28 September 2011

Blackthorn



Another western with a hoary-headed 'hero'! We all remember 'True Grit' (with Jeff Bridges as the 'greyish' main character); 'Open Range' (Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner, the latter not so grey perhaps); 'Cowboys and Aliens' (Harrison Ford) - even though the latter is a combination of two popular genres - and earlier during the 1990's: 'Unforgiven' (Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman). More examples could be laid out but just to get us into the mood.
Aurore and I have seen all of these films except 'Cowboys and Aliens' and concerning 'Unforgiven' one can establish that it's at least a very humorous film, not taking itself to serious and that was refreshing.

In this film we meet the legendary Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard) who has survived a standoff with the Bolivian Army in 1908 where his partner Sundance Kid died - or did he?
Now he has retreated from fast shooting adventures and lives under the name of James Blackthorn in a small cabin, with a Bolivian woman visiting him, helping him with the daily chores, including the sexual ones.
When we get into the film, he has decided to return to the US in order to live there for the rest of his life, with the money he has earned from a small self-mining project in Bolivia.

Unfortunately he meets Eduardo Apodaca (Eduardo Noriega), a man who is chased by a posse and who now implore Blackthorn/Cassidy to help him.
His crime? He has stolen 50 000US$ from a villainous mine owner where he worked, telling Blackthorn that he had been fooled by the owner, not having paid him his salary etc.

First B/C doubt Apodaca's credibility but gradually it seems as he is right and when the latter also tells B/C that he has hidden the money in a mine, they both try to find it. This not least as Apodaca, having shot at B/C, also chased his horse away, carrying a case with the money B/C had earned in Bolivia.

Convinced that it's a "villain" and his 'haiduks' chasing Apodaca, B/C helps him, again and again, even though his Indian mistress is killed more or less because of Apodaca.
Finally our greyish hero discovers that his younger companion actually has stolen money from the poor Indians, not the rich owner of the mine and from this point the protector becomes the hunter.

On the whole this is a very traditionally told story, even though one have tried to make a reverse story concerning the historical traditions around the life of Butch Cassidy and his life Before and not least in this film: After Cassidy and after Bolivia.
Otherwise there are the 'traditional' ingredients as shootings, people getting killed, som love and romance, bars and liquor.
It could also be seen as a didactic story about how one come to realize that people are not always honest. In this case this is depicted throught the fact that our 'hero' realizes that he is travelling with an imposter, a kind of aha-experience, for the viewer rather obvious from the beginning. The director depicts it as if Cassidy didn't realize this and this perhaps just in order to display a sort of blindness caused by the fact that Cassidy himself so often had been chased by people he had robbed or ill treated, and therefore related to this young man.
Then again, Cassidy needs to help him as there's a lot of money waiting for him at the end of the journey.

There are som beautiful sceneries in this film and also some minor humorous parts but the scenario is as thin as the paper it's written on and I still ask myself why some directors are so eager to make these kind of films.
It's not enough referring to similar films and well known ones by injecting references to 'classic' oeuvres in the same tradition in order to create something new with this genre, it needs more than so.
The fact that one still make western films, is perhaps because the directors and actors, more or less, all grew up with westerns and have had the ambition, once in their life, making and acting in one themselves.
Another explanation could be that this ambition is connected to a sort of national identity-rebuilding-project in the US?

'Unforgiven' was made in a humorous way and with a lot of distance but I can't find this/these ingredient(s) to any larger extent in neither this film nor 'True Grit' or 'Open Range'.
On the contrary I find these films being made with the ambition to be serious about everything they try to tell us and because of this, the films turn out in a rather pathetic way.

Director: Mateo Gil.


(Poster copied from: http://www.shortandsweetnyc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Blackthorn-film.jpg)
(Eduardo Noriega/Apodaca copied from: http://www.twikeo.com/images/cinema/7680/11.jpeg)
(Photo 'Blackthorn' - 'Apodaca' copied from: http://www.filmsfix.com/images/affiches/blackthorn-8.jpg)

26 September 2011

The Little Shop of Horrors


Gravis Mushnik (Mel Welles) is running a flower shop and the business is not at all a gold mine, to say the least. First of all he has the regular costumers not wanting to pay the full prize for his plants and he doesn't change much concerning the assortment either.

One day Seymour Krelboyne (Jonathan Haze) - his young and not to bright assistant - finds a remarkable plant that he starts to nurture. This as they both are looking for a unique plant that could boost the business.
Unfortunately (initially fortunately from one perspective) the plant nurtures on human blood!
First Seymour doesn't believe his ears when the plant starts to talk and asks for blood but gradually he understands that this is actually happening.
What to do?
First he 'injects' small quantities of his own blood but as the plant grows bigger and hungrier he has to find another solution. This not least as this plant has made the flower shop one of the most visited and the sales heads towards the ceiling. Before this Seymour was risking loosing his job but now he has become a celebrity and so has the owner, mister Mushnik - and not least the plant!
Finally Seymour accidentally kills a man and he brings him to the shop and feeds the flower with the corpse. As this works out well, Seymour is obliged to continue, forced not only by the plant but by the owner, the latter not intially knowing how he makes the plant grow but when becoming aware of it, don't do much to stop it.

This continues to the bitter end, bitter for Seymour at least.

The film is well known and it's based on a story called "Green Thoughts" written by John Collier (1932). Later on this became a very popular off Broadway-show, later remade into a feature film (1986) and again played at Broadway.

It contains a lot of Jewish, bizarre, raw and surprising humour making this oeuvre a rather fascinating piece of work, maybe shocking someone at the time but today just being laughed at as the jokes and oddities feels rather dated.

Of course this is also a blink to stories having overflooded our literature and film, discussing how Lienfar man should go in our quest to tame the nature and trying to manipulate it.
In classics like 'Frankenstein' or 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', it's the manipulation of man himself or manlike 'inventions', in this film the critic is more aimed at the refinement of plants, nowadays genetically (GMO), in 1932 (when the book was written) in a developing phase with different kinds of cross-fertilizations.

It's however not the possible 'social message' that strikes you most in this film but more the amuzing story, the bizarre jokes and the personalities.
Talking about personalities, Jack Nicholson appears as an actor for the forth time when appearing as Wilbur Force in this horticultural film!



(Poster from the film copied from: http://whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/lsoh_lobby.jpg)
(Photo depicting Jonathan Haze, Mel Welles and Jackie Joseph copied from: http://images.starpulse.com/news/bloggers/640389/blog_images/the-little-shop-of-horrors-1960.jpg)
(Photo Jonathan Haze as Seymour Krelboyne with plant copied from: http://showmeyourindies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/little-shop-of-horrors1.jpg)
(Photo Jack Nicholson copied from: http://www.schlockmania.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/LSOH60-03.jpg)

25 September 2011

Svea och jag

Svea och jag from Reaktor Sydost on Vimeo.
This is an experimenatl short film asking questions about Sweden 'today' and what privileges, norms and jargons our citizenship conveys to us (or rather to "them", as none of us is living in Sweden anymore, luckily enough).
"Svea" is a National Personification of Sweden and often used together with "Mother (Svea)".

May Fly

This short film - also a part of "1 km film 2009", (Stockholm Film Festival) stars Serena Reeder and Gustaf Skarsgård.

When driving his car Jimmy (Gustaf Skarsgård) suddenly sees a woman running away from a man. He stops the car and asks her if she is in need of help. "The Girl" (as Serena Reeder's character is refered to - I don't remember what name she mentions in the film), is in need of a mobile phone and while talking with Jimmy, he decides to offer her a ride.
Who's taken for a ride?

They are namely both heading for an experience that could be interpreted as romantic and traumatic at the same time and for who it's most romantic or traumatic, that is hard to say.

Superficially it seems as if Jimmy is 'the victim', after having experienced a wonderful time with this woman who suddenly runs away, just like she did previosly, leaving him without any explanations to her behaviour and not seeming to have been ill treated by Jimmy either.
Might it be that this is a woman being so scarred by the relationships she has had with men that she is afraid of engaging herself and leave before her feelings deepens or is she a fraud, in some way taking advantage of the men she encounters?

One might also ask oneself if the fact that men often use their lower head when thinking, makes Jimmy believe that there are more to their relationship than it actually is and thereby involuntary 'threatens' this woman when his pheromones is activated?

Thirdly one might ask oneself if Jimmy is experiencing a déja vu, reliving something already having happened.

Judge for yourself. It's however a quite interesting short film and we'll hope that the director Petter Ringbom will be able to go on making feature films, if this is what he wants.



(Photo Gustaf Skarsgård copied from: http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/977/645/97764514_640.jpg)
(Photo Serena Reeder copied from: IMDb.com)

Du ritar fult


Another short where a young man tells us that he as a boy once killed a classmate in school

The title of the film in English is (direct translation): 'You draw ugly'.

We get to know that the name of the young boy he killed was Pierre - "a strange name", as our anti hero states.
What then follows is a description on how all this happened and as the title indicates it starts when the two young boys are having a drawing lesson.

The victim Pierre is at first teasing our story teller, degrading his drawings, thereby making him a victim for his malice.
This becomes more and more irritating for the other and finally he takes his pencil, stabbing Pierre to death.

The story is told in a way where the protagonist is almost totally stripped of emotions. He just tells the story in a way as if he was telling us about a everyday event, although an incident like this, for most people, is not a everyday event, thank God.

We are not given any other explanations to why he committed this act, more than the fact that the other boy made fun of him.

In this sense I think this piece of work very well illustrate the Swedish or rather Scandinavian way of living, acting and reacting. Emotions are almost forbidden, the lives of people in Scandinavia is to well organized, secure and boring, that the only way to make a difference is to commit an act like this. 
One doesn't have to have a reason, or if there is one, it's often a very insignificant one.

The indifference versus other people's lives and human rights is highly developed in the Scandinavian countries and the respect for others are only expressed verbally, seldom practiced.
Look at Anders Behring Breivik! He is however only the more visible example of a mentality so interweaved in the societal structure in Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries, that the ordinary citizen doesn't notice that the mentality he displays is a part of the socital structure.

The film can also evoke questions about our own responsibility for what happens to us. In this case one can ask oneself why Pierre starts bullying his classmate and why he can't stop.
On the other hand: Our protagonists reaction, could it be said to correlate to Pierre's 'assault'?

Director: Victor Danell.
It was produced within the framework of 'Crazy Pictures'. Take a look at their productions through a 'click' on the name. You will find some very interesting material.

Den mörka ön/The Dark Island

Den Mörka Ön/Dark Island – excerpt 1 from Jöns Mellgren on Vimeo.Lien

Another short within the "1 km film" project at Stockholm Film Festival from 2009.

This film is made with puppies where we get to meet a boy and a girl at an island.
The boy is there in order to visit his grandparents but when arriving he meets a girl telling him that his grandfather is sick.
They start to create a world of their own

Director: Jöns Mellgren.

Sleeping and Dreaming of Food (short)


The title - 'Att sova och drömma om mat' - indicate the content, although it's not always obvious whether or not food is the important issue or the issue at all.
As with some Scandinavians films recently, we are in this one also introduced to a 'troll'.
They do exist you know!

Director: Kolbeinn Karlsson.

Att dela allt/Sharing All (short)



Att dela allt -filmklipp from HannaSofia on Vimeo.Lien

'Att dela allt' ('Sharing all') is a short film, displaying the problems with people having certain ideals, trying to convince others about them, wanting - as in this case - to be free but when they are faced with the results of their 'ideology', not being as keen on continuing walking this path to the end.


In this case we get to meet Oscar who calls himself a "relational anarchist", not wanting to be confied to a 'traditional' couplehood.
When his girlfriend - who also has agreed on living in an open relationships - has found herself a new lover, she however wants to keep Oscar too.
When he visits her, being sexually aroused, he finds this new lover with her and how does he intend to deal with this?

Director: Amanda Kernell.


(Photo copied from: http://botniafilm.filmfest.se/typo3temp/pics/9785824f7a.jpg)

24 September 2011

Heftig og begeistret/Cool and Crazy

Films about choirs have surfaced from time to time during the first decade of the 21st century: 'Huutajat' ('Screaming Men', 2003); 'Les choristes' (2004); 'Så som i himmelen' ('As It Is in Heaven', 2004); 'On the One' (2005) and lately 'Joyful Noise' (2012).

This is a documentary (as with 'Huutajat' above) and it tells the story about a choir - Berlevåg Mannsangforening (Berlevåg male choir association) - their work within the choir in order to improve themselves as singers but even more so aobut their private lives, their relations with family and friends and with the other members of the choir, perhaps in a way to improve themselves as human beings.

It's a both touching and entertaining film, displaying the fact that in spite of different views of life, different experiences and background, they can all work together towards a common goal.
The road towards success or recognition is filled with arguments, rehearsals and discussions, not least political ones.
The political part becomes very obvious when they travel to Russia and confronts both the austere, poor, grey and boring suburbs combined with some military monuments honoring those who fought and died during WWII.

On the same time we get to see the choir and their concerts in very different contexts and also outdoors. The latter sequences not as a part of their regular way of concertizing but more as a way to display the harsch environment where they live in the northern parts of Norway.
The town Berlevåg is situated in Finnmark, a province being situated as far north as you can reach in this beautfiul country (see the link through the name at the top).

We also realize that without the choir and its inner relationships, the lives of the male singers would be very boring and featureless, only having to occupy themselves with the work being the most important one in this town, namely the fish industry.
One of the members in the choir works as a social service employee (head of the social service, if we remember right), having the responsibility for the payments to many of the unemployed choir members.
Some of the singers have though reached the retirement age and more than so, the oldest being over 90 years old!

The film starts of in a rather conventional way but peu à peu, it develops into a drama even if in a low voice style and we get to know the different characters and their opinions and feelings and this is in fact quite interesting.In English the title is 'Cool and Crazy' and I think this name is very well chosen.
This because we talk both about a natural environment that is cold but also people being - as most Scandinavians - cold and reserved but on the same time displaying a somewhat crazy or unconventional way of living, acting and reacting in face of their mutually shared experiences.

Director: Knut Erik Jensen.



(Photo 1 choir copied from: http://www.nfi.no/barnunge/filmstudieark/bilder/heftig_1.jpg)
(Photo 2 in the snow with tailcoats copied from: http://www.filmarkivet.no/upload/image/heftig-og-begeistret2.jpg)
(Photo 3 of the choir in snow copied from: http://www.heftigogbegeistret.no/Korlogo.jpg)

23 September 2011

Fête de la gastronomie


France is highly respected throughout the world in the field of gastronomy, and it is an integral part of our heritage and identity. The festival will provide an opportunity to enjoy socialising and dialogue, while at the same time becoming more aware of the wide choice of products, the great variety of local produce, and the many professions connected with gastronomy.

Live my life as a stereotype


What is the motto of France?
Liberté, égalité, fraternité?
No, no, no!
Culture, wine, food!

As you might already know, every september the greatest marketing operation called "Foire aux vins" takes place in the whole country. The purpose is to sell old bottles before the new wine production is ready to be drunk. That's great for people like us (us meaning my relatives and I) who buy huge quantitites to get discounts.

Yesterday for example, we bought 12 bottles of Côtes du Rhône for 20 €. That was our very own way to prepare ourself for today: the first "fête de la gastronomie" in France.

So, what is the point?
Well, as you will have to drink the sour Beaujolais nouveau on the 2nd thursday of November, you will now have to buy/enjoy French products every first autumn day.
Nice, isn't it?
Five ministeries are going to make you like us!
Buy French cheese, French wine, hire our chefs and eat our specialties while talking about Simone de Beauvoir or Michel Houellebecq.
Don't be afraid, but, please consume!

So yeah, we ate and drank a lot today.
We had even thought of visiting Le Lion d'Argent. But a word frightened me in this text: autumn.

Autumn = mushroom = foes/poison/disgusting little things.

If you don't believe me, check the exciting press release with our very special Frédéric Lefebvre who luuuuuuuuuuvs fungus:


And if you are not asleep yet and are pretty jealous, visit France next autumn to be a part of this new popular event!











(Photo logo Fête de la gastronomie copied from: http://www.lesitedelevenementiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/la-fete-de-la-gastronomie.jpg)

(Photo 'Ratatouille' copied from:http://www.imagesetmots.fr/images/ratatouille.jpg)

22 September 2011

Awakenings



The title of this film can be understood both as the awakening of the patients in this film but also the awakening of the doctors and other medical personnel working day by day without engaging themselves in reflection around the treatment and development of their patients.
It's a film based on a book by Oliver Sacks with the same name (written in 1973) and tells a true story about a doctor revolutionizing the treatment in the hospital. The doctor was mr Sacks.

In this adaptation for the screen we see Robin Williams in the role as dr Sacks but in the film he is given the name Malcolm Sayer.
He becomes employed as a doctor at a hospital in 1969 although he has know clinical experience.
In this hospital there are patients being treated - or rather ill-treated or not treated at all - after having been catatonic for decades after an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, ravaging the USA during the years 1917-28.
Sayer soon realizes that they can be stimulated rather easily, as when throwing a ball at them, making them use their reflexes; letting them listen to music they can relate to, touching them etc etc.
When his colleagues - having themselves been 'sleeping' all these years when working with these patients - becomes aware of his ambitions, they scorn him and more or less directly tell him to comply with the 'non-treatment traditions' at this hospital and this because they are dealing with "hopeless cases", an expression so often used.
Sayer/Sacks doesn't care about this but continues his research concerning a possible treatment.
All of a sudden he finds out that the medicine L-Dopa used in the treatment of patients with Parkinson's actually functions on these patients too.
He starts to administrate this medicine and all of a sudden the patients gradually recovers, some more than others, among the latter Leonard Lowe (Robert de Niro).
Lowe starts to lead an almost 'normal' life but this creates problems as his mother is used to the 'old' Leonard and all of a sudden doesn't recognize this 'new' one, not least when he starts to interest himself in a woman, the daughter of one of the patients. He also request permission to leave the hospital, taking walks and doing the things "you take for granted" as he expresses it in front of the medical staff.
His mother does however point out something important, namely when asking Sayer how he would feel waking up realizing that he's lost decades of his life being in a sort of a coma.
The treatment continues and they all start to see the positive effects, although there are some negative side effects like the above mentioned fact that they become aware of that they have lost so many years of their lives, leading some of them to become depressive.
A new life in a new time where they don't seem to belong, also means that they have to start from zero, learning new things and some of them can't cope with this.

After some time they experience setbacks with the treatment and in the end most of them regresses and they enter the old catatonic state, not least Leonard.
In the role as the assistant nurse Eleanor Costello we see Julie Kavner (above).

It's a long time since we both saw this film and I remember it as a very warm (and it is) and genuine (in a way it is) film with extremely convincing acting (which it's not).
Robert de Niro was in my memory an excellent interpreter of this role character and it starts of well but gradually I fell that he exaggerates and it tend to become more slapstick than a real portrait of a real person, however handicaped in many ways.
The same thing goes even more for Robin Williams in the role as dr Sayer. I don't know if it's still 'Mork' in 'Mork and Mindy' that comes to my mind when looking at Williams, although I've seen him in several 'serious' roles where he is fantastic.
In this role however, I can't take him seriously.

The description of 'the awakening' is also very abrupt. All of a sudden all the patients - more or less - come to life and they start to wander around, dancing, singing and doing all sorts of things they haven't been able to do in decades. The problem with this is the so common 'start button' in American films, where everything happens at the same time: People start to cry at the same time and for the same reason, they clap their hand at the same time and for the same reason and so forth. This render the story an aura of unreality and staged theatre, and that of course breaks the 'magical spell'.

When Sayer/Williams is lecturing for a group of wealthy persons and potential donors, they are at first sceptical but when he shows them the result he has achieved with Leonard Lowe, they all - as like programmed robots - take up their wallets or checkbooks, donating money to the hospital and its research. This is so predictable and when these kind of things happens over and over again, it gets rather boring.

It's a pity as the subject matter was/is very important, not least when it comes to the way we look upon patients or persons not fitting in to the societal norms. When the story is told in a fashion making it an Oscar candidate being, not to realistic, not to dramatic but rather kind and hopefull, the important questions are lost in the exterior packaging and that's a shame.
This latter aspect not least important in a country like the USA where a often very fascist attitude towards humans being regarded as misfits is common. A film like this could have become a very important and provocative document. It misses this target - if this ever was the aim.



(The poster copied from: http://mylastoscar.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/awakenings1.jpg)
(Photo Robin Williams and Robert de Niro copied from: http://themoraltimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/awakenings.jpg)
(Photo 2 Robin Williams and Robert de Niro copied from: http://thebestpictureproject.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/awakenings3.jpg)
(Photo Julie Kavner as Eleanor Costello copied from: http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsK/9125-1023.gif)
(Photo several actors copied from: http://cineplex.media.baselineresearch.com/images/253940/253940_large.jpg)

Decapitated

While emptying the iPhone earlier today, I realized that I was married to my own private Dr. Guillotin.

Evidence one:

my scalp...


Evidence two:

my back...

Evidence three:

my profile.

Should I start worrying about Gunnar's decaptitating tendencies?

21 September 2011

3 funny facts about Gunnar and Norway


  1. Though we met at a Norwegian film festival in Stockholm, Gunnar had never visited Norway before 2008.

  2. Gunnar who speaks a pure and well articulated Swedish can't understand Rogalandsk. It means he doesn't understand a word when Kristoffer Joner speaks in a film. It also means that I, the French woman, had to translate what people said in Haugesund ("2 blocks", "1 soda" or a price).

  3. Gunnar cannot remember Norwegian names. Even if that's people he appreciates. Like actors. Like most of them. Like Trond Fausa Aurvåg, Mattis Herman Nyquist or Stig Frode Henriksen...

19 September 2011

Philadelphia

This film by Jonathan Demme came ten years after the HIV-infection and AIDS became known to the public. The problems surrounding people's lack of knowledge concerning how this infection was transmitted caused a lot of problems, not least for the infected of course.
As having worked (me Gunnar) with drug addicts and homeless people and also within a HIV- and infection ward at a Swedish hospital (the only ward in the world having the right to exercise custodial care), I've met people and heard their stories around the initial reactions during the 1980's and -90's.
A nurse once told me that after having had a patient with HIV in a room at a hospital, they even changed the curtains in the room, as they thought that HIV could be transmitted that way.
This film tells a story with these ingredients to some extent.
Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks in one of his absolutely best roles) is working at a law firm, being very succesful as a lawyer.
All of a sudden his life is shattered by the fact that he becomes infected with HIV, after having lived in a more or less regular homosexual relationship with Miguel (Antonio Banderas), even though it doesn't seem as it's Miguel having transmitted this disease.
The law firm fires him when they become aware of him being infected.
The information has leaked from someone (in those days not Wikileak) as Andrew first decided to keep this information secret, well aware of that it would cause him problems.
When being thrown out on the street, who is going to help him?
The only one is the small time lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), a homophobic person, seeing the nuclear family - man, woman, child - as the only and 'natural' way of living.
Beckett and Miller had earlier in the film met concerning a case where they both stood on the opposite sides and where Beckett behaved very arrogant. Now he has to supplicate his adversary for his help!
When Beckett says hello, taking Miller's hand, we see how Miller reacts, after he becomes aware of what kind of problem Beckett has. He tries to wipe his hand clean. One can say that he both physically and symbolically washes his hands as he also refuses to take the case. Of course he changes his mind, as being a lawyer who mostly has been working with people being wrongly treated but mostly poor people.

Thematically this film was important during a period when HIV-infected people were treated like pariah and problems like these were common, that is to say, people being fired or ill-treated, transferred to other jobs or positions in a company and so forth.

On the same time, we are in this film dealing with a person, initially being rather well off and not having financial problems. This although one gets the impression he has lost everything he had, even economically. Maybe this is correct, if the idea is that the director wants us to believe that he has payed persons along the way to help him. The fact is though that he admits to Miller that he has not been able to convince anyone to represent him in court.
May it be as it is with that but we can also establish that he is a highly educated lawyer knowing his rights and therefore not being an underdog within the court system.
That is to say that even if the film takes on an important subject, the subject for this subject(!) is not a homeless, poor citizen, unfamiliar with the (il)legal system in a society.

This diminish the importance of this film in my (Gunnar's) opinion but on the same time one can always argue that displaying the fact(?) that a person in a rather favourable situation being quite well off, also could be subjected (the subjet returns) to such a treatment, could serve a purpose.

The acting is good but as so often with American films, it is a bit to stereotypical, the persons being to much staffage representing not individuals but moral standpoints and positions in society, making it somewhat 'Eisensteinskt' and yet not. This is not bad per se but it tends to alienate us from the individual suffering and hardship, which is not the case with Eisensteins films.

During a party in Becketts apartment, the homo-bi-and trans-sexuals are also very clichéd, representing only the extravagant part of this population, of course very interesting in itself but as a homosexual man once said to me: "Why is it always these extravagant homosexuals one see, the ones dressing up like noone dresses at at daily bases. Where are the other homosexuals, like me, wearing costume and living a rather 'normal' everyday life?".

The film is also made according to the standard procedure within American films, using some very common methods to appeal to the viewer, a little sentimentality, a musical score with strings etc etc. This sentimental string accelerates and reaches a climax in the end and this lowers the overall score of the film.



(Photo poster copied from: http://arcus.a.r.pic.centerblog.net/o/aa231c54.jpg)

(Photo Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington copied from: http://www.jestersreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/philadelphia.jpg)
(Photo Denzel Washington copied from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3arSxHALCihjSJAJCou_UpikHBjCm4Q20OqQfeCGuTPcMS9p3OeFyqoZVf9h3rK0g8rTzm5-SJ1qX9WXhxE02aAHwaKREpl6m1im4Mzjh0TVtG5K4dLmpPuR6rw6wJZNet8vPg/s400/Denzel-Philly.jpg)
(Photo Tom Hanks copied from: http://www.gouts-doux.fr/images/films/film%20Philadelphia9.jpg)

Jeanne d'Arc @ Nationaltheatret

Oslo, september 12th

Visiting Oslo on september 12th with no other ambition than seeing Bjørn Floberg ♥ on stage on his birthday, the Berry inhabitants that we are had booked tickets for our first Norwegian-spoken play ever about an überfrench icon: Jeanne La Pucelle.

I think every reader knows the story of Jeanne, a manipulative woman who might have been King Charles' sister and the way she was burnt on the bonfire in Rouen.
So we won't talk much about her story. Sorry, Jeanne.



People like you just fuel my fire

To make it short, we liked the play a lot and not only because I was sitting on the 4th row, 3 meters only from DA man, but because the first part of the play put us in the middle of the action as alter egos to Jeanne.
As naive as she, we were surrounded by voices, and exposed to a Manichean system in shades of black, grey and white (the colors of the Oslo mood for all of you who already saw Joachim Trier's Oslo, august 31st).
The second part (the audience as a part of the inquisition) was less dynamic but I didn't mind much since I was less concerned about Jeanne's fate, who would be burnt on the bonfire anyway.

Do you understand Norwegian?

That's the question we had to answer during Jeanne d'Arc intermission since, speaking in French with each other, Gunnar and I had become a subject of interest.
Of course, we said that we had traveled from La Châtre to Oslo only to waste money understood more than 85% of what was said, and having read/seen different representations of Jeanne d'Arc's life and death, we were able to follow the trial.
The woman thought this was funny.
Uh? Okey!
Anyway.

There was something which was less funny: the few people who were there. Even in our great town with its 4.700 inhabitants, the monthly representations are more crowded.

Hey Oslo-people, why don't you kill your TV and go to the theatre instead?

18 September 2011

Stella Polaris


This is a poetically, beautiful film where the name is derived or taken from the Polar star shining so bright in the northern countries, the countries of the Midnight Sun.

The story is set in Norway, Finnmark, as far north (north east) as you can come in Norway and a geographical point from where two recently made films emerged, namely Død snø (2009) and Kill Buljo: The Movie (2007).

Stella Polaris is however an œuvre of a totally different and higher artistic quality, both from the point of view of content/scenario, mise en scène, acting and aesthetics.

We get to follow a boy and a girl who grow up in Finnmark during WWII and their encounter with the Nazi's, during the period when the Germans and their allies occupied this part of the country. They live in fear of what will happen to them and their family and the other families in the village.
We get to see the curiosity displayed by the children towards the Nazi's, their combination of fascination and fear, the villagers fear and at the same time contempt for the German soldiers and the efforts of the inhabitants to continue living a day-by-day life in spite of the external violence.
On the same time, the young girl engages herself in a realtionship with a Russian POW (Prisoner of War), helping him to survive, a relationship abruptly ended when the war ends.
When the Nazi's leave, they use the tactic of 'Scorched Earth' ('La politique de la terre brûlée') leaving the towns and villages in ruins.
The population is forced to flee southwards where they have to stay for a couple of years until they can return during the late 40's.
The impoverished 'Finnmark'-population returns to rebuild their region, trying to continue living a 'normal' life after the attrocities they have suffered.

All this is told through contemplative and yet dramatic photos, displaying both the external physical landscape as the internal psychological landscape of the inhabitants, before, during and after the occupation.
There are almost no dialogues but this shouldn't frighten you as the film talks through its images.
Poetically, yet in a dramatic way, using close ups and the barren landscape in order to create a visually poignant story becoming a film 'stele' or a tribute, commemorating all those who either died or suffered during the German oppression during WWII.
The love story between the young Norwegian girl and the Russian POW, I think also refers to the sometimes tragic stories about young Norwegian women falling in love with German soldiers, where their children were looked upon as 'bastards' and having great problems being accepted by their fellow countrymen after the war (a famous example of this is Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad in the former pop group ABBA).

If you want to experience a real 'auteur' work with the special themes and aesthetics of Knut Erik Jensen, we can recommend you this little pearl!

If you want to learn more about the filming, the group of themes, symbols and film ethics of Knut Erik Jensen, we recommend you to read the essay written by Aurore Berger Bjursell and being found if clicking on this link: The transparitions of time in space in four fiction films by Knut Erik Jensen.



(Photo Eirin Hargaut, actress copied from: http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/5/50/505/505229/StellaPolarisXcopyX3_1183445459_1183445474.jpg)
(Photo soldier from the film copied from: http://www.kulturverk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Stella_Polaris_IV.jpg)

Melancholia


Another doomsday film you might say and of course, in a way it is as everyone dies, that is to say the whole of humanity, not only the main protagonists in the film.

This is a film where the germ to the story could be found during a period of depression that Lars von Trier - the director - experienced some time before the filming. During that period he found that people experiencing a depression often stay calm during serious and dramatic situations.
Having worked within the psychiatry, I can say that this is true to a certain degree but this is of course connected to the fact that the depressed during his or her depression, already is experiencing "the end of the world" as perceived by her or him. No light, only darkness and no way out of the situation. This makes it easier to "stay calm" when something horrible occurs as one already is numbed.

The film opens with a couple who are going to get married - Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård). On their way up to the house where they are going to celebrate with the family, their car gets stuck and they have to walk the rest of the road to the waiting guests.

Already here the problems start, an obstacle, although not insurmountable, paves the way to more obstacles, both physical and psychological.

The hosts are Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and John (Kiefer Sutherland), the sister and brother-in-law of the bride. Claire is a somewhat neurotic person, seeking perfection in everything she undertakes, John is a very rational and impatient individual, not at all fond of his sister-in-law and her whims.
When arriving to the house the bride first of all visits her horses, as they are more important than the guests - of course. The horses also play an important role later on in the film.

At last inside, one starts to think of Festen (The Celebration) by Thomas Vinterberg and of course there are some turbulence:
The father of Claire and Justin - Dexter (John Hurt) - a more or less alcoholic individual with a laissez-faire attitude, flirting with younger women, neglecting his acrimonious wife Gaby (Charlotte Rampling, being wonderful in this role). Gaby openly displays her miscontent with everything and everyone, declaring that she doesn't believe in marriages, raising questions about what she's doing there.
On the same time Michaels father Jack (Stellan Skarsgård) - being both the future father-in-law to Justine and her boss at an advertising company - is a real vexation. During the evening he tries to force Justine to come up with a fantastic slogan for their next campaign, something that aggravates Justine's state of mind.
Justine is gradually entering a state of depression, and this makes her act - what in other people's eyes would be considered as - irrational, leaving the party, taking a bath, strolling in the garden, hiding, neglecting the guests, the hosts but most important of all: Her husband.

During her depressive, melancholic state, she also perceive things in another way compared to the non-depressive and this leads her to notice the planet approaching the Earth, something the others also know but perceive differently. Depressive people are very sensitive and are closer to their emotions and senses, having a higher degree of EQ, using a word being somewhat controversial in some people's eyes/ears.
Most people around her though, look at this phenomenon from a rationalist standpoint, meaning that they put trust in the scientists and their predictions about this celestial body and that it will pass the Earth on a distance, not colliding or causing any major natural catastrophies.

John is among those people. He is a scientifically, rationally thinking person, convinced of the fact that this planet will pass, having himself made some calculations supporting this theory.
Claire, being the more neurotic, organized person, seeking order in nature and in other people, trying to reinforce this by her own action, is caught in between. Her sense of order leads her to believe in her husband and the arguments he put forward but her neurotic, anxious part is still having doubts about the correctness in the scientific explanations.
When Michael disappears, having abandoned his dreams about a marriage, these three characters - Justine, Claire and John - are left to themselves. A fourth individual are with them, namely the son of Justine and John.

The Rationalist John, is the one who gives up first, when realizing that the calculations he - and other scientists - has made are wrong. This leads him to commit suicide, thus displaying how fragile our rationalistic, scientific thinking is, being a 'mythos' making the believers faith and will to live collapse, when their cosmology is proven wrong.

The Ordinal, Systematic Claire and her ambivalence between the rationalistic thinking, her doubts and wishes to set everything right, both between her and Justine as well as for her son and their future, tries to escape when realizing the terrible truth about 'The End of the World'.
She has all the time tried to 'cruise' between her husband, his contempt for Justine and their mother and her sister and her depressions, trying to help the latter and trying to stabilize everything aorund her. When this is not possible, her only support and the strongest person in this process is her sister Justine.

The Melancholic Justine has since long accepted her faith and the faith of mankind.
On the same time she has early on been aware of the consequences and therefore acted in a way that lead to Michael leaving her as their relationship - seen in the light of her depressiveness and the future catastrophy - was doomed to fail.

The film refers to several similar films in the same genre.
The Threat from the Universe and the possible extinction of mankind caused by meteors or planets colliding with Earth is a recurrent theme in the cinemas.
If not meteors or planets, mankind are threatened by 'aliens' but in this film - contrary to Independence Day and the likes - no hero (or heroes) arrives in the last minute to set everything alright. That is in my opinion one of the best qualities of this film including some very beautiful sceneries in a somewhat renaissance-like style, contrasting a more greyish or ordinary aesthetic, making it a stylistically beautiful film, dealing both with relations, our fragility as individuals on Earth and in relation to our infinite(?) Universe, the importance of trying to see beyond the daily trivialities when facing greater problems but also the problem in seeing what is important and what is not and that the decisive factors for these decisions not always are easily detected.

In spite of this, the film was a disappointment. A much more refined and interesting story could have been built around the original idea of this script.
As for now the photo is perhaps the part that stays on in your memory, although the acting partly is very good, the actors well known and the end really THE END.





(Photo Kirsten Dunst in bride gown copie from: http://www.lepoint.fr/images/2011/05/18/melancholia-kirsten-dunst-lars-von-trier-cannes-316047-jpg_196687.JPG)
(Photo Alexander Skarsgård and Kirsten Dunst copied from: http://static.periscopepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/movie-melancholia-lars-von-trier-Kirsten-Dunst-www.lylybye.blogspot.com_-480x345.jpg)
(Photo Charlotte Gainsbourgh copied from: http://www.filmsdacote.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/charlotte-gainsbourg-et-lars-von-trier-ensemble-pour-melancholia0.jpg)
(Photo Kirsten Dunst "depression" copied from: http://a2.idata.over-blog.com/300x168/3/74/49/46/lars-von-trier-melancholia.jpg)
(Photo ensemble Kiefer Sutherland, Lars ovn Trier, Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg copied from: http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/melancholia.jpg)
(Planets colliding copied from: http://yulbaba.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/planete.jpg)
(Photo Kirsten Dunst "electrfied" copied from: http://im.wk.io/images/v/503445/melancholia-lars-von-trier.jpeg)

17 September 2011

Tomme Tønner


In this rather crazy but on the same time "true story" about the criminal world, we get to meet some unsucsessful representatives of the "underworld".
Ali (Leon Bashir), Nico (Anders Danielsen Lie, recently known for his role in 'Oslo., 31. August') and Bobby (Farrakh Abbas) are three extremely incompetent criminals heading for "the top"!

They try to figure out how to stage "the perfect crime" (haven't we all?) but all of a sudden the chance seem to be there, as 'The Dane' ("Dansken") (Kim Bodnia, of course!) contacts them as he wants them to steal a stuffed falcon!? That must be easy, n'est-ce pas?
Of course they make a mess out of everything and all of a sudden the falcon is gone, implying that they own "The Dane" half a million Danish kr. Now they've got a problem.
Nico seems to have a solution though. He has a relative who has made a fortune on illicit distilling and with his help they will get the money they owe their "employer". The only thing they need is 400 kg of sugar!! How to get hold of 400 kg of sugar? Buy it? Not so easy but steal it from a truck supplying the stores is possible - or is it?

Another group of failed criminals (actors Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen, Vegar Hoel and Bjørn Sundquist among others) unknowingly of the others intervene, hijacking the very same truck.
At the same time a drug addict - 'Finish' (Kristoffer Joner) - gets hold of the falcon, not knowing that it's a much more important item than just a conversational partner, as he is using it for!
On the whole it's a rather amusing film with some weird individuals, doing weird things in a weird world. This is of course not innovative per se, as we live in a weird world, full of weird individuals, doing weird things but this is these individuals and their twist on weirdness.
Of course we see Kim Bodnia and Slavko Lavobic again in the roles as tough and merciless criminals as in the 'Pusher'-movies and even if they are clichés of themselves they are two quite entertaining clichés. On the other hand, I very much like Kim Bodnia as an actor, having seen him in many other roles and he has a multitude of expressions, not only the 'stone face', ironically-laughing-attitude.

In this film one have gathered a lot of actors used to play somewhat 'unusual' characters, to say the least and as such - not least when knowing their different previous achievements - we found this film worth seeing.



(First poster copied from: http://vestfoldgirl.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/tommetc3b8nner.jpg)
(Second poster copied from: http://img.filmfront.no/pictures/release/large/125780922322.jpg)
(Photo 'Ali'/Leon Bashir copied from: http://montages.no/files/2009/11/Tomme-t%C3%B8nner.jpg)
(Photo 'three criminals'/Stig Frode Henriksen, Vegar Hoel, Tommy Wirkola http://www.filmweb.no/bilder/multimedia/archive/00148/Tynn-Svein__Stig_Fr_148093s.jpg)
(Photo Kim Bodnia, Slavko Ladovic copied from: http://www.joe.no/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/mafia_kim-og-slavko.jpg)

16 September 2011

The Men Who Stare at Goats



This film is an adaptation of the book with the same name written by Jon Ronson in 2004.
It deals with the US Army's intentions to use New Age and the paranormal in order to fight the enemy and the title refers to the ability to kill a goat by just starring at it!

The paranormal is combined with the "ordinary" psychological warfare and way of using psychologigal knowledge to surpress the enemy.
A TV documentary was made and its ambition was, in a serious way, to display the total insanity of the United States Army and its leaders and other persons having had influence on their behaviour, their choices of strategies etc.

From this the film by Grant Heslov was made and in this film, the more comic aspects of these serious matters are put in the foreground but on the same time we see similarities with experiments realized within the American Army, as it has been reported through jounalists and other documents being published.
Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a journalist heading towards what he thinks is a scoop but on the way he meats some people who either are real or surreal or real and totally insane.
Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) and Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) are the main characters in this film and they peu à peu initiate Bob into the world of their "special warfare".

The film contains some very comic and entertaining moments and on the same time the question or questions discussed are serious as it contains experiments on animals and humans.
We know that the military - from the Nazi Germans to recent armies all over the world - always has worked with different kinds of interrogation methods or torture and this film does display some of the aspects of this work.
In this film one build on the "real" story concerning how one developed different kinds of psychological warfare and how these methods became more and more "sophisticated" if one can put it that way.
The problem in this film - for the journalist - is to know if he's dealing with a group of madmen or if there are some traces of truth in what they say. I guess the same goes for the reality!?

On the whole the film halts, due to the fact that it's not a film being felt as a "true" and straightforward comedy but not a "serious" film neither and the ironi is there but not subtle enough to make it into an intelligent comedy.
The actors ability to play comedy also differs - of course!



(Poster copied from: http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/45089/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats_poster.jpg)
(Photo George Clooney/"Lyn Cassidy" copied from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY36_lfBT_fNJdmbGKETYfibRagE8zzkOU9qIu-KiEwRlHSorU__8NaGGev2fWGHa6w6hd_HE_BhDy37lhzj5Qlum9VigZZhQQOtqNWnH1rPhuSAK8HdLYFLdh9oVPmHcuHdZD/s400/Clooney+Men+who+stare+at+goats.jpg)
(Photo Jeff Bridges/"Bill Django" copied from: http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/6461/27139218_.jpg)
(Photo Kevin Spacey/"Larry Hooper" copied from: http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/15538/men_who_stare_at_goats_15538.jpg)

13 September 2011

Snarveien/Detour


This is in short another horror movie from Norway, this time not starring a group of naïve and unpleasant young men and women, all to disagreable to find mercy before the viewer.
This time it's a young couple - Marti (Sondre Krogtof Larsen) and Lina (Marte Germaine Christensen) - preparing for a party and heading between Norway and Sweden in order to buy liquor, being much cheaper in Sweden than in the oil country in the West.
On the way over the border, they are stopped by a policeman (with the name of Gunnar as a matter of fact - actor Jens Hultén) at a control and of course they fear that he will start asking questions about whether or not they carry something over the border in the car - and so he does but not as thouroughly as they feared.

He though explains that there has been an accident on the road, therefore the road block but inform them about another road to take, being a detour but leading them...? Well, it becomes the detour of their life. What they don't see but the viewer, is that they are being under video surveillance all the time.
When they experience flat tiers (casued by someone having put nails on the road) get stuck in the forrest (of course there has to be a forrest as in most, not least, Scandinavian horror films), they 'stumble' over a young woman (or she rather stumbles over them) who more or less falls in front of their car. She is bleeding and they wonder what has happened.
All of a sudden the Swedish policeman is standing right beside them, telling them that he knows this woman and that she lives with her grandparents, having had drug problems.
Together they take her there and then he promise to help them with their continuing travel.
The couple find the grand parents somewhat bizarre, not least the grandfather.
When being there Martin finds a cellar with tv-screens displaying a woman tied to a chair and obviously in great pain.

This is the start of a nightmare for the young couple, a nightmare leading in to the world of snuff movies, on internet displaying your last hours in life after being more or less tortured.

Two third of the film is quite well produced and the actors are good, not least when actor Jens Hultén, in the role of the policeman, is acting with small means, being very frightening and quitely menacing towards the couple, this hidden beneath a very kind and helpful surface.
Of course we soon understand that he is the mastermind behind all this, even if we also get to meet a rather peculiar man living with the old couple.
From the arrival at the house, a fight for survival begins, and we don't know if they will succeed to escape, neither the couple nor the young woman being held hostage, facing her transmitted death, something Martin also is facing being imprisoned he too.
Another problem with the film is that one all to clearly see the direct references to other horror movies, as "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", "The Shining" and many more. Sometimes it's almost a sort of plagiarism.
This might be intended by the director but it's not original and lower the value of his work.


(Poster copied from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSDDtvSUur0BUNy7N-SBLwt-UbazyCgrBkWqnx20uP6aPr8H2C6t0fYLCjfpk_ZZFmctd_XRISR8vbPx-yohtMQEeb7ehTsttMUIcKLJZZwtajnMKcl392upEPoXU1Nv3obILrRg/s1600/snarveien.jpg)
(Photo "policeman", Jens Hultén copied from: http://rstvideo.com/files/2010/02/snarveien4.png)
(Photo woman in blood copied from: http://horrornews.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Detour-Snarveien-3.jpg)