Not Coming to a Theater Near You

The Bothersome Man / Die Brysomme Mannen / Norway / 2006

A rather dull and patronising slice of surreal Scandinavian existentialism, as a man arrives in a nameless city where nothing tastes of anything and life is generally joyless. It’s supposed to be a critique of Norwegian middle class existence, and ends up feeling like a bad Radiohead lyric: pity the poor grasping suckers, and thank God you’re a young, hip creative artist who knows what life is really about.

by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
29 Apr 2007 3:03 PM | Comments (3)

Comments / 3 total / Submit Comment

1. aaront / 30 April 2007 / 6:22 PM

   Maybe you’ve seen more surreal movies than I have, but I just took it as a general exploration of an environment, every weird revelation making me wonder what’s around the next corner. In that blast of sense and reality that we get toward the end, I felt rewarded, and I’m with that the main character, soaking up every second until it was snatched away from me. At no time does it devolve into some stupid chase thriller that many, what I would consider patronizing, movies would take.

   It was based upon a radio play which took a decidedly different turn as it progressed.

   I’ll tell you what, though. Living here in Scandanavia as I do, I didn’t take it as a criticism of the middle class, but on the society as a whole. You feel as though there’s a safety net under everything, while you’re disconnected from the color and warmth of the long-forgotten hearth. No wonder so many who are able flee to their mountain cabins on the slightest provokation.

   The only scene that didn’t work for me was the interminable subway scene. I got the point after the second squish. The rest inserted some wonder and weirdness that cinema in general could use more of.

2. tom / 1 May 2007 / 2:12 AM / URL

   I literally couldn’t disagree more. The subway scene was, for me, the only point at which the film came alive. I just think there’s an inherent problem with films like this, American Beauty, etc., which sneeringly criticise the way other people choose to live their lives, as though there’s something implicitly wrong in people who are interested in home decor and accountancy. I mean, I’m not one of those people, but I’m not going to write some patronising movie accusing them of being robot dupes, either.

3. AARONT / 1 May 2007 / 1:06 PM

   I guess I didn’t see it as a direct, literal criticism of the lifestyle. To me it was more a means to an end, a trope to illustrate to the audience what how these people seem to focus on these things a bit too much. While agree than an interpretation of it as direct criticism is valid, and part of me wondered if that was so the first time I watched it, I sorta took the director’s word for it, that it was the particular language the film was trying to use to convey drudgery. I didn’t take it so literally as a criticism of interior decorating. Other people had other likes, other people were street (and guts) cleaners, everyone had their job to do. Yes, the focus was on this middle class sort of job, but just about everyone it seemed, from what we saw, was provided for. Even the weird little cretin that lived in the cellar, who hardly seemed middle class, was still stuck, still lamenting the world they all seemed to be stuck in.

   It was more what was lacking no matter what one did to get by. I understand why you thought this, but I guess I took it in a more general way. Just about any job he could have had, I think, could have been depicted as soulless drudgery and still have had the same effect. But he couldn’t have had a ton of jobs at once. Perhaps it was a bit cheap to use what they used to illustrate this, but if you got past the details and accepted that this was the movie’s way of depicting drudgery, then you, or at least I did, enjoyed the burst of color toward the end.

   If I had interpreted it your way, I believe I would have come to the same conclusion. I just don’t think it’s so easily pigeon holed. I haven’t seen American Beauty in many years, but I don’t think Den Brysomme Mannen was informed by the tradition of stuff like American Beauty, which I would agree, is genuinely patronizing.