"Halvveis til Haugesund" has to be one of the strangest movies I've seen, but it has lots of qualities to it as well. In short the story goes as follows: Otto, an out of work keyboard player, gets a job offer in Haugesund. To get there he has to drive through the county of Telemark, where he meets Farida Svalastog. She makes a living by helping Americans to find their Norwegian ancestors (when she can't find any, she makes them up). After this strange things happen, and it seems impossible, literally, for Otto to get out of Telemark. This is a VERY eccentric movie, so be warned! But if you like weirdo characters, rural humor and Norwegian dialects...
2 Reviews
Weird indeed
Flexnez13 August 2006
This is the kind of movie you either love or you simply can't understand. Being from the county of Telemark myself, I belong to the first category. Otto, an urban rockabilly-punk from Oslo chooses the wrong way when traveling to Haugesund and is, suddenly, stuck in the middle of Telemark. When he needs to have his old car fixed, he meets his destiny - the am-car club in Seljord, which is one of the, if not the, largest am-car club in Norway for real, although less than 3.000 people live in Seljord. And upon seeing the engine of his car, they decide to fool him in order to get their hands on the engine.
So what is funny about the movie? There is this clip from the roundabout in the town Bø where a car drives around in it with a small wooden cottage on its trailer. Not funny, you say? Well, then you have never been to Bø. I have never seen an image describing the countryside in Telemark in a better way. Or when Otto tries to get a gig at the club Roots in Bø, and is told that they don't play that kind of music there. If you know about the culture in Bø, and particularly the strong division between the natives (about 5.300) and the students at the university college, which for some reason is located there (about 1.600), this seemingly unnoticeable comment becomes really funny.
The tag-line of the movie is "It's a hell not having a car in Telemark". And Telemark is known for its "cruisers" - people driving cars, preferably American, but also German cars, for no reason other than driving and hanging out at gas stations or parking lots. At least in the countryside, that is an important part of the culture, and it, if not practicing it, knowing about it is mainstream. An additional aspect in this respect in the movie is the character Farida Svalastog, a name which is, in itself, quite contradictory, who seems like the least likely person to be into this, but who still is.
The cultural clash is also an important aspect. Otto seems to have little respect for their culture, but he also has little knowledge - not only about cars, but when Farida tells him Haukelifjellet is closed due to snow, whereas the movie is recorded in September or so, and he believes it, he shows that he knows little of things outside of Oslo. The attitude is mutual, the locals don't seem to appreciate him either, and the plot largely circles around this clash. 'Cos in the end, even though not having a car in Telemark is hell, it can also be the other way around.
To my knowledge, the movie is not available on neither VHS nor DVD. I once recorded it from TV, and when I got a DVD-recorder, this was the first movie I copied onto DVD. And that was not a coincidence - provided that you do understand it, this movie can be seen over and over again.
So what is funny about the movie? There is this clip from the roundabout in the town Bø where a car drives around in it with a small wooden cottage on its trailer. Not funny, you say? Well, then you have never been to Bø. I have never seen an image describing the countryside in Telemark in a better way. Or when Otto tries to get a gig at the club Roots in Bø, and is told that they don't play that kind of music there. If you know about the culture in Bø, and particularly the strong division between the natives (about 5.300) and the students at the university college, which for some reason is located there (about 1.600), this seemingly unnoticeable comment becomes really funny.
The tag-line of the movie is "It's a hell not having a car in Telemark". And Telemark is known for its "cruisers" - people driving cars, preferably American, but also German cars, for no reason other than driving and hanging out at gas stations or parking lots. At least in the countryside, that is an important part of the culture, and it, if not practicing it, knowing about it is mainstream. An additional aspect in this respect in the movie is the character Farida Svalastog, a name which is, in itself, quite contradictory, who seems like the least likely person to be into this, but who still is.
The cultural clash is also an important aspect. Otto seems to have little respect for their culture, but he also has little knowledge - not only about cars, but when Farida tells him Haukelifjellet is closed due to snow, whereas the movie is recorded in September or so, and he believes it, he shows that he knows little of things outside of Oslo. The attitude is mutual, the locals don't seem to appreciate him either, and the plot largely circles around this clash. 'Cos in the end, even though not having a car in Telemark is hell, it can also be the other way around.
To my knowledge, the movie is not available on neither VHS nor DVD. I once recorded it from TV, and when I got a DVD-recorder, this was the first movie I copied onto DVD. And that was not a coincidence - provided that you do understand it, this movie can be seen over and over again.
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