AFTERTHOUGHTS (64)

64.1 CRUISING TRIBECA 2008 (2)
From a field of 120 films in competition, Tomas Alfredson’s vampire film, Lat den ratte komma in (Let the Right One In) took home the feature prize at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, while Thomas Turgoose and Piotr Jagiello (both from Shane Meadows’ Somers Town) shared the acting trophy.

Among the festival jurors this year were Doug Liman, Josh Schwartz, Oliver Platt, Peter Dinklage, Callie Khouri, and Whoopi Goldberg.

A rundown of the other winners this year can be found here.

And, in further Lat den ratte komma in news, in a bidding war for the film’s remake rights—in which Warner Bros., Paramount, and Overture figured in the wheeling and dealing—Hammer Films and Spitfire Pictures emerged victorious.
A writer for the English-language Let the Right One In redux will be chosen shortly.

64.2 THE FLY OPERA ABOUT TO OPEN
Iguana regulars will know I love me my Cronenberg and Shore, so I’d just like to do my part and make note of the fact that the two-act opera of The Fly—directed by David Cronenberg and composed by Howard Shore—is almost upon us.
It’ll be conducted by Los Angeles Opera general director, Plácido Domingo, with a libretto by David Henry Hwang (whose M. Butterfly was taken to the big screen by Cronenberg), and set design by Dante Ferretti (who took home the Oscar this year for his work on Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street).
Scoot on over to http://www.howardshore.com/ for info on tickets.

64.3 REPRISE GETS U.S. RELEASE
Joachim Trier’s Reprise will get its U.S. theatrical release on May 16, and will then subsequently be available as a Netflix rental.

Parting shot: Reviews of Shane Meadows’ This Is England (which also stars Thomas Turgoose), a number of David Cronenberg’s films, and Joachim Trier’s Reprise can be found in the Archive.

(Let the Right One In OS courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com; The Fly opera image courtesy of howardshore.com; Reprise UK quad courtesy of impawards.com.)

REPRISE
(Review)

Joachim Trier’s Reprise is a Norwegian film about two best friends and aspiring writers, Phillip Reisnes (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik Hoiaas (Espen Klouman Hoiner) and their intended debut novels, Fantombilder (Phantom Images) and Prosopopeia.
The film kicks off with the pair in that dreadful instant of anxiety, right before the manuscript is sent off into the harsh brutal world of publishers and editors, and follows Phillip and Erik as their friendship and personal lives are warped and impacted by the vagaries of fortune and life.

There is a lot in the script (by Madeleine Fant and Aslaug Konradsdottir) that captures the writer’s experience, from the adoration and hero worship of an older writer who has shaped their creative sensibilities—in Phillip and Erik’s case, Sten Egil Dahl, played by Sigmund Saeverud—to finding the right spot for that first novel on already crowded bookshelves, to that scathing first review; moments and feelings common to those who live by the pen.
With a bemused understanding that never devolves into melodramatic sentimentality, Reprise touches on the writer’s life, on the pervasive uncertainty of it all, and the delicate, underlying hope that informs the myriad possibilities that branch out from a single moment. The fractured, non-linear nature of the narrative not only reinforces that notion, it also suggests the fragile quality of the mental state while in the grip of creativity.

And while Reprise also features other characters—the writers are part of a group of five, and the pair each have girlfriends—the film is still very focused on Phillip’s and Erik’s lives and their relationship.
This is where Trier’s film goes beyond the writer’s sphere, as it charts the flux of time and life and possibilities.
Fortunately, the cast, notably Lie and Hoiner, submit understated, naturalistic performances that capture the script’s emotions without overblowing them into weepy Hollywood Moments.
There is also a delicate uncertainty regarding the film’s denoeument and a suddenness to its ending that, paradoxically, only reinforces the whole, capping off a fascinating and moving look at a life lived in service to the word.

Apologies if I’m waxing a little too poetic about Reprise, but of course, it’s because I’m a writer myself, so I know where this story is coming from.
Alternately though, one must consider that since I am a writer, I’d be predisposed to be more exacting with Reprise than I would be with, say, a film about an accountant or a plumber. The fact that Trier and company not only meet my expectations, but also manage to take me on a journey where the next turn—and the eventual destination—is never quite predictable (always a massive plus), makes this a film I heartily recommend.
And since Reprise steers well clear of the Hallmark school of schmaltzy sentimentality, has the wit to have fun with its subject matter without making fun of it, and gets to sneak in some Joy Division and New Order, well, that just seals the deal for me.

(Reprise UK quad courtesy of impawards.com.)