Best of the Fests: Oslo, 31 August

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Anders Danielsen Lie in Oslo, 31 August

Oslo, 31 August (titled Oslo, August 31st for American audiences) premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where the drama scored many accolades. The Austin Film Society is hosting the movie's first big-screen outing in our town on Wednesday, December 5 at the Alamo Drafthouse Village [tickets].

Spoken memories and reminiscences begin the Norwegian film, as scenes of Oslo past and present flicker on the screen. Then Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) wakes up and begins his day -- the 24-hour-period in his life which Oslo, 31 August encapsulates. Anders is currently in rehab with two more weeks to go. He is given an evening pass to go to town for a job interview and plans to meet up with his sister afterwards.

Anders Danielsen Lie's multilayered performance is the true base of Oslo, 31 August. His character is deeply troubled and abashed; he tends to keep a stoic facade, but emotion cracks through. He persistently leaves voicemail messages for his ex-girlfriend Iselin (whom we never see), which vary in tone as his story plays on. He knows he has failed his parents, and yet is dismayed when his sister lets him down. Even though the ending seems nigh inevitable, Lie still had me holding out hope for Anders. I became so attached to the protagonist through my watching that I sighed with disappointment when he started searching through coat pockets at a party for money to spend on drugs.

Director Joachim Trier uses Oslo as a supporting character. Anders walks through waking cityscapes at dawn, talks about his life with friend Thomas (Hans Olav Brenner) on a bench in a hilltop park, and rides on the back of a girl's bicycle through the city in the wee hours. He sits alone in a cafe after his job interview, and we get to eavesdrop along with him on conversations taking place around him. This sequence made me think of the library scene in Wings of Desire.

An intimate story of a thirtysomething man attempting to cope with his addiction and questioning his place in the world may not exactly be original (it's based on a 1931 novel that has been on film before), but it was fresh and new to my eyes. I have previously admitted that I usually don't care for films about addiction, but this movie is different and more than just that. Trier's movie is brilliantly understated. AFS will be screening a 35mm print of Oslo, 31 August, and I imagine it will be even prettier in the theatre than it was on my TV.

Still via Cute + Delicious