Bille August explores war, class & love in ‘The Kiss’

Denmark s Bille August an Oscar winner and among the select sparse filmmakers to twice win Cannes top prize the Palme d Or brings a haunting love story vividly to life in Friday s The Kiss Set in rural Denmark on the eve of World War I Kiss is adapted from one of prolific Austrian author Stefan Zweig s best-known novels Beware of Pity It s a beautiful very complex very clever love story about this young man Anton who comes from a poor family August began in a Zoom interview from his home office Back in those days certainly it was the upper class who went into the military It was a sign of showing that they had class or became a step into manhood Or something like that Anton is definitely not from the upper class and therefore he dependably has to prove himself that he can be good military person That s also his big matter As he s trying to have success in the cavalry he meets beautiful wheelchair-bound Edith the daughter of a Baron who falls in love with him Because of his social position he s not able at all to step into that kind of love relationship Normally the big obstacle is inevitably something that the leading character has to fight against In this affair it is his empathy He is such a lovely person full of empathy and that s the difficulty He feels empathy for this girl If he was just a cool guy then it would not happen Because he feels sorry for her he gets involved That s the whole dilemma of the story Edith paralyzed since she was is a complex often angry woman That was also vital to me August explained because somehow when she had the accident it felt like emotionally she was a child back then And emotionally eight years later she s more or less in the same stage She is in a very childish way angry and upset about the way people treat her Where all she s asking for is to be accepted for who she is But it also is the way for Anton to feel sorry for her Does he worry that distant events are hard for an audience to relate to I don t want to make a period drama I mean even though it takes place in a different time I want to make stories that are relevant The only way is if the audience can connect emotionally with the characters in that relationship Of discipline there are different behaviors and so on But I think the relationship is universal and the moment you connect with that it doesn t matter if it s a costume story or not The Kiss in Danish with subtitles is in theaters May Filmmaker Bille August Photo by Marc Piasecki Getty Images