Nearing the end of the Nordic cinema viewing challenge on ICM,I decided to dig into my unwatched Nordic DVD's. Despite having owned the disc since first seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009-also reviewed) (now my third favourite film of all time) years ago,it's somehow stayed in my DVD "To watch pile." Aware of the ICM challenge coming to a end,I felt it was time to finally monitor a viewing.
View on the film:
For what is currently the last film he has made, writer/director Pal Sletaune reunites with cinematographer John Andreas Andersen, and builds upon the visual stylisation they had started in Next Door (2005-also reviewed.)
Keeping Anna and Anders behind closed doors, Sletaune and Anderson house the duo in a claustrophobic, nerve- shredding Thriller atmosphere, pulled up in long,cornered-off takes pushing Anna and Anders sanity to the corner of the room. When allowing a guest in, Sletaune monitors them increasing the anxiety on Anna and the viewer, via a delicate framing of each person crossing Anna's personal space in up-tight close-shots.
Continuing on the unsettling ambiguous turn taken with the Next Door (2005),the screenplay by Sletaune grips the fragile mental state of Anna and Anders by closing them in with conversations on what horrors they have tried to escape from by moving to the flat. Whilst the coda has a odd up-beat note, Sletaune twists it into a tragic note, thanks to the screams Anna picks up on her baby monitor, striking at the mixed signals Anna sends out on what is reality.
Spending most of the film with just one other person, Vetle Qvenild Werring gives a terrific turn as Anders, whose bratty side Werring cuts down to fear over his mum sinking deeper into the flat.
After her Millennium trilogy co-star Michael Nyqvist had worked with Sletaune on Next Door, Noomi Rapace locks the door and gives a nail-biting performance as Anna, whose bruised mental state Rapace casts across her face with a on-edge fear over losing everything, pinned by Rapace with a curiosity for Anna to learn what the sounds are coming from the monitor.
View on the film:
For what is currently the last film he has made, writer/director Pal Sletaune reunites with cinematographer John Andreas Andersen, and builds upon the visual stylisation they had started in Next Door (2005-also reviewed.)
Keeping Anna and Anders behind closed doors, Sletaune and Anderson house the duo in a claustrophobic, nerve- shredding Thriller atmosphere, pulled up in long,cornered-off takes pushing Anna and Anders sanity to the corner of the room. When allowing a guest in, Sletaune monitors them increasing the anxiety on Anna and the viewer, via a delicate framing of each person crossing Anna's personal space in up-tight close-shots.
Continuing on the unsettling ambiguous turn taken with the Next Door (2005),the screenplay by Sletaune grips the fragile mental state of Anna and Anders by closing them in with conversations on what horrors they have tried to escape from by moving to the flat. Whilst the coda has a odd up-beat note, Sletaune twists it into a tragic note, thanks to the screams Anna picks up on her baby monitor, striking at the mixed signals Anna sends out on what is reality.
Spending most of the film with just one other person, Vetle Qvenild Werring gives a terrific turn as Anders, whose bratty side Werring cuts down to fear over his mum sinking deeper into the flat.
After her Millennium trilogy co-star Michael Nyqvist had worked with Sletaune on Next Door, Noomi Rapace locks the door and gives a nail-biting performance as Anna, whose bruised mental state Rapace casts across her face with a on-edge fear over losing everything, pinned by Rapace with a curiosity for Anna to learn what the sounds are coming from the monitor.