Woody Allen once said that it's easy to like people who make us laugh, but people who make us think don't get invited to a whole lot of parties.
If that's true, then Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier must have to eat at home most nights. Not only does she make us think, agonize and hold our heads in confusion, she's also adept at stinging our tear ducts until it becomes unbearable. Bier has made some of the most moving and visually arresting films of our time, crammed with passion and integrity, but often difficult to watch.
In 2004's "Brothers," a POW comes home from enemy lines in the Middle East to his family, only to be eaten up with suspicion that his wife is having an affair with his own brother. And in 2006's controversial "After the Wedding," a cancer-ridden businessman entrusts his wife and grown-up daughter to his wife's ex-lover, now in charge of an orphanage in India.