2023.05.12

Happy 70th Birthday Pierce Brosnan: The Venice interviews (2012)

Next Tuesday, May 16th 2023, Pierce Brosnan will turn 70.

Upon approaching his 60th birthday back in 2012 the Irish James Bond star reflected that 60 was not just another number but a sharp corner that made him stop and think:

"I cruised in over 50, and I was good. 51, 52, 53, a little bit of turbulence. Psychic turbulence. Then you creep up the ladder there, and ... The body, the mind, the judgment of life. You have to stay alert. You become more passionate about being alive and being present with your children. You don't have the same nerves about acting. You still get nerves. Wednesday will be the first day on the set of my next movie with Toni Collette and Imogen Poots, I'm caught between this world and that. But I still have the passion and drive to try to be great."

Pierce Brosnan aired his views on aging at a press junket during the 69th annual Venice International Film Festival. Bond•O•Rama.dk was in attendance and had the good fortune to meet the then 59-year-old actor in an intimate two-on-one session as well as at a larger conference for the European press. Brosnan was in town to promote Danish director Susanne Bier's dramedy "Love is All You Need" (original Danish title: "Den skaldede frisør" = The Bald Hairdresser) which he had enjoyed making. The full transcripts of the two interviews have never before been released but are now made available for free in celebration of Pierce Brosnan's 70th birthday.

I am also quoted in a one-page profile on Brosnan which will appear in the Danish daily Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten on Tuesday May 16, 2023.

● The edited and published Pierce Brosnan interviews (2012) can be found here

One small anecdote: To this day I regret that I missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity when I met Pierce Brosnan in Venice. Before the actual interview, which took place in a large white tent, I was waiting around wearing a cream-coloured suit which happened to exactly match the leather couch that Brosnan and I were both standing next to. Pierce, who seemed relaxed and amiable while killing time like me, noticed the similar colours and cheerfully remarked that I was dressed for the occasion. If only I had had the good sense to capture that moment for posterity! Instead you will have to settle for this grainy snapshot of the younger Brosnan arriving at the Odeon Leicester Square for the London gala premiere of "GoldenEye" in 1995 where I was standing behind the barricades in a crowd of cheering fans, all stretching our necks to catch a glimpse of the celebrity guests.

Pierce Brosnan at the London gala premiere of "GoldenEye" at Odeon Leicester Square, London November 21, 1995 - credit © Brian Iskov/Bond•O•Rama.dk

DEN SKALDEDE FRISØR (Love is All You Need)

Danish junket, Venice Film Festival 2012 - 17 mins

Q: Your character in "Love is All You Need" says that he hates our bloody country. What was your impression of Denmark?
Pierce Brosnan: Mine was that I enjoyed your country. Copenhagen I really adored, I had the most fantastic time. Loved the country, loved the artists that I met. I started my career as a painter, as an artist so I was fascinated by the work that was going on there. Susanne's films had intrigued me enormously. The Dogma of it all, when those films came on the stage years ago, that was quite fascinating. There was a challenge in my mind to start with, of how I was gonna fit into this whole scenario. But Susanne just said, don't worry about that. And we *were* fine.

2023.04.21

Young Bond 2: “Blood Fever” (first Danish edition, 2006)

2023.04.14

“Octopussy” (1983): From Denmark with Love

● In the 1983 James Bond 007 film "Octopussy", Denmark is represented in graphic form on the animated map over Europe which adorns the wall of the Soviet Ministry of Defence. Our small kingdom fills up with red on the screen to illustrate the renegade general Orlov's (Steven Berkoff) dream of Communist supremacy over the continent, Scandinavia included.
Time code (Blu-ray): 00:18:03-00:18:17

● The German diesel engine which in the film's climax pulls Octopussy International Circus Train towards the US air base in Berlin is actually a Danish locomotive. DSB Litra S 740 was built by A/S Frichs Maskinfabrik og Kedelsmedje in Aarhus, Jutland, in 1928 commissioned by DSB, the Danish State Railways. The S engine was in service on the branch lines on Sealand until DSB phased out their diesel locomotives during the 1960s. S 740 was subsequently used as an excursion train and eventually was handed off to DBS's railway museum in 1976.

Englishman Mike Bradley bought the discarded tender in the southern Danish town of Gedser in 1979 and had it transported to Wansford near Peterborough, England, where the S 740 was renovated for use on the preserved railway line Nene Valley Railway. This is where S 740 got a starring role in the production of "Octopussy" as all train scenes in the film were shot on this English piece of track in late 1982. The train has been painted with German signage and given the number 62 015. Shortly after the end of production, S 740 was taken out of active service. In the 1990s Northsealand Vintage Trains (Nordsjællandsk Veterantog) bought the locomotive with a view to restoring it. According to the club's web paghe S 740 is currently in Rungsted north of Copenhagen.

Additional trivia: In 2017 the Tikøb Foundry produced a DSB Litra S steam engine as a model train.
Tidskoder (Blu-ray): 01:34:24; 01:35:40

2023.04.04

“Dr. No”: Rare Danish text poster (1963)

2023.03.10

“GoldenEye”: Tv interview with Pierce Brosnan from “Bogart” (1996)

In this excerpt from the film programme "Bogart" shown on DR (Danish national television) in January 1996, the show's host Ole Michelsen reviews the latest James Bond 007 film "GoldenEye" in Danish and interviews Pierce Brosnan who visited Hotel d'Angleterre in Copenhagen on his promotional tour. The interview clip is in English with Danish subtitles and shows a somewhat defensive Brosnan countering a slightly condescending question from Michelsen regarding the "shallowness" of the Bond character.

Please note that the clip is transferred from a VHS recording of the original broadcast and that this edit does not include the clip from the opening scene of "GoldenEye" which was part of the original broadcast.

Extra:

On page 167 of Ole Michelsen's book "Film skal ses i biografen" [Movies should be seen at the cinema], published by Aschehoug in 1997, he gave yet another reason for Pierce Brosnan's grumpy appearence in the interview clip:

"I accidentally insulted him when he told me he was about to do a new version of Robinson Crusoe. I responded: Which part will you be playing?"

2023.03.03

Young Bond 1: “SilverFin” (Danish first edition, 2006)

2023.02.17

“The World is Not Enough” (1999): Danish theatrical release poster