OSLO, AUGUST 31st
Oslo, 31. august
directed by:
Joachim Trier with:
Anders Danielsen Lee, Ingrid Olava Following up his acclaimed 2006 début Reprise, Joachim Trier returns with a beautiful and uplifting film about drug addiction, depression and existential angst. Disaffected thirty-something Anders only has a few weeks left of rehab. We follow him over the course of a single day out in the real world to attend a job interview – confronting the people that watched him rip his life apart and dwelling on what the future may or may not hold. Adapted from Pierre Drieu La Rochelle’s 1931 French novel Le Feu Follet and selected for the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2011, Oslo, August 31st has been described as 'a perfectly painted portrait of a generation' by Whit Stilman of the Stockholm International Film Festival.
17:15
Sunday 5th February
Savoy, Penzance
21:15
Monday 6th February
Savoy, Penzance
21:15
Tuesday 7th February
Royal, St Ives
18:45
Wednesday 8th February
Royal, St Ives
Norway
2011
95m
subtitles
15
Comments
This reminded me of two previous PFS presentations – Duane Hopkins’ Better Things and In the City of Sylvia – the former, also about drug abuse and death, was superior in providing a context for the drama, the latter ditto in the management of its street staging (for want of a better phrase). Both films were also better at integrating and manipulating the ambient soundtrack. It also reminded me of a more recent presentation, Weekend, insofar as how inconsequential dialogue and underdeveloped characterization (along with a YouTube-point-and-shoot-at-yer-mates sensibility) passes for intimiste dramas these days. Way too underwhelming and up its own arse to be regarded as “A perfectly painted portrait of a generation”. More like, bearing in mind the director is nephew to Lars von, a flaccid social satire on the inherent narcissism of middle-class junkies – that Death-of-Chatterton-esque swoon at the end really did give the game away. Vapid, vacuous and vacant.
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