Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Wordiezett So much average

ShangLuda Admirable film.

ataventure I decided to watch this film for two reasons: 1. I love Hans Matheson, and since his body of work is quite small, I thought I'd give this one a try. 2. There were a lot of positive reviews on IMDb.Having spent two hours watching the movie, I'm a little shocked that the reviews are so positive! The film follows the life of Dina, a woman scarred for life after she accidentally kills her own mother. The film, which has no real plot, follows Dina through her life as she learns to appreciate music, has a whole lot of sex, disregards all other people, and is haunted by the ghosts of the various people she manages to kill.The landscapes and cinematography are breath-taking, but that's where my love of the film comes to an end. No, I take that back. The various states of nudity are good too. Who knew I would be watching soft-core costume drama porn? Excellent. Really, though-the acting is overblown in its drama (watch for Niels practically dancing with a side of beef and Dina choking Lorch when he tries to leave). Dina is supposed to be someone for whom you feel sympathy because she's had a rough life, but in the end, I thought she was weird and scary and obsessive and not all that likable. I was pretty happy that Tomas found a nice normal girl to love at the end.If you enjoy rambling dramas that have no clear plot-where the protagonist learns nothing about herself and the other characters are all waiting around to die, then you'll love this. If you're curious as to what Norway looks like-well, fast forward to the scenes that showcase it. It is pretty impressive. I'd love to visit sometime in the summer. But otherwise, skip this film. It isn't good.

Fred Freddson Faced with the prospect of a Norwegian film in English with a plethora of international actors, I should have seen the warning signs. For one, people speaking accented English to convey the sense of a foreign language has always annoyed me ("Zose are ze fekts, mein fuhrer!").This film isn't perhaps quite that awful, but the plot appears to have been written by the committee for Silly Twists together with the Fjord Tourist Board.Equally, the style of the film is all over the place: a smörgåsbord of genre-dipping ranging from horror and ghost-tale to melodrama, costume drama, sub-Ibsenesque family saga, Bergman-lite and god knows what else.Together these result in an utterly confusing accretion of episodes that usually end in death, or haunting, or both, but no clear directorial stance on how see either.What I'm missing is any kind of moral, aesthetic or conceptual centre. We must remember that the woman upon whom the film centres is responsible for several deaths, at least one of the premeditated. But is she mad? Is she hallucinating? Is she simply dreaming? Which brings us to the central character. Personally I'm all in favour of strong female roles but the one that this film serves up is a completely anachronistic projection of modern modes of behaviour onto a time where a woman would not have been able to do what Dina does without getting shut up in a nunnery or a madhouse at the very least.Shouldn't a film that shows a woman overcome adversity and male prejudice at least show some pretty effective adversity and male prejudice? For most of this film Dina rides roughshod over men and women alike (or unshod, depending upon the stable boy in question). It's as if her initial trauma is so overwhelming that the world simply makes way for her for the rest of her life. Fat chance.Therefore I'd have to recommend any discerning viewer to give this portentous, confused example of the international co-production a miss.

Bob Taylor A powerful story, made weaker by excessive length and too many characters. Some of the secondary characters could have been eliminated to make the plot flow more smoothly. Having said this, I was tremendously impressed by Maria Bonnevie in the title role. Her face is florid, sensual, expressive of lust, sorrow and all the other emotions in this often violent woman's life. Mads Mikkelson as the grafting, unscrupulous Niels gives the other fine performance; his suicide takes all the life out of the story.Gérard Depardieu and Christopher Eccleston were added to the cast for star power, I suppose, but they don't mix well with the other players. Eccleston's character--Zhukovsky the anarchist--is just a jumble of historical clichés we can't become involved with.

melbrs I saw this film in Paris last year. Going in, I didn't know what to expect, I knew the film wasn't French, but I didn't know it was Norwegian until I saw the Norwegian flag waving away in the background of one of the early scenes. I was fully expecting to read the French subtitles, but by happy coincidence the film was in English. Now I know many here have complained about the poor use of English in the film, but I don't recall it being that bad (although I admit it has been a year since I've seen it). I just recall that the actors sounded like non-native English speakers speaking English, which by nature is going to be imperfect. Actually, that's not true I know many non-native English speakers who speak English TECHNICALLY more correct than native speakers. When that happens THAT'S when I'm likely to complain about the awkwardness of the actors in regard to language. If you're writing your thesis, OK use technically perfect English. But, in real life it's all about slang!ANYWAY! Back on point: I liked this film. It's NOTHING like the films you'd see being produced in the US, even the independent ones. But the best way i can sum it up is to quote some random guy I overheard outside the theater when asked what the film was like: "Très bizarre!"