1732 Høtten

I watched this very powerful Norwegian thriller on Encore's Mystery channel last night. I'd never heard of this before, but looking it up on the IMDB, I see it was made in 1998.

It follows the story of a police investigator who comes from Oslo to a small town in the Norwegian countryside to investigate a pair of related murders: a young girl with Down's syndrome and one of a pair of local men believed to have been involved in raping and murdering her. Wherever the poor detective goes, he meets with angry, sullen, and secretive townspeople--in fact, a bartender suggests that maybe the whole town was in on the murder and what will the investigator do if he discovers this is the truth?

During the course of investigating, the policeman befriends the young brother of the murdered man and tries to keep him from being abused by the locals, who kidnap and mutilate his father in a gruesome way, and who are on the lookout for another brother, believed to be the second perpetrator in the rape/murder. At one point, the policeman gets beaten up by a group of locals, including one man he recognizes, who tells him, "I was never here, and I've got at least 20 witnesses who will testify to that fact." It all moves to a rather startling conclusion, as we find out who the killers really were and the third brother finally stands up to his bulliers.

This was a very dark and disturbing and well-made film. If you're in the right mood and don't mind subtitles, you might like it. But it isn't all gloom and doom: a comic highlight: the visiting detective asks one of the glum-faced local police, a woman, if she ever smiles.

She says, "When something's funny."

"What's funny?" he asks.

"Cosby," she answers, and gives him this little half-smile/grimace, which, in the scheme of things, is laugh-out-loud funny.

Is this an "unusual" Norwegian film? Not really. Is it a good film? Absolutely not. It feels like someone rounded up every well-known (and up-and-coming) actor in Oslo, dropped them in a remote village, and told them to improvise a crime story - with no script. The result? A chaotic, disjointed patchwork of scenes that neither make sense nor resonate. There's no believable character development, no credible plot progression, and no real tension. Even the editing feels unsure of what kind of story it wants to tell. You could generously call it a "cinematic poem" trying to evoke a certain mood - but even that attempt falls flat. As crime fiction, it's predictable and cliché-ridden. As an artistic experiment, it's inert. So why does it have a cult following? That's the biggest mystery of all - because there's really nothing here worth defending.

1732 Høtten (Bloody Angels) is not a typical norwegian movie but it has received typically norwegian criticism. There seems to be a trend in Norway to call norwegian films you don't like "typically Norwegian". But I tell you, this film is nothing to be ashamed of!

Not many films from both Norway and abroad will be able to give you shivers like this, hardly any film of this genre gets stuck to your mind. It makes you annoyed, it makes you sick, it makes you depraved and finally, at the end, in a sick and twisted way - you get your revenge. But the film has weaknesses, and the most annoying is the script. It could have been so much better so it won't receive a top rating from me. But go rent it today!

Is it the harsh, wintry climate that makes Norwegian small town people as callous as this film wants us to believe they are? I was wondering this at the beginning of Karin Julsrud's debut when we get to know the carefree and violent attitude of some of the younger citizens of the town. This is more and more obvious as the story unfolds: a detective from Oslo, sent in to help solve two connected murders, is first humiliated, then beaten without anyone lifting a finger to stop it. What bothered me was the pointlessness of it all. If one man can't defy a whole town, send in the troops, all right? But this film isn't about logic. The central theme is that of the young boy who is repeatedly being victimized. His continually changing relationship with the stranger -from curiously friendly to defiant and uncaring- is the main strength of the story. Unfortunately, it can not save the rambling nature of the script. It never seems to go anywhere and leaves one wondering what the film is actually supposed to be about. One mustn't be too severe, though. Many scenes are very powerful and I liked the moments of wry humor intermingled in the drama. What we have here, then, is a compelling but not entirely satisfying psychological thriller and another director to look out for.

I had some expectations to this movie, and at least I hoped it would live up to one or two of them. But it didn't. It's an all so typical Norwegian film that I'm ashamed. I must say, the only Norwegian film I've ever seen and liked was "Moerkets oey" with a great soundtrack from the Norwegian band Seigmen. 1732 Hoetten, by the way, had Magne Furuholmen from A-Ha behind the music. Not that it could save this film.

There comes a time when you are just tired of seeing the same Norwegian actors in all of our films. I released a big sigh when Aud Schøneman showed up..not that she's not a fantastic old lady, but can't they find *anybody* new? And of course, they mix in some swedish actors. That's funny, I haven't seen many norwegians in Swedish or danish movies, but still somehow we always seem to import those Swedes..I'm quite sure we have enough competent Norwegian actors that can replace some of the old faces, and some of the Swedes..but they never seem to get a chance to enter the film industry.

The classical setting is of course all taken care of. A hillbilly's town far up north, where everyone knows everyone, and gangs of elder boys torture the youngsters. A strange priest, and a weird family. A girl that is killed. The awful torture of this one little boy, the horrible school. And a really cynical and strange expert from the police in a bigger city, whom is supposed to fix all their problems.

Can't Norway contribute with something new soon? Please?