Two early films from Danish art-house director Bille August (a graduate of the Danish Film Institute) have come to DVD courtesy of those fine folk over at Home Vision. Twist And Shout and Zappa are two of his earliest films, and until recently, haven't been easy to find for North American fans.

Twist And Shout is a Danish coming of age story set in 1963. Bjorn (Adam Tonsberg) and Erik (Lars Simonsen) are best friends growing up, until Bjorn catches the attention of Kirsten, but actually falls for Anna. He and Anna become intimate and fall in love. Meanwhile, Erik is going through some personal stress, as he has to take care of his mother who is mentally ill and unable to really leave the house. His rules is no help at all and is more interested in disciplining his son than helping his wife.

Erik falls in love with Kirsten, but he doesn't really have a shot at it. It all ties together in a compelling fashion as one girl ends up pregnant and some surprising revelations come to light about Erik's father which leads to Erik and Bjorn putting things behind them and standing up together.

Twist And Shout is an interesting melodrama with equal touches of humor, sadness, and remorse. August creates characters we can relate to and care for (who among us didn't get all flowery and disillusioned the first time they fell in love as a teenager?) which makes for a compelling story. When the family dynamics come into play things get a little darker but remain just as interesting and the stark, typically cold and clinical looking cinematography captures the atmosphere quite nicely.

With Zappa, a film made a year before Twist And Shout (and serving as a sort of prequal to it)), Bille August turns in another coming of age story, this time set in a Copenhagen suburb sometime in the late fifties. The three central characters, Steen (Peter Reichhardt), Bjorn (Adam Tonsberg) and Mulle (Morten Hoff) are the focus of the film. Steen is a rich kid with little to worry about, Bjorn is typical middle class boy, and Mulle is lower class and a bit on the heavy side with a tendency to compensate for this with his sense of humor.

The three boys form a club of sorts and ultimately, one of them exerts influence over another and causes an intense act of violence to happen. The three have to deal with this whether they like it or not and of course, they learn that there are consequences to such things.

Despite dealing with children and violence, August doesn't pull any punches and Zappa, at times, is a pretty intense piece or work (and in my opinion, superior to Twist And Shout which Home Vision for some reason decided to give top billing to on this release). The characters, once again, are ones that we can relate to. Everyone knew a rich kid and a poor kid in school, and most of us were either one of them, or, more likely, middle class – just like Bjorn (the recurring character in both films).

While neither of these films are going to hit it big with a mainstream audience, if you appreciate well-constructed characters in realistic situations then they're worth checking out. Both films are very well done with nice camera work and interesting sets and metaphors scattered throughout. If nothing else, they'll at least make you think about things and maybe even take you back to some specific instances from your own pre-teen years.

Video:

Both films are given new 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfers that, while not perfect, are quite nice. There is some mild grain and print damage noticeable here and there but none of it is drastic enough to suck you out of the film or ruin the viewing experience. The color schemes are well balanced and natural looking while transfer issues like compression artifacts and edge enhancement aren't much of an issue at all, save for a few moments where there is some mild shimmering noticeable on screen.