Movie Nation

Ninety five years old or not, the news of Gene Hackman’s death still hits as a shock.

As to what happened and why, let’s not speculate on that and let the police/coroner findings tell that story of him, his wife and dog dying in their house.

An Oscar winner and one of the greatest screen actors of his generation, he was brilliant almost every time he stepped in front of a camera.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Hackman a few times, and like Kevin Kline, he was the same shy guy who turned up on talk shows. Almost too shy to chat up, it seemed.

Bill Murray and others might remember a hardass, exacting and brilliant, on the set. But Hackman always said he was trained to act, not to be a celebrity or be interviewed.

That cocky, blustery larger than life persona that turned up in many a film, debuting in “The Poseidon Adventure?” “ACTING” as they say.

I remember him apologizing for “Welcome to Mooseport,” because nobody wants to “go out with a stinker.” Just as Connery apologized for his final film.

“Bonnie and Clyde” to “Young Frankenstein,” “Night Moves” to “Heist” and “Unforgiven,” “Crimson Tide,” “Hoosiers” and on and on the filmography goes, an “American Master” PBS has yet to get around to lionizing.

Droll in “Superman,” silly in “Heartbreakers,” “Royal Tenenbaums” and “Get Shorty,” an action hero here and there — “The French Connection” movies, “The Package,” “Mississippi Burning”…

Hackman never ever disappointed.

Hackman “closed the door” on screen acting decades ago, and co-wrote Civil War fiction and did radio interviews about that which I’d catch from time to time. He seemed to be enjoying that sort of retirement.

A great one has passed, and however he passed, he was a unique presence. Find some classic he was in and watch it tonight. I know I will.

A little more effort in the “truth in translating the title” department would serve Netflix and its subscribers well, especially in the case of “A Copenhagen Love Story.”

That’s not exactly a lie, but the messaging in that innocuous title could convey anything from a rom-com to a romantic weeper. A romantic melodrama that begins with the hedonistic freedoms brought by the sexual revolution, that later dwells on the mental health challenges of “trying to get pregnant,” fertility treatments, abortion and stepmotherhood? That’s a tad unexpected.

That’s why this Danish film should have probably kept its vague but loaded with meaning Danish title — “Sult,” literally translated as “Hunger.”

“Hunger” is open to a few interpretations here. Because once you get past the callow opening act, where we meet the Danish pop novelist Mia, who spends her 30s devouring, dating and discarding younger men, this Ditte Hansen/Louise Miertitz adaptation of a Tine Høeg novel is adult in a lot of predictable ways, and in some surprisingly smart ones.

Mia’s “Tour de Force” is selling well, and she’s romantically “back in the saddle” with a “swipe swipe swipe” desire to sample Denmark’s smorgasbord of available men.

But rejecting a prospective set-up, Emil (Joachim Fjelstrup) because he’s “too old” is a moment of truth. “He’s the same age as you” (in Danish, with or without subtitles, of dubbed into English) she’s told. Emil is Mia’s chance to “date an adult for once in your life.”

Emil’s a divorced archaelogist with two small kids. And dating him changes Mia’s priorities. As she struggles with a follow-up novel, with her “process” involving a sort of confessional (voice-over-narrated) diary that morphs into a manuscript, she’s wondering about what she’s been missing while having all that free, independent fun?

“If you don’t have a child, do you remain a child?

How serious is she?

The early acts have snatches of gender reversal irony but little in the way of laughter, even as they are cast according to lighthearted rom-com formula. Mia’s got a married gay brother (Magnus Haugaard Petersen) struggling to adopt. Her person-of-color bestie (Sara Fanta Traore) has a little boy and a husband (Magnus Millang) who is more enthusiastic about having another than she is.

And her editor (Mille Lehfeldt) is eager to see what Mia’s latest personal experiences add up to in her next novel.

As Mia and Emil move in together as a family, their struggle to conceive begins. And that’s where the “hunger” in this “Copenhagen Love Story” shifts focus. They’ve simply got to have a child of their own.

Verhoeven and Miranda and Mickey and Robert Rodriguez and D’Onofrio and Whoopi are among those who appreciate the ultimate cinematic cult figure.

No Ridley Scott? Dude, make time for a movie like this. The title pays tribute to the best actor in one of your most iconiic films.

I interviewed Hauer when “Hobo with a Shotgun” came out. Not one of my favorites among his performances. Check out “Soldier of Orange,” “Escape from Sobibor” or “Blind Fury” to get what the “Blade Runner” fuss is about. Great actor, larger than life personality, humble and magnanimous.

Not sure if writer-director Sanna Fabery de Jonge has found a distributor worthy of his subject matter, but I dare say we’ll be able to get misty-eyed in appreciation of Holland’s greatest male film star on streaming or in a cinema near us sooon enough.

All is not quite what it seems in “Holland” — Michigan.

Matthew McFadyen and Gael Garcia Bernal also star in this Mimi Cave (the kinky “Fresh” was hers) comic thiller.

March 27 on Amazon Prime.

Action auteur Luc likes his thrillers sexy, and that’s what he hopes to accomplish by pairing Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy in an LA “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” thriller of the “Something Wild” vein.

No laughs. No “stars.” Action. Romance. A young woman of mystery. Let’s hope she had male friends on the set, because of Besson’s “other” reputation.

April 25.