Oslo, 31. august (2011) Reviews

• Beautiful, true and devastating

  maddo162011-11-05

  The most hard-hitting and resonant film I've seen in a long time, Oslo August 31st sets itself up with serene, fuzzy home footage and tales of blissful memories spent in the titular city of Oslo only to cut to the bleak life of Anders, a former heroin addict on his first day of life out of rehab. Searching for a meaning and a purpose in this new life he finds little in his friends' bourgeois city routines, which he neither desires nor feels he could achieve anyway, and their claims that "it'll all get better" fail to move a mind constantly probing and analysing the reality of his situation. He soon undergoes an intense conversation in a park overlooking the city with his closest friend, wherein Anders pours out his thoughts of the time the two have spent apart, and the precision of their rapport matched with the lead's acting make the whole scene feel horribly real. Anders wanders the often-empty city like a ghost, sitting in a café surrounded by the hollow dreams of others ("Plant a tree. Swim with dolphins. Write a great novel") and dwelling on the weight of his own existence. In two minds whether to leave the city, increasingly desperate and always beautifully shot, we follow him through the night until sunrise, when Anders appears to us in a sequence at his most unpredictable. Undeniably disturbing, yet intimate and tender, this is a film that already feels close to my heart, one unafraid to bring up difficult questions and brilliantly able to provoke an idea of the absurdity of it all.

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• A powerful and unforgettable achievement

  howard.schumann2012-11-13

  Joachim Trier's brilliant Oslo, August 31st opens with a lovely montage of Oslo, Norway showing its quaint cobblestone streets, sidewalks where children are playing, and a captivating view of a nearby lake. As we watch long shots seen in a car ride from the viewpoint of the passengers, we hear voice-overs talking about their memories and impressions of Oslo. Many recollections are good, some are bad, but all are personal and intimate, the stuff of life, not of movies. Based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's 1931 novel "Le Feu Follet," Oslo, August 31st takes place in a 24-hour period, following recovering drug addict 34-year-old Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) as he takes on his first job interview in years after being given a one-day release from a state-run rehabilitation center. All is not going well, however. As Anders explains during a group therapy session, he hasn't felt much of anything since becoming sober. Two weeks away from completing his rehab, in the morning of the interview he fills his pockets with stones and jumps into the water of a lake in an attempt to drown himself. Unsuccessful in his attempt, he must confront his job interview that afternoon as an Editorial Assistant for a publishing company. The interview goes well and Anders responses are articulate and quite insightful and the employer seems impressed. When the applicant is asked to fill in the gaps in his resume for the last five years, however, he is unable to do so, admitting that he was a drug addict, using cocaine, heroin, DMT, and also alcohol, providing details not requested by the interviewer. Anders sets himself up to fail and, without waiting to see how his past has affected his chances for employment he grabs his resume out of the employer's hand and walks away from the interview. Rather than return to the center immediately, he visits old friends and makes an afternoon date with his sister Nina, but, unwilling to confront the pain in their relationship, sends a surrogate instead. One of the most moving segments of the film is Ander's extended conversation with former close friend Thomas (Hans Olav Brenner), now a Professor of Literature and married with a young child. In a conversation that is devastatingly real, Thomas tells Anders that he would be crushed if Anders did anything stupid and asks how he can support him. He tells Anders, however, that his parents are selling their home because of his financial debts, a fact that, no matter how true, does not support his friend in regaining his self-image. Later in the conversation, the talk shifts to Thomas' lack of joy in his own relationship as he wonders what happened to the promise of his youth, not a reassuring message for the struggling Anders. When Thomas tells him "It will get better. It will work out." Anders looks at him with a knowing smile and says, "Except it won't." Looking like a somewhat hip, almost tough young professional with an open leather jacket, Anders then walks around the town with a detached look on his face, more of an observer than a participant in the world around him. Sitting in an open air café watching people pass by and listening to other people's conversations, there is a palpable sense of isolation so deep and so penetrating that it can tear right into the heart of any viewer who has experienced feelings of alienation. Night clubs, parties, and raves occupy Anders as he starts to fall back into old habits. Though he tells a young student that he sleeps with after one of the parties, "Everything will be forgotten," it is obvious that he does not believe it. He desperately tries to contact his ex-girlfriend Iselin in New York, leaving three messages that tell her he has changed and that he still loves her, but his calls are not returned. Honest, reflective, insightful, and intimate, Oslo, August 31st is a powerful and unforgettable achievement and Lie's performance is towering. Trier does not allow sentimentality to intrude on his character study of a lost soul whose pain cannot be hidden, nor the hurt he has caused others. We can see the kindness in Anders' heart but not the strength, or feelings of self-worth, and we just want to reach out to him to tell him to listen to the words of the poet Rilke, "And if the earthly no longer knows your name, whisper to the silent earth: I'm flowing. To the flashing water say: I am." Sadly, we cannot get through.

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• Minimal, stylistic, tragic and utterly engrossing.

  Greigx32011-11-25

  The sober rationality of the young Norwegian intellectual classes provides a perfectly blank canvas on which to paint the conversely complex neuroses of the anti-hero, Anders. Anders is an intelligent and gifted opinionist and writer, but his addiction has left him riddled with insecurity. The film focuses on the most pivotal moment of this young man's life as he's tragically stuck between recovery and regression: that moment is both sprinkled with glimmers of hope and drenched in melancholia. Anders' contradiction is the eternal paradox of the addict, and perhaps Trier is presenting it as an allegory of the modern human condition. Anders Danielsen Lie gives an incredible performance as the enigmatic hero and the acting throughout is consistently authentic, convincing and engrossing. The soft-focus cinematography (Jakob Ihre) works well with a particularly engaging sound design which, along with very conscious direction, editing and general production design, makes for technically masterful cinema with an aesthetic that is both selectively minimal and enjoyably rich. Oslo is a tragedy. Its simple, melancholic tone and metropolitan landscapes make the film undeniably reminiscent of the French New Wave - think Hiroshima Mon Amour in present day Oslo. The film is minimal and stylized, presenting social realism in an artistic form without losing any of its dramatic potency to surrealism. Utterly convincing and captivating: an instant indie classic.

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• Nothing Waits on the Other Side of Addiction

  Chris_Pandolfi2012-05-25

  "Oslo, August 31st" opens with a montage of the titular city, revealing cobblestone streets teeming with cars, suburban sidewalks on which children play, and even the icy slopes of a ski resort. Some shots are devoid of people. In others, distant figures dot the urban landscape. We see a few close-ups of faces, a long shot of a car ride from the passenger's point of view, and a hand-held view of a lake. As these visuals unfold, random voice-over narrations play on the soundtrack – sound bites of anonymous men and women recalling their impressions of Oslo. Some are pleasant while others are indifferent, but all of them are vivid, strong, and deeply personal. We're not witnessing a celebration of life; the filmmakers are acknowledging life's directional axis in a simple, direct way. We inevitably move forward, carrying memories both good and bad. Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) is two weeks away from finishing a stint in rehab for alcohol and drug addiction. He has already attempted suicide by filling his jacket pockets with stones, picking up a boulder, and wading into a nearby river. He fails to go through with it. We're not all that surprised because, as he later explains during group therapy, he hasn't felt much of anything since becoming sober. Successful actions, even negative ones like taking your own life, necessitate both an emotional response and the willpower to act accordingly. He's given a one-day pass for a job interview at a literary magazine, where he's being considered for an editorial position. He will also reunite with an old party buddy, Thomas (Hans Olav Brenner), now a husband, a father, and a professor of literature. Thomas, clearly unhappy with his lot in life, quotes Proust with restrained yet visible desperation. If Anders went to him seeking encouragement – or, at the very least, some semblance of stability and familiarity – he most certainly will not get it. This goes double for Anders' sister, who made a date to meet him at a restaurant. He instead meets her friend, who was sent solely for the purpose of passing along doubts about seeing him again. Anders tries to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend, who now lives in New York; he leaves her several voicemail messages via cell phone, all of which are unreturned. He has his job interview, which goes just as badly as he thought it would. More accurately, he allows it to go just as badly as he subconsciously wished it would go. If he truly wanted that job, he in all likelihood would have gotten it. The rest of the film shows Anders wandering through a series of parties, bars, and clubs. He interacts with various people, including his former drug supplier and the man who had an affair with his ex-girlfriend, but never once does he connect with them. He can't connect with anyone on this side of addiction, simply because he doesn't know how to. Perhaps he knew at one time; echoing the opening voice-over narrations, Anders retreats into his head during one scene, allowing memories of his well-to-do parents to resurface as spoken recollections. Between his childhood and now is a long stretch in which he willingly forfeited any opportunity to remember something, be it happy or sad. Now that his mind is clear, he has become aware that he has absolutely nothing and cannot relate to others. He squandered his life before he ever had the chance to live it. Loosely adapted from the novel "Le Feu Follet" by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, the film does not make any grand gestures in depicting the aftereffects of drug addiction. Director/co-writer Joachim Trier simply observes. He never aims to make Anders a tragic victim of circumstance; he's a young man who knowingly chose to walk a self-destructive path. Perhaps he didn't know it would lead to total apathy. That doesn't matter; you don't have to actually experience it to know that addiction leads to nothing good. Although the specifics of Anders' upbringing are never revealed, we strongly suspect he came from a home that was at the very least stable, so in all likelihood, has no good excuse for being an addict. In an early scene of "Oslo, August 31st," Anders sits alone in a café filled with people. He and the audience catch snippets of various conversations, ranging from the suicide of Kurt Cobain to a long list of lofty but positive life goals. They're intriguing in and of themselves, mostly because we're witnessing a very realistic portrayal of attitudes and behaviors, from sweet and sentimental to flippant and immature. But what I found even more intriguing was Anders' reaction to them. In expressing indifference with only anxious turns of the head and joyless smirks, he paradoxically speaks volumes about himself. This is a testament to the brilliance of Lie's performance, which, even in its nuanced state, is emotionally complex and painfully believable. As his character sits there, both he and the audience slowly begin to realize that, apart from having nothing, he has seen to it that he actually is nothing. -- Chris Pandolfi (www.atatheaternearyou.net)

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• Great little foreign film

  bwilkening2013-01-19

  I think I learned about this film when I searched for the highest rated films on Rotten Tomatoes. I saw it had earned nearly universal high marks, so I decided to check it out. It follows a recovering addict named Anders who is granted a leave from the rehab clinic where he is currently residing to go into Oslo for a job interview. While in Oslo, which he has not visited in some time since going to the clinic, he meets a number of old friends, attempts to reconnect with a former girlfriend, and visits some old haunts. That is essentially all in the way of plot. What makes the film so affecting are the conversations he has with these friends about life, feelings of regret, lost opportunities, etc. The conversations seemed so authentic and realistic; the writers never gave into the temptation of injecting false notes of sentimentality.. Even though Anders is an addict, this isn't really an "addiction movie." His addiction is always there in the background, but the themes that the film explores are far more universal and general. And the lead actor's performance was very poignant and impressive. I definitely recommend this to anybody interested in a strong dialog and character-driven film.

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