Norway's official entry for the best foreign film Oscar, "Only Clouds Move the Stars", deals with those familiar Scandinavian topics -- melancholia and depression -- but in such a regenerative, uplifting and healing manner that this story of one girl's loss is a heartwarming marvel.
Winner of the grand prize in the Nordic Film Festival's competition for best film for children and young people, this bracing and tender film was an audience favorite during the weekend at the Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival. It's a graceful, mature work that should appeal to discerning audiences everywhere, young and old.
In this family saga, 11-year-old Maria Thea Sofie Rusten) is devastated by the cancer death of her younger brother, PeeWee. She is shattered and withdraws from her family and friends. Her alienation is further worsened by her mother's debilitating depression -- Maria feels her mother has deserted her -- and does not understand a world in which a young boy could be taken.
Her caring but burdened father sends the girl to visit her grandparents for the summer, hoping the change of scenery will nourish her as well as protect her from her mother's worsening mental state. Although the scenario is somewhat overstretched in its beginnings when the child, in a very Kierkegaardean/Bergmanian manner, questions the existence of God and the nature of the universe, "Only Clouds" is a buoyant and tender personal work. (Such glum homage may be necessary to draw from government-heavy film funding in Scandinavia.)
Writer-director Torun Lian delicately and perceptively underscores all the insecurities and pain the young girl feels and also recognizes the types of power that can regenerate her. Best, Maria's revitalization is realized in a most entertaining but psychologically appropriate manner: An urchin, Jacob Jan Tore Kristoffersen) sparks her with his humor and good-natured spunkiness. Soon, the two are romping among the fields and, wondrously, Maria is able to smile again -- she has regained her child's glorious enthusiasm for life. And, little by little, she comes to understand her mother's sickness, not as a rejection but as an effect of her mother's delicate and loving nature.
Lian has created a truly magical family film, in large part a result of her work with the two young players. As the grief-stricken Maria, Rusten embodies the fragile vulnerability of a young girl who feels that she has been deserted by everyone, while Jan Tore Kristoffersen is a delight as the irrepressible Jacob.
Technical contributions are uniformly perfect, including cinematographer Svein Krovel's glowingly muted colorings and composer Jorn Christensen's finely pitched musical score, cluing us to the conflicting emotions of the characters.
ONLY CLOUDS MOVE THE STARS
A Filmkameratene A/S production
in association with Norsk Film A/S
John M. Jacobsen presents
a film by Torun Lian
Producer: John M. Jacobsen
Screenwriter-director: Torun Lian
Based on the novel by: Torun Lian
Director of photography: Svein Krovel
Associate producer: Arve Figenschow
Production designer: Carle Lange
Music: Jorn Christensen
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maria: Thea Sofie Rusten
Jacob: Jan Tore Kristoffersen
Mother: Anneke von der Lippe
Father: Jorgen Langhelle
Melinda: Andrine Saether
Mons: Eindride Eidsvold
Grandmother: Kari Simonsen
Grandfather: Bjorn Jenseg
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Winner of the grand prize in the Nordic Film Festival's competition for best film for children and young people, this bracing and tender film was an audience favorite during the weekend at the Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival. It's a graceful, mature work that should appeal to discerning audiences everywhere, young and old.
In this family saga, 11-year-old Maria Thea Sofie Rusten) is devastated by the cancer death of her younger brother, PeeWee. She is shattered and withdraws from her family and friends. Her alienation is further worsened by her mother's debilitating depression -- Maria feels her mother has deserted her -- and does not understand a world in which a young boy could be taken.
Her caring but burdened father sends the girl to visit her grandparents for the summer, hoping the change of scenery will nourish her as well as protect her from her mother's worsening mental state. Although the scenario is somewhat overstretched in its beginnings when the child, in a very Kierkegaardean/Bergmanian manner, questions the existence of God and the nature of the universe, "Only Clouds" is a buoyant and tender personal work. (Such glum homage may be necessary to draw from government-heavy film funding in Scandinavia.)
Writer-director Torun Lian delicately and perceptively underscores all the insecurities and pain the young girl feels and also recognizes the types of power that can regenerate her. Best, Maria's revitalization is realized in a most entertaining but psychologically appropriate manner: An urchin, Jacob Jan Tore Kristoffersen) sparks her with his humor and good-natured spunkiness. Soon, the two are romping among the fields and, wondrously, Maria is able to smile again -- she has regained her child's glorious enthusiasm for life. And, little by little, she comes to understand her mother's sickness, not as a rejection but as an effect of her mother's delicate and loving nature.
Lian has created a truly magical family film, in large part a result of her work with the two young players. As the grief-stricken Maria, Rusten embodies the fragile vulnerability of a young girl who feels that she has been deserted by everyone, while Jan Tore Kristoffersen is a delight as the irrepressible Jacob.
Technical contributions are uniformly perfect, including cinematographer Svein Krovel's glowingly muted colorings and composer Jorn Christensen's finely pitched musical score, cluing us to the conflicting emotions of the characters.
ONLY CLOUDS MOVE THE STARS
A Filmkameratene A/S production
in association with Norsk Film A/S
John M. Jacobsen presents
a film by Torun Lian
Producer: John M. Jacobsen
Screenwriter-director: Torun Lian
Based on the novel by: Torun Lian
Director of photography: Svein Krovel
Associate producer: Arve Figenschow
Production designer: Carle Lange
Music: Jorn Christensen
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maria: Thea Sofie Rusten
Jacob: Jan Tore Kristoffersen
Mother: Anneke von der Lippe
Father: Jorgen Langhelle
Melinda: Andrine Saether
Mons: Eindride Eidsvold
Grandmother: Kari Simonsen
Grandfather: Bjorn Jenseg
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/13/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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