TIFF 2011: Trailer For Denmark's A FUNNY MAN

Nikolaj Lie Kaas takes the lead in Martin Zandvliet's A Funny Man (Dirch), the Toronto International Film Festival selected bio-pic of Danish comic Dirch Passer.

Opening in the seductive style of the sixties, »A Funny Man« uncovers the perennial loneliness that comedian Dirch Passer (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) has found himself in after a fast-tracked rise to fame. He struggles between his own desire to gain critical respect and servicing the audience's needs. Costing his kindred friendship to on-stage partner Kjeld Petersen (Lars Ranthe) Dirch takes on Steinbeck's classic »Of Mice and Men«, only for the audience to break out in laughter at his first line. Dirch's Lennie becomes a running joke, and so has, Dirch believes, his own life.

Lie Kaas is arguably Denmark's most recognizable leading man after Mads Mikkelsen, and every bit as diverse. His career has ranged from key works with Lars Von Trier (The Idiots) to mainstream romcoms, arthouse thrillers and big time Hollywood spectacle and he does it all well. More importantly, Lie Kaas seems to have an unfailingly strong eye for good scripts and his presence is an almost certain indication of quality.

And that certainly seems to be the case here as the Danish trailer for the picture looks very strong. Take a look below.