Oslo, August 31st (2011, Joachim Trier)
To look back on a period
of one’s life when things were looking grim, especially if source of the ills
was oneself, is never an easy proposition. To come face to face with a past one
is attempting to flee can be an even taller order. Think about a former drug
addict for instance. Even despite their
greatest efforts, the dark period of their lives will forever haunt them due to
the stigma attached to people who have experienced drug related issues. What
happens when, upon trying to re-enter the real world, old temptations resurface
and ensnare one in a familiar yet frightening comforting embrace? Joachim
Trier’s Oslo, August 31st,
which was submitted to both the Cannes and Toronto film festivals and played
this week played in Montréal at the Festival du nouveau cinema, is a raw
examination of such a whirling adventure.
Trier opens his film
ironically, offering a series of clips from home videos depicting everyday life
in Oslo, Norway as various narrators reminisce about some of their fondest
memories related to the famous city. Some speak of the friends they made, some
speak of the structural changes the metropolis has experienced over the years,
while others describe the trees. The procedure, which lasts a few minutes,
lures the viewer into a false sense of security, for immediately juxtaposed
against those quaint anecdotes is the actual story of the film, that of 34 year
old Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), a former drug addict now spending most of
his days in a rehabilitation center just outside the city. After looking upon the body of a beautiful
naked women one morning, Anders puts on his leather jacket and leaves the
premise, strolls through the woods in direction of lake...and tries to commit
suicide by drowning. Something gets the better of him, shooting himself out of
the water and back into the arms of life once again, but clearly Anders is not
well. We learn that he has a job interview for an assistant editor post at a
high profile magazine, meaning he will have to travel back to Olso. Apart from
said interview, Anders decides to pay visits to some old friends, while
inadvertently running into some people who played their part in landing Anders
in the situation he is in today...
Oslo, August 31st is a film that slowly creeps up on the viewer, working as a
perfectly nuanced exploration of all the opinions people might have about a
friend with a drug problem, revealing strong performances and playing with a surprisingly effective
sense of elapsed time to reveal Anders’ 1 day journey from a place of mental
and psychological rebirth to a place where everything risks collapsing. It
comes as no surprise that this is not a thrill a minute roller coaster ride of
a movie, but as a drama it possesses its own share of emotional ups and downs. Quiet
talking sessions with old mates and visits to a rave where alcohol and hard
drugs are king provide all the gravitas a story of this nature requires. Even
in the simplest things director Trier pulls off powerful effects. As Anders
leaves the rehabilitation center by taxi the soundtrack slowly begins to fill
with the sounds of a rock song playing on the radio. Upon exiting a tunnel, at
which time the picture frame is commanded by the largess of Oslo, the music’s
volume roars to a pulse pounding level. It is an effective callback to the
opening sequence of documentary-style footage of peoples recollections, only
that Anders' memories are probably less hopeful, more haunting.
The film understands that
one of the many ways one’s past can be a formidable foe to overcome is by
merely interacting with those closely associated with said past. So many crime
and gangster films play on this notion as well, but typically in more grandiose
a fashion with a sense for the theatrical. Oslo, August 31st
sees Anders catch up with a series of familiar people, both before and after
the much dreaded job interview. In these scenes director Joachim Trier
investigates the meaning of friendships and how different people will relate to
issues in different ways. His old pal Thomas (Hans Olav Brenner), a university researcher
in linguistics, is very much the intellectual, offering a near-dispassionate
assessment of where Anders is in life right now. He cares for Anders deeply,
yet espouses almost exclusively typical throw away phrases the likes of ‘You’ll
do great. You’ll be chief editor in no time.’ These familiar phrases are empty in Ander's opinion and do not reflect his reality. Thomas also misuses a quote from
Proust when Anders confides a deeply personal truth about one of his past
loves. Thomas’ problems are not nearly at the same level of Anders’ issues, but
each can try to relate to one another. There is an encounter with his sister’s
friend, the latter whom explains that his sister needed more time before she
saw her brother again, phone messages left to a girl now living in Sweden with
whom he had the deepest of all his relationships, the job interview which goes
terribly awry almost exclusively by Anders’ own doing, and some chance
acquaintances that lead him down a familiar path of sex and drugs as the
evening turns to night. Each sequence is direr than its immediate predecessor,
plunging Anders deeper into his addictions and separating him further from
where he should be. By the time the sunrises again the next morning and Anders
enters the house his parents are selling, his two worlds, the possible good and
very real bad, crash together in a devastating finale. Through it all actor
Anderson Danielson Lie gives a very real performance, his eyes the source of
fear and sadness, but also of happiness and charm depending on who he is
interacting with. It is a complex acting task, one that Lie pulls off with
esteemed professionalism, much like he did in 2006's Reprise, also directed by Joachim Trier.
An element that stayed
with me even after the film ended was how director Trier plays with the sense
of time. The film itself stands at only 95 minutes long, which is a standard
film length, but the emotional journey Anders goes through on this eventful day
and night feels long. By that it is not meant that the film is too sluggish in
its pace, but rather that the journey feels complete, as if the audience really
has spent an entire day with the character of Anders and witnessed him going
from a point of hope to one of vice. It there is a lot of interplay between the
length of the dialogue scenes, the increasingly murky morality at play as time
elapse, the cinematography, and just the film’s overall atmosphere to help solidify this notion of time passing by.. By the time
the film ends, the viewer will feel as if he or she has learned the full
spectrum of what makes up the person who is Anders, all in one day. It makes
for a very satisfying experience, even though what happens on screen is on the
depressing side of things.
Oslo, August 31st is one of the films Norway is pushing for a
nominations in the Foreign Language category at next year’s Oscars. Whether it
succeeds or not in that endeavour remains to be seen, but the fact that its
nation’s film industry has enough confidence in it to aim so high should
encourage anyone for whom the film is accessible to seek it out.
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