Watch Like A Scandinavian: A Primer on Contemporary Nordic Films

I saw the Norwegian film, The Art of Negative Thinking, at the San Francisco International Film Festival this weekend and found myself laughing in a way only Scandinavian dark comedies can make you laugh. The main character of the film, Geirr, is a paraplegic from an auto accident and spends his nights wallowing in rage at his fate by drinking vodka, smoking giant spliffs and ignoring his beautiful and walking wife, whom he can no longer make love to. One of the first scenes reveals Geirr sleeping in his wheelchair shirtless, his chin in his chest, clothespins on both nipples, while he holds a gun in his lap, Johnny Cash playing loudly in the room and a poster of The Deer Hunter on the wall. It’s hard not to laugh at the absurdity and sadness of the image, especially when his wife walks in and, instead of waking him up or removing the mysterious clothespins from her husband’s nipples or taking the gun out of his hand, she simply pulls up the shades to let in the morning light.

Enter a not-so-merry van of positive thinking disabled people, led by a Dr. Phil-esque therapist from the state government, who’s more concerned with her book deal than the mental welfare of her group. When her van gets a speeding ticket, she cheerfully says to the officer, “No problem, it’s on the state.” There’s a paraplegic who only grunts. There are the quadraplegic but always smiling Marte and her well-tanned, preppy and walking husband who’s got designs on Geirr’s wife. Finally, there’s the old woman who thinks she’s disabled though she only wears a neck brace.

Put them all in the house for a night and you have the formula for hi-jinx that is characteristic in many of the Scandinavian movies in recent years. Not every filmmaker went the stratified auteur route of Lars Von Trier, the region’s most internationally famous director. The Scandinavian dark comedies get their laughs from the deep suffering of flawed but ultimately good people - in this case, relationships falling apart in the wake of catastrophic accidents that leave one party disabled and the other as a caretaking martyr unprepared for a lifetime of sacrifice. Many of the dramas come from dark places, both filial and familiar.

Here’s a look at my fave five Scandinavian films in recent years:

1) Celebration (1998) - Directed by Thomas Vinterberg: Though the Dogme95 fad of natural lighting and shaking digital video makes the look of this film dated and nearly unwatchable without bifocals by today’s HD standards, the story of a son (Ulrich Thomsen) returning home for his father’s 60 birthday party to reveal to the extended family that he was sexually abused is a must-see and a modern classic.

2) Brothers (2004) - Directed by Susanne Bier: Bier parlayed the success of Brothers into the Hollywood studio melodrama Things We Lost In The Fire starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro. Brothers is a much stronger film and stars Ulrich Thomsen as a Danish soldier who gets kidnapped in Afghanistan. When his younger brother, played by the brilliant Nicholai Lie Kaas, moves into the family house to help take care of the soldier’s children and his wife, played by Connie Nielsen, unexpected romance blooms. So what happens when Thomsen escapes Afghanistan and returns?

3) Inheritance (2003) - Directed by Per Fly: Again, it’s Ulrich Thomsen and again, it’s family drama. These Danes take their the Hamlet legacy seriously. Thomsen is living in Stockholm with his stunning wife, with whom he is deeply in love. But when his mogul father dies and leaves the family business to him back in Denmark, Thomsen is torn between love and filial duty and must make tougher choices.

4) Insomnia (1997) - Directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg: Before Insomnia was remade into into a over-plotted, underdeveloped Al Pacino film by Christopher Nolan five years later, the original starred Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård and was a straight hardboiled character drama about a sleepless, morally compromised detective trying to solve a young girl’s murder, while running and hiding from his personal demons.

5) The Green Butchers (2003) - Drected by Anders Tomas Jensen: Before Mads Mikkelsen was the baddie in Casino Royale, he was Sweaty Svind, the foundering butcher who starts chopping up people and putting them into his sausages. Soon the sausages become a big hit, requiring Svind to find fresh supply to meet the demand.