Tracing Affect in Susanne Bier’s Dramas

Mimi Nielsen’s “Tracing Affect in Susanna Bier’s Dramas” proposes two intertwined, extensive themes apparent across much of Bier’s oeuvre stresses particular stylistic and narrative traits that significantly contribute to Bier’s work being both unique and recognizable. Nielsen, in support of her dual argument that Bier’s films evidence a preoccupation with “intensity-as- affect,” draws from four feature films that span much of Bier’s directorial career. Nielsen expounds on the prevalence of attention to affect in Bier’s work, in this instance its role in a character’s self-coherence. She also addresses Bier’s preoccupation with male characters and notes how these two themes coalesce and call into question assumptions of containment and self-sufficiency associated with individualism, especially those allied with concepts of masculinity.