Intrigo: Death of an Author

{{Infobox film

|name = Intrigo: Death of an Author

|image = Intrigo - Death of an Author (2018) Film Poster.jpg

|caption = Theatrical release poster

|director = Daniel Alfredson

|producer = Rick Dugdale
Thomas Peter Friedl
Uwe Schott

|writer = Daniel Alfredson
Birgitta Bongenhielm

|starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

|music = Anders Niska
Klas Wahl

|cinematography = Paweł Edelman

|editing = Håkan Karlsson

|distributor = {{Plainlist|

20th Century Fox (Germany)
Lionsgate (United States)

}}

|released = {{Film date|2018|10|11|Germany and Austria|2020|1|17|United States}}

|runtime = 106 minutes

|country = Germany
Sweden
United States

|language = English

}}

Intrigo: Death of an Author is a 2018 German-Swedish-American mystery crime drama film directed by Daniel Alfredson and starring Ben Kingsley and Benno Fürmann. The film is based on a series of novellas by Håkan Nesser.{{cite web|last=Scheck|first=Frank|authorlink=Frank Scheck|title='Intrigo: Death of an Author': Film Review|date=15 January 2020|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/intrigo-death-an-author-1269966|accessdate=9 August 2021}} It is the first of the Intrigo franchise of films.

Plot

David finds the author Alex Henderson living alone on a Greek island. David tells him the story of his novel which interweaves the story of his own life. Nothing is made very clear as the film switches back and forth from the conversation to the plot of the novel and the parallels to David's life.

Cast

{{cast list|

Ben Kingsley as Henderson
Benno Fürmann as David
Tuva Novotny as Eva
Michael Byrne as Keller
Veronica Ferres as Kerr
Daniela Lavender as Mariam
Tor Clark as Doris
David Lowe as Edgar L.
Jason Riddington as Otto Gerlach
Sandra Dickinson as Madame H.
Angus Kennedy as Mort
Ed Cooper Clarke as Thomas Neumann-Hansen
Chris Crema as Ansgar
Elizabeth Counsell as Frau Bloeme
Annamaria Serda as agent
Sian Webber as judge
Petar Cirica as newspaper salesman
Gordan Kičić as journalist
Ivona Kustudić as policewoman
Erik Johansson as Mauritz Winkler
Mladen Solvilj as young man
Andria Kazelas as reporter 1
Greg Lockett as reporter 2

}}

Reception

Intrigo: Death of an Author has {{a or an|{{RT data|score}}}} approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on {{RT data|count|spell=y}} reviews, with an average rating of {{RT data|average}}.{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/intrigo_death_of_an_author|title=Intrigo: Death of an Author|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date={{RT data|access date|df=dmy}}}} Based on 5 critics on Metacritic, the film has a score of 45 out of a 100, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/intrigo-death-of-an-author|title=Intrigo: Death of an Author (2020)|website=Metacritic|publisher=CBS Interactive|accessdate=9 August 2021}}

Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com awarded the film three stars, explaining her reasoning by writing that "Intrigo: Death of an Author tells us that the gulf between what we want to know and what we can know may never be illuminated".{{cite web|last=Minow|first=Nell|authorlink=Nell Minow|title=Intrigo: Death of an Author|date=17 January 2020|website=RogerEbert.com|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/intrigo-death-of-an-author-movie-review-2020|accessdate=9 August 2021}} David Robb of Slant Magazine awarded it one and a half stars out of four, criticizing it for being "neither the visceral pleasures of noir nor the precision to uncover deeper thematic resonances".{{cite magazine|last=Robb|first=David|title=Review: Intrigo: Death of an Author Is Damned by Its Lack of Self-Awareness|date=13 January 2020|magazine=Slant Magazine|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-intrigo-death-of-an-author-is-damned-by-its-lack-of-self-awareness/}}

According to Glenn Kenny of The New York Times, "The stagings are stilted; the relations between the conflicted characters never catch fire".{{cite news|title='Intrigo: Death of an Author' Review: Many Mysteries, Fewer Thrills|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/movies/intrigo-death-of-an-author-review.html|last=Kenny|first=Glenn|authorlink=Glenn Kenny|work=The New York Times|date=16 January 2020|accessdate=9 August 2021}}

Michael Rechtshaffen of the Los Angeles Times wasn't impressed by the film either. His reaction was: "[W]hen it comes to intricately strategized stories involving writers and their output, their telling would ultimately have been better served by the reader's imagination".{{cite news|last=Rechtshaffen|first=Michael|title=Review: Nimble thriller 'Intrigo: Death of an Author' can't stick the landing|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-01-16/intrigo-death-of-an-author-review|date=16 January 2020|work=Los Angeles Times|accessdate=9 August 2021}}

Sequels

The film has two sequels, Intrigo: Dear Agnes and Intrigo: Samaria, which were released in Germany on October 10, 2019. Phoebe Fox, from the cast of the latter, makes a cameo appearance in this film. All three films have scenes in the café Intrigo.