1 Time Film Excess Nominee:
Best Actor: Anders Danielsen Lie (lost to Jack Black for Bernie)
+ Best Norwegian Movie of the Year
+ Best Drug-themed Movie of the Year
 |
| Anders Danielsen Lie on deep water in Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st |
Anders was an aspiring journalist, but instead became a drug addict. Now he is allowed his first visit out of the rehabilitation center, and he visits old friends and acquaintances and goes to a job interview. But to his dismay he finds that as a 34 year-old man, he has nothing.
Great Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier (Reprise (2006)) here serves an existentialist, anxiety-provoking, almost horrifying story without any psychedelic or narrative sleights. Oslo, August 31st is observant and incredibly sober.
The film contains strong scenes between two people; strong because the stakes are towering for our protagonist. Anders Danielsen Lie (Reprise) is unmatched in the lead. The film is seamlessly photographed (by Jacob Ihre (Louder than Bombs (2015)) and scored (by Torgny Amdam (High Point (2014), short) and Ola Fløttum (Force Majeure/Turist (2014))) with seemingly great insight into the environments it portrays. SPOILER As could be expected from the fatalistic tone of the film's title as well as its opening montage, Oslo, August 31st ends as a tragedy, swept in Norwegian nihilism in a morbidly long death-shot. It is, however, the following shots of the city's unregistering continuation that gives the ending its heavy, heavy weight. This really is a very hard film.
A fire extinguisher gets introduced on a bike ride, which seems only to be there to loan the film some different, cinematic shots, which is a little curious but fine.
The suspense of the film relates to Anders' life. Only for a few seconds did I have reason to think, whether that might be a bit slight for an entire feature. Trier wrote the screenplay with Eskil Vogt (Blind (2014)), based on the novel Will O' the Wisp (1931) by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle (The Man on Horseback/L'Homme à Cheval (1943)).
Oslo, August 31st is an incredibly good film and surely one of the best recent Norwegian films. Trier is out with his first English-language film at the moment, Louder than Bombs, a drama with Jesse Eisenberg and other prominent actors.
Related posts:
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
 |
| Anders Danielsen Lie's look speaks volumes in Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st |
Watch the trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: At least 1.4 mil. $
= Uncertainty
[But most likely a huge flop. Norway is perhaps the world's most expensive country, and 1.4 mil. $ basically just buys you a cup of coffee there. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes. The budget was low but isn't publicized, and the box office result is based on the figures from 9 countries, publicized on Box Office Mojo. The film may have gone to other countries as well. It was biggest in Norway, where it made an impressive 0.9 mil. $, and it also was a minor hit in France with 0.2 mil. $. It made 0.1 mil. $ in the US, where Roger Ebert named it the 9th best film of the year.]
What do you think of Oslo, August 31st?
No comments:
Post a Comment