BEYOND BERGMAN : IN THE MOOD FOR MOODYSSON
An Indian Film is like a bejeweled Indian Bride, there can never be enough ornamentation and accessories, the more the better. The colours of Haldi, Henna and Sindoor vie for special attention while the heady scents of Mogra and Gulab distract the groom into trusting that his bride is definitely beautiful. There can be no doubt about the spectacle she offers, not after the melodramatic Bidai.
Where as if you watch a Scandinavian Film, you wonder if this lady will ever get married! Where is the colour, where is the scent? The drama, the grand passion that will make a marriage? On the face of it be it Bergman or Dreyer they tend to be austere, this starkness eagerly lapped up by ‘bachelor boys’ who took a Vow of Chastity as late as 1995 to keep up the monastic order. Not just Lars von Trier or Thomas Vinterburg, every single one from Billie August to Aki Kaurismaki, from Lasse Hallstrom to Paul Verhoeven has exhibited the same sense of minimalist approach.
Reading the ten commandants of the Dogme is like being an Advaitist: Neti Neti Neti. Not this Not this Not this. Looking at that which is not present, cannot be defined, for which there is no adjective or even a straight answer. A most spiritual outlook something we Indians pride ourselves in but who does it the best.
The Vikings!!
It could be the lack of sunlight that makes them ponderous, it could be that being a seafaring tribe, bent on exploration which gives them a natural flair for experimentation, it could be that being exposed to spectacular sights day in and day out like the Aurora Borealis has exhausted them. Now that they are spent, they are not looking for the Beauty in things but for Meaning in them. Even to the extent of disregarding the social and political milieu around them. Isn’t this why Bergman fell from grace? An indulgent film maker probing the answers to his own questions. Even after forty films did he find what he was looking for? We are quickly dismissive.
How can we understand that need in these days with our love for comedies, capers, thrillers and parodies. Art for us is no longer a sacred calling but an activity we indulge in to pad up our portfolio, as if Life were an interview. Any film half way serious brings yawns and an indignant
“We have enough problems in our lives as it is”
Thankfully for us, the Scandinavians don’t seem to have any problems of their own. Which is probably why they make film after film which dissects human relationships to its barest bone. They have swallowed the World and regurgitated it. If you look at it now, yes it is ugly, yes it is a mess but yes, it is also You. Or if they do have issues like the rest of humanity,By embracing all that is abhorrent,repugnant and blasphemous they have mapped the whole gamut of existence. Just like their metal bands: subversive and satanic. Yes fighting the system not succumbing to the numbness of routine.
Whether it is a Nils Gaup doing a Pathfinder or Fridrik Thor Fridriksson in Cold Fever they are constantly dealing with the awe inspiring landscape that is their lot with thoughts on Secrets and Death uppermost in their minds. This paradox of being is unique to the Norse.
On one hand you have death metal on the other there is the popular Abba, On one hand they conquer the world on the other they are brokering peace through Palme.
On one hand they are sea farers a la Heyerdahl waiting to leave the cold climes, on the other they revel in their iciness if the winter sports in Iceland are anything to go by.
Above all no one can deny their claim to being the trend setters in Design. From a middle class Ikea to a high end Danish. Form and Content is what they have been dealing with for ages and as film makers these influences seep in and give their Cinema a definitive Scandinavian flavour.
If Tanovic’s No Man’s Land had not won the Oscar in 2001, Peter Naess’s ELLING would surely have done the honours. Lagaan , for all her Beauty was still a new bride not sure of her standing in the marriage, Elling on the other hand made a commitment – till death do us part – with gentle humour.This kind of wry humour with hardly a two member cast occurs in most Nordic Films. KITCHEN STORIES for example is a film with just two men and a kitchen. Without watching the film can any of us conjure a story around this theme that will be an exploration of two cultures, [one is a Swede, the other is a Norwegian], a study of human behaviour and without any fancy props or music try to extract the euphoria one feels when this film ends? Other notable films in the past decade have been:
Hawaii, Oslo (2004)
Directed by Erik Poppe
Kitchen Stories (Salmer fra kjøkkenet) (2003)
Directed by Bent Hamer
Hafid: The Sea (2002)
Written and directed by Baltasar Kormakur
Italian for Beginners ( Italiensk for begyndere) (2001)
Directed by Lone Scherfig.
Elling (2001)
Directed by Petter Naess
Hamsun (1996)
Directed by Jan Troell
Women Directors in these countries have not lagged far behind, aided by the government and state funding they have managed to add substantial works to the existing body of films. Starting in 1949 with Edith Carlmar, Anja Breien, Berit Nesheim, Liv Ullmann, Laila Mikkelsen, Torun Lian, Vibeke Løkkeberg, Suzanne Osten, Marleen Gorris and Susanne Bier all have contributed significantly to the oeuvre of Scandinavian Films.
No one of course has shown as much promise as LUKAS MOODYSSON. One could kill for a name like Moodysson. To be a film maker with such a name is a great blessing indeed. Not to speak of being a published poet by the time he was seventeen. Lukas is a well known poet in Sweden and since popularity is not in his to do list he goes and makes a film called FUCKING AMAL, despite what we think of Scandinavians and Free Love, Sweden has a highly conformist culture with Christianity playing a big role in shaping its morals. He follows it up with TOGETHER which is a very enjoyable film and thus was wildly popular. Unhappy with this runaway hit, after all what is the fun in being an OUTSIDER if you are so unhealthily popular, he goes on to make LILJA-4-EVER [ also Lilya-4-ever ]. Finally, this self proclaimed left winger, feminist and vegetarian decides, “I’ll show them, those bastards”. What happens? He makes an even better film, even more hard hitting, striking out against all that is immoral and unethical according to his equally strong Christian beliefs.
Just as Together is such a quirky and honest portrayal that brings out the humour from a hippie, LIJA-4-EVER too deals with the outcast. The difference being that here he is angry, he is no longer content to comment but takes his role as an activist, a religious person, a father of two daughters very seriously.Just like Bergman questioning God in VIrgin Spring and finally bowing down in submission, here too Lukas hopes that redemption lies in our beyond, maybe in dreams, maybe in hope…..
The image of Okasana running to that haunting score, her adolescent beauty casting a shadow on the darkness of the world, her shattered trust in mankind starting with her mother,then her friend, her school, her society and so on,finally leading upto her broken tryst with life. An extremely grim portrayal that would have you gasping at the end of it.This is exactly what the Director is aiming at.
LILJA-4-EVER came out in 2002, it was on all the ten best lists, it was the arrival of the Son. Even if Bergman had not passed on the mantle personally calling him the ‘young Master’, it is painfully obvious that to ignore Lukas is to ignore an active volcano. This film takes on the theme of developed and privileged countries being responsible for much of the human trafficking that takes place from Eastern Europe, Post USSR. In their greed, at the cost of human dignity they reduce a teenage girl caught in the web of global circumstances beyond her control to a mere pawn of pleasure. OKSANA AKINSHINA [ Sisters ] who plays Lilja conveys all the despair and despondence of a vanquished nation that is on the brink of its Death.
Not shirking away even once from seeing things as they are, Lukas shot this film in Estonia and Russia with a crew and cast who did not speak Swedish and he himself does not speak Russian. Though he claims to be of Russian descent on his grandmother’s side “ 6.25% Russian “, is what he calls himself.
Watching the film makes me thank [ despite all misgivings ] the Indian system of cloying motherhood and joint family strictures but for which it would not take too long for women to be laid bare for public consumption and victimization. There is no respite in the entire film, not even the Rammstein song that beats metal into the heads of the viewer, watching Lilya slowly disintegrate from a person to a body. Did she commit suicide? Did she escape? Can she escape? These are not the answers Lukas wants to offer, he is much more keen on hammering your conscience, to make you think about this situation. Lukas Moodysson has dedicated his film to the “millions of children around the world exploited by the sex trade.
LUKAS [ b.1969 ] lives in Malmo in the south of Sweden where he was born along with his wife Coco and two children.
“Mood Swing: Lukas Moodysson’s “Lilya 4-Ever”
by Erin Torneo
A couple of years ago, Swedish poet-turned-filmmaker Lukas Moodysson (”Fucking Amal”) made international film critics’ best-of lists for his hilarious second feature, “Together.” An exuberant send-up of ’70s radicalism and hippie life, “Together” was truly enjoyable to watch. One can’t exactly say that about his riskier third film, “Lilya 4-Ever,” which Newmarket Films opened on Friday.
“Lilya” explores the brutal poverty in Russia’s housing projects — the bleak underbelly of its post-Soviet, newly capitalistic façade — and the requisite dream of escape. It’s a place so desperate that even a mother would forsake her child for the promise of a new life. That’s what happens to 16-year-old Lilya (played by Oksana Akinshina), who is forced to survive by any means necessary when her mother heads to the U.S. with an American husband. Lilya’s a pretty girl, looking for her own way out. Her quick descent from glue-sniffing and living in the projects, to prostitution and the road-to-hell is filled with relentless inhumanity that pummels the viewer like the hard-driving metal from Eastern Europe on the film’s soundtrack. When Lilya carves her name in a bench — a small, typically adolescent rebellion — it is not just a reminder of her childish naivete, but also one of the few acts of self she is allowed in a world where she has become a commodity. Akinshina’s and 11-year old newcomer Artiom Bogucharsky’s (Volodya) extraordinary performances carry the film, lending depth to recurring fantasy sequences — though there is no escape. They are doomed children, and we know it.”
A HOLE IN MY HEART
“……..His 2004 film, the controversial A Hole in My Heart, is more an experimental film than a traditional narrative, and he has said it is intentionally designed to be off-putting to the audience. It intersperses frequent screeching noises, close-ups of female genital surgery, and other jarring elements into a vague plot about two pornographers shooting their latest video in a filthy apartment, with an attention-craving porn starlet, while the webbed-handed son of one of the men stays holed up in his bedroom. It received a special certificate for shocking images in Sweden, and received terrible reviews from the vast majority of critics…….”
I believe he is happy; he has finally succeeded in offending the public. For an interview please click:
http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1382946,00.html
CONTAINER
His last film out is CONTAINER [2006 ]: A woman in a man’s body. A man in a woman’s body. Jesus in Mary’s stomach. The water breaks. It floods into me. I can’t close the lid. My heart is full.
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/features/article2272696.ece
Tags: Direction, Sweden
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
The Scandanavians have plenty of problems of their own, much of which is not addressed by their cinema – they seem to leave that to their contintinental kin.
I love this post, and if it weren’t bed time I would write an entire essay as comment.
I spend as much time as possible in Scandanavia.
In fact, I just recently asked my company to open a Copenhagen office so I can move there.
It is a land of contrasts.
Large, compact cities that rival the density of any other European city, contrasted with vast forests, flat land, and sparcely populated farmlands.
Cold, snowy winters (depending on where you are, it does’t snow throughout Scandanavia) with little sunlight, coupled with warm, humid (very humid, depending on where you are) summers when the sun doesn’t set.
I have often wondered if these dichotomies are responsible for the starkness of not only Scandanavian movies, but of their literature and of their fine arts.
Where India is warm, Scandanavia can be cold and dark, a perfect place for introspection while drinking glog on a long winters night, and to turn those visions into art on a long summer day.
Scandanavia once worked to conquer the world in search of the natural resources it didn’t possess.
India seems to possess every natural resource and thing of beauty that the earth has to offer.
Both areas reflect this geography in their cinema, Scandanavia through its starkness of imagery, India through its richness if images.
One point you do bring up that I have long tried to understand.
The “welfare state” (meant in the European sense of the word to mean high taxation to provide equal social services to the entire population, not the American meaning of people living off the state without contributing to the economy) as well as the Scandanavian educational system stress the individual’s contribution to the good of the community.
The community is paramount.
Yet, in the arts, some of the most distinct and individual voices in cinema, literature and music hail from the Northern climes.
Interesting that in a place where community is king, so much great, individualistic art is created.
I would list examples, but your list is exhaustive, and dead-on.
I also appreciate that you managed to write this post and NOT focus on Dogma.
It is an amazing movement and I am a fan, but there is more to Scandanavian cinema that this…
Ahem….Read this post..most of it went over the head..but the mention of Rammstein awakened me.
“There is no respite in the entire film, not even the Rammstein song that beats metal into the heads of the viewer”
Well..did a bit of google on the song you were talking and guess what…it was Mein Herz Brentt…I actually had the pleasure of watching them perform this number in New Orleans before the katrina.
This song didnt work for me as well..just for the fact that…it was in an album which had songs like “Sonne” Feur Fuei” and “Ich Will”..some disjointed chord there..eh?
Enjoyed reading this one.
Here
KKK as always damn intersting post.
But sometimes i get tired of reading all those obvious comnparisons…our bride n their bride,their one n our one. It pisses me off to great extent. Know why ? Because u cant always compare the brides. Marriages r of differnt kind,customs r differnt,socio set-up is differnt,taste is differnt n so the bride will be different for sure. N its genrlsng in big way when u say our bride is this n that. bollwyood dosnt mean indian cinema. we have brides of every kind. just which one u want to pick up for ur purpose. mallu, bengali,oriya,assamiya or hindi. minimlstic approach have also been trademark of many filmmakers here. we also have some great film but as they say grass is always greener on other side.
just one case…no doubt departed is sexy film but most of the people whom i know n who r going ga-ga over the film havent heard or seen govind nihalani’s drohkaal!! n drohkaal was made in 80’s. that pisses me off big time!!
just wish we will know our brides in a little better way also. no harm in knowing all the brides anyway.
t!:
when you move to Copenhagen may I visit?
Thanx for the rapturous essay on Scandinavia….I share the love.
Om: the song worked for me AFTER I watched the film [ not during ] and yes if you are looking for Scandinavian Metal, I like Burzum…..pleaaaaase watch Lilya-4-ever, what I wrote will make sense after.
Vinayak:
Sorry wanted to reply to your previous Sher par immediately kuch soojha nahin…..because….
Its odd you mention Tsai Min Liang, I just finished watching WHAT TIME IS IT THERE …!! Uncanny haan?
Dogville is an all time favourite.
You caught me at Verhoeven….needed to complete the sentence fast with a known name[:(( ]
but
Phoenixnu:
You are right most of go ga ga over phorren fillums par let me off the hook here I have tried to watch everything from Paar to Tamas to Suraj ka Satwaan Ghoda to yes Drohkaal to Shool to……….Bangla to Marathi to…
I wish we did a MIRCH MASALA soon….
Arrey main bananay ko tayyar hoon…….
It is the Q of Finance.
The first thing people ask me is
“What are the returns madam?”
K-3
Hi.. i watched “Lilja” online over the week-end. It was one of the most traumatic experiences to go through. I was searching for reviews on the film and stumbled upon your site…
Your analysis is spot on… It is not the film’s purpose to offer solutions… The film intends to shock you and make you rage at the horrendous crime that is being perpetrated on poor kids…
Towards the end, it is very painful to watch and it would have given me some kind of closure, even if someone had killed her. But the ending leaves you haunted, helpless and traumatized, much like Lilja.