The Man who thought life Blu-ray Limited Slipcover Edition
THE MAN WHO THOUGHT LIFE (MANDEN DER TÆNKTE TING) – 1969, Danish Film Inst., 97 min. A long-overlooked gem of late 1960s Sci-Fi, Danish director Jens Ravn’s eerie, hypnotic thriller opens on a respected doctor, Max Holst (Preben Neergaard) who is brought in to examine an enigmatic, arrogant man, Steinmetz (John Price). Steinmetz can miraculously make objects materialize by focusing his mind (including an expensive cigar, in the film’s recurring leitmotif). When he attempts to blackmail Dr. Holst into performing surgery to expand this sinister brainpower, Holst refuses – and Steinmetz calls to “life” a mirror image that sets out to destroy the doctor’s willpower. Brilliantly shot in B&W Scope by cinematographer Witold Leszczyński, with a disturbing minimalist score by Per Nørgaard (BABETTE’S FEAST), the film has the angular 60s Mod / Sci-Fi vibe of films like THE UNKNOWN MAN OF SHANDIGOR and TIME OF ROSES (both Deaf Crocodile releases) and British TV shows like “The Prisoner” and “The Avengers,” with labyrinthine corridors, banks of geometric lights and nurses whizzing past on electric scooters. “I will open the depths of existence to you, and will make all your ideas collapse violently," Steinmetz both promises and threatens Holst – and as we descend down the rabbit-hole of Ravn’s gripping, Stanley Kubrick-meets-Kiyoshi Kurosawa cerebral horror, we too begin to lose our grip on reality, until it may be too late. Deaf Crocodile is thrilled to present this first-ever U.S. Blu-ray release of the film, in collaboration with the Danish Film Institute. In Danish with English subtitles.
Special Features
The early Jens Ravn short film “Window Space” (Vinduesplads) (1967, 11 min.).
New video interview with Ravn’s wife and collaborator, Jette Bonnevie.
New video interview with Ravn’s close friend and co-worker, Steen Dalin.
New video interview with Thomas C. Christensen, Head of Collections - Danish Film Institute / Film Archive.
New visual essay by Danish filmmaker Reinert Kiil.
New audio commentary by Erica Shultz and Lance Schibi from Unsung Horrors podcast.
48-pg. booklet featuring essays by film critic Walter Chaw, film historian Justin Humphreys, Steen Dalin, Jette Bonnevie, and an archival interview with Jens Ravn.
New cover art and graphic design by Beth Morris.
Blu-ray authoring by Vital Passenger.
