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DVDfever.co.uk – Flame & Citron Blu-ray review Dom Robinson reviews
Metrodome Blu-ray: 
DVD:
- Cert:
- Running time: 136 minutes
- Cat no: MTDBD5462
- Year: 2008
- Released: June 2009
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12 plus extras
- Picture: 1080p High Definition
- Sound: DTS 5.1
- Languages: German
- Subtitles: English for hearing impaired
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99 (DVD), £19.99 (Blu-ray)
- Extras: Interviews, A Nation Under Occupation, Theatrical Trailer
- Vote and comment on this film: View Comments
Director:
- Ole Christian Madsen
(Flame & Citron, Nordkraft, Prague, TV: Rejseholdet)
Producer:
- Lars Bredo Rahbek
Screenplay:
- Lars K. Andersen and Ole Christian Madsen
Original Score :
- Karsten Fundal
Cast :
- Flame: Thure Lindhardt
Citron: Mads Mikkelsen
Ketty Selmer: Stine Stengade
Askel Winther: Peter Mygind
Bodil: Mille Lehfeldt
Hoffman: Christian Berkel
Gilbert: Hanns Zischler
Bananen: Claus Riis Østergaard
Spex: Flemming Enevold
Raven: Lars Mikkelsen
It’s the Second World War, and Flame & Citron are two men who work tirelessly as part of the Danish resistance to stop the Nazis occupying Copenhagen.
Flame (Thure Lindhardt) and Citron (Mads Mikkelsen, best known for Casino Royale) kill Nazi sympathisers and those in the media who spout Nazi propaganda, with help from Aksel Winther (Peter Mygind), a police solicitor who has access to everything confidential in the police. Also thrown into the mix is a woman who becomes very important to Flame, Ketty Selmer (Stine Stengade), a courier, carrying information to and from Stockholm and Copenhagen, although it takes a bit of time before she admits to that.
It’s not just men who they’re sent to eliminate and we learn that Flame can’t bring himself to kill women after a mishap in the past, which leaves it to Citron to do the honours. However, things never go to plan and the cold-hearted way assassinations are sometimes carried out are more shocking than many things you’ll see in film. Citron, himself, has his own problems in the form of a difficult home life with his wife and daughter.
They’re eventually told to stop killing Nazis, and that the Nazis have also been told likewise of the Danes, but Flame & Citron don’t want to listen. However, can all of this continue to go on without revenge attacks from the other side? What we do know is that there’s a traitor in their midst and lots of double-crossing going on, so you never know who’s trying to get one over on the two leads until it’s revealed.
Based on actual events, overall, Flame & Citron is an interesting film but less is more. It does drag a bit at times and would’ve served much better being around half-an-hour shorter.
The look and feel of the period in this film is so damn stylish and represents exactly what you’d expect to see. The entire frame is well used and would suffer if the 2.35:1 widescreen image were to be cropped, especially given how crystal clear it looks. I love the use of cool camera angles in it when setting a scene, which aides the dark tone of the film, and it gives me the same buzz as if I’m watching a classy CGI cutscene in, say, a Hitman game. For the record, I’m watching on a Panasonic 37″ Plasma screen.
The sound comes in DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1. I went for the former and it certainly stands out when it needs to in the gunfight scenes, but there’s a lot of drama and chat here so it won’t be one to use as a consistent demo disc. Ambience and dialogue comes across clearly also.
The extras are as follows:
- Interviews: Three here. One each with Mads Mikkelsen (11:49), Thure Lindhardt (13:16) and director Ole Christian Madsen (22:42) The first begins mainly a series of clips of the film with interview snippets from all three, but soon concentrates on Mads, with clips of his films to date and more comment from the man himself. After a few minutes, it turns into a Q&A in front of an audience who have just seen the film. This is from The Fabulous Picture Show for Al Jazeera Television.
The latter two are done as more conventional pieces to camera, and all are presented in English.
- A Nation Under Occupation: Six pages of text about the Nazi occupation of Denmark and the Danish resistance which built up. It does make for interesting reading as I’d known nothing about the Danish resistance until now, and there’s a segment that tells how they sabotaged the railways between Denmark and France which stopped the Germans getting to Normandy after D-Day, which helped make the beach landings a success.
- Theatrical Trailer (2:01): Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1. Haven’t watched this again after the film you can see the key events it features, although they’re not instantly apparent prior to seeing it.
The disc menu features a short piece of the theme going round over and over again, against a mostly-static backdrop with some subtle animation. Subtitles are in English only – and enabled by default without being turnoffable – and there are just 12 chapters throughout the film which really isn’t enough for a film of this length. I always work on a rule of thumb of one every five minutes plus opening/end credits, so you’re looking at approx 30 here being good.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.