Naughty Norskis

reviewed Tue, 21 Apr 1998 20:30:47 EDT

Well, on the one day that I was completely unwilling, due to adverse reactions to a new medication and lack of sleep, to sit through a long, slow, foreign film, that's exactly what my movie series favored me with. A film named Hamsun (not to be confused with "Hansen"), evidently the only existing print, which our organizer spent over a year tracking down, so I guess I should have been more respectful. And to be fair, it was pretty interesting; it's the true (I guess) story of Nobel prize-winning Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (played by Max Von Sydow, the only recognizable name), who was a national hero until his enthusiastic support of the Nazi party as it took over Norway. Following the war, he was denounced as a traitor. The movie opens with a fight between him and his wife, and despite her shrillness, I instantly felt sympathy for the wife, who complained of being forced to give up her ambitions to support her husband's career. He comes off at first as an insensitive egotist. But the film does a nice job of subtly switching your sympathies, gradually revealing the wife as power-hungry and unscrupulous, while Hamsun comes off as little more than misguided and naive.

But, it's in Norwegian and German (he meets with Hitler at one point!), and it's 2 1/2 hours long. I left after 2 hours because I was falling asleep. This is all kind of pointless, because there's only one existing print, and it's not on video, so probably none of you will get the chance to see it anyway.

The rest of the day, I watched a couple movies I'd already seen: LA Confidential, which blew me away all over again -- I still don't think Kimmy deserved her Oscar, but I think more than ever that Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and James Cromwell were robbed. And, on TV, Funny Bones, which reminded me all over again what a brilliant movie it is. If you haven't seen it, go rent it now. It's funny and original, and features great performances by Oliver Platt, too often relegated to sidekickdom, Lee Evans, a brilliant British comedian who showed up in Mouse Hunt, and Jerry Lewis, yes, THAT Jerry Lewis. Absolutely brilliant.

As long as we're on the topic, I also recently rented Children of the Revolution, a bizarre comedy about an Australian communist (Judy Davis, at her most brittle and humorless -- how like a commie!) who meets and beds Stalin (F. Murray Abraham) and bears his child. She marries hapless suitor Geoffrey Rush (here looking more like Lyle Lovett than any man should) and is dogged by double agent Sam Neill (looking more tragically gorgeous than any man should). It's got some goofily intriguing scenes (Stalin on a first date!), but in the end, it's not really absorbing, and it doesn't really go anywhere. Oh, but there's a policewoman in black leather, and all I could think was, is this the way all cops in Australia dress? If so, add it to my list of reasons to go visit! YOW!

Also saw Sigourney Weaver in a very Judy Davis role in Death and the Maiden. Moderately good, very depressing movie (written by Ariel Dorfman, a Duke professor) about a woman who survived torture under a repressive South American regime, now married to a VIP in the new government, who encounters the man she believed tortured her. Good concept, but stagy and overlong.

Also rented Dream with the Fishes. I'm guessing it would have been better if I'd been on drugs. As it was, I turned it off after 20 minutes.

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