Paprika Steen gives difficult women enough humour and sympathy to keep us listening. We value her most in an ensemble, where she makes one person's discomfort distinct without making everyone else seem less important.
Fi1m perspective
In The Celebration (1998), Paprika Steen's Helene is uncomfortable at a family reunion, but not in quite the same way as anyone else. Beside Ulrich Thomsen's direct Christian and Thomas Bo Larsen's Michael, she helps make the gathering feel crowded with separate grievances. Thomas Vinterberg needs those differences to keep the family from becoming just a collection of people behaving badly. We found the reunion painful because Steen and her fellow actors made the behaviour recognisable. The humour survives too, which makes the distress harder to dismiss as something manufactured for the occasion.
Her 1998 breakthrough came through the early Dogme films, but their actors sometimes deserve better material. The Idiots (1998) casts her as the High Class Lady in Lars von Trier's commune comedy. The naturalistic performances are a virtue, but the imitations of disability become repetitive and the handheld intimacy cannot make the provocation consistently worthwhile. We would choose Vinterberg's reunion over von Trier's commune, and would not mistake our reservations about the latter for a judgement on Steen's performance.
Leading roles followed, including Nete in Okay (2002), an outspoken woman played with humour and sympathy. Steen is frequently cast as forceful or controlling women, and there is more to do with such parts than insist on their strength. We need not approve of everything a character does to want to spend time with her. Supporting work continued with Marie in Open Hearts (2002), while she began directing with Aftermath (2004). Later directing credits include That Time of Year (2018) and Fathers and Mothers (2022).
Her particular usefulness is clearest when a film needs several difficult people to seem equally real. The temptation in such parts is to announce the character so forcefully that the scene becomes a contest; in The Celebration, Helene's unhappiness remains distinct without cancelling anyone else's. We would credit that to the ensemble Vinterberg assembles, rather than to handheld photography that sometimes gets in its way. A supporting part can be the right introduction to an actor, and this is ours for Steen. Start with that reunion, provided the household can bear an uncomfortable evening.
Biography
Paprika Steen is a Danish actress and director. She was born Kirstine Steen on 3 November 1964 in Frederiksberg, Denmark, and graduated from the Odense Theatre Drama Academy in 1992 after multiple applications.
She gained prominence through her roles in the Dogme 95 films The Celebration (1998), in which she played Helene, and The Idiots (1998). Steen has also appeared in Dancer in the Dark (2000), Open Hearts (2002), Adam's Apples (2005) and Applause (2009). She has won multiple Bodil and Robert awards, including both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the same year at the Robert Festival for Okay (2002) and Open Hearts (2002).
Steen made her directorial debut with Aftermath (2004) and has since directed With Your Permission (2007), That Time of Year (2018) and Fathers and Mothers (2022). She is the daughter of musician Niels Jørgen Steen and actress Avi Sagild.
