Oslo Trilogy

Right, so that’s the Cannes Film Festival over and done with for another year. Not that I’ve been, mind you, but thankfully such events always yield a flurry of movie reviews on Youtube, and I gladly devour all of those to make up my own mind. One of my favourites reviewers is ‘Like Stories of Old’. He always manages to review films that have a certain dreaminess and sensitivity that I like very much.

So I was watching his Cannes review and made notes of all the films he enjoyed seeing when there, among which was Sentimental Value, the latest film by Norwegian director Joachim Trier. The reviewer Tom van der Linden (I believe he is a fellow Dutchman but that’s beside the point) then said that The Worst Person in the World, also by Trier, was one of his favourite films of all time.

Naturally I had to see this film, so I did and am blown away by it. It’s such a beautiful portrait of a young woman finding her way in the world, trying to find her way in life. Beautifully played by Renate Reinsve, especially in her scenes with Anders Danielsen Lee. Beautiful cinematography, especially that sunrise scene somewhere near the end. The film takes it time, it’s over two hours long, so too long for our film nights unfortunately, but it’s gripping so you just settle in and enjoy the slower pace. It makes you contemplate your own path in life, the decisions we made when we were younger, the wrong ones, the right ones, most of them necessary to end up where we are now.

Does that make us the worst person in the world? Or is it just part of life? An absolutely amazing film.

And on top of that I’ve since found out that it is the final part of what is now known as Trier’s Oslo Trilogy. They’re all stand-alone films, so you don’t need to see them all together, but I now most certainly will and I hope to start soon with the first one, Reprise, to be followed by Oslo August 31st.

So watch this space!

Adrian