In 'The Commune,' Where We Live Is Who We Are
Director Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune isn't really about the entire group that grows up around a 1970s Copenhagen family. It's about the family itself, and how the way we live defines us.
It's the 1970s, and a Copenhagen family has just inherited a very large, rambling mansion on the outskirts of town. What to do with it? The time is right for a group living experiment, and if the new Danish film The Commune were a different sort of movie, it would stage everything that follows — the group skinny-dips, house meetings about dishwashers, and Elton John songs — as warm, raunchy comedy.
But was directed by Thomas Vinterberg, a filmmaker who is merciless when he digs into human emotion.
