Rikki og mændene

Matador is a Danish TV series produced and shown between 1978 and 1982. It is set in the fictional Danish town of Korsbæk between 1929 and 1947. It follows the lives of a range of characters from across the social spectrum, focusing specifically on the rivalry between the families of two businessmen: The banker Hans Christian Varnæs, an established local worthy, and social climber Mads Skjern, who arrives in town as the series opens. The name Matador was taken from the localised edition of the boardgame Monopoly, also the series' tentative English title. In addition, in contemporary Danish a "matador" is often used to describe a business tycoon, in the series referring to the character of Mads Skjern and his craftiness as a self-made entrepreneur. Directed by famed Danish film maker Erik Balling, Matador was the idea of author Lise Nørgaard who wrote the bulk of the episodes alongside Karen Smith, Jens Louis Petersen and Paul Hammerich. The series is one of the most well-known and popular examples of Danish television and represents the peak of longtime development of Danish TV drama by the public service channel Danmarks Radio. The series has become part of the modern self-understanding of Danes, partly because of its successful mix of melodrama and a distinct warm Danish humour in the depiction of characters, which were portrayed by a wide range of the most popular Danish actors at the time; but also not least because of its accurate portrayal of a turbulent Denmark from around the start of the Great Depression and through Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark in World War II.

In a Danish village in the early 1600s, a young woman named Anne, whose mother was thought to be a witch, develops sympathy toward an old woman, Marte, who is accused of witchcraft. The intervention of Anne's older but kindly husband, Pastor Absalon saved her mother -- but now, urged on by his overbearing mother, he refuses to help Marte. When Absalon's son returns home and is attracted to Anne, it's a matter of time before her family destiny catches up with her.

Drama about a young woman who is diagnosed with cancer. We follow her journey and her relationship with her husband and their two children until she dies.

In this Danish suspense film, the foibles of the psychological helping professions are wryly surveyed. A woman has murdered her husband. That's clear enough. Now the woman is in a psychiatric hospital because it seemed clear to the judges that she was not fully competent. Her doctor, who is helping her a great deal, has problems of his own. First, he is against the cookie-cutter treatment practices of his hospital, second, he is on shaky mental ground himself. Then he violates his therapeutic ethics by carrying on an affair with the woman he is treating.

The young siblings at the Hejrenæs estate, Vibeke and Hans-Henrik, have always gotten along well, so Hans-Henrik decides to celebrate his sister's 21st birthday with a big party at the estate. During the party, the siblings' childhood friend, Ulla, provokes an engagement with Hans-Henrik, and at the same party, Vibeke learns that she is "only" an adopted child. From that day on, Vibeke realizes that she is in love with Hans-Henrik, and suddenly the stage is set for a sharp conflict between Ulla and Vibeke.

During the filming of a movie in Køge, Lise accidentally knocks down the director, Dan Burling. When the film crew leaves Køge, Dan invites Lise to come to the city. When Lise shows up in Copenhagen, she thinks she has been offered a role in a movie, while Dan was hoping to find a new housekeeper. Lise becomes Dan's housekeeper, and soon her love for him grows. He, on the other hand, only has eyes for himself. While completing his film dream, Dan saves script girl Irma from burning to death in the editing room. Meanwhile, Lise has decided to leave Copenhagen.

Director Max Kildal's private life has gone completely topsy-turvy. The two women of the house, his wife Louise and daughter Vibeke, throw him around in the ring when they play their rich girl intrigue game. Max is completely and utterly subject to the tyranny of women. At least for Max, no one is interested. And yet. One day he realizes that he is appreciated by his secretary - and then he shows his trump card to the women at home.

This film could easily be a true story taken from contemporary Denmark. It is a typical Tuesday morning: stormy weather, slush, and bitter cold. Two young women are cycling to work. They make an unpleasant discovery: they find a dead man on a bench in the park.

A French housekeeper with a mysterious past brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late 19th century Denmark.

The married couple Pierre and Eva live in a conventional middle-class environment, but Pierre increasingly feels alienated from people and things.

After World War II, Europe lies in ruins and help is desperately needed everywhere. One person trying to make a difference is Dr. Jørgen Vedel, who travels with the Red Cross to Vienna to vaccinate children. There he meets Leni, a girl who has been to Auschwitz, where she lost her mother. Jørgen arranges for Leni to come to Denmark, where she can start a whole new life.

Lau Lauritzen plays an ordinary architect, with a wife and a son. He gets accused for killing a 10-year old girl, and of course nobody doubts he's the one. Even his wife and his uncle has trouble believing him, but at least they don't tell him.

The young successful author Eva Saabye surprises both her publisher William Nerup and the literary critic Dr. Hennings, who is a good friend of hers, by not wanting to publish the last book she has written. One day Eva takes the manuscript for her novel out of the drawer, and as she starts leafing through it, we are drawn into its plot. The book, titled "I Met a Murderer", has Eva Saabye as one of the main characters.

Jacob and Else Svendsen are a happily married couple. He is a taxi driver and experiences the small and big events of the big city in a way that only a man behind the wheel of a taxi with the whole city as his workplace can. But a shadow hangs over their marriage – a shadow from the past. Else was married once before, but had to divorce because her former husband, Eigil Rasmussen, suffered from pathological jealousy.

Frederik Larsen (Lau Lauritzen Jr.), a sailor and has sailed since he was 15. Now he has lost the desire for a sailor life, especially after his best friend Bob was lost in a hurricane. When his ship docks at Copenhagen, shortly before Christmas, he signs off with all his hire on the pocket. He seeks accommodations in sailor home Bertel, located on the nice side of Nyhavn. Here he can stay and eat for very little money. He delivers his kitbag to the concierge Henrik (Mogens Hermansen) before he was lured by accordion music and the laughter that comes to him from the "naughty" side of Nyhavn. In the Cafe "The black sails", he accidently joins Inger (Lisbeth Movin) at the same table, whose profession is not in the phone book, although it is the world's oldest. Inger is in the company of an unemployed stoker Vladimir W. Olsen (Poul Reichhardt) that is full of scams, and has a good mood.

Torben Skjødt Jensen’s elegant documentary is a collage of memories and reflections on one of cinema’s greatest directors. Visually rich and densely layered, Carl Th. Dreyer—My Metier illuminates an artist too little understood and too important to overlook. Through interviews, historical writings, and rare archival footage, a portrait of Dreyer emerges: an austere perfectionist, yes, but also a passionate man possessing a genuine sense of humor.