Sunday, August 20, 2017
232 - Insomnia, 1997, Norway. Dir. Erik Skjoldbjaerg.
You have heard of film noir.
How about film blanc.
Or film noir turned inside out, as it were.
Film Noir is about darkness. The lighting is dark. The stories are dark. The hearts are dark.
This film is about light. Lots of light. It takes place in northern Norway, north of the Arctic Circle, in the Land of the Midnight Sun.
Swedish Detective Jonas Engstrom has insomnia--because the sun never sets, and because no matter how hard he tries to seal the window in his hotel room, the light just keeps coming in.
In this film it is Engstrom who tries to keep the secrets, but no matter what he does everything keeps coming to light.
A woman has been murdered. And her body dumped in a garbage dump. And our Swedish detective has been called in to assist.
He carries a gun. But in Norway the police do not carry guns. So he hides it. To keep his Norwegian colleagues from knowing he has it.
That would be fine if it were not for the chase that takes place in the fog.
The villain has a gun. And he uses it. He shoots one of Engstrom's partners in the leg. Engstrom shoots back. And discovers that in the fog he has shot his own partner.
And killed him.
Now he is in a jam.
In his report he states that the perpetrator shot his partner.
Why not tell the truth? Because he was not supposed to have a gun in the first place. Why not? Maybe they think they are in Mayberry.
But never mind that. This film is about the hole that Engstrom keeps digging.
And the situation he creates for himself that keeps getting darker and darker.
He just cannot seem to get away from all that light.
* * * * *
The Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, who plays Engstrom in Insomnia, became successful while still a teenager and has for years moved fluidly back and forth between Scandinavian and American films.
His Hollywood movies include The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Amistad (1997), Good Will Hunting (1997), Ronin (1998), The Glass House (2001), Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) (2001), King Arthur (2004), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), Mamma Mia! (2008), Angels & Demons (2009), Cinderella (2015), the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and the Avengers franchise.
In Scandanavia he has had a long relationship with Danish director Lars von Trier (The Kingdom, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Melancholia, Nymphomaniac), Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland, Swedish director Hans Alfredson, and Icelandic/Canadian director Sturla Gunnarsson, among many others.
* * * * *
Christopher Nolan remade this film in 2002. It starred Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams.
No comments:
Post a Comment