Heart of Lightness

When a group of actors travels to Norway, to the arctic circle, they experience unexpected changes, physically and emotionally. The whole point of bringing the group there is that "someone" has failed to make a film as promised. He must either quickly make a film, or give back the grant money, which is long spent. So they head to the north, where the sun doesn't set. This one moves REALLY slowly. There are some fun and/or awkward bits. They are amateurs, and decide on their own to update the script. And they also talk about having a mutiny and directing it themselves. This one requires a lot of patience. Because they are mostly outdoors, it's hard to tell when they are performing the play and when they are just talking to each other. But that's probably the intention. Art films. Did i say it moves really slowly? Story by Ellen Einarsen, Petter Halvorsen, Jan Vardoen. And of course, the play the group does is Ibsen's "Lady by the Sea". Directed by Jan Vardoen. Who also is the director in the story.

I've just recently seen this film at the Montreal World Film Festival and I was truly fascinated by it. The premise is a bit preposterous: A Norwegian film director (played by the movie's actual director) has to make a film or else forfeit a subsidy he received for the purpose of making a movie (if only these things happened in real life!). In London, he attends almost unwillingly a performance - in English - of a lesser-known Ibsen play, The Lady of the Sea, which, on a whim, he then decides to film in Norway, with the British cast. The filming occurs in a remote northern part of Norway, in summer, when the sun shines practically 24 hours a day. As moviegoers, we're constantly shifting between scenes of the actual Ibsen play and lighthearted scenes when the Norwegian film director, the British play director, the film crew and the cast interact among each other. But there comes a point where the distinction between the two settings is completely blurred.

I had never heard of this play by Henryk Ibsen and was thoroughly pleased at the opportunity to learn about it. I was also immensely impressed by the acting, particularly that of the English actors, who certainly deserve to be much better known. Finally, I think the Norwegian setting is truly spectacular. This is an intelligent and cultivated bit of movie-making. Well done!

London-born Norwegian multi-doer Jan Vardøen has with his debut in film made a strange and uneven, but still extraordinary and remarkable meta film story which is both nonsense as well as a lovely played version of the classic 1888 Henrik Ibsen-play "The Lady from the Sea".

Vardøen is known as a musician, writer and restaurant owner, as well as a TV show host, and has financed this film by himself, and not the way the claim to have done it in this meta story.

A narcoleptic unexperienced director has got a funding for a film, but hasn't got a clue, and have started using the money when he realizes that he rally have to make a film if he isn't to pay back the money. While attending the last show of a Ibsen-play in a theater in London, having a hangover and sleeping through the whole show, he gets an idea of taking the whole ensemble to play the same play in his film against beautiful scenery in Lofotoen in the North of Norway.

The serious play is brilliantly played by the British cast, and the meta scenes where the actors are being themselves out of the filming of the classic story is paralleled all through the film in such a manner you have to concentrate to understand in which reality you are along the way. The funny bits are the meta story, and the serious parts are the result on film - the Ibsen story. The film will be differently viewed by those knowing their Ibsen and those ignorant to the famous classic play writer. The director and producer of this film, Vardøen, is also playing the narcoleptic director and producer in the film, though not as himself.

It's actually a brilliant idea, and the film has some seriously funny parts, and then some brilliantly acted serious scenes in awesome landscapes, but I think this could have been so much better still. On the minus side is both amateurish camera movement and sound in the start of the film, which gets better along the way. There's also other minor things to put the finger on, though I'd like the film to be more tightly narrated. Vardøen himself, I'm afraid to say, is the only actor not able to do top notch work. His amateurism shines through. Such a pity, for the rest of the crew is great.

After a interesting start, the film struggles to work on the premises in the second part of first half, but when the real play really starts running, the actors manage to go through the screen in a way that saves the film up to a decent standard.

A couple of scenes are absolutely hilarious to such a grade that the film should also be labeled as a comedy, though I rarely seen a film which is so divided into two so different genres as heavy drama and comedy back and forth.

An interesting way of telling one of Ibsen's classics in a new setting, showing that this film will probably not be the only film the multi talented Jan Vardøen will be engaged in.

The film is spoken in both English and Norwegian with subtitles back and forth also making the film different. Not a master piece by no means, but still an interesting take on a film meta story.

An interesting film made by a film lover, but not a professional film maker, and this is nothing to be embarrassed about. Fresh.