Arnaud des Pallières’ “Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas” is another starring vehicle for Mads Mikkelsen to inhabit a man who wants simple justice, in the lengthening line of movies that include 2012’s “A Royal Affair” and “The Hunt.” Whether in present-day stories or historical settings, Mikkelsen finds just the right temperature for cool determination behind assured principle. As a horse trader in feudal France, Mikkelsen’s shoulder-length hair and brooding, charismatic gaze matches the verdant yet also stony, gloomy landscape. “I want my horses back the way they were,” Kohlhaas insists after two are appropriated by a baron. Des Pallières shoots largely on exteriors with available light, and the dark mood is unrelenting. Des Pallières also hears his historical era: the richly detailed sound design, of jostles and clanks and wind, compensates partially for the film’s often deliberate pace. Based on Heinrich von Kleist’s nineteenth-century German novella, transposed to France. With Denis Lavant, a sudden live wire as a reproving priest, Bruno Ganz, Mélusine Mayance, David Bennent. 122m. (Ray Pride)
“Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas” opens Friday, June 6 at the Music Box.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
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