Why do genius film artists like Norway's Jochim Trier make movies like "Sentimental Value"?
Why fill a movie screen with the pain some fathers and daughters have expressing their love?
That question crossed my mind as I watched the fragile drama unfold. But by the time it reached its precarious victory in the last scene, I had my answer.
Winner of this year's Grand Prize at Cannes, nominated for numerous Golden Globes, expect to see "Sentimental Value" up for a lot of Oscars, too, including Best Picture in English and Foreign Language.
Stellan Skarsgard delivers a masterful if maddening performance as Gustav Borg, who divorces his wife when his daughters are still young girls, but returns to the beloved family home for his ex-wife's funeral.
His reappearance rekindles unresolved resentments for the now grown Nora (Renata Reinsve) and her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Then he adds some bombshell complications.
Gustav is a renowned filmmaker, now at the phase of his career where festivals honor him for his lifetime's work. Although he featured his younger daughter in one of his early masterpieces, she wisely made the decision not to go into the film business herself. Now she's a mother, a wife, and a relatively sane person.
It was older sister Nora who got the acting bug, and turned it into a somewhat successful career. She performs classic roles onstage, and her TV series did well. But all her talent comes at a price. High-strung is an understatement. Just getting her out of her dressing room and onto the stage before the curtain rises is a recurring ordeal her cast and crew mates have gotten used to.
Gustav hasn't made a movie in more than a decade, but he arrives back in his daughters' lives with a screenplay he's finally finished. It was inspired by memories of his mother, and he wants Nora to play the role.
She declines.
Just read it, he pleads.
No way, she says. (However you say that in Norwegian.)
Complication No. 2: Daddy still owns the family home the daughters are so attached to. He neglected to sign it over to his wife when they divorced.
It's the setting he always had in mind writing his script. It's more than a setting, actually - it's a character, if not the star of his movie.
Not to share many more details, but Gustav Borg is an opinionated, strong-willed sort of fella - you know how those artistic types are. And so, after Nora's refusal, he finds another actress to play the role. She's Rachel Kemp, she's played by Elle Fanning, and she's as huge a screen star as, well, Elle Fanning.
That's the set-up. The interaction of the characters as they encounter, clash, love, hate and merge into each other weaves the fabric of the story.
It's probably sheer coincidence that "Sentimental Value" and George Clooney's "Jay Kelly" were released in the same awards season. Both tell the same story - the missing-in-action father who escaped into his brilliant filmmaking career rather than fulfilling the one role his daughters needed him to play.
Clooney's film is the glossy Hollywood version. "Sentimental Value" is the one that says all the things "Jay Kelly" can't. It's the honest, uncomfortable, beautiful, messy, real version.
Also like "Jay Kelly," it's a movie about making movies. Its insider sensibility is shaped by Gustav Borg's unassailable belief in his personal artistic vision. He's fond of "Oners" - scenes that go on for minutes, encompassing huge sweeps of action in a single take. He's sure his daughter is right for his script, but won't pay her the courtesy of watching her TV series or showing up to see her onstage.
You can imagine the effect of all this on temperamental Nora. Especially after he leaves her behind and tries to charm his way into the role of director/daddy for Rachel Kemp.
With the arduous vulnerability of acting such a major theme in "Sentimental Value," it's amazing to note how natural all the performances are. Elle Fanning's efforts to master her role is a movie within a movie within a movie. The actresses playing the sisters not only look alike, but share traits and mannerisms. Their bond is one of the film's joys.
And Skarsgard earns all the awards buzz coming his way for his prickly portrayal of a master artist.
As it turns out, movies are where Gustav Borg lives. His emotions, at least. Like Jay Kelly, the movies he makes are the one place he can find and reveal the love so elusive in his actual life.
Writer-director Trier shares Gustav Borg's tastes and exacting standards. The pregnant pauses in the dialogue and fades to black between scenes set the film's rhythm. The cinematography is gorgeous.
"Sentimental Value" is the opposite of "entertainment."
It's the sort of movie we look into like mirrors to see ourselves.
