'Hjem till jul' or 'Home for Christmas' is directed by Bent Hamer, the Norwegian director who became known not least for 'Salmer fra kjøkkenet' ('Kitchen Stories/chroniques de cuisine'), the somewhat absurd story about how to transmute everything into statistics in order to create the 'perfect society', the aim of not least the Swedish post war-government.
This 'Christmas'-film is made in accordance with a - I'm sorry to use this cliché again but everyone understands what it's all about - 'Short Cuts'-thematic structure.
We get to follow different characters in their struggle to reach home - in any sense of the word - before Christmas.
Some make it, others don't and among those who make it one can wonder if they really made it after all and among those who does not make it in this world, might have reached the final destination beyond.
The idea to this story is far rom as original as Kitchen Stories and it tends to become a bitter-sweet blend, combined with a Hollywood-adapted dramatics, not to excessive, not to distorted.
This film could have been told in another more dramatic and interesting way, this is quite obvious but on the other hand, the ambition was to take the film to Hollywood and the Oscars.....
The photo is partly extremely beautiful, reminding of Tarkovskij, Angelopoulos and some 19th Century paintings.
We get to follow different characters in their struggle to reach home - in any sense of the word - before Christmas.
Some make it, others don't and among those who make it one can wonder if they really made it after all and among those who does not make it in this world, might have reached the final destination beyond.
The idea to this story is far rom as original as Kitchen Stories and it tends to become a bitter-sweet blend, combined with a Hollywood-adapted dramatics, not to excessive, not to distorted.
This film could have been told in another more dramatic and interesting way, this is quite obvious but on the other hand, the ambition was to take the film to Hollywood and the Oscars.....
The photo is partly extremely beautiful, reminding of Tarkovskij, Angelopoulos and some 19th Century paintings.
'Another Year' is a very talked about film made by Mike Leigh and as I wrote about 'Kitchen Stories' above, one can connect to that film by establishing that Mike Leigh creates his films in a 'kitchen sink-tradition'.
What is most interesting about his films, is his ability to find and create interesting characters, not least by using his improvisional method, leading the actors to construct their own 'figure' within the all-embracing framework of Leighs original idea.
In this film we meet a happy couple and their not so happy friends and once again we get to meet a group of rather touching, pathetic and tragicomic characters and life-stories.
I add the text I wrote for the catalogue at the Stockholm Film Festival:
"In this film, Mike Leigh uses seasonal changes as the backdrop for life's external and internal changes, ‘rite de passages’ and repetitive patterns. We meet a happy, soon to be retired, couple, Tom and Gerri.
Approaching the autumn of their life, living in the summer of their relationship, they are surrounded by a family and friends experiencing depressions, emotional storms and relational lull. Among them we meet Gerri’s colleague Mary who, let down by men, flirts desperately, drinks heavily and tries to seduce Tom and Gerri’s son Joe. When Joe shows up with a girlfriend his own age, the nuclear warheads are charged and we enter a cold war-situation. Leigh uses his improvisational method, gradually revealing to the actors their different role characters, relational statues and interactions, constantly forcing them – and us - to reflect over and re-think the personality of each individual.
The camera is a ‘pen’, the actors the ink, writing and re-writing the loosely built scenario, creating a realistic and moving depiction of human existence."
What is most interesting about his films, is his ability to find and create interesting characters, not least by using his improvisional method, leading the actors to construct their own 'figure' within the all-embracing framework of Leighs original idea.
In this film we meet a happy couple and their not so happy friends and once again we get to meet a group of rather touching, pathetic and tragicomic characters and life-stories.
I add the text I wrote for the catalogue at the Stockholm Film Festival:
"In this film, Mike Leigh uses seasonal changes as the backdrop for life's external and internal changes, ‘rite de passages’ and repetitive patterns. We meet a happy, soon to be retired, couple, Tom and Gerri.
Approaching the autumn of their life, living in the summer of their relationship, they are surrounded by a family and friends experiencing depressions, emotional storms and relational lull. Among them we meet Gerri’s colleague Mary who, let down by men, flirts desperately, drinks heavily and tries to seduce Tom and Gerri’s son Joe. When Joe shows up with a girlfriend his own age, the nuclear warheads are charged and we enter a cold war-situation. Leigh uses his improvisational method, gradually revealing to the actors their different role characters, relational statues and interactions, constantly forcing them – and us - to reflect over and re-think the personality of each individual.
The camera is a ‘pen’, the actors the ink, writing and re-writing the loosely built scenario, creating a realistic and moving depiction of human existence."
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