Reprise (2006)

Dir: Joachim Trier
Writers: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
Starring: Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Høiner, Viktoria Winge

While packing for Paris, I looked at my DVD collection scanning for something that Jesse and I could watch together. I picked Reprise because Jesse grew up watching foreign movies with his father (it's Norwegian), and there are a few important sequences that happen in Paris that I wanted to rewatch. On our third night in Paris, after three days of constant walking and exploring and reveling in the nightlife, we chose to get into our comfortable hotel bed and watch the movie.

The film centers on two best friends, Phillip and Erik, who are writers. The film opens with both of them dropping their novel manuscripts in a mailbox in Oslo, Norway. From that moment the viewer jumps to an imaginary sequence (narrated) about their impending fame from being intellectual writers with published novels, to the reality set six months after that fateful send-off. It's an interesting premise, and the characters and setting of Oslo really guide the film through it's many plots and subplots.

What's most relevant among these plots is the major theme (the titular subject) that sometimes we'd like to do things over. That perhaps we don't have regrets, because through no fault of our own, something disastrous lay in the path we had set for ourselves and we can't go back. One character tries to adjust to his new path, the other tries to repeat everything as it was when it was 'good.' It's definitely a universal feeling, to want things to turn out differently--but, sometimes it simply doesn't.

It's not the best film in the world, but it's an interesting film from a young filmmaker. It finds influences in Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave style and even Jean-Pierre Jeunet's more updated slick directing. But though it has many elements that sometimes collide over the narrative, I love it. It's sometimes frenetic, sometimes slow, but I'm always curious as to where the story and the characters will go next. The movie may have its flaws, but it's successful. I probably love it more because of it's weird nuances. And I'm looking forward to Trier's next endeavor.

On a sidenote, the subject matter of the film, and perhaps even the way it is filmed was particularly inspiring to me when I saw it a couple of years ago on a random Netflix recommendation. I was then working on my first attempt at a novel (NaNoWriMo), and I thought back to this movie frequently and believe it did motivate me and influence the narrative in certain ways.

The Best: There's really so many great elements in the film, from the interesting voice-over narration and quick cuts to the performances. I suppose the sequence I enjoyed the most was the heartbreaking 'reprise' trip to Paris that Phillip takes with his ex-girlfriend Kari, played with alien beauty by Viktoria Winge. It made me shudder with relatable emotion.

Fact:  In the movie, there is a reclusive Norwegian author both Phillip and Erik idolize and want very much to meet and follow in his footsteps. In the movie his name is Sten Egil Dahl, and apparently he's based on Norwegian writer Tor Ulven. Ulven gave only one interview in his career, but he is regarded as one of the most important writers in Norway during the eighties and nineties.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)