Scandinavian Film Festival

Today, as part of "Family Weekend" at my university, I have agreed to put together a mini-film festival, and it looks like it is going to work out to be four films in three hours. At first I asked my friend Amanda to put this together, and I still think she would have done a better job, since she teaches cinema. But the point is just to give PLU students and their parents something to do together this weekend, and since I'd suggested it I felt like I had to pull it together, even if it was outside my realm of expertise. 

Scandinavian film is different both in production and in execution. The film industry is heavily supported by tax dollars, so there is much less commercial pressure, which means the films tend to be a lot more quirky and unpredictable, and the film makers mix genres in all sorts of ways. So you won't find a straight forward romantic comedy (where two people that have a lot in common and are clearly compatible with one another have to overcome a series of social and personal obstacles to begin their lives together, the film invariably ending when they finally get to kiss, with the assumption that they will live together and be happy and fulfilled, knowing they have found the mate with whom they can really be themselves, for the rest of their lives). Instead, Scandinavian film has a dark sense of humor, with something disturbing happening even in films that are supposed to be romantic. This has earned it a repetition for being cool and avant-garde, etc.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful day at home, doing nothing but watching a bunch of movies. Care to guess whether they were American or Scandinavian? 

Comments

Sigurdrifa said…
And what about tomorrow?

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