Cinema for me is…

Linnea in 10 frames

1. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
   As a child, I was obsessed with the American caper film The Sting (1973), directed by George Roy Hill. It had it all: an exciting plot, pretty costumes and a bad guy who got his comeuppance in the end. It introduced me fairly early in life to the pleasure that a really well-crafted plot can inspire.
2. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
   Onkel (2019) by René Frelle Pedersen: the completely understated story of a young woman and her uncle as they live out their quiet lives in rural Denmark.
   Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God (2021): a visually stunning story of a young boy growing into manhood. A wonderful and heartbreaking depiction of love, family and grief.
   Delicatessen (1991) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro: a perfectly dark and absurd scifi-film that is both hilarious and unsettling.
3. What does Europe mean to you?
   To me, Europe means unity despite differences; that we are able to understand each other despite cultural and linguistic boundaries.
4. What do you like the most about your country that makes it unique?
   I love the Danish sense of humour – it’s fairly sarcastic and not everybody understands it.
5. Your favourite film theatre? What do you like about it?
   My favourite film theatre is the one in my hometown because I have been going there my whole life. Even back in kindergarten, we went there to watch cartoons and later, I hosted a birthday party there. Since, I’ve had many great cinematic experiences in there. It’s got a lovely, old-fashioned entrance-hall with red velvet curtains and only has the capacity to screen one film at the time, so you always know that those in there with you are waiting to watch the same thing as you are.
6. What is your dream job in the film industry?
   If I could magically be anything that I want within the film industry, I’d like to be a scriptwriter and director, because I have a lot of stories that I want to tell – and because I like being in charge.
7. Which film director would you like to be?
   I once listened to a podcast with British Emerald Fennell and Carey Mulligan, the director and lead actor of Promising Young Woman. Although I’m not sure I’d want to be Emerald Fennell per say, I really liked the way they spoke about their collaboration, the way they had approached building realistic characters and the bringing the characters of the script to life.
8. Which film character do you most identify with?
   I’m not sure of which one I identify the most with, but a moment of identification that I remember vividly was when I watched A Very Long Engagement (2004), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet: the protagonist Mathilde watches a car drive past and begins running, telling herself that, if she reaches it before it turns out onto the main road, her fiancé Manech will survive the war. I recognised myself in that behaviour and was really touched by that sense of identification.
9. Your favourite soundtrack or song?
   Other than The Sting’s legendary ragtime soundtrack, I love Annie Lennox’s original songs for both Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), called “Love Song for a Vampire,” and the one she recorded for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King titled “Into the West.”
10. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
    I think I’d like to live in the world of Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name (2017): a life in the sun-drenched Italian countryside, with family dinners beneath orange trees and lots of classical history.

Linnea Heydenreich is the Ambassador of Grand Teatret. Find out more about the Cinema here.