Theodor Nymark
SSOP1: The Picturesque Beast,
2018-2021 (37. minutes)
Synopsis
The Picturesque Beast is a multi-narrative film that follows an anthropomorphic wolf-like figure whose purpose is to capture the sublime nature. Set in two parallel worlds, the early Danish Golden Age (romantic era) and in a not so distant hyper-technological future.
In the story, we meet the young painter Christopher FenDweller - loosely based on both the Fenriswolf and the Golden Age painter C.W Eckersberg - working in his studio at the art academy at Charlottenborg. At the studio, he is frustrated by the lack of natural content in his paintings and decides to go on a study trip to the island of Møn to explore and encapsulate the picturesque nature.
He travels by both ship and carriage to the island and upon arrival, he stays at the Liselund Old Palace and thus begins his studies of the picturesque surroundings. After some time we meet the seeres - based on the mother of the Fenriswolf, the giantess Angrboda - who enchants the protagonist through a ritual using his discarded silk scarf. During the enchantment, FenDweller faints frantically and is then after forced down towards the undomesticated forest area in which he ends at the beach of the chalk cliff of Møn and begins the gruelling disoriented processing of the surrounding raw materials such as stone, clay, chalk, seaweed and wood.
After a whole night's work he falls asleep from exhaustion and the next day three druids (Old Norse priests) appear at the beach as ordered by the seeres, then kidnaps and sacrifices FenDweller in a bog at Liselund castle, a sacrificial ritual to exemplify the protagonist's final devotion and decomposition, by and to nature.
In parallel with the primary chronological narrative, we follow the same wolf-like figure in different tableaux in which domestication and imitation of nature take place.
This includes among other: occupation in a Tesla car, 3D-scanning of a passage grave, miniature landscape modelling, bodybuilding, observations of a vertical indoor agricultural system as well as strolling around in a postmodernist nature park.
WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY
Theodor Nymark
STARRING
Theodor Nymark as Christopher Fen-Dweller
Lis Ericson as Angrboda or, the mother
Lasse Juhl as Gothi #1
Claes Juhl as Gothi #2
Lucas Amandus Nikolaisen - as Gothi #3
Emil Holtemann as man in garden
Amanda Sofie Juul Lorenzen - as woman in garden
Kristoffer Bech as saint peder
Joos Støvelbæk as the soul
Jens Høgsbro as the archeologist
VOICES
Julius Lagoutte
Anna Maria Helgadottir
Lasse Juhl
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Sophus Wolf
SOUNDDESIGN
Frej Volander Himmelstrup
MUSICAL SCORE
Theodor Nymark
EDITIOR
Josefine Svenningsen
CO-EDITOR
Theodor Nymark
COLORIST
Rune Felix Holm
COSTUME DESIGN
KLUBBEN - Linn Veronica Bonde Ljungar & Amanda Sofie Juul Lorenzen
ADDITIONAL COSTUMES
Theodor Nymark
MAKE-UP & HAIR
Aiko Ettrup Bille
SCENOGRAPHY
Theodor Nymark
PROP-MASTER
Theodor Nymark & Annette Nymark
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Simon Persson
TRANSLATOR
Julius Lagoutte
Una Gunnarsdottir
Theodor Nymark
CONSULTATION
Jens Høgsbro
Tanja Eskesen
Emil Holtemann
Michael Bank Christoffersen
Christian Gamst Miller Harris
Ditte Johanne
John Skoog
Laila Svenningsen
Thank you to
Bo Feldvoss - Liselund slot
Fanefjord Skovpavillion
Filmhus Møn
Nextfood
Sabsay Gallery
Per Werge
Lars Kristensen & Silas Emmery - photographic department of the
Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen
SPECIAL THANKS
Frej Volander, My mom and my beloved friends and family
