I think the first thing to note about this engrossing story is that you'll almost certainly have to watch the film twice in order to get close to the full picture. Things that don't make sense the first time around suddenly take on more meaning the second time.
It's like a chef's specialty dish in which the flavours are so subtle that if you try to wolf the food down you'll miss everything (as clearly one reviewer has). It has to be savoured to get the best from it. With food you can do that - hold it on your palate as the flavours work their way through to your senses; with visual storytelling you have to go through the story more than once to get the same effect.
The second thing to note is that this is a character study of a classic avoidant personality. Nothing too severe, but just enough to make a man appear to be buttoned down (as a former pipe smoker, I can attest that if you're a neat freak you won't touch a pipe) as he appears to meander through his life, having things happen *to* him rather than making them happen. Until the end scenes Horten is an observer of his own existence rather than an active participant in it.
His tendency to avoid certain situations, to be backward in coming forward, to avoid the limelight, is not set in stone, though. There are times when he acts against character - for example, when he climbs the scaffolding as he tries to attend a continuation of his retirement party at another engineer's apartment, since the apartment building's front door will not open when he keys in the correct access code.
His interaction with the young Nordahl (if I'm not mistaken, the two young lads in the apartment scene are played by Bent Hamer's relatives - possibly grandsons?) steps gingerly around the edge of what could otherwise have been a potentially very unpleasant situation had it been discovered by the parents - an elderly stranger in a bedroom with two young boys. These days one immediately jumps to a negative interpretation of the scene, sadly.
The movie has a dream-like quality, peppered with inexplicable events and people that give it just enough meat on the bone to make you go "Huh?" at fairly regular intervals.
Little things like the arrest of the chef by undercover police officers, the lesbian swimming pool attendants who frolic once the place is closed, the loss of Odd's shoes in the same place so that he ends up wearing a pair of red high-heeled boots (presumably belonging to one of the attendants; one assumes that they discovered his shoes and placed them in Lost & Found), the customer at the tobacconist's who repeatedly returns because he keeps losing his matches (through the window at one point you see him fall outside the shop, offering at least one plausible explanation as to why he keeps losing them), even the gentleman sliding down a sloping street on his rear, still clutching his briefcase, as the freezing rain coating every surface claims another victim.
The film is a mosaic of such odd vignettes - some of which, as others have mentioned, are worth watching alone, such as the trials Odd undergoes in order to locate his friend Flo. How many of us have had to go through a rectal exam in order to see a pal? The neat twist involving the schizophrenic inventor was a very nice touch. Nothing too dramatic (such as the eye-gouging in the French classic, Betty Blue (aka 37°2 le matin)) but just enough to provide a reason for irrational behaviour that allows Odd to take another step or two towards what for him is almost certainly the light at the end of his own personal tunnel.
The elderly lady he visits in the nursing home - his mother, Vera - appears to have mild dementia, and this may be a factor that plays into Odd's subsequent decisions when he reaches fork after fork in the road unfolding ahead of him. His decision to make a jump on stolen skis (in the dark yet) almost certainly stems from the sudden realisation that he may reach a point in his life where he too can only sit in silence looking out of a window in a nursing home, so now might be a good time to do the things he has not dared to for the best part of his 67 years.
All in all a very enjoyable story, with excellent, first rate acting by everyone involved. It takes more skill IMHO to impart the subtler emotions than it does to create the never-ending wham-bam-shoot-em-up-chase-em-down-screaming-and-yelling scenes that fill today's action/adventures (not that I don't enjoy those too).
This is one that I will definitely be adding to my home collection if I can. Godt gjort, Bent!
It's like a chef's specialty dish in which the flavours are so subtle that if you try to wolf the food down you'll miss everything (as clearly one reviewer has). It has to be savoured to get the best from it. With food you can do that - hold it on your palate as the flavours work their way through to your senses; with visual storytelling you have to go through the story more than once to get the same effect.
The second thing to note is that this is a character study of a classic avoidant personality. Nothing too severe, but just enough to make a man appear to be buttoned down (as a former pipe smoker, I can attest that if you're a neat freak you won't touch a pipe) as he appears to meander through his life, having things happen *to* him rather than making them happen. Until the end scenes Horten is an observer of his own existence rather than an active participant in it.
His tendency to avoid certain situations, to be backward in coming forward, to avoid the limelight, is not set in stone, though. There are times when he acts against character - for example, when he climbs the scaffolding as he tries to attend a continuation of his retirement party at another engineer's apartment, since the apartment building's front door will not open when he keys in the correct access code.
His interaction with the young Nordahl (if I'm not mistaken, the two young lads in the apartment scene are played by Bent Hamer's relatives - possibly grandsons?) steps gingerly around the edge of what could otherwise have been a potentially very unpleasant situation had it been discovered by the parents - an elderly stranger in a bedroom with two young boys. These days one immediately jumps to a negative interpretation of the scene, sadly.
The movie has a dream-like quality, peppered with inexplicable events and people that give it just enough meat on the bone to make you go "Huh?" at fairly regular intervals.
Little things like the arrest of the chef by undercover police officers, the lesbian swimming pool attendants who frolic once the place is closed, the loss of Odd's shoes in the same place so that he ends up wearing a pair of red high-heeled boots (presumably belonging to one of the attendants; one assumes that they discovered his shoes and placed them in Lost & Found), the customer at the tobacconist's who repeatedly returns because he keeps losing his matches (through the window at one point you see him fall outside the shop, offering at least one plausible explanation as to why he keeps losing them), even the gentleman sliding down a sloping street on his rear, still clutching his briefcase, as the freezing rain coating every surface claims another victim.
The film is a mosaic of such odd vignettes - some of which, as others have mentioned, are worth watching alone, such as the trials Odd undergoes in order to locate his friend Flo. How many of us have had to go through a rectal exam in order to see a pal? The neat twist involving the schizophrenic inventor was a very nice touch. Nothing too dramatic (such as the eye-gouging in the French classic, Betty Blue (aka 37°2 le matin)) but just enough to provide a reason for irrational behaviour that allows Odd to take another step or two towards what for him is almost certainly the light at the end of his own personal tunnel.
The elderly lady he visits in the nursing home - his mother, Vera - appears to have mild dementia, and this may be a factor that plays into Odd's subsequent decisions when he reaches fork after fork in the road unfolding ahead of him. His decision to make a jump on stolen skis (in the dark yet) almost certainly stems from the sudden realisation that he may reach a point in his life where he too can only sit in silence looking out of a window in a nursing home, so now might be a good time to do the things he has not dared to for the best part of his 67 years.
All in all a very enjoyable story, with excellent, first rate acting by everyone involved. It takes more skill IMHO to impart the subtler emotions than it does to create the never-ending wham-bam-shoot-em-up-chase-em-down-screaming-and-yelling scenes that fill today's action/adventures (not that I don't enjoy those too).
This is one that I will definitely be adding to my home collection if I can. Godt gjort, Bent!