The Applause is just beginning

A Danish film based on its director's experiences enthrals audiences

Before Danish director Martin Pieter Zandvliet began production on Applause, his aching exploration of motherhood, alcoholism and the theatre starring a shattering Paprika Steen, he put himself through a round of Gestalt therapy to help set aside anything that might dilute his focus.

The result is a film with an emotional honesty on screen so naked and so human that you might feel like a few sessions yourself after seeing it. Developed under the Danish Film Institute's programme for emerging artistes, Applause earned Steen the best actress award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic earlier this year and is among possible Oscar entries for Denmark.

It is a remarkably confident first feature film for the 38-year-old director, but just hours before its first screening at the Toronto film festival recently, confidence was eluding him. Sitting on a ritzy hotel patio, buffeted by a warm breeze, Zandvliet seemed uneasy. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, his black trucker's cap pulled low, he looked as if he was expecting someone to ask him to leave at any moment. He shouldn't have worried. Applause left many in the packed house in tears and producers are now in talks to secure a theatrical run in the United States.

The painful heart of Applause's script, which Zandvliet began on his own, then finished with Anders Frithiof August, in part grew out of memories of his father, who deserted the family when he was a young boy. Although they have reconnected, more questions than answers remain. "Myself, I'm struggling with a lot of inner problems about my father," he says. "I don't want to follow in his footsteps; still I have great respect for those who have the guts to choose something better for themselves. I know it has a price for the children but life is about seeking what gives meaning."

From the beginning, Zandvliet envisioned a woman, rather than a man, in the lead. He wanted the emotional sweep that he believed only an actress could bring. He wanted her to be a creature of the theatre, always moving between opposite poles - the famous artiste playing imaginary lives on stage versus wife and mother in a very real world. That Zandvliet was able to get Steen, one of Denmark's most gifted and prolific actresses, lifted the film's pedigree, and he wrote the character with her in mind.

What Zandvliet asked of Steen was to expose the raw interior life of Thea, a reigning stage diva just out of rehab who is seeking to regain custody of her two young sons. In the real world, she is trying to prove she can be a fit mother. On stage she is Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - a performance that gave voice to Thea's own demons. Separate from the film, Steen actually was on stage in the summer of 2008 playing that very role from Woolf? - and footage from her performance has been blended into Applause.

Wherever we find Thea, she is a mass of contradictions. You see the ravages of life on her face, the essence of a damaged beauty, age creeping up around the edges. With most people, she is easily cruel, dismissive; with her sons, her ex and his new wife, she is desperately vulnerable. The camera moves in close, sparing her nothing and Steen gives herself over to it.

"I wanted to show a real woman with a real story, with all the problems, the happiness, the grittiness mixed with the beauty," the filmmaker says. "In the beginning Paprika was nervous about it. I said: 'Come over here and look,' and when she saw it she laughed and said, 'I never looked that good, ever,' even though she looks much older than she is."

The French New Wave and films of the 1960s and 1970s from American directors such as John Cassavetes, Martin Scorsese and Bob Fosse are Zandvliet's touchstones, and you can see those influences in Applause, with its haunting, noirish beauty.

Zandvliet comes to directing by way of surfing around the world, shooting footage of competitions to make a little money along the way. Then 15 years ago, he met cinematographer Camilla Hjelm Knudsen, who encouraged his interest in film. He began to pick up editing jobs here and there but after the two collaborated on a documentary in 2002, Angels of Brooklyn, Zandvliet knew he would never again be content editing others' stories. (The couple, who have been together since, now live in Copenhagen, where Knudsen works as a cinematographer. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Zoe, and a baby on the way.)

"Because I'm not schooled in film, I don't really have any tool to lean against," Zandvliet says. "If I failed at this, I had no idea what I would do but luckily that didn't happen." He is already at work on two other projects, with several more in the offing.

"Applause has been a very good journey for me," Zandvliet says. "I was able to do it my way. There was always a risk that nothing would work but I wanted to know: Could I do this?"

During the editing process, filmmakers he had worked with stopped by, old friends and others too. When he saw how they reacted to the film, he thought maybe he had something good. "I never describe myself as a director," he says, a little ruefully. "I guess maybe I should start."