Originally published June 15, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
The Spider (Edderkoppen), 2000.
Directed by Ole Christian Madsen.
Starring Jakob Cedergren, Stina Stengade, Lars Mikkelsen, Bjarne Henriksen, Trine Dyrholm and Nikolaj Lie Kaas.
SYNOPSIS:
Copenhagen 1949. A young and idealistic journalist attempts to uncover the source of a shadowy black market operation working its way around the city.
The Spider (Edderkoppen) is another noir influenced release from Arrow Films. Focusing on the post WW2 period of late 40’s Copenhagen, the mini-series of six tautly wound episodes provides plenty of shady goings-on in the Danish capital.
Taking classic noir tropes and putting them to effective use, the serial follows the case of young journalist Bjarne Madsen (Jakob Cedergren) as he attempts to investigate Copenhagen’s black market. The series introduces all sorts of complexities into the equation, with familial guilt about collaboration with the Nazis during the war also raising all sorts of problems and internal dynamics.
The 1 hour episodes include a lavish attention to detail, with each one reported to have cost around 1 million dollars, a huge amount for a Danish TV production of the late 90’s. Interiors and fashions are simply superb, with the kind of perfectionism that we have to come to expect from more recent Scandinavian TV and film productions.
The show also makes use of a wealth of Danish talent including many actors who would go on to appear in later dramas such as The Killing, Borgen and The Legacy. Nordic Noir devotees can play a sort of guess who game as each scene begins, with many faces familiar to fans of the wildly successful export.
Out now on DVD, The Spider ranks highly as a spectacle of some distinction and brings a period of Danish history to the screen that English speakers may not have preciously been too knowledgeable about. Well worth seeing out.
Robert W Monk is a freelance journalist and film writer
https://youtu.be/yIuEu1m0p2M?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
