Reprise (2006)

Director:

Joachim Trier

Writers:

Joachim Trier (writer)
Eskil Vogt (writer)

Release Date:

8 September 2006 (Norway)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Two competitive friends, fueled by literary aspirations and youthful exuberance, endure the pangs of love, depression and burgeoning careers. |

Awards:

12 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Anders Danielsen Lie	...	Phillip
Espen Klouman-Høiner	...	Erik
Viktoria Winge	...	Kari
Henrik Elvestad	...	Henning
Christian Rubeck	...	Lars
Odd Magnus Williamson	...	Morten
Rebekka Karijord	...	Johanne
Henrik Mestad	...	Jan Eivind
Pål Stokka	...	Geir
Sigmund Sæverud	...	Sten Egil Dahl
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cecilie Bertran de Lis	...	Sykesøster
Anders Borchgrevink	...	Joy Division jogger
Tone Danielsen	...	Inger, Phillip's mother
Eindride Eidsvold	...	Narrator (voice)
Kari Feilberg-Jacobsen	...	Guest at party
Hege Serine Golf	...	Geirs jente på fest (as Hege Golf)
Silje Hagen	...	Lillian
Thorbjørn Harr	...	Mathis Wergeland
John Sigurd Kristensen	...	Jon (as John S. Kristensen)
Ivar Lykke	...	Telesalgsjef
Elisabeth Sand	...	Hanne, Erik's mother
Anne Sandvik Lindmo	...	Programleder
Andreas Tylden	...	Rune
Bjørn Tore Hansen	...	Teleselger (uncredited)

Directed by
Joachim Trier

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Joachim Trier		writer
Eskil Vogt		writer

Produced by
Lars Blomgren	....	co-producer
Pierre Forette	....	co-producer: Paris
Marius Holst	....	executive producer
Karin Julsrud	....	producer
Alain Monne	....	executive producer
Håkon Øverås	....	executive producer
Turid Øversveen	....	executive producer
Bent Rognlien	....	line producer
Scott Rudin	....	executive producer
Aagot Skjeldal	....	executive producer
Pål Sletaune	....	executive producer
Thierry Wong	....	co-producer: Paris

Original Music by
Ola Fløttum
Knut Schreiner

Cinematography by
Jakob Ihre

Film Editing by
Olivier Bugge Coutté

Casting by
Jakob Rørvik

Production Design by
Roger Rosenberg

Set Decoration by
Egil Storeide

Costume Design by
Maria Bohlin

Makeup Department
Cecilie Greve	....	assistant makeup artist
Stine Monsen	....	hair stylist
June Pålgard	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Teréz Hollo	....	production manager
Sophie Mas	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Hans-Jørgen Osnes	....	assistant director

Art Department
Christine Bozenski	....	property master
Jo Anders Johnsen	....	set dresser
Linda Nikolaisen	....	assistant props
Jostein Oksavik	....	set props
Eivind Stoud Platou	....	props designer
Ann-Kristin Talleraas	....	assistant props
Sandra Castello	....	assistant production designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Sébastien Agisson	....	boom operator: Paris
Roy Fenstad	....	foley artist
Kenneth Gustavsen	....	sound recordist: second unit
Eirik Ingebricson	....	foley recordist
Eirik Ingebricson	....	sound effects editor
Anniken Krogstad	....	boom operator: second unit
Ketil Ronold	....	sound: second unit
Morten Solum	....	sound recordist
Morten Solum	....	sound
Gisle Tveito	....	sound designer
Gisle Tveito	....	sound re-recording mixer
Andrew Windtwood	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Pål Morten Hverven	....	special effects supervisor

Visual Effects by
Sune Dalgaard Christensen	....	visual effects coordinator
Lars Bjørn Hansen	....	Flame artist
Michael Holm	....	Flame artist

Stunts
Pål Morten Hverven	....	stunt driver

Camera and Electrical Department
Kristoffer Aamot	....	clapper loader
Ketil Berg	....	first assistant camera: second unit
Calle Børresen	....	camera operator: second unit
Thomas Fossgård	....	gaffer: second unit
Christen Kenneth Gran	....	best boy electric (as Christen Gran)
Karsten Heidar	....	electrician
Pierre Hemon	....	assistant camera: Paris
Baptiste Imbert	....	assistant electrician: Paris
Stian Jorde	....	gaffer: second unit
Rune Kalgraff	....	best boy electric
Bo Lundgren	....	grip
Hilde Malme	....	camera operator: second unit
Robin Ottersen	....	first assistant camera: second unit
Mathieu Plainfosse	....	assistant electrician: Paris
Nicolay Poulsen	....	focus puller
Hadrien Ricol	....	assistant electrician: Paris (as Adrien Ricol)
Henning Røkke	....	best boy electric
Terje Røkke	....	gaffer
Pål Ulvik Rokseth	....	second assistant camera
Petter Sørnæs	....	grip: second unit

Casting Department
Linn Kirkenær	....	casting assistant
Kjersti Paulsen	....	extras casting coordinator

Editorial Department
Ejvind Bording	....	color timer
Christian Siebenherz	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Birgitte Clasen	....	production accountant
Madeleine Fant	....	script supervisor
Véronique Hallot	....	production administrator: Paris
Karl E. Karlsson	....	production assistant
Aslaug Konradsdottir	....	script supervisor
Andreas Lisberg	....	production assistant
Martin Myhre	....	production assistant
Nina Osnes	....	production assistant
Jakob Rørvik	....	assistant to director
Siw Skjervold	....	public relations
Charlotte Sommer	....	production coordinator
Anders Søndersrød	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Filmlance International AB (co-production)
• Spillefilmkompaniet 4 1/2

Distributors

• Nordisk Film International Sales (2006) (Norway) (theatrical)
• A-Film Distribution (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Diffusion Pictures (2007) (UK) (theatrical)
• Diffusion Pictures (2007) (UK) (all media)
• MFA Filmdistribution (2007) (Germany) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Miramax Films (2008) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Red Envelope Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Fixern

Other Companies

• Nordisk Film ShortCut  film processing
• Norsk Filmstudio  sound mixing

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality and language.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Norway

Language:

Norwegian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Norway:11 | USA:R | Denmark:7 | Taiwan:PG-12 | Australia:MA | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Oslo, Norway

Company:

Filmlance International AB

Trivia:

Sten Egil Dahl, the old writer in the movie, is based on Norwegian writer Tor Ulven. Ulven gave only one interview in his career, but is regarded as one of the most important writers in Norway during the eighties and nineties.

Youthful New Wave-ish wit from Norway

Joachim Trier's smart, witty first film about a group of talented Oslo twenty-somethings won a prize at Toronto and was Norway's Oscar entry. 'Reprise' focuses on Erik (Espen Klouman Hoiner, who's blond, and smiles practically all the time) and Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie, dark-haired, crew-cut, and wide-eyed). They're well-off, presentable, and ambitious young men (and best friends) who try to launch writing careers by submitting manuscripts at the same moment. They also share a passion for the same reclusive novelist, Sten Egil Dahl (Sigmund Saeverud). The film amuses us right away by showing a series of alternative possible outcomes to the young men's ambitions with quicksilver editing and a bright voice-over--a light approach which, with the close artistic friendship in the story's foreground, brings up memories of the Nouvelle Vague and especially Truffaut's 'Jules et Jim.' The screenplay, appropriately for a treatment of young people on the brink of maturity, constantly toys with possibilities, which we briefly see. Much of its charm is in the editing, but the opening segment is such a flood of wit, it's a little hard to sustain it.

Moreover things turn a bit more Nordic and dark when Philip is the one to get published first, but immediately has a psychotic episode--partly attributed by doctors and family to his "obsessive" love for his girlfriend Kari (Viktoria Winge)--that lands him for a while in a sanatorium. Much of the film that follows deals with the problems for Phillip and the problems Phillip poses for others after his psychosis emerges.

Now Erik gets a MS. accepted, a little novel (we guess) called 'Prosopopeia.' He thinks that with this event, he must end his relationship with his longtime girlfriend Lillian (Silje Hagen) -- a decision perpetually put off that may recall Matthieu Amalric's wavering over Emmanuelle Devos in Arnaud Desplechin's similar study of a group of (a bit older) intellectual young people, the 1996 'My Sex Life. . .or How I Got Into an Argument.'

Reprise is full of little ironies, some a bit obvious. There's one friend who acts as a mentor for the guys. He says not to have girlfriends -- they'll make you settle into a life of watching TV series and having nice dinners and give you too little time to read and listen to music, he says. Then, wouldn't you know it, he's the first one to wind up married and living the bourgeois family life. Another easy irony is the way the pretty editor at Phillip's publisher's is first utterly repelled by an older punk rock band friend's politically incorrect and offense chatter, then later is drawn to him like a magnet and marries him.

The film's co-writer Eskil Vogt studied at La Feris, and his French residence comes out in the way two segments of Reprise take place in Paris, where Philip and Kari first discover they're in love and where they go back after his mental problems to recapture the feeling, with mixed success.

Erik and Phillip know where the reclusive Sten Egil Dahl lives and occasionally spy on him. Phillip shoots Erik on a bench pretending to talk with the writer but forgets to remove the lens cap so the photo is a blank. Undeterred, Erik enlarges the resulting black rectangle and hangs it in a prominent place on his wall. Later it turns up as an emblem on the jacket of his book.

Erik performs badly on TV after 'Prosopopeia' is out (arguments over the odd title stand in for a young author's stubborn missteps). He refuses to acknowledge a personal element in his references to psychosis, or anything else for that matter, in his book; and such reticence doesn't go over well on the boob tube. He also reflexively uses a lot of affected finger "quote" marks imitating their mentor, making him look the fool even to his friends. But, in another quick irony, Sten Egil Dahl sees the show, reads Erik's book, and, rescuing him from a mugger, reassures him that he did right on television and that he likes his novel -- or most of it, anyway.

Phillip's psychosis seems to come and go. He can't write any more -- but then he does, though it's unsuccessful, as Erik feels obliged as a best friend to tell him. Phillip has a habit of counting from ten down to zero and we may think when he gets to zero one day he's going to throw himself off a roof or in front of a truck. The darker side is always there, but also the light side. That's why, Trier says, he used lots of punk music but also French poetry in his film. Part of the pleasure in this enjoyable, fresh piece of work is the sense of a group of talented, bright young people at work together making it. The punk band is part of the way the film fills in a whole group of friends from this generation of whom Phillip and Erik are only the foreground. Norwegian film-making plainly is infused with plenty of new blood and in a good period: there were plenty of Norwegian competitors for their Oscar submission this year.

Shown at the San Francisco International Film Festival 2007.