Oscar winners in the cinema – tipsy, intoxicated, drunk: a three-step plan for a good high

Alcohol can also be good – that’s what “Drunk” is about. And there was an Oscar for that. We wanted to know from director Thomas Vinterberg: Does he have a recipe for well-dosed alcohol consumption?

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Thomas Vinterberg – the stroke of fate

«Drunk» from Denmark has just been recognized as the best international film at the Oscars. The author and director was Thomas Vinterberg. The tragic comedy tells of a teacher, played by Mads Mikkelsen, who wants to achieve more joy in life and better performance with alcohol – and of course fails.

One of the Dane’s strongest recent films is the Oscar-nominated drama “Jagten” (2012), in which a kindergarten teacher is accused of abuse (also starring Mads Mikkelsen). Thomas Vinterberg dedicated the film “Drunk”, as well as the Oscar, in an emotional acceptance speech to his daughter Ida, who died in a car accident four days after filming started at the age of 19.

The conversation with Thomas Vinterberg took place before the Oscars were awarded.

Thomas Vinterberg – the interview

When you announced “Der Rausch” at the Berlinale, you predicted a stream of shit because of the celebration of alcohol. Now you get the best reviews and prices for it.

Thomas Vinterberg: The project has changed. At the beginning the idea was to tell something sensational, slightly provocative about alcohol. Churchill, for example, sent 200,000 civilians to war. He wasn’t drunk when he made that decision, but probably not sober either. Then I realized how much more fascinating is how this accepted drug can inspire people and be deadly at the same time. Drinking destroys families and societies. I wanted to tell the whole story about alcohol. After that I got even more ambitious: It’s no longer just about alcohol, it’s about life. About allowing yourself the uncontrollable.

Is this story true with Churchill or is it a legend?

We don’t know if this story is true. But many contemporary witnesses tell of his preference for champagne for breakfast. To me, his plan doesn’t sound like a drunk idea. Rather, it’s a very courageous and convincingly irrational plan.

“You get exactly such ideas in the stage between sober and drunk.”

Your film drinkers refer to the Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, according to which permanent alcohol consumption increases performance. Does this drinker-thinker exist or did you invent it?

Finn Skårderud exists, his theory has existed for 20 years and he still stands by it today. He says alcohol makes you braver and more creative, but he means that polemically. I met him and he was thrilled that we were taking up his theory in the film. Most of all, he liked the fact that we didn’t put a moral message on this topic.

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Actors who play drunks rarely come across as believable. How did you solve the problem, with real alcohol for the actors?

The actors didn’t drink alcohol while shooting – I don’t know what they did in the caravan during the breaks (laughs). You wouldn’t get through a twelve-hour day of filming if you were drunk. Playing a drunk guy means hard work and a lot of research:

“We watched a lot of Russian videos on Youtube.”

Up to a certain alcohol level, the point is to hide the drunkenness and to pretend to be sober: You move very precisely. More alcohol makes things difficult, then movement becomes a tragic ballet.

For a happy ending, Mads Mikkelsen is allowed to show what he once learned at dance school. How did this happy conclusion come about?

You get things like that as a bonus when you write roles for people you know well. For this reason, I almost always write my characters with familiar actors in the background. With Mads, I knew about his dancer’s past and I wanted to show how his character literally freed itself with this dance.

Dancing instead of drinking, would that be the message of the film for you?

I have no message! But my own lesson would be: Allow the uncontrollable in life! Falling in love or developing ideas works better without control. One should dare more risk and curiosity in life.

Not only your film heroes succeed in this risk, especially with alcohol …

That’s right, I wanted to explore this phenomenon in the film. Let’s do a thought experiment: What if God had created the world without alcohol? I’m sure we would have found another way to the uncontrollable.

What would have happened if your characters had kept to the 0.5-alcohol limit. At this level, weren’t they actually much better?

I’ve learned that alcohol comes in phases. In level 1, the person becomes an exceptionally winged version of themselves. In level 2, you have to drink to be yourself again. Because now you are a lousy version of yourself and need alcohol to return to your original state. The transition from phase 1 to 2 happens imperceptibly. Finally, in stage 3 there are physical problems if one does not drink. That’s why I recommend staying at level one. If you are honest with yourself, you will see how close you are to level 2: You need your wine with your meal in order to be less in a bad mood. Or you drink your bottle of red every evening. This is where you should stop, and do so for a long time. This is the only way to get back to level 1.

The intoxication – the short discussion of our film critic Regina Grüter

Unfortunately not much more than good mood cinema

Four high school teacher friends celebrate in the restaurant. Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) is dejected. He’s become a bore. Nikolaj, who teaches psychology, brings the theory of a Norwegian psychiatrist into play: If you drink sensibly, it increases self-confidence and life is more fun. The four want to test the theory in practice and examine the effects on professional and psychosocial skills. The idea was neither sober nor drunk. Soon 0.5 per mille is no longer enough, and the whole experimental set-up gets out of hand.

The idea is great! It’s about loss of control, says Thomas Vinterberg. There is no trace of this in the very conventional cinematic implementation. Vinterberg is not looking for new forms – the advocate of the “Dogma 95” manifesto still does not believe in alienation from reality. Not really of dramaturgical predictability either; but he cannot redeem that. One can confidently call «Drunk» a good mood film, which is not a bad thing. What does he mean by that? Maybe: You can also celebrate and be exuberant. So drink up guys! But please controlled.

Movie trailers and information

«Drunk» (DK 2020, 117 Min.); Director: Thomas Vinterberg; in the cinema from Thursday