Thomas Vinterberg’s critically acclaimed film Another Round is best remembered for an ending celebratory scene, and it turns out the director was influenced by another film legend and Danish director, Lars Von Trier.

Vinterberg Was Inspired by Danish Director Lars Von Trier

In a new YouTube video posted by The Oscars on April 14, 2021, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and the lead actor, Mads Mikkelsen discussed how they pulled off the last scene perfectly. 

The co-writer of Another Round, Tobias Lindholm, confronted Vinterberg with the dangers of making the dance. However, the director was confident that he wanted to have the particular scene in the drama-comedy. 

Vinterberg revealed he was initially confused about the idea of placing the scene at the end of the movie. He opened up about how his past conversation with his friend and talented Danish director and writer Von Trier inspired him to place the celebratory dancing moment in the end. According to Von Trier, the only thing he learned as a writer was to keep the best for the last.

To some extent, it has a simplicity to it, which I ended up following in this case.

The lead actor, Mikkelson, further said it was risky for them to judge whether it would be the best scene of the movie since they doubted if they could have rightfully pulled it off. 

Vinterberg took the position of protecting it because he had a feeling the segment could be cathartic. He also revealed he was pretty nervous about the outcome as the team felt it was a bit of a stretch because the story was about a schoolteacher.

The Theme of Another Round Was the Loss of Control

The filmmaker elaborated that the whole theme of Another Round was the loss of control. The movie was placed in a very controlled society where a person’s performance is being judged and measured all the time. 

It shows how four men broke free of that and landed in a confinement with even more restricted lives. With that came an idea of how Mikkelson’s Martin gets the urge to lose control physically and is courageously portrayed by the actor. In Vinterberg’s golden words, “It was an ultimate loss of control.”

According to Mikkelson, the dancing segment worked because of many reasons—it shows a man’s journey of losing a loved one and regaining a dear one within the last hour as opposed to just aesthetically dancing. Second, Martin was among the many people who were dancing “not physically but flying high on a note.”

“I think that combination with all the build-up made us capable of pulling it off because our fear was that we would stand up as being pretentious, trying to do something that was not there.”

When Martin sat on the bench and gazed upon their dead friend, Tommy, the scene became a salute to him.

Vinterberg also said that even though Mikkelson was dancing for Tommy in the reel life, he was dancing for Vinterberg’s daughter, which his family wanted to see. 

The final “open ending scene” where Martin jumps and hangs mid-air might have different meanings to different people. However, the actor described it as a moment where his character wants to be young and alive for five more minutes. In fact, that’s what the lyrics read. 

Besides getting nominated for the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, the critically acclaimed film has been recognized by thirty-six awards including BAFTA Best Film Not in The English Language, Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor at the 33rd European Film Awards.