Garizim

This is some Youtube-videos showing the folk music group Garizim, in connection with their release concert this spring in Stockholm.
They all come to La Châtre in July, during 'Rencontres Internationales des Luthiers et Maîtres Sonneurs' at Château d'Ars and they will stay with us, in our apartment.

Another Swedish musician, Olle Gällmo, is going to perform at the festival and there will perhaps be more Swedes coming, whereby one can talk about a 'small invasion' of Vikings, perhaps.

Riten/The Rite/Le Rite

English (Francais ci-dessous):

Riten, another wonderful and highly underrated film by Ingmar Bergman.

The title can be said referring both to:
1. the performance per se, created by the three actors;
2. the ritual behaviour surrounding the relationships between the three;
3. the judicial ritual behaviour interleaving the encounter with the judge and lastly
4. the 'last and ultimate ritual performance', putting an end to the film and...

The external frame of the film is the hearing of the actors, all called in by a judge in order to determine if their performance contains ingredients to overtly 'pornographic' to be shown in public.

Within this framework a sort of game unwinds, a game of words, of psychology, of dominance and submission.
Who dominates whom and under what circumstances, who is in charge of the situation and when and in what interpersonal, societal context and why are we constantly playing games with each other, if that is what we actually do.
Hiding behind a mask, a physical or mental-professional, makes people almost invincible but when the mask drops and unveil the 'real' face of a person, the weaknessess of the individual surfaces, altering the structures of power.

A multitude of questions, interleaved by role playing in every sense of the word, interesting photage and exquisite actors, make this film a most interesting and compelling piece of work.

Actors: Ingrid Thulin, Anders Ek, Gunnar Björnstrand and Erik Hell.

In a side role we see Ingmar Bergman as a clergyman, a suiting role?



Français:

Le Rite, un autre film merveilleux et très sous-estimé d'Ingmar Bergman.

Le titre peut fait référence à:
1. la performance en soi, créée par les acteurs;
2. le comportement rituel entourant les relations des trois acteurs;
3. le procédé judiciaire rituel interfolié par les rencontres avec le juge
4. la dernière et ultime représentation, mettant fin au film...

Le cadre extérieur de ce film est l'interrogatoire d'acteurs, tous convoqués par un juge, en vue de décider si leur spectacle contient des ingrédients pornographiques trop explicites pour être montrés publiquement.

À l’intérieur de ce cadre une sorte de jeu s’enroule, où mots d'esprits, psychologie, dominance et soumission s'entrelacent.
Qui domine qui et dans quelles circonstances, qui est en charge de la situation et quand? et dans quel contexte interpersonnel et social? et pourquoi jouons-nous constamment des jeux les uns avec les autres? -si en effet c'est ce qu'on fait...

Se cacher derrière un masque, physique, mental ou professionnel, rend ces personnages presque invincibles jusqu'à ce que le masque tombe et dévoile leurs vrais visages, leurs faiblesses en tant qu'individus refaisant surface, transformant les structures de pouvoir.

De nombreuses questions soulevées par ces jeux de rôles, une photo sophistiquée et des acteurs exceptionnels, font de ce film une œuvre des plus intéressantes et des plus imposantes.

Acteurs: Ingrid Thulin, Anders Ek, Gunnar Björnstrand and Erik Hell.

Dans un rôle secondaire, on voit Ingmar Bergman en soutane, un rôle lui allant comme un gant?

En passion/The Passion of Anna

A passion can be something lovely and painful at the same time, it can also be something solely painful, as with the Passion of Christ.

In this film we get to meet four main characters, very different and yet very much alike, all tormented in their own ways.
Andreas Winkelman (Max von Sydow) seems to be the hermit among the four, having lost his wife and still grieving her.
One day he is visited by a woman - Anna Fromm (Liv Ullman) - who wants to use his phone.
He overhears her conversation, a rather desperate one, pleading for money. On the same time he becomes interested in her, feeling sorry for this unknown woman in apparent dispair.
When she has left he finds her handbag and when trying to leave it back he meets a couple - Eva and Elis Vergerus (Bibi Andersson and Erland Josephson) - mutual friends of Anna with their own psychological, marital problems.
Anna is also a troubled person being in a similar situation as Andreas, having lost her husband and child and like Andreas she is yearning for her 'Paradise Lost' - or is this really the case? Doesn't she hide something?
After a dinner at Vergerus home where all four get to know each other under more relaxed circumstances, Andreas and Anna starts a relationship, at first a passionate one meaning lovely and painful but after a while more and more painful.
Anna has her secrets and maybe it was these secrets Eva tried to warn Andreas about in a cryptic way in connection to the dinner. Of course he didn't pay attention.
Slaughtered animals are being found everywhere on the island and one inhabitant (none of the four) is suspected, leading to terryfying consequences for him in the end.
Was he really the culpable or...?

The film starts with Andreas seeing a sun dog (mock sun, phantom sun) a sign that usually signifies disaster in some way and disaster we will see.
In this way we see the typically vertical story telling of Ingmar Bergman, from the heavens to the earth or vice versa, bringing the humans in contact with nature and Cosmos in a most direct way.
All four characters seem to be looking for the perfect relationship from without different ideals, leaving them more lonely than if they had rested singles. This as their ideals never match the reality - as most often in our lives - and they are incapable of dealing with this, as it seems.

Intriguing, mysterious, psychologically interesting with good acting in combination with interesting photage makes this film a very interesting and maybe somewhat underrated œuvre by Bergman.

The film is combined with interviews with the actors where they get a chance to comment on their characters.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

After having seen the first three films about Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and his friends and enemies, I don't think this one added anything particularly innovative to his odyssey around the world (of cinema and movie theatres).

The Fountain of Youth is this time the objective for his quest but also for Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his daughter Angelica Malon (Penélope Cruz).
The sword fights and other adventurous escapades are legio of course but that's more on the special effect-department-side and nothing we haven't seen before.
In this film we found some 'new (for the stories about Jack Sparrow) creatures' like zoombies and sirens but otherwise we were rather disappointed with this fourth part. Nothing substantial was added to the story.

A 'stinger' annonced that it will be continued....

Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood is very loosely built on the saga about the young woman who meets the Big Bad Wolf when on her way to visit her grandmother.
Of course we get to meet both the girl, the grandmother and the wolf and in one of the scenes the famous dialogue about why her grandmother has such big eyes, ears and teeth appear but aside from this, there are few similarities with the ancient tale.

The story is situated to an old medieval village where a young girl - Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) - falls in love with an orphaned woodcutter (not Woody Woodpecker) - Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) - despite her parents wish that she should marry another young man - Henry Lazar (Max Irons), with wealthy parents.
This village is haunted by a wolf and when a young woman is killed by the wolf, the male citizens one day decide to hunt the wolf down and kill it and so they do - they think. Unfortunately for them, they killed an ordinary wolf, not the werewolf they're really hunting.
One day the village is visited by 'Father Solomon' (Gary Oldman), a rather questionable priest/clergyman (as most priests are) and his soldiers/hunters. He explains that the murderer/the werewolf is among the citizens in the village and they need something very special to elicit the wolf in that man or woman.
As our young Red Riding Hood has told her friends that she has been talking to the werewolf once, she is now used as a 'bait'.
Before this happens she has come to suspect everyone around her for being the werewolf: Her mother, her grandmother, the two young men in love with her, her female friends and many others - except one.

I (Gunnar) wasn't at all impressed by this movie even though it started well.
Gradually it developed into an action movie, using some more or less visible mythical material as a platform for the storytelling - or the action.
Concerning the werewolf, it was quite amusing when one saw him speak to Valerie (it made us laugh) but it's a Walt Disney-production wherefore one can't expect them to make the Big Bad, To Bad.
Of course her loved one get bitten by the werewolf in the final struggle and has to leave the village, before becoming what he doesn't want to become but by now, our 'Chaperon Rouge' is used to werewolfs wherefore she later on accepts him as he is.
The beauty and the Beast again and again and again...

Personally, I had high expectations on the photo but unfortunately it was rather ordinary too.

Issoudun: Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch, La Tour Blanche

Thanks to my mother-in-law, Aurore and I got the chance visiting
Issoudun and - among other sites - the museum mentioned above.

Aurore had earlier passed through this town but never visited it properly and this time it was in association with the organization Les Amis du Vieux-La Châtre (photo above), a local body trying to promote the interest for the town of La Châtre and Indre/Berry. We recently became members.

The work within this organization is carried out through different foras and events and one also visit different sites in the region, considered having a historical and cultural value worth preserving and promoting. This day we visited the town of Issoudun and the Museum L'Hospice Saint-Roch.

The latter was a religious medical center or institution ("Hôtel-Dieu"/"Hostel of God") and convent or monastery (for men and women), founded during the 12th century and at first accomodating nuns and monks from the same order, pilgrims and beggars but gradually developing into a hospital for the sick and poor.

The fortunes enabling this work came from the taxes or customs duty the ruler of Issoudun - Raoul III - in 1206 gave them the right to demand from each and every wagon coming into town ("le droit de prendre une bûche par charroi qui entre dans Issoudun"). These taxes and gifts constituted the basic fortune of the institution.
Fearing not being buried under religious forms, the sovereign (Raoul III), had to establish a testament in which all of or part of his riches would be donated to the church, in exchange for eternal salvation.
Before the French Revolution "l'Hospice d'Issoudun" had become a very rich institution, considered as one of the most important ones in the 'county' of Berry nursing the sick and poor but also assuming responsibility for children left at the institution by parents to poor to take care of their offspring.

Through a decision by the municipality in 1864, a museum displaying the history of Issoudun, was created.
First it was located to the mayoral building but in 1908 it was moved to the old presbyteri of the Saint-Cyr church. When this building, during WWII was bombed (18th of June 1940), the museum reopened in the current premises in 1966.

The museum not only displays ancient historical artifacts from Issoudun but also other interesting cultural items from France but also Africa and other parts of the world.
Contemporary artists are also displayed, this time - among others - the Norwegian artist Anna-Eva Bergman (Exposition Anna-Eva Bergman en français).
The entrance is free if charge!


After this we went to Château de Frapesle (information in French through the link) where the current owner, Monsieur Luneau, told us about this property, once bought by Rémy Tourangin, whos dauther, Zulma Carraud, became a close friend of Honoré de Balzac. This lead to that Balzac spent some time during the summers in this house and there writing some of his well known novels.


Later on we continued with a guided tour around the town and among other sites, we visited "La Tour Blanch" ("The White Tower"), a defence tower built in 1198 by Richard the Lionheart, at the time when this part of the town in fact was in the hands of the English.
Not long though, as it was regained by the French in the beginning of the 13th century.
No enemies has ever succeeded in conquer and invade this tower.
Within the walls of this fortress/prison one can find graffiti from prisoners, and from the motives one can see that there have been both Jewish and Muslim prisoners confined in this tower.
On the top of the tower, there were a free space where one had a lovely panorama over the city (below). In this photo one can see one of the churches in town and the red and white wooden house being the most ancient house in town, built during late 15th century and today housing the Tourist Office.



(Photo of Les Amis du Vieux-La Châtre copied from: http://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/indre/ACTUALITE/Infos-Departementales/Les-Amis-du-Vieux-La-Chatre-visitent-la-ville)

Eggs

Eggs is a very entertaining film about two brothers - Pa (Kjell Stormoen) and Moe (Sverre Hansen) - in their seventees, always having lived together in total tranquility, except from the dripping of the water tap...

One day the somewhat disabled - or just 'characteristical' - son of Pa - Konrad (Leif Andrée) - appears in their home and this turns their life upside down, not least Moe's. Konrad's mother - Pa's one night stand - has fallen ill and this is why she now wants Konrad to assume his responsibilities, as she has done for the last 25 years.
Moe wasn't aware of this son as Pa never told him about this sidestep, the result of a weekend trip to Småland (a province in Sweden), the only time the brothers were apart.
Konrad is sitting in a wheelchair and the only sounds he seemingly is able to make, are the sounds of different birds. "Seemingly", yes but...? Added to this he also has a collection of bird's eggs.
Pa tries to help his son as much as he can but Moe is getting more and more bewildered and obviously feels somewhat overridden. He is used to be the center of Pa's world and vice versa but now the center is this 'strange'son.
On the same time one can establish that the friends of Pa and Moe and the brothers themselves are at least as 'strange' in their behaviour as the son and the question that consequently arises:
Is Konrad really the 'odd' person in this context or is he the most intelligent and 'normal' one and what is his goal?

In the end the life of the two brothers change permanently - or perhaps not?

(Photo copied from: http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/5/50/506/506134/eggs6_1184315250.jpg)

Blindpassasjer

Blindpassasjer is a sci-fi about five astronauts turning back to Earth from their mission to the planet Rossum. The space ship - called Marco Polo (not so original) - continues its silent journey through space through the auto-pilot, while the crew are in a deep sleep.
All of a sudden we - the viewers - see a strange human-like creature on the surveillance screens, shutting them down, one by one. The camera focuses on them while we can't see what's happening 'behind us', among the crew members, still asleep, although we hear that someone is entering the room, doing something... but what?
When they wake up they slowly become aware of having a stowaway on the ship and now they have to find him or her.
The situation becomes even more severe when they realize that this 'creature' is not the sixth individual aboard but actually has taken over the life of one of the crew members.
Who has been killed, replaced by a copy?
Their commander on Earth urge them to go about with the mission to find the intruder as quickly as possible, as he has sent a missile towards their ship, hitting them before reaching Earth - if not the 'imposter' is found.

This Norwegian TV-series is made in the same way as many popular 1970's sci-fi stories but even though the technical part not always impresses and one uses some clichés, it's quite a thrilling story with a somewhat forseeable end, at least according to me (Gunnar). Aurore thought the end surprising.

In the roles as the crew members we see: Henny Moan, Marit Østbye, Trini Lund, Bjørn Floberg
Ola B. Johannessen.

Lønsj/Cold Lunch

This film takes on the problem with people not wanting to assume their responsibilities, are 'suffering' from - what could be called - 'decision-agony' (so common in the Nordic countries?), afraid of living alone or just afraid of living. All this leading to that the characters continue their daily life even if they all need a change.

Leni (Ane Dahl Torp) lives a - in every sense - sterile life with her father, a relationship with incestuous undertones, afraid of leaving, afraid of living, afraid of breaking the daily routines, that consists of making the meals to her father and being his little 'lapdog'.
All this til the day her father dies and she is forced to leave the apartment as it's going to be sold and she can't afford paying the rent. All of a sudden she has to earn her own living and confronting the frightening 'outer world'.
Heidi (Pia Tjelta) and Odd (Kyrre Haugen Sydness) (Odd being the estate agent who forces Leni to move from her fathers apartment) is a couple living in an almost 'master and slave'-relationship, where Odd dominates Heidi in a way she seem to accept, afraid of loosing his husband, afraid of living alone, afraid of breaking the social rules by divorcing a man who abuse her in more than one way. Odd's interest in his wife and child is subordinated his career and he's obviously frustrated of having to deal with a family when their are much more important things in the world to concentrate on.
Christer (Aksel Hennie) is an unsuccesful 'master of the art of living', having great plans but being afraid of assuming the responsibilities wherefore he instead tries to exploit other people, in pretending that he likes them or cares about them.
This goes for the shop owner who employs him but finds out that his only interest lies in a payment in advance, in order to sort his economical problems.
Furthermore Christer asks an old friend to lend him money but the friend instead invites him to go on a boat trip around the world, working for him on the boat. Christer turns his offer down but - of course - persists to ask him if he can lend him some money for a business project.
As his friend knows him, he refuses: "You know you're going to fail" as he so veraciously concludes.
Being desperate Christer now asks his father, a person he can't stand but when his father offer him a sum of money, it's not enough and Christer looks back in anger...
Besides these characters there are others and one can mention Kildahl (Bjørn Floberg), a Jack-in-office with a suppressed wife, trying to dictate other peoples life, not able to control his own.
Like the butterfly-effect, a bird shit (a euphemism is unnecessary I think) on Christers vest, brings him in relation with Kildahl, leading to troubles for both Christer, Kildahl and others around them, in a way turning their world upside down.
Like in Alfred Hitchcocks 'The Birds', flying species in this film, seem to point not only to the end of the monotonous life of the main characters but to the end of the world.

This film about a group of hesitant people, prolonging their futile lives by not making decisions that might turn their lives upside down, initiating a new and fresh start, is told with great amount of humour but on the same time in a way that makes you (me) angry. The latter as the characters either tries to dominate or let themselves be dominated by others. This until the limits are reached and the skies - finally - comes tumbling down.

Director: Eva Sørhaug.

Hører du ikke hva jeg sier!/Shut Up and Listen!

This is a story about how superficially unexpected incidents within a very controlled day-to-day life, can turn the very same upside down in a most dramatic way, even though these incidents can't be said being fatal for the afflicted, at least not directly.

Stig (Bjørn Floberg) and Ane (Kjersti Holmen) live and work together, he as a stand up comedian and she as his manager.
Stig is very succesful but on the same time a man not recognizing his limits and making jokes about everything and everyone, also in the private life, sometimes taking advantage of people's weaknesses or perceived weaknesses in a way that render him less popular, to say the least.
During one of Stig's shows, a man dies from a heart attack during an outburst of laughter.
This changes Stig in a way that makes him unable to concentrate on his work, as the man haunts him in his dreams and even during his performances where Stig believes he sees him in the audience looking back at him in an accusing way, as if he blaims Stig for his death. In a way Stig feels guilty as it's actually a death caused by his jokes.
At a dinner with the family, that is to say, the two sisters of Ane, their husbands and Ane's parents, her mother reveals that she has had a relationship while being married to her husband Göran (Keve Hjelm). This she reveals during a (boring) speech by Göran where he talks about their long and faithful marriage(!).
This 'confession' leads Göran to pack his bag and leave the home.
As Stig doesn't function 'normally', his wife takes on the show, both as a stand up comedian and as a singer. She is succesful, something Stig can't accept as HE is the star!
Will he get back on stage and what will happen with Ane's parents?
Ane seem to be the center of the world in every way as she at first was responsible for Stigs show, now taking on the same show both as an artist and a manager for herself and at the same time trying to support her mother during the parental crisis.
The film displays the danger with living in a imaginative bubble of being perfect and 'invulnerable' or having perfect relationships, not reflecting over what holds them together and if that which holds them together is strong enough to support smaller or bigger 'catastrophies'.

Good acting but on the same time there are to many scenes from the stage and this sometimes render the film a certain unnecessary repetitive pattern, even if this might be done purposely by the director Erik Gustavson.


(Photo poster copied from: http://cdn.mymovies.ge/posters/51f/4d61ac777b9aa154cb00551f/h-rer-du-ikke-hva-jeg-sier-original.jpg)

La Fille du Puisatier

Daniel Auteuil has made a remake of this film, first shot in 1940 by Marcel Pagnol.

The story circles around the well-digger Pascal Amoretti (Auteuil) and his pretty daughter Patricia (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), Pacal's friend Félipe (Kad Merad) and the rich family Mazel.
When delivering lunch to her father and his companion Félipe, Patricia meets ayoung man by the name of Jacqus Mazel (Nicolas Duvauchelle) and of course they immediately fall in love.
Unfortunately for Patricia:
1. Her father has already plans for her concerning mariage and the contemplated bridegrum is Félipe,
2. Jacques is sent to the ongoing war, as he is a skilled pilote and
3. she is pregnant and the father is Jacques.

Patricia's answer to Félipes proposal, before he also leaves for the front, is no;
Jacques disappear without saying goodbye but asks his mother to leave a message to Patricia at a certain meeting place, something Mrs Mazel never complies with, in spite of her promising to do so.
As Patricia's pregnancy is seen as something disgraceful by her father, the latter contacts the Mazel family with a proposal concerning mariage when Jacques, hopefully, gets back from the warfront.
Mazels is not at all inclined to consent to this arrangement, least of all Mrs Mazel who believes that Amoretti is doing this only to get hold of their money, looking at the approach as a form of black mail.
On the same time they are embarrased by the fact that their son has had a relationship with a person from the 'lower classes' and this can't become public of course.
Disgraced Pascal sends his daughter of to the town, all alone. This in order to let her find her own job and a family who might take care of her, in spite of her pregnancy.
Meantime Jacques is reported missing after his plane is shot down behind enemy lines.
Félipe returns and offer himself to marry Patricia in spite of her carrying another mans baby but for Pascal, she doesn't exist anymore.

On the whole I must say that Auteuil hasn't succeeded in making this film as heartrending as it could have become.
It's a story that certainly appeals to the general public as one knows exactly on what strings to play emotionally, but for those of us who have seen this kind of mise-en-scène and story telling before, it becomes to sentimental and doesn't touch me/us at all.
The young actress, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, is to one-sided in her emotional and mimic action but this might as well be a result of the direction by Auteuil.
In the role as Monsieur Mazel we see Jean-Pierre Darrousin, a very fine actor, perhaps less known abroad than his two male colleagues Auteuil and Merad.

Ti kniver i hjertet/Cross My Heart and Hope To Die

In Norwegian this film is called 'Ti kniver i hjertet' ('Ten Knives In The Heart', my translation) and might possibly allude to the different personal defeats and emotional arousals the main character Otto (Martin Dahl Garfalk) is afflicted with in the course of time during which the story unveils?
The film is built on a book by Lars Saabye Christensen by the name of 'The Boy Who Wanted to Be One of the Boys' (my translation from 'Gutten som ville være en av gutta').

The events takes place in Oslo during the 1960's and we get to meet the main character Otto, a boy who tries to be as 'tough' as the other boys. Partly due to the fact that he is smaller purely physically and not sharing the same 'macho ideals', he finds it hard to become a 'part of the gang'.
He is never selected for the football team - although he is eager to participate and tries to attract the attention of the coach - and the closest he gets to the football team is when his mother (actress Kjersti Holmen) washes their clothes and when he is a 'ball boy'.
During the summer vacation his best friend in school goes on vacation while Otto is forced to help his father Edvard (Reidar Sørensen) in his work as a remover.
This summer will become one of the most turbulent ones for Otto and this after meeting a 'mysterious' young man by the name of Frank (Jan Devo Kornstad). Frank is older and superficially tougher than Otto and he gets Otto to do things the latter actually don't want to do, beginning with throwing a stone at the referee during a football match. From this point on, Frank takes Otto on a drive mentally, physically - and in a car.
On their odyssey they become friends, though Otto finds Frank somewhat strange.
To the viewer it might seem as a homoerotic game but is it really...?
In a lake they find the corps of a young woman being reported missing and this scares Frank too, not least as the car they use is stolen and might be connected to the dead woman.
They decide not to tell anyone but when the principal in the school talks about the missing young woman, Otto's conscience nags him. On the same time we get to see the nonchalant behaviour from the other pupils, obviously not believing that this could happen to them and therefore not taking in this information, not least since they're focused on the summer holidays.
Otto's father is a rather impotent person, among other things displayed by the fact that he hesitates to intervene when his wife, on a pick nick is being chat-up by some young men.
His mental or moral impotence is complemented by a physical when a falls under a piano when moving it from an apartment, making him paralyzed, trapped in a wheal chair.
On the same time Otto becomes wittness to when Frank initiate a relationship with his mother's best friend, miss Sager and also seemingly trying to approach Otto's mother.
The latter makes him reevaluate Frank.
In the same house as Otto's family a man by the name of Wiik (Bjørn Floberg), keeps an eye on everything and everyone and although he verbally displays a high moral (whatever that might be), he is also interested in miss Sager.
This leads to a conflict between him and Frank, leading to that Frank is imprisoned for assault and battery.
When visiting Frank in the prison Otto gets to know who he really is.

The film contains a lot of symbolic material of course and very much is centered towards the question about personal moral and courage, the inner and outer toughness and the superfluous hunt for recognition, either by individuals or groups.
Within this the film deals with questions about 'manhood' and what this might be, friendship between men and women, men and men and women and women, love and lust and the consequences of judging someone or something from without external criterias, as we so often tend to do.
The acting is mostly good and not exaggerated with a structure that leaves the viewer uncertain of who the characters, on a profound level, actually are and where the story is heading.

Secondløitnanten/The Last Lieutenant

'Secondløitnanten' takes on the moral question about what to do when the enemy attacks your country.
Should one surrender in order to minimize the number of deaths in the country or should one fight for independence against the aggressors, probably leading to a lot of suffering and many deaths?
If surrendering, can one be sure that this leads to less deaths and is dying the worst consequences from an invasion like this or is it to be sent to concentration or working camps, being humiliated, having the daily life being governed by a dictatorial regime?
If one fight against the enemy, there are no guarantees for a succesful end to that fight but is that the most important factor or is it the moral questions about not submitting to foreign powers and to slavery?
These questions are implicit and explicit discussed in this film, an œuvre more important for the Swedes than for the Norwegians, as the former surrendered unconditionally by letting the Germans use our country for their operations, not least the so called 'transit(orial) trafic' through Sweden.

The film circles around Thor Espedal (Espen Skjønberg) an old sea captain and 'second lieutenant', a title that didn't exist during the Second World War but the First.
When Germany invades Norway the 9th of April 1940 Espedal enrols himself in the army, in spite of being a pensioner (in the film born in 1874 if I remember right).
He though becomes disappointed when he finds that the military leadership and the king, obviously are inclined to surrender instead of fighting the invaders.
He then creates a sort of guerilla warfare with men and women willing to follow him in his fight against the Germans.
At first people laugh at him and his outdated uniform. Seeing an elderly man taking up the fight when they themselves try to flee or surrender, also evokes a lot of bad conscience, making it easier to depict Thor as an old scatterbrain than to realize that he actually is doing what they should do or should have done.
One of the officers discussing the surrender and opposing it - Kerlow (Bjørn Floberg) - tries to support Thor and his guerilla soldiers and in the beginning they succeed in fighting back some German troops but in the end the preponderance becomes to great and one by one, his brave men and women have to surrender.

The story is loosely built on the true events around the officer of the reserve, Thor Olaf Hannevig and his improvised resistance against the Germans using his infantry regiment "IR-3" around Vinje in the inner parts of Telemark, April and May 1940.
The events are not correctly depicted but gives an idea of the chaotic fight that took place in many towns in the southern parts of Norway, April 1940.
The film does not depict Thor as a 'war hero à la Americaine' but gives a more credible image of the often very scared and frustrated men and women trying to fight this militarily superior enemy, with Thor in the middle as a tough but on the same time sensitive and sensible man, filled with a patriotic spirit, prepared to die for his country and his countrymen- and women.

Parenthetically, when mentioning 'Telemark', I recall the first film I (Gunnar) saw about the Norwegian resistance during World War II: 'The Heroes of Telemark' (1965) with, among others, Kirk Douglas.

Telegrafisten

'Telegrafisten' ('The Telegraphist') is a film built on the book 'Sværmere' ('Dreamers') by Knut Hamsun, written in 1904.

The story circles around a charming telgraphist - Ove (Bjørn Floberg) - a man with a lot of ingenuity, though at first not acknowledged.
He struggles with an invention that will improve the 'fish glue' and this not least as he, as one of his neighbours, has the merchant Mack (Jarl Kulle), buying and selling fish glue products.
If Ove succeeds he might be accepted by Mack, even become his colleague and as such a part of 'high society' in the village - at the same time coming closer to Mack's daughter Elise (Marie Richardson).
Mack is a very pompous person, trying to become even more influential and rich by tying bonds to a captain by the name Henriksen (Ole Ernst), using his ship to export his products.
On the same time the every day life continues on the island, somewhat interrupted by the arrival of a clergyman and his wife. A majority of the population seem indifferent to the Christian belief and not least the Church.
Many of them - not least Ove - lives a life far from the Ten Commandments, not least the sixth one (in Cahtolic and Lutheran versions): "You shall not commit adultery".
By most people Ove is seen as a somewhat peculiar person working with his inventions more than as a telegraphist as not many people use his services.
Suddenly one day he succeeds in inventing the glue, sends it over to Germany /Hamburg and a scientific academy there for an evaluation. He later receives a positive answer in which they tell him that they are willing to pay him 100 000 Norwegian 'kronors' for his glue.
By this time he had started disparing and had retreated to an isolated island but now he becomes full of life and also becomes a partner to Mack, one of his goals.
The problem has been and still is that Mack's daughter is going to be married to captain Henriksen, the elderly asscociate to Mack, and this as a sort of 'negotiation deal'.
Ove has won half the empire but will he be able to win the most important, the love of Elise?

I (Gunnar) haven't read the book by Hamsun but Aurore has and she says that the film differs a lot from the book.
However, this is a very alluring film with good acting, a good story about power, respect, love and how to breach the barriers between people living within different social stratas, some being content with this, others feeling that they belong to 'the other side of the border'.
The photo is sometimes exquisite and the milieus wonderful, not least for those being fond of the particular Norwegian landscapes and who is not?

Floberg is - as most often - very good in his role as Ove and Kulle has found his favourite role character, the complacent and - as I wrote above - pompous man, a role he has performed in numerous films. Other fine Norwegian actors and actresses are:
Bjørn Sundquist, Kjersti Holmen, Reidar Sørensen and among the Swedish (besides Kulle) we find:
Marie Richardson, Johan H:son Kjellgren and Maria Bonnevie (born in Sweden by a Norwegian mother and a Swedish father, raised in Norway, making her 'Nordish' or 'Swegian'?).

Blücher

Svenska (English below):

Två skickliga dykare blir avskedade från sina arbeten på Nordsjön och vill nu ta revansch för detta genom att försöka lokalisera och bärga material från det under andra världskriget torpederade tyska krigsfartyget 'Blücher', som sänktes den 9 april 1940 vid Oscarsborg i Oslofjorden.
Ingen har hittills lyckats ta sig in i fartyget som dessutom innehåller tonvis med odetonerade torpeder.
När dock ryktet sprids om deras verksamhet, väcker det intresse hos andra personer inom inte minst den yttersta näringslivstoppen. Varför detta? Uppenbarligen därför att det i fartygsvraket finns dokument som visar inopportuna samband mellan nazismen och ett antal chefer för stora industriföretag, just i färd med att färdigställa ett viktigt företagsavtal i mångmiljardklassen.
De båda vännerna blir nu ansatta från flera håll och det visar sig bli en livsfarlig kamp mot människor beredda att med alla upptänkliga medel skydda de hemligheter som gick till botten med detta fartyg.
Till detta kommer att de besöks av en kvinnlig journalist som visar sig vara dotter till en av de företagsledare som nu är involverade i affärsuppgörelsen och som samtidigt har ett förflutet att dölja för omvärlden.
Varför dyker hon upp (eller snarare dyker ned, eller hur?) just nu?

Historien börjar bra och mise-en-scène är mycket väl genomförd, inte minst i de många gånger spännande dykscenerna. Här blandar man ingredienser som klaustrofobiska miljöer, risker i form av torpederna, labyrintliknande situationer etc.
Efter hand går filmen in i en fas där relationerna mellan de båda dykarna och den kvinnliga journalisten hamnar i förgrunden, något som inte bidrar med kvalitativt innehåll till filmen.
En klichéartad bild av företagsrepresentanter och en inhyrd mördare - inte minst sistnämnda - tenderar att få filmen att tippa över mot en alltför parodisk vinkling, vilket drar ned det slutliga omdömet.
Filmen blir inte den spänningsfyllda thriller den kunde ha utvecklats till med bättre regi och genomförande men en kalkon är den inte heller.

English:

Two skillful divers are being dismissed form their working places in the North Sea and they now want to vindicate themselves by trying to localize and salvage material from the - during the Second World War - torpedoed German warship 'Blücher', sunk the 9th of April 1940 at Oscarsborg in the Oslofjord.
Noone has hitherto succeeded in entering the ship, also containing tons of undetonated torpedos.

When the rumour spreads about their activity, it evokes an interest among other persons, not least among the heads of the business world. Why? Obviosly because there, in the shipwreck, are documents displaying inopportune liaisons between the nazism and a couple of chief executives within some industrial companies, at the very moment in the act of completing an important industrial contract worth billions of Norwegian 'kronors'.
The two friends are now being beset from a number of parties and it turns out to become a deadly struggle against people prepared to defend the secrets hidden on the bottom of the sea and this with every cocnceivable mean.
Added to this they are also visited by a female journalist who happens to be the daughter of one the chief executives involved in the business deal, having a past to cover from the world.
Why does she show up at this very moment?

The story commence well and the mise-en-scène is well composed, not least in the often very thrilling diving scenes, where one have blended ingredients like claustrophobic environments, the risks the torpedos constitute, labyrinthic situations etc.
After a while though, the film enters a phase where the relations between the two divers and the female journalist gets in the forefront, not adding any qualitative content to the film.
A clichéd picture of the representatives of the companies and a hired killer - not least the latter - tend to make the film tip towards a parodical angle, something diminishing the final verdict.
The film does not become the suspenseful thriller it could have developed into with a better direction and realization but it's not a 'turkey' either.

(Photo poster copied from: http://cdon.no/media-dynamic/images/product/000/447/447626.jpg)

La Proie

Albert Dupontel uses a lot of his physical strength and agility as his role character Franck Adrien, sentenced to prison for armed robbery.
His 'wife' visits him in prison, taking with her their daughter, something he dislikes as he doesn't find the environment being edificatory for her and he doesn't want to meet her during these conditions. The mother answers: "She wanted to meet her father" whereby he replies: "If I'm her father".
He finds himself with a roomate - Jean-Louis Maurel (Stéphane Debac) - being accused for molesting and killing a child or a young girl and this evokes feelings of hate among the other convicts, as pedophiles are on the bottom of the prison hierarchy. The young bespectacled man, claims that he is innocent and he is sure that justice will be done, meaning that he will be able to leave the prison as a free man.
Three convicts, constituting the 'correctional force' in the prison, one day enter the cell - this made possible by one of the corrupt prison officers - and ask Franck to step outside.
He does so but when they start to rape and disgrace his roommate, seeing that the guards doesn't intervene, he enters the cell and starts to fight with the three men. The guards rushes to and of course it's Franck who is punished.
Maurel is released after being acquitted of the crimes he was accused of and when leaving he asks Franck if there is anything he can do for him, as he - rightfully(?) - feels that he owes him this after what he did for him when being attacked. Franck answers that he wants him to leave a message to his 'wife'. This message is coded and displays where Franck has hidden the money from his robbery.
However, Maurel is not the person Franck thought he was and this becomes clair when he is visited by a policeman from the 'fugitive' squad' - Manuel Carrega (Sergi López) - telling him what he knows about Maurel after having hunted him for years, trying to find evidence for the crimes he is suspected having committed. Maurel is - according to Carrega - a serial killer and now Franck becomes frightened, thinking of what might happen to his 'wife' and daughter.
After a 'showdown' with the 'interior correctional force' and their friends among the guards, Franck escapes, finds his 'wife' killed and his daughter missing, being held captived by Maurel and his wife, the latter desperately wanting a child and therefore cooperating with her husband in his deeds.
Franck is of course suspected of being the serial killer and the hunt begins: The police hunting Franck, Franck hunting Maurel and Carrega trying to help Franck.

It's a well composed story in the action genre, rapidly and effectevily told but the characters are somewhat to clichéd, not least the serial killer/pedophile.
Dupontel's character seems to be invulnerable, physically but mentally he's though much more vulnerable, not least as he struggles with the mea culpa-syndrome, though well deserved.
In spite of the serious matter in this film, it never actually haunts me and the person I despise most, is Maurel's wife Christine (Natacha Régnier). By not interfering with the deeds her husband commits, she becomes as culpable as him. Not least as she uses him for her own egoistic reasons.

The end is a real 'cliff-hanger'!!
In spite of some negative points, I can recommed this film if it's action and suspense you are looking for.

Monkey Business (Marx Brothers)

Monkey Business is a story about the Marx Brothers on a boat trip.
Of course they boarded the boat as stowaways and of course they get into trouble with almost everyone on the boat when trying to hide from the captain and the crew.
As usual they annoy everyone and they also play some nice mucial pieces and Harpo also sets out for his regular chase of, not least, blondes. Is it because they have more fun or just because he is blond himself?

I've written before that the films we've now seen by the Marx Brothers doesn't make me laugh as wildely as I did when seeing their films as a younger man but on the other hand these might not be their best ones.
Their jokes are somewhat obsolete, and the chase (chasing) scenes really connects with the earliest movies in the dawn of the film making and it's not particularly innovative.

Musikk for bryllup og begravelser/Music for Weddings and Funerals

'Musikk for bryllup och begravelser' is a film both of us have seen before and the third film I (Gunnar) see from the director Unni Straume ('Til en ukjent' and 'Thranes metode').

The story circles around Sara (Lena Endre) and her ex-husband Peter (Bjørn Floberg), his current wife Helen (Petronella Barker), Peter's young mistress Kaja (Rebecka Hemse) and Sara's lodger Bogdan (Goran Bregovic).
Even if Peter at a rather early stage in the film disappears when committing suicide in the house he - as an architect - has written and where Sara now lives, the story continues to develop around him.
The house so profoundly being a part of himself and his life story also constitutes the terminus of the very same, making it his home and tomb.
Through his life, his work and his choices in life, he has had a major influence on many people and this in combination with a life that comprises minimalism - in his work as an architect - in combination with an excessive private life, not least concerning human relations, makes him a hard to define-person.

The film poses many interesting questions concerning both human relations, secrets in life, honesty and sincerity between persons, the difference between love, passion and desire, in short the meaning of life and living and how your exterior organisation of life not always corresponds with your interior person. The importance of lost moments and how they become essential when your life is on the edge of something dramatic, also constitutes one of the ingredients in this film, as well as questions of guilt and responsibility, revenge and forgivness.
All this is intervowen within a aesthetic framework, so well corresponding to the austere and minimalistic architecture created by Peter.
Aesthetically, I think this film is a pearl, at least during the first 2/3 of the film.
As a picturesque element in the film - picturesque in this milieu, with this aesthetic and with the emotionally inhibited Swedes and Norwegians - we get to meet Goran Bregovic' character and not least his musicians and singers, rending the film a surprising and exhilirating touch.

The acting is in general good and Floberg is - as always - one of the best participants in this oeuvre but I have to say that Lena Endre is shaping her role character, into becoming the centre of the story and catalyzer of events, not only because she has an important role but more thanks to her acting - and the direction of Unni Straume.

As Lisa, the mother of Peter, we see the recently deceased Norwegian 'Prima Donna' Wenche Foss.

De ofrivilliga/Involuntary

'De ofrivilliga' ('Involuntary') is a title that might make you reflect somewhat concerning whether or not it's an appropriate title for this film.
This reflection after seeing this œuvre, as no single person commit any action involuntary in this film, provided one don't believe that there is such a thing as the human free will but that all our actions are predestined.
The outcome of their actions might however be felt as not corresponding to their inner wishes, not in accordance with their will and there are person who involuntary become the victims of the decisions made by others and this might be the core of the title.
It's only a small boy who more or less is 'forced' to say something he doesn't wan't to say, making him look guilty of something he's not guilty of.

Again, If one understand the title as irony, it's perfectly chosen and if we look at all the different characters and their unwillingness to take responsibility for their life, the title is also ideal. They are reluctant to make decisions.
The other English title 'Happy Sweden' is also felt as ironic and is as such appropriate too.

In short the story circles around different people, their daily choices or lack of decisions and how this affect not only their own lives but others, often in a negative way and how they constantly try to flee their responsibility and the outcome of their decisions, blaming it on others or 'circumstances' over wich they had no influence.
As a mirror of human cowardice and fear of conflict, I think the film in a most accurate way describes the Swedish society, where the average Swede throughout decades has fled responsibility for his or her actions, relying on 'the Society' to help him or her out; not wanting to become involved in something that might have negative consequences on a personal level, even if it's a question of saving another persons life or helping your fellow countryman- or woman in a difficult situation.
This, of course, though the very same person, fleeing her responsibility in a similar situation very much would like someone to intervene to help and support but the average Swede often relies on the notion that "this doesn't happen to me...".

The film contains all these fears and as such very well reflects that not standing up and taking responsibility for your own actions, less standing up for others when they are in trouble, most often lead to negative consequences, not only for 'the others' but in the long run for yourself, your well being, not to mention your moral.
This not least as the personal actions accumulates and becomes an overall collective, societal behavioural pattern making - in this case - the Swedish society a Society of Fear, Cowardliness, Irresponsible Behaviour and Collectivism, a perfect society for a totalitarian regime or totalitarian subregimes in the smaller societal units.
Unfortunately I very much recognize my former country and the characters in the film makes me feel sick and I feel inclined to mishandle them. In making me feel like this, Ruben Östlund has really succeeded and at the same time, I'm so happy ('Swede') not living in Sweden anymore.
Having lived in Sweden though makes it easier to recognize the average Swede and his or her reactions, a déja vu-many-times-before-feeling that might escape other viewers, not familiar with Sweden as it is but more with the 'myth' so succesfully promoted abroad.

Rio (and Blu)

Rio is a little 'bagatelle' about the macaw 'Blu', a domesticated bird being confronted with his native Brasil, more or less involuntary.
This because a researcher/specialist in birds - dr Barbosa - finds him in the book store in Minnesota, where the owner Linda, works and where he resides as the 'book-bird' and friend of Linda.
One of 'Blu's' problems is that he can't fly. Not a small problem for a bird, supposed to fly.
He is though convinced to follow Linda and dr Barbosa to Rio de Janeiro, in order to save his species.
Just as he once was captured and brought to the USA, he is now captured, not only by the female macaw with whome he is supposed to couple but also by unscrupulous bird hunters.
From now on he experiences the adventure of his life but as this is a film for children, all ends well.

In the 'role'/voice as Blue we find Jesse Eisenberg.

We saw the film at Cinéma Lux, La Châtre.