren, fifty-something bachelor Jimmy McEvoy spends his days constructing dry stone walls and waiting for a call from the matchmaker, as he muses on life and love.

It's Now or Never

1996

Addicted to Solitude poster
6.5

I traveled to South Africa to find a white family living on a desolate farm. I wanted to film how they faced the new days of equality after the fall of Apartheid. But I soon lost my way both on the endless roads and in my way. Instead, the film became a story about two very different women who both experienced a tragic loss in the midst of a white community not too fond of the future.

Addicted to Solitude

1999

Addicted to Solitude poster
6.5

I traveled to South Africa to find a white family living on a desolate farm. I wanted to film how they faced the new days of equality after the fall of Apartheid. But I soon lost my way both on the endless roads and in my way. Instead, the film became a story about two very different women who both experienced a tragic loss in the midst of a white community not too fond of the future.

Addicted to Solitude

1999

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Yesterdays Heroes

2000

Time Out poster
3.3

Drama about a young Dane who has traveled to America to find the father he can hardly remember. In New Mexico he gets to know the daughter of a political-religious fanatic who runs a "survival school". The young Dane is interested in the girl and admits to school. Later, however, there will be a violent showdown with the fanatic. But was this man, in fact, his father?

Time Out

1988

Time Out poster
3.3

Drama about a young Dane who has traveled to America to find the father he can hardly remember. In New Mexico he gets to know the daughter of a political-religious fanatic who runs a "survival school". The young Dane is interested in the girl and admits to school. Later, however, there will be a violent showdown with the fanatic. But was this man, in fact, his father?

Time Out

1988

My African Diary poster
9.0

The film follows Hjalmar and Simon, the director’s sons, on a journey of discovery through a foreign land. The family has moved to South Africa, not long after the end of the rigid white apartheid regime, which brutally oppressed the country’s black population.

My African Diary

1999

My African Diary poster
9.0

The film follows Hjalmar and Simon, the director’s sons, on a journey of discovery through a foreign land. The family has moved to South Africa, not long after the end of the rigid white apartheid regime, which brutally oppressed the country’s black population.

My African Diary

1999

Next Stop - Paradise poster
5.8

A former army officer befriends an elderly, poorly, lady and encourages her to enjoy reminiscing about her youthful days.

Next Stop - Paradise

1980