Ravnehjerte93

AMUNDSEN is another exploration of a key figure in Norwegian history by director Espen Sandberg, whom previously has been a part of MAX MANUS and KON-TIKI. Two films that also highlights great achievements by Norwegians. As a very small country, us Norwegians have a tendency to root for and glorify people that achieves the spectacular, and we celebrate them as heroes. AMUNDSEN is a film about Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian polar explorer that lead the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage and the first first expedition to the South Pole amongst other things.

It's a film that attempts to explain and provide insight into who Roald Amundsen was, more so than to retell his expeditions. This is not an action-oriented film that focuses on the fight between man and nature. Much of the film is kind of told through a conversation between Amundsen's brother and Bess Magids, one of Amundsen's romances. This is the framework of the film, with Amundsen's achievements plotted in between throughout this conversation. It's a fine enough structure in theory and I appreciate that the filmmakers have decided to not just show an expedition and leave it at that, but instead to fully explore the man behind these great achievements. It doesn't glorify him or lift his hero status in any way. He's portrayed as a very flawed and slightly bitter man outside of his accomplishments. Unfortunately, the film only seems to scrape the surface of who he was. Heck, I would say that the film only touches the surface of everything it introduces.

The huge issue with AMUNDSEN is that it feels like a PowerPoint presentation with bullet points from Wikipedia to jump into every aspect of his life. The film is focused on trying to tell so much that it barely tells anything, but more importantly, it feels dramatically flat. Amundsen's relationship with Bess Magids is never properly explored. We're never told why they really care for each other. Amundsen's relationship with his brother, which is one of the biggest parts of the story, never leaves the emotionally impact that it should. It's too quickly glossed over. Even Amundsen's journey to the South Pole feels underwhelming. We're constantly told throughout the film that it's a dangerous expedition, but they don't show us that. When Amundsen finally reaches the South Pole (which is very early in the film), we should feel a sense of triumph, but instead I just sat there with a shoulder shrug. And that's the thing, the structure of the film doesn't work. It never lingers on the moments that are important in defining who Amundsen was, what the people around him meant to him, or what Amundsen meant to the people around him. It moves too quickly, but yet so slowly.

The performances are fine. Pål Sverre Hagen does a solid job as Amundsen (though the make-up used to make him look older is slightly distracting). The cinematography is great. There are couple of beautiful shots in it and you could see that the budget has been well-used. Which is why it's such a shame that film is struggling on a narrative level.

U - July 22 is an extremely difficult film to judge. Based on the horrific events that occurred on Utøya island in Norway, were one man shot and murdered 69 people, most of them youngsters (in addition to being responsible for a bomb attack in Oslo earlier that day). Norway is quite a safe place to live, so that something as gruesome as that happened here is confusing, shocking and something that I'll never truly be able to understand. It's therefore a difficult film to judge because the events are still close to heart. It's, as I'm writing this, been close to seven years since the attacks, which kinda feels like no time has passed at all. So from the moment the film start, you've already brought in your feeling of sadness to the film.

But I do think this is a good film. I think its made with dignity and respect, and I think its importance come across very well. It's a film that we need in order for us to, if not fully, at least be able to understand a little bit about how it was like for the people who were trapped on Utøya during the shooting. How brutal, unforgiving, isolated and meaningless it all was. The film doesn't shy away from the brutality of it, and I'm glad that it didn't. It had to be brutal in order to convey the feeling of how it was like. It had to be violent in order for us to understand it. The film does a good job of translating the feeling to the viewers.

Shot entirely in one-take on the island itself with unknown actors and lasting exactly as long as the shooting actually did, the film feels as real as it possibly could have. There's not much focus on the perpetrator, yet his presence is felt throughout the entirety of the film. The loud and uncomfortable sound of shots being fired is constant and the shrieking of scared teens is uncomfortably present. The panic, confusion and anxiety is all over the place. There are no moments to rest, and the film is exhaustingly intense and difficult to watch. Once the film ended the cinema was filled with silence. No one made any noise and it was quite simply put a powerful experience.

There are certain moments in it that feels slightly artificial, though it's hard for me to know that for sure, as I wasn't there during the attack. Yet, some parts didn't fully convince me. This might be because some of the acting isn't the strongest. Which is a bit of the risque you run when shooting a film in one-take. Andrea Berntzen is however a star. Her performance is outstanding. The camera follows her throughout the entire film, and she perfectly manages to capture and convey every emotion you would imagine someone going through in a situation like that.

This is not a film for everyone, but for me, as a Norwegian, it's essential viewing due to how close it is. In a world where violence happens every day and we've somehow gotten used to reading about, a film like this is important. If only to make us understand a little bit more. If only to make us feel a lot more.

( Review also posted on Listal and letterboxd)