A very good movie

Since I really loved ‘Verdens verste menneske’, I was really eager to see Joachim Trier’s next directorial effort, especially since it would be starring the lovely Renate Reinsve. The fact that it was another critical success for the Norwegian director pretty much made it a must-see for me. Well, it turned out to be something completely different than his previous movie but, once again, Trier really nailed it though. To be honest, at first, I thought it was rather frustrating that we didn’t get to see more this family’s past. These 2 women both had a contentious relationship with their father but I thought it was rather difficult to judge it since we didn’t see anything really concrete explaining this aversion. From my experience, when a couple doesn’t get along, both sides have a responsibility or, if one spouse has more responsibility than the other, then I would like to see it for myself. However, that’s the masterful approach from Trier, just like with his previous directorial effort, I was slowly getting to understand these two women, how they might have experienced their youth and, above all, how it shaped them. Basically, Gustave, their father, was probably a great artist (I say ‘was’ because he was maybe making his last movie or one of his last, something he really dreaded) but he was and still is definitely a lousy father, something both women still struggled with during their adult life. It was also so interesting that Nora, the one sister who didn’t even want to speak to him, did actually become an actress so, even in his absence, even with his emotional neglect, her father did have an obvious impact on her. And yet, she flatly refused to work with him which displayed our deep her resentment was. Eventually, these women just wanted to have an average father, not some world famous artist but, even if he wasn’t the worst guy in the world, the only thing Gustav ever really cared about was his Art. However, without Art, would there be anything really worth living for? That’s the fine line this movie was constantly dancing around and it was so spellbinding to behold. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be one of the best movies I have seen this year and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

8/10