''Bleeder'' is a 1999 Danish

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

written and directed by

Nicolas Winding Refn Nicolas Winding Refn (; born 29 September 1970), also known as Jang, is a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for his collaborations with Mads Mikkelsen, Tom Hardy and Ryan Gosling. He gained great success early in h ...

. The film was successful in Denmark, but did not live up to the success of Refn's previous film '' Pusher''.

Plot

The film follows the friends Leo and Lenny, who live in

Nørrebro Nørrebro (, ) is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is northwest of the city centre, beyond the location of the old Northern Gate (''Nørreport''), which, until dismantled in 1856, was near the current Nørreport statio ...

, a working-class neighborhood in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

. Leo lives in a rundown apartment with his girlfriend Louise. Lenny is a shy and quiet film expert who works with his and Leo's mutual friend Kitjo, in a video store that rents out

art film An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

s as well as a huge collection of pornographic films. As a subplot, we follow Lenny, who is trying to build a relationship to Lea, a girl that works in a local grill bar. Lenny asks Lea out to see a movie, but he chickens out when he sees her at the theatre. Lenny spends most of his time both at home and at work watching films. When Leo finds out that Louise is pregnant and wants to keep the baby, he becomes more and more aggressive. After witnessing a beating at a club he gets himself a gun. During a normal film night, Leo pulls a gun on Lenny and Kitjo. Leo berates Lenny for his life style, and expresses his disdain for his own life, feeling trapped in a dead end. Later Leo, in despair, hits Louise, and is threatened by her brother, Louis. When it happens again, Louise loses the baby. Louis takes a gruesome revenge by injecting HIV infected blood into Leo's body. Leo retaliates in an equally gruesome manner, shooting Louis in the stomach, then shooting off his own hand and letting the blood drip into Louis' wound. Leo then commits suicide. Kitjo brings Lenny to Leo's funeral but Lenny cannot bring himself to go. Life continues, and Lenny casually tells Kitjo that he has been offered a job in another store, but does not think he will accept as he has to change his routine. Lenny seeks up Lea again. They both seem shy towards each other, and have trouble communicating. Lenny asks Lea out a second time; the final image of the film shows them alone in the grill/bar where Lea works thus ending the film on a hopeful note.

Cast

''Bleeder'' features a relatively small

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast t ...

, where the most of the actors, except Corfixen and Andersson, previously starred in Refn's debut film ''Pusher''. Jensen only had a small role in ''Pusher'', his role in ''Bleeder'' is more developed. *

Kim Bodnia Kim Bodnia (born 12 April 1965) is a Danish actor, writer, and director. He became widely known for his role as police detective Martin Rohde in the Scandinavian crime drama series '' The Bridge''. He became internationally known for his lead role ...

- Leo *

Mads Mikkelsen Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen, (; born 22 November 1965) is a Danish actor. Originally a gymnast and dancer, he rose to fame in Denmark as an actor for his roles such as Tonny in the first two films of the ''Pusher'' film trilogy (1996, 2004), D ...

- Lenny * Rikke Louise Andersson - Louise * Levino Jensen - Louis *

Liv Corfixen Liv Corfixen (born 13 January 1973) is a Danish actress and documentary filmmaker. Early life Corfixen is the daughter of cinematographer Teit Jørgensen and actress and editor Lizzie Corfixen. But in a French Interview her husband Nicolas Windi ...

- Lea *

Zlatko Burić Zlatko Burić (born 13 May 1953) is a Croatian-Danish actor. He was born in Osijek where he was educated at the Dramski Studio in 1972. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Burić belonged to the experimental theater group Kugla Glumište (formed in 1 ...

- Kitjo * Claus Flygare - Joe * Marko Zecewic - Marko * Gordana Radosavljevic - Mika * Dusan Zecewic - Dusan * Ole Abildgaard - Video shop customer * Karsten Schrøder - Røde * Sven Erik Eskeland Larsen - Svend

Soundtrack

Music is used heavily throughout the entire film. The soundtrack features many Danish artists, including

Peter Peter Peter Peter may refer to: *Peter Peter (Canadian musician) (born 1984), Canadian singer-songwriter *Peter Peter (Danish musician) Peter Schneidermann better known as Peter Peter (born 12 August 1960) is a Danish rock musician and former member ...

Jesper Binzer D-A-D is a Danish rock band. They were originally named Disneyland After Dark, but changed their name to avoid a lawsuit from The Walt Disney Company. History In the early 1980s in Copenhagen, D-A-D started playing together under their orig ...

, Lovebites and Düreforsög.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bleeder 1999 films 1999 crime drama films Danish crime drama films 1990s Danish-language films Films about domestic violence Films directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Films set in Copenhagen Films shot in Denmark Scanbox Entertainment films