Barbara

Barbara has been awaited with great excitement both here in Denmark and in the Faroe Islands, where the film's story takes place. For the first time the auteur Nils Malmros has left his safe Aarhus and thrown himself into an enormous project, namely the film adaptation of Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen's classic novel Barbara. The newspaper reviews I have read are less film reviews than comparisons between novel and film. I have not read the novel, but as a film Barbara works fine.

The newly ordained priest from Copenhagen, Poul Aggersøe, is the audience's figure of identification. He becomes Barbara's last victim. When Pastor Poul arrives in Tórshavn, he is immediately warned against the priest's widow Barbara, who has already buried two husbands, both priests, and on top of that has been engaged to the dean. Pastor Poul nevertheless falls head over heels for the sensual Barbara, whose love seems so childishly innocent. What Pastor Poul does not know is that Barbara is playing a dangerous game whose cost neither he nor she herself knows, for Barbara is ruled by her urges and her frivolity. She can never settle down, not even once she has married Pastor Poul. When he returns after a spell in a remote parish, Barbara is carrying on with the smart young economics student Andreas Heyde. Andreas's uncle, the magistrate Johan Hendrik, makes sure that his nephew is immediately shipped off to Copenhagen, so for the first time it is Barbara who is abandoned. This leads to a tragic ending for the desired and enigmatic woman.

There is great acting in every role, so it is not just the two leads who come into their own. Malmros himself has compared Barbara with Kirsten from "Pain of Love". Both women have a very intense emotional life, and in a way they are like irresponsible children who wish no one any harm, but nevertheless cause a great deal of harm through their thoughtless actions.

The powerful Faroese landscape also plays a considerable role, partly as a contrast to the action in the small, dark, claustrophobic rooms, and partly as a parallel to Barbara's nature.