Jørgen Leth
Encyclopedia
Jørgen Leth is a Danish
poet and film director who is considered a leading figure in experimental documentary film making. Most notable are his epic documentary A Sunday in Hell
(1977) and his surrealistic short film The Perfect Human (1967). He is also a sports commentator for Danish television and is represented by the film production company, Sunset Productions.
, he studied literature
and anthropology
in Århus and Copenhagen
and was a cultural critic (jazz, theatre, film) for leading Danish newspapers from 1959 to 1968. His interest in Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski had a profound influence on his work. He travelled in Africa
(1961), South America
and India
(1966) and Southeast Asia
(1970–71). His first book was published in 1962 and he has written 10 volumes of poetry and eight non-fiction books. He made his first film in 1963 and has since made 40 more, many distributed worldwide. His most acclaimed is a 1967 short, The Perfect Human, which also featured in the 2003 film The Five Obstructions
made by Leth and Lars von Trier
. Leth's sports documentaries bring an epic, almost mythic, dimension to the field, as seen in Stars and Watercarriers (Stjernerne og Vandbærerne) (1973) and A Sunday in Hell
(En forårsdag i helvede) (1977).
He has been a creative consultant
for the Danish Film Institute
(1971–73, 1975–77) as well as chairman of the Institute's board (1977–82). He has also been a professor at the Danish National Film School in Copenhagen, at the State Studiocenter in Oslo
and has lectured at UCLA, Berkeley
, Harvard and other American universities.
Leth covered the Tour de France
for Denmark's TV 2
from 1988 until 2005 as the expert commentator in partnership with journalist Jørn Mader. In 1999, he was appointed Danish honorary consul in Haiti.
He attracted controversy in Denmark after publication of his autobiography Det uperfekte menneske (The Imperfect Man). It included a graphic account of sexual relations with the 17-year-old daughter of his cook in Haiti. This created a media storm in Denmark, partly because of his plan to make a film called Det Erotiske Menneske ("The Erotic Man"), funded by the Danish Film Institute
, in collaboration with DR (Danmarks Radio
) and Nordisk Film and TV Commission. The controversy upset several groups in Denmark. In October 2005, due to the controversy, he resigned his post as Danish consul in Haiti and was dismissed as commentator with TV2, but was reappointed in 2009. The film Erotic Man, Leth's homage to his sexual encounters with young women in third world
countries, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010. The film received lacklustre reviews which deemed it "dirty-old-man cinema" and colonialist
exploitation.
Leth has had retrospectives at the National Film Theatre, London
(1989), in Rouen, France (1990), at the American Film Institute
, Washington D.C. (1992), in Mumbai, India (1996), New York
(2002), Sao Paulo
(2003), Toronto
(2004), Florence
(2005), Rome
(2006), Sao Paulo
(2008), Warsaw
(2008) and Teheran (2008) and Athens International Film Festival, Athens
(2009).
He lived in Jacmel
, Haiti
from 1991 to 2010 where the Haiti earthquake
destroyed his house.
Two biographies of Leth have been published in Denmark.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
poet and film director who is considered a leading figure in experimental documentary film making. Most notable are his epic documentary A Sunday in Hell
A Sunday in Hell
A Sunday in Hell is a 1976 Danish documentary film directed by Jørgen Leth. The film is a chronology of the 1976 Paris–Roubaix bicycle race from the perspective of participants, organizers and spectators....
(1977) and his surrealistic short film The Perfect Human (1967). He is also a sports commentator for Danish television and is represented by the film production company, Sunset Productions.
Biography
Born on 14 June 1937 in Århus, DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, he studied literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
in Århus and Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and was a cultural critic (jazz, theatre, film) for leading Danish newspapers from 1959 to 1968. His interest in Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski had a profound influence on his work. He travelled in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
(1961), South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(1966) and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
(1970–71). His first book was published in 1962 and he has written 10 volumes of poetry and eight non-fiction books. He made his first film in 1963 and has since made 40 more, many distributed worldwide. His most acclaimed is a 1967 short, The Perfect Human, which also featured in the 2003 film The Five Obstructions
The Five Obstructions
The Five Obstructions is a 2003 Danish film by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. The film is a documentary, but incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films produced by the filmmakers. The premise is that Lars von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jørgen Leth, another...
made by Leth and Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
. Leth's sports documentaries bring an epic, almost mythic, dimension to the field, as seen in Stars and Watercarriers (Stjernerne og Vandbærerne) (1973) and A Sunday in Hell
A Sunday in Hell
A Sunday in Hell is a 1976 Danish documentary film directed by Jørgen Leth. The film is a chronology of the 1976 Paris–Roubaix bicycle race from the perspective of participants, organizers and spectators....
(En forårsdag i helvede) (1977).
He has been a creative consultant
Creative consultant
Creative consultant is a credit that has - particularly in the past - been given to screenwriters who have “doctored” a movie screenplay. It is often given by producers in lieu of official credit. Those given this credit in the television field work closely with an Executive Producer, Head...
for the Danish Film Institute
Danish Film Institute
The Danish Film Institute is the national Danish agency responsible for supporting and encouraging film and cinema culture, and for conserving these in the national interest....
(1971–73, 1975–77) as well as chairman of the Institute's board (1977–82). He has also been a professor at the Danish National Film School in Copenhagen, at the State Studiocenter in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
and has lectured at UCLA, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, Harvard and other American universities.
Leth covered the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
for Denmark's TV 2
TV 2 (Denmark)
TV 2 is a publicly owned television station in Denmark based in Odense. The station began broadcasting on 1 October 1988, thereby ending the television monopoly previously exercised by the Danmarks Radio ....
from 1988 until 2005 as the expert commentator in partnership with journalist Jørn Mader. In 1999, he was appointed Danish honorary consul in Haiti.
He attracted controversy in Denmark after publication of his autobiography Det uperfekte menneske (The Imperfect Man). It included a graphic account of sexual relations with the 17-year-old daughter of his cook in Haiti. This created a media storm in Denmark, partly because of his plan to make a film called Det Erotiske Menneske ("The Erotic Man"), funded by the Danish Film Institute
Danish Film Institute
The Danish Film Institute is the national Danish agency responsible for supporting and encouraging film and cinema culture, and for conserving these in the national interest....
, in collaboration with DR (Danmarks Radio
Danmarks Radio
DR – officially rendered into English as the Danish Broadcasting Corporation – is Denmark's national broadcasting corporation. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is today Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterprise...
) and Nordisk Film and TV Commission. The controversy upset several groups in Denmark. In October 2005, due to the controversy, he resigned his post as Danish consul in Haiti and was dismissed as commentator with TV2, but was reappointed in 2009. The film Erotic Man, Leth's homage to his sexual encounters with young women in third world
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
countries, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010. The film received lacklustre reviews which deemed it "dirty-old-man cinema" and colonialist
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
exploitation.
Leth has had retrospectives at the National Film Theatre, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(1989), in Rouen, France (1990), at the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
, Washington D.C. (1992), in Mumbai, India (1996), New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(2002), Sao Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
(2003), Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
(2004), Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
(2005), Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(2006), Sao Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
(2008), Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
(2008) and Teheran (2008) and Athens International Film Festival, Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
(2009).
He lived in Jacmel
Jacmel
Jacmel, also known by its indigenous Taíno name of Yaquimel, is a town in southern Haiti founded in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est and has an estimated population of 40,000, while the municipality of Jacmel had a population of 137,966 at the 2003 Census.The buildings are...
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
from 1991 to 2010 where the Haiti earthquake
2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
destroyed his house.
Awards
- 1971 Oberhausen Hauptpreis
- 1972 Thomas Mann Award
- 1983 Danish Academy Special Prize
- 1992 Paul Hammerich Award
- 1995 Drachmann Award for literary oeuvre
- 1996 Danish Film Academy Robert AwardRobert AwardThe Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...
- 1997 Prix de France for cultural reporting from France
- 1999 Danish State Art Foundation Special Award
- 2000 Danish Film Academy Robert AwardRobert AwardThe Robert statue is a Danish film prize awarded each year by the Film Academy of Denmark. It is the Danish equivalent of the American Oscars. The award, voted only by academy members, is acknowledgement by Danish industry colleagues of a person's or film's outstanding contributions during the...
- 2004 Grand Prix for Best Feature at Odense International Film Festival
- 2009 Honorary Bodil award for lifetime achievement
- Life-long grant from the Danish state for achievements in filmmaking
Selected bibliography
- Gult lys (Yellow Light) (1962) – poems
- Kanal (Channel) (1964) – poems
- Lykken i Ingenmandsland (Happiness in No-man’s Land) (1967) – poems
- Sportsdigte (Sports Poems) (1967) – poems
- Glatte hårdtpumpede puder (Smooth, Inflated Cushions) (1969) – poems
- Eventyret om den sædvanlige udsigt (The Adventure of the Usual View) (1971) – radio play
- Det går forbi mig (It Passes Me) (1975) – poems
- Det skete ved Ballerup (It happened near Ballerup) (1975) – short story
- Det er ligesom noget i en drøm. Udvalgte historier om cykelsport 1970-75 (It's like Something in a Dream: Selected Stories about bicycle sport 1970-75) (1976)
- Filmmaskinen. Udvalgte historier om film 1965-78 (The Film Machine. Selected Stories about Films 1965-78) (1979)
- Jeg leger at jeg kan alting. En børnebog (I play that I can do everything. A Children's Book) (1991)
- Hundene gør. Kup i Haiti 1991-94 (The Dogs Bark. Coup in Haiti 1991-94) (1994) – documentary
- Den gule trøje i de høje bjerge (The Yellow Jersey in the High Mountains) 1995 – collection of writings about cycling
- Billeder fra Haiti. Jørgen Leth's collection (Pictures from Haiti – Jørgen Leth's Collection) – catalogue of art
- Billedet forestiller (The Picture Shows) (2000) – poems
- Historier fra Haiti (Stories from Haiti) (2000)
- Samlede digte (Collected Poems) (2002)
- Det uperfekte menneske. Scener fra mit liv (The Imperfect Man. Scenes from My Life) (2005) – memoires
- Det gør ikke noget (It Doesn't Matter) (2006) – poems
- Guldet på havets bund. Det uperfekte menneske/2 (The Gold at the Bottom of the Sea. The Imperfect Human/2) (2007)
- One Day Duke Jordan Disappeared in Harlem (2008) – articles about jazz 1954–66
- The Gifts of Chance (2009) – essays about filmmaking
- Haiti (2010) - documentary
Filmography
Tómas Gislason's award-winning documentary portrait of Leth, "Heart and Soul", was released in 1995.- Stopforbud, 1963 (14')
- Look Forward to a Bright Future, 1965 (6')
- The Perfect Human, 1967 (13')
- Near Heaven, Near Earth, 1968 (26')
- Ophelia’s Flowers, 1969 (7')
- Motion Picture, 1970 (24')
- The Search, 1970 (35')
- The Deergarden, the Romantic Forest, 1970 (42')
- Chinese Table-tennis, 1970 (12')
- Life in Denmark, 1971 (37')
- Stars and Watercarriers, 1973 (91')
- Klaus Rifbjerg, 1974 (35')
- Good and Evil, 1974 (81')
- A Sunday in HellA Sunday in HellA Sunday in Hell is a 1976 Danish documentary film directed by Jørgen Leth. The film is a chronology of the 1976 Paris–Roubaix bicycle race from the perspective of participants, organizers and spectators....
, 1977 (110') - Peter Martins – A Dancer, 1978 (54')
- Kalule, 1979 (45')
- Dancing Bournonville, 1979 (52')
- 66 Scenes from America, 1981 (42')
- Step on Silence, 1981 (58')
- Pelota, 1983 (47')
- Haiti Express, 1983 (93')
- Moments of Play, 1986 (82')
- Notebook from China, 1986 (79')
- Notes on Love, 1989 (90')
- Danish Literature, 1989 (51')
- Traberg, 1992 (93')
- Michael Laudrup – A Football Player, 1993 (58')
- Haiti, Untitled, 1996 (85')
- I'm Alive – Soren Ulrik Thomsen, Poet, 1999 (40')
- Dreamers, 2002 (58')
- New Scenes from America, 2002 (35')
- The Five ObstructionsThe Five ObstructionsThe Five Obstructions is a 2003 Danish film by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. The film is a documentary, but incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films produced by the filmmakers. The premise is that Lars von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jørgen Leth, another...
(with Lars von TrierLars von TrierLars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
), 2003 (80') - Aarhus (2005) (35')
- Erotic Man (2010) (90')