Ungfrúin góða og húsið

A good film making with good acting and screenplay. I must say that director Guðný Halldórsdóttir has improved her style and ambition since her last work appeared. It was a good idea to let actors speak in their own language, for after five minutes or so, you get used to it.

In many ways this was quite a good film. Set in Iceland and Denmark, it shows the difficult lives of men and women in the fishing business, but also (as Laxness loved to write about) the dissolute lifestyle of the wealthy. Laxness won the Nobel Prize for Lit in 1955, yet he was hounded out of the US in the late 1920's, appalled by what he saw in New York City/America as the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots." In this film, Laxness portrays the shallowness of the haves' lives; worried more for appearances and images than human love and dignity. It makes me want to read more of Laxness's works. I recommend it, especially for people who like the "Hannah and her sisters" strong-women-surviving-against-impossible-odds theme. And/or those who can abide the portrayal of men as drunks, philanderers, lechers, buffoons, religious hypocrites, idiots, bribers, etc., all of whom are in this film. This latter extreme portrayal pattern was obvious, and thus a real drawback of the film.

It's not very usual that a daughter or son of some artist has a great talent in a similar thing like his/her parent had. But it happened to the sister of Halldor Laxness, Nobel laureate from Iceland. The story is very good, however, it was based on Laxness' novel.

I saw better Icelandic films but again. I wasn't disappointed. Actually I was pretty surprised,it is not just a good film as the guy before me thinks.

I RECOMMEND ICELANDIC FILMS, including Honour of the House