The middle-aged manufacturer Jens Steen is on his way to his summer house on the West Coast to relax. All alone. Meanwhile, 20-year-old Else Petersen is on the hook - and she is looking forward to a holiday with everything paid for. With classic womanizing, she gets in with Jens Steen, who becomes obsessed with her beauty and youth. But when the local Jutland bicycle mechanic turns up the charm, things start to get heated. And before long, Jens Steen has a scandal on his hands, which he can only do one thing to avoid. In 1944, Bodil Ipsen herself directed one of the few film noir dramas in Danish film history. Obsession is an excellent film about the extremes of emotion and the unbearable lightness of life.
Direction
Ipsen's rare female gaze on male obsession.
Cinematography
Jutland beaches never looked this threatening.
Acting
Johannes Meyer's unraveling is genuinely uncomfortable.
Director
Bodil Ipsen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
One of only two films Bodil Ipsen solo-directed—she was mainly known as an actor and co-director with Lau Lauritzen Jr.
The bicycle mechanic subplot quietly critiques Danish class structures—Steen's manufactured crisis vs. working-class ease with women.
DK
