'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'?).
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'?).
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