Laura
Every so often one is hit by how quickly the years pass by and how a passed year soon becomes multiple passed years. This notion is rarely as common as when dating the release of, say a film or a music album by a recording artist. What seems like only 3 years ago will prove to actually be 7 years ago and something of great longevity; vivid in popular culture for one reason or another, will appear still fresh and recent long after its original exposure to the world. All released as far back as in the year 2000 were three little gems which I remeber so clearly wanting to see at this time, some of which I've attempted to watch several times throughout the years without fulfillment of plan. For instance I remember standing in the line or being on the way to the front desk at the video rental on different occasions returning some of these films after changing my mind in the last minute, instead opting for something else. I've also been known to missing the television airing of all three of them. Amdist a jungle of good films to watch I recently decided to devote some summer time to catching up on these three films, back-to-back.
You Can Count on Me (2000)
Rarely comes a film of which the entire weight is carried by the sheer performance of its lead actors and as such, You Can Count on Me is a prime example which also rendered Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo their big break. A brother-sister drama, it is played out in a static smalltown and begins with the awaited return of little brother Terry. The siblings grew up together without parents who died young in a car accident, taking care of each other. Sammy played by Linney never left town, working at a bank office raising her 8 year old son whereas Terry fled, by him the perceived despair that is a smalltown. The two are different; older sister always having lead a respectable and ordinary life and younger brother pushing his way through a scruffy life, just having served time in prison. This sort of story has obviously been heard of before in other relationship-dramas and yet this film feels so novel in its way of depicting this relationship with so much honesty and in a nuanced fashion. Linney and Ruffalo's characters along with their actions feel relatable and real, never contrived.
Aberdeen (2000)
Aberdeen sees a cancer patient in her last days (Charlotte Rampling) trying to reunite her daughter Kaisa (Lena Headey) with her daughter's Norwegian father Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) and summoning for them to get to the hospital where she is being cared. Except for a few years during which Kaisa lived with Tomas in Norway he has been largely absent in her life and it is against her will and by the request of her mother that she sets off to Norway to pick him up. Kaisa is a succesful lawyer and Tomas is a self-destructive drunk and seemingly there are no love between father and daughter. We learn that Kaisa too has her destructive ways, snorting cocaine. The two embark on a road trip to Aberdeen, abound with great emotional turmoil. A short distance to travel but they're met with plenty of obstacles on the way, further postponing their final arrival in Aberdeen. Aberdeeen is a grim and harsh story and probably among the most sad and painful films I've seen without it ever being particularly sentimental.
Faithless (Trolösa, 2000)
Faithless is about adultery and infidelity and is supposedly semi-autobiographical in regard to Ingmar Bergman who wrote the screenplay. After Bergman announced his detachment from the film industry as a director after Fanny and Alexander (1982) he was involved in a number of film projects for the big screen (apart from Faithless; Best Intentions/Den goda viljan by Bille August and Sunday's Children/Söndagsbarn) as well as for TV (Enskilda Samtal etc.) for which he is credited as the screenwriter and eventually doing his last directing in Saraband, also for TV which is a follow-up to his Scenes From A Marriage. Faithless is shot in Bergman's haven Fårö where a character, a film director named "Bergman" (Erland Josephsson) sits in his study trying to recount an adultrous affair with the help of summoning "Marianne," the adultrous woman (Lena Endre) of the story told in the film and who in this room exists only as a person in his mind. The film is intertwined with dialogue between "Bergman" and "Marianne" but mostly monologues on Marianne's part as well as with flashbacks of the affair. Faithless contains a few genuinely shocking moments; one scene baring resemblance to the beach sequence in Persona whatwith the candidness with which it's told in mind. The film is touching and disturbing all at once, just like I want to be served.
Note: Aberdeen and Faithless can be streamed online on YouTube.
Aberdeen (2000)
Aberdeen sees a cancer patient in her last days (Charlotte Rampling) trying to reunite her daughter Kaisa (Lena Headey) with her daughter's Norwegian father Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) and summoning for them to get to the hospital where she is being cared. Except for a few years during which Kaisa lived with Tomas in Norway he has been largely absent in her life and it is against her will and by the request of her mother that she sets off to Norway to pick him up. Kaisa is a succesful lawyer and Tomas is a self-destructive drunk and seemingly there are no love between father and daughter. We learn that Kaisa too has her destructive ways, snorting cocaine. The two embark on a road trip to Aberdeen, abound with great emotional turmoil. A short distance to travel but they're met with plenty of obstacles on the way, further postponing their final arrival in Aberdeen. Aberdeeen is a grim and harsh story and probably among the most sad and painful films I've seen without it ever being particularly sentimental.
Faithless (Trolösa, 2000)
Faithless is about adultery and infidelity and is supposedly semi-autobiographical in regard to Ingmar Bergman who wrote the screenplay. After Bergman announced his detachment from the film industry as a director after Fanny and Alexander (1982) he was involved in a number of film projects for the big screen (apart from Faithless; Best Intentions/Den goda viljan by Bille August and Sunday's Children/Söndagsbarn) as well as for TV (Enskilda Samtal etc.) for which he is credited as the screenwriter and eventually doing his last directing in Saraband, also for TV which is a follow-up to his Scenes From A Marriage. Faithless is shot in Bergman's haven Fårö where a character, a film director named "Bergman" (Erland Josephsson) sits in his study trying to recount an adultrous affair with the help of summoning "Marianne," the adultrous woman (Lena Endre) of the story told in the film and who in this room exists only as a person in his mind. The film is intertwined with dialogue between "Bergman" and "Marianne" but mostly monologues on Marianne's part as well as with flashbacks of the affair. Faithless contains a few genuinely shocking moments; one scene baring resemblance to the beach sequence in Persona whatwith the candidness with which it's told in mind. The film is touching and disturbing all at once, just like I want to be served.
Note: Aberdeen and Faithless can be streamed online on YouTube.
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