O' Horten
Encyclopedia
O' Horten is a 2007 Norwegian film directed by Bent Hamer
. The film's title character
Odd Horten is a habit-bound train driver
, who is about to retire. On the day of his retirement he ends up in an unexpected situation, and is forced to reconsider his life. As in other films by Hamer, the themes are loneliness and old age, and the courage to take chances. O' Horten has been described as a film without a strong plot or a clear chronology.
The film's main cast consists of mostly senior Danish
/Norwegian actors, including Bård Owe, Espen Skjønberg
, and Ghita Nørby
. There are also several cameo
s from various well-known Norwegians, such as ski jumper
Anette Sagen
in her first film role. The music was composed by John Erik Kaada. Generally well received by critics, it was chosen for Un Certain Regard
at the Cannes Film Festival
. Skjønberg was awarded an Amanda Award
for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
on the route
between Oslo
and Bergen
. As he awakes, he goes through a meticulous daily routine, as he prepares for his second-to-last time driving the train to Bergen. When he gets there, he makes small talk with Svea, who owns the boarding house where he stays when there and whom he now may never see again.
Back in Oslo, his colleagues throw him a farewell party, but Odda timid manis uncomfortable with the attention. As the party moves to a co-worker's apartment, he ends up getting accidentally locked out. He climbs up a scaffold, trying to reach the apartment window, and ends up in a young boy's room. The boy asks him to stay and wait for him to fall asleep, but Odd falls asleep first. He oversleeps in the unfamiliar room and arrives too late for the train he was to drive on his final working day. He is left standing on the platform without any fixed points in his life, with nothing but a life of emptiness stretching out before him.
A number of scenes then follow whose exact sequence is unclear. Odd goes to visit his mother at the retirement home, which only makes him more unhappy: his mother is senile
and spends her days staring emptily out the window, and the visit reminds him of his own impending old age. While Odd is at a restaurant, police come in and arrest the cook. At the shop where he normally buys his pipe tobacco
, he learns that the owner has died. He decides to sell his boat, leading to misadventures when the buyer, who works at an airport, asks Odd to meet him there inside the secure zone
. Odd goes to the local swimming pool, but his shoes were removed when the facility closed; as he is leaving, he finds a pair of red high-heeled boots and walks away in them.
By chance he then runs into another man his age, the far more spontaneous Trygve Sissener, who has fallen asleep in the snow-covered street. The two spend the evening in conversation over a few drinks at Sissener's house, and Odd is led to realisations about his own life. It emerges that his mothera free-spirited womanwas a ski jumper
, but Odd himself never had the courage to try the sport. He now feels as if he has let her down, by never having the courage to seize the day and try new things.
In the early morning Sissener suggests the two go driving blindfolded. The stunt goes surprisingly well, but as Sissener pulls over the car, he dies. Odd is now left with responsibility for Sissener's dog and with an urgency to live life to the fullest. He makes his way up to the Holmenkollen ski jump
, where he sees a vision of his mother as a young woman, doing the jump. He comes to a decision and starts to do the ski jump. Odd, for the first time no longer wearing his railwayman's jacket, rides the train to Bergen, where Svea is happily waiting for him on the platform.
s from well-known actors and other celebrities, made possible by Hamer's high standing as a director. His previous film was the international production Factotum
, based on the novel by Charles Bukowski
, starring Matt Dillon
, Lili Taylor
, and Marisa Tomei
. Some of the appearances are relatively brief; Nørby, for instance, is on screen for less than three minutes, while the well-known Norwegian entertainer Trond Viggo Torgersen appears for only 59 seconds. Before the film's première on Boxing Day
2007, a pre-screening was held for journalists on 22 December. This was followed by dinner, attended by all the protagonists, at the restaurant Valkyrien in Oslo, where Odd Horten is also a regular customer in the film.
Among the more original castings was Anette Sagen
, the world's leading female ski jumper, in her first film role. Sagen, 22 at the time, played the part of 70-year-old Owe's ski jumping mother, although in a younger incarnation. Hamer had already considered Sagen for the role, when he ran into her by chance at the Holmenkollen Ski Museum
. Without knowing to whom he was talking, Hamer mentioned that he was shooting a film in this location, and was planning to ask Anette Sagen to be in it. The reason the theme of ski jumping was chosen was that Hamer's own mother performed the sport, and the film has been described as a tribute to all female ski jumpers. Sagen herself had also earlier been involved in a controversy over women's access to professional venues and competitions. Incidentally, Sagen and Owe are also both from the Norwegian town of Mosjøen
.
The two lonely old men make part of a recurring theme in Hamer's films, as seen also in Eggs
(1995) and Kitchen Stories
(2003). However, Hamer himself has described the film as equally much about women; "the women who once gave birth to these men." He also cites a great fascination with trains as an inspiration for the film's setting, and claims that he had long wanted to make a film with this theme.
and Dagbladet
both gave the film five out of six points. Verdens Gang' s Jon Selås called it "a little film about living" and praised it for its "applied existential philosophy". Dagbladet' s Vegard Larsen had certain objections to a few unnecessary scenes, but nevertheless found that the film had met the high expectations created by Hamer's previous films. Aftenposten
s Ingunn Økland, on the other hand, felt O' Horten failed to live up to the director's best work, and gave it only four points. She nevertheless pointed out the good qualities in the film, in particular the filming and the soundtrack by John Erik Kaada.
Foreign reviewers also gave the film generally positive reviews; Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter
called it a "Warm story from frigid Norway". Variety
' s Alissa Simon wrote that it "lacks the fully developed characters and tightly constructed narrative of his more poignant and substantial Kitchen Stories
", but that it "nevertheless provides a warm and gently humorous divertissement". She also found the production and score excellent. Portland residents, having been enlightened by the luminously exquisite gem of a film found their lives forever transformed. Most of all they felt that the review "lumuniously and deliciously funny" to be very unjust. James Rocchi, writing for Cinematical, chose to highlight Bård Owe's performance, and his "warm demeanor" and meticulous "capacity for double-takes". Entertainment Weekly
' s Lisa Schwarzbaum compared Owe to Jack Nicholson
's Warren Schmidt in the film About Schmidt
. Like others, she also used Finnish
director Aki Kaurismäki
as a reference to describe Hamer's particular cinematic style.
O' Horten was picked for the Un Certain Regard
-section of the Cannes Film Festival
. Here it was praised by one reviewer as "deliciously funny" in a festival that contained few happy stories. This marked the fourth time that Hamer was represented at Cannes, which makes him one of only two Norwegians to accomplish this feat. This instance, however, marked a step up for Hamer, as his previous appearances had been in the slightly less prestigious Directors' Fortnight
-category. At the festival, the film was picked for international distribution by the distribution company Sony Pictures Classics
. Hamer also won the Norwegian Film Critics' Award in 2008, thereby becoming the first director to win this award three times. At the Amanda Awards
that year, O' Horten was nominated for a number of awardsincluding "Best Film" and "Best Direction"but won only two: "Best Sound" and "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" for Espen Skjønberg.
In spite of good critical reception, the film did not perform very well at the box office, with only about 35,000 tickets sold domestically. Hamer expressed some disappointment with this, while hoping that the DVD
-release would fare better. Internationally, the film did somewhat better, and was sold to forty countries. By early August 2009, the film had in fact been seen by more people in the United States than in Norway.
/ experimental
singer Kaada.
Bent Hamer
Bent Hamer is a film director, writer and producer, born in Sandefjord, Norway in 1956.-Biography:Hamer studied film theory and literature at the University of Stockholm and the Stockholm Film School. In addition to his feature films, he has written and directed a number of short films and...
. The film's title character
Title role
The title role in the performing arts is the performance part that gives the title to the piece, as in Aida, Giselle, Michael Collins or Othello. The actor, singer or dancer who performs that part is also said to have the title role....
Odd Horten is a habit-bound train driver
Railroad engineer
A railroad engineer, locomotive engineer, train operator, train driver or engine driver is a person who drives a train on a railroad...
, who is about to retire. On the day of his retirement he ends up in an unexpected situation, and is forced to reconsider his life. As in other films by Hamer, the themes are loneliness and old age, and the courage to take chances. O' Horten has been described as a film without a strong plot or a clear chronology.
The film's main cast consists of mostly senior Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
/Norwegian actors, including Bård Owe, Espen Skjønberg
Espen Skjønberg
Espen Skjønberg is an actor of stage, screen and television.He made his first movie appearance as a child in the 1937 Norwegian classic Fant. His stage debut came reciting poetry at the Norwegian theatre Chat Noir in 1945...
, and Ghita Nørby
Ghita Nørby
Ghita Nørby is a popular Danish actress with 117 film credits to her name from 1956-2005, making her one of the most active Danish actresses ever. She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to opera singer Einar Nørby...
. There are also several cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s from various well-known Norwegians, such as ski jumper
Ski jumping
Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers go down a take-off ramp, jump and attempt to land as far as possible down the hill below. In addition to the length of the jump, judges give points for style. The skis used for ski jumping are wide and long...
Anette Sagen
Anette Sagen
Anette Sagen is a Norwegian ski jumper from Mosjøen, and one of the best female jumpers of all time. She received a lot of media attention in 2004, when she was denied the opportunity to jump K185 in Vikersund, in spite of her good results...
in her first film role. The music was composed by John Erik Kaada. Generally well received by critics, it was chosen for Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Skjønberg was awarded an Amanda Award
Amanda (award)
The Amanda Award is an award given annually at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, Norway, to promote and improve Norwegian film. The award originated in 1985, and has since 2005 been exclusively a film award...
for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Plot
Odd Horten is an overly cautious 67-year-old man about to retire after forty years as a train driverRailroad engineer
A railroad engineer, locomotive engineer, train operator, train driver or engine driver is a person who drives a train on a railroad...
on the route
Bergensbanen
The Bergen Line , also called the Bergen Railway, is a standard gauge railway line between Bergen and Hønefoss, Norway. The name is often applied for the entire route from Bergen via Drammen to Oslo, where the passenger trains go, a distance of...
between Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
and Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
. As he awakes, he goes through a meticulous daily routine, as he prepares for his second-to-last time driving the train to Bergen. When he gets there, he makes small talk with Svea, who owns the boarding house where he stays when there and whom he now may never see again.
Back in Oslo, his colleagues throw him a farewell party, but Odda timid manis uncomfortable with the attention. As the party moves to a co-worker's apartment, he ends up getting accidentally locked out. He climbs up a scaffold, trying to reach the apartment window, and ends up in a young boy's room. The boy asks him to stay and wait for him to fall asleep, but Odd falls asleep first. He oversleeps in the unfamiliar room and arrives too late for the train he was to drive on his final working day. He is left standing on the platform without any fixed points in his life, with nothing but a life of emptiness stretching out before him.
A number of scenes then follow whose exact sequence is unclear. Odd goes to visit his mother at the retirement home, which only makes him more unhappy: his mother is senile
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
and spends her days staring emptily out the window, and the visit reminds him of his own impending old age. While Odd is at a restaurant, police come in and arrest the cook. At the shop where he normally buys his pipe tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, he learns that the owner has died. He decides to sell his boat, leading to misadventures when the buyer, who works at an airport, asks Odd to meet him there inside the secure zone
Airport security
Airport security refers to the techniques and methods used in protecting airports and aircraft from crime.Large numbers of people pass through airports. This presents potential targets for terrorism and other forms of crime due to the number of people located in a particular location...
. Odd goes to the local swimming pool, but his shoes were removed when the facility closed; as he is leaving, he finds a pair of red high-heeled boots and walks away in them.
By chance he then runs into another man his age, the far more spontaneous Trygve Sissener, who has fallen asleep in the snow-covered street. The two spend the evening in conversation over a few drinks at Sissener's house, and Odd is led to realisations about his own life. It emerges that his mothera free-spirited womanwas a ski jumper
Ski jumping
Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers go down a take-off ramp, jump and attempt to land as far as possible down the hill below. In addition to the length of the jump, judges give points for style. The skis used for ski jumping are wide and long...
, but Odd himself never had the courage to try the sport. He now feels as if he has let her down, by never having the courage to seize the day and try new things.
In the early morning Sissener suggests the two go driving blindfolded. The stunt goes surprisingly well, but as Sissener pulls over the car, he dies. Odd is now left with responsibility for Sissener's dog and with an urgency to live life to the fullest. He makes his way up to the Holmenkollen ski jump
Holmenkollen ski jump
Holmenkollbakken is a large ski jumping hill located at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway. It has a hill size of HS134, a construction point of K-120, and a capacity for 30,000 spectators. Holmenkollen has hosted the Holmenkollen Ski Festival since 1892, which since 1980 have been part of the FIS Ski...
, where he sees a vision of his mother as a young woman, doing the jump. He comes to a decision and starts to do the ski jump. Odd, for the first time no longer wearing his railwayman's jacket, rides the train to Bergen, where Svea is happily waiting for him on the platform.
Cast
- Bård Owe as Odd Horten: The "O" in O' Horten stands for "OddOdd (name)Odd, a name of Old Norse origin , the 11th most common male name in Norway. It is rarely used in other countries, though sometimes appearing in other Nordic countries...
". The name "Odd" is a quite common boys' name in Norway, and does not carry the same meaning as the English word "odd", though the film and the character's bizarre qualities have been pointed out by some. Though not intentionally meant as a pun, Hamer himself has said: "I know the meaning of the word in English, and that doesn't hurt." Born in Norway, Owe has spent most of his professional career in DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, where he is known to a contemporary audience primarily from Lars von TrierLars von TrierLars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
's The KingdomThe Kingdom (TV miniseries)The Kingdom is an eight-episode Danish television mini-series, created by Lars von Trier in 1994, and co-directed by Lars von Trier and Morten Arnfred. It has been edited together into a five-hour movie for distribution in the United Kingdom and United States...
. His career, however, goes all the way back to Carl Theodor DreyerCarl Theodor DreyerCarl Theodor Dreyer, Jr. was a Danish film director. He is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema.-Life:Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark...
's classic GertrudeGertrud (film)Gertrud is a 1964 Danish drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, based on the 1906 play of the same name by Hjalmar Söderberg. The title role of Gertrud Kanning is played by Nina Pens Rode, with Bendt Rothe as her husband, Gustav Kanning, and Baard Owe as her lover, Erland Jansson.Gertrud was...
from 1964. Owe has also done much theatre and television work, yet after acting in over thirty films, this was his first leading role. - Espen SkjønbergEspen SkjønbergEspen Skjønberg is an actor of stage, screen and television.He made his first movie appearance as a child in the 1937 Norwegian classic Fant. His stage debut came reciting poetry at the Norwegian theatre Chat Noir in 1945...
as Trygve Sissener: Trygve lives alone in one of the finer parts of Oslo, and when he meets Odd he is happy to have someone to share a few drinks with. Skjønberg has been a presence in Norwegian theatre and film since 1945, and debuted on film as a child, as early as 1937. He has received several awards, among them an honorary AmandaAmanda (award)The Amanda Award is an award given annually at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, Norway, to promote and improve Norwegian film. The award originated in 1985, and has since 2005 been exclusively a film award...
in 2004. - Ghita NørbyGhita NørbyGhita Nørby is a popular Danish actress with 117 film credits to her name from 1956-2005, making her one of the most active Danish actresses ever. She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to opera singer Einar Nørby...
as Mrs. Deinboll: Mrs. Deinboll works at the store where Odd buys his tobacco. Nørby is a well-established actress in Denmark, where she has been referred to as "the first lady of Danish theatre". She had also worked in Norway prior to O' Horten; in 1996 she played the role of Marie HamsunMarie HamsunMarie Hamsun was a Norwegian actress and writer. Marie Andersen was born in Elverum, Hedmark, Norway. She was the eldest child in an affluent family. In 1897 the family moved to Christiania, where his father was involved in the property trade for twenty years until he bought the farm in Åneby in...
in the film HamsunHamsun (film)Hamsun is a 1996 Danish-Swedish-Norwegian-German drama directed by Jan Troell, about the later life of the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun , who together with his wife Marie Hamsun , went from being national saints to national traitors after supporting Nazi Germany during their occupation of Norway...
. - Henny MoanHenny MoanHenny Moan is a Norwegian actress from Finnmark. She has had a long career in theatre, but is best known for her roles in certain classics of Norwegian cinema, such as the Oscar-nominated Ni liv and De dødes tjern...
as Svea: Henny Moan plays the part of the old lady who owns the boarding house where Odd lives when he is in Bergen. There is a special connection between the two. Moan has acted in films since 1955, and at the time O' Horten was made, she had just retired from a long career at the theatre. - Bjørn FlobergBjørn FlobergBjørn Floberg is a Norwegian actor of film, television, and theatre. He is particularly noted for playing unsympathetic authority figures, but he has also had success playing other types of roles.- Theatre :...
as Flo - Kai Remlov as Steiner Sissener
- Per Jansen as Train driver
- Bjarte HjelmelandBjarte HjelmelandBjarte Hjelmeland is a Norwegian actor and theatre director.He was born in Bergen. He made his stage debut in 1991 at Oslo Nye Teater, and also had notable roles at the National Theatre, Rogaland Teater, Torshovteatret, Den Nationale Scene and Chateau Neuf...
as Conductor - Trond Viggo Torgersen as Opsahl
- Anette SagenAnette SagenAnette Sagen is a Norwegian ski jumper from Mosjøen, and one of the best female jumpers of all time. She received a lot of media attention in 2004, when she was denied the opportunity to jump K185 in Vikersund, in spite of her good results...
as Young Vera Horten
Production
The film contains several cameoCameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s from well-known actors and other celebrities, made possible by Hamer's high standing as a director. His previous film was the international production Factotum
Factotum (film)
Factotum is a 2005 film directed by Bent Hamer, adapted from the novel of the same name by Charles Bukowski. The script also makes use of poems published in What Matters Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire and The Days Run Aways Like Horses Over the Hill as well as some of Bukowski's notebook...
, based on the novel by Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
, starring Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...
, Lili Taylor
Lili Taylor
Lili Anne Taylor is an American actress notable for her appearances in such award-winning indie films as Mystic Pizza, Say Anything..., Short Cuts and I Shot Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed TV show Six Feet Under....
, and Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
. Some of the appearances are relatively brief; Nørby, for instance, is on screen for less than three minutes, while the well-known Norwegian entertainer Trond Viggo Torgersen appears for only 59 seconds. Before the film's première on Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
2007, a pre-screening was held for journalists on 22 December. This was followed by dinner, attended by all the protagonists, at the restaurant Valkyrien in Oslo, where Odd Horten is also a regular customer in the film.
Among the more original castings was Anette Sagen
Anette Sagen
Anette Sagen is a Norwegian ski jumper from Mosjøen, and one of the best female jumpers of all time. She received a lot of media attention in 2004, when she was denied the opportunity to jump K185 in Vikersund, in spite of her good results...
, the world's leading female ski jumper, in her first film role. Sagen, 22 at the time, played the part of 70-year-old Owe's ski jumping mother, although in a younger incarnation. Hamer had already considered Sagen for the role, when he ran into her by chance at the Holmenkollen Ski Museum
Holmenkollen Ski Museum
Holmenkollen Ski Museum , located at the base of the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, Norway, is the world's oldest ski museum, being founded in 1923....
. Without knowing to whom he was talking, Hamer mentioned that he was shooting a film in this location, and was planning to ask Anette Sagen to be in it. The reason the theme of ski jumping was chosen was that Hamer's own mother performed the sport, and the film has been described as a tribute to all female ski jumpers. Sagen herself had also earlier been involved in a controversy over women's access to professional venues and competitions. Incidentally, Sagen and Owe are also both from the Norwegian town of Mosjøen
Mosjøen
-History:Mosjøen was founded in the 17th century as local farmers met here to trade, and has been growing since then. Sawmills were built here in 1866 by a British company, and Mosjøen got township rights in 1875. It is the oldest town in the Helgeland region and the second oldest town in Nordland...
.
The two lonely old men make part of a recurring theme in Hamer's films, as seen also in Eggs
Eggs (film)
Eggs is a 1995 Norwegian comedy film by Bent Hamer. It was awarded the 1995 Amanda for best Norwegian film.-Plot:Two old brothers, Moe and Pa, have lived together for their whole life and are content with their daily and weekly routine...
(1995) and Kitchen Stories
Kitchen Stories
-Plot:Swedish efficiency researchers come to Norway for a study of Norwegian men, to optimize their use of their kitchen. Folke Nilsson is assigned to study the habits of Isak Bjørvik . By the rules of the research institute, Folke has to sit on an umpire's chair in Isak's kitchen and observe him...
(2003). However, Hamer himself has described the film as equally much about women; "the women who once gave birth to these men." He also cites a great fascination with trains as an inspiration for the film's setting, and claims that he had long wanted to make a film with this theme.
Reception
Norwegian newspapers Verdens GangVerdens Gang
Verdens Gang , generally known under the abbreviation VG, is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper...
and Dagbladet
Dagbladet
Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....
both gave the film five out of six points. Verdens Gang
Aftenposten
Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
s Ingunn Økland, on the other hand, felt O' Horten failed to live up to the director's best work, and gave it only four points. She nevertheless pointed out the good qualities in the film, in particular the filming and the soundtrack by John Erik Kaada.
Foreign reviewers also gave the film generally positive reviews; Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
called it a "Warm story from frigid Norway". Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
Kitchen Stories
-Plot:Swedish efficiency researchers come to Norway for a study of Norwegian men, to optimize their use of their kitchen. Folke Nilsson is assigned to study the habits of Isak Bjørvik . By the rules of the research institute, Folke has to sit on an umpire's chair in Isak's kitchen and observe him...
", but that it "nevertheless provides a warm and gently humorous divertissement". She also found the production and score excellent. Portland residents, having been enlightened by the luminously exquisite gem of a film found their lives forever transformed. Most of all they felt that the review "lumuniously and deliciously funny" to be very unjust. James Rocchi, writing for Cinematical, chose to highlight Bård Owe's performance, and his "warm demeanor" and meticulous "capacity for double-takes". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
's Warren Schmidt in the film About Schmidt
About Schmidt
About Schmidt is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, starring Jack Nicholson in the title role. It is loosely based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley. Many of the scenes were filmed on location, especially in Omaha, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado...
. Like others, she also used Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
director Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Kaurismäki
-Career:After studying Media Studies at the University of Tampere, Aki Kaurismäki started his career as a co-director in the films of his elder brother Mika Kaurismäki. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment , Dostoyevsky's famous crime story set in modern-day Helsinki...
as a reference to describe Hamer's particular cinematic style.
O' Horten was picked for the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
-section of the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Here it was praised by one reviewer as "deliciously funny" in a festival that contained few happy stories. This marked the fourth time that Hamer was represented at Cannes, which makes him one of only two Norwegians to accomplish this feat. This instance, however, marked a step up for Hamer, as his previous appearances had been in the slightly less prestigious Directors' Fortnight
Directors' Fortnight
Directors' Fortnight is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The section was created in 1969 after the events of May 1968, in which the Cannes festival was canceled in solidarity with striking workers....
-category. At the festival, the film was picked for international distribution by the distribution company Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
. Hamer also won the Norwegian Film Critics' Award in 2008, thereby becoming the first director to win this award three times. At the Amanda Awards
Amanda (award)
The Amanda Award is an award given annually at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, Norway, to promote and improve Norwegian film. The award originated in 1985, and has since 2005 been exclusively a film award...
that year, O' Horten was nominated for a number of awardsincluding "Best Film" and "Best Direction"but won only two: "Best Sound" and "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" for Espen Skjønberg.
In spite of good critical reception, the film did not perform very well at the box office, with only about 35,000 tickets sold domestically. Hamer expressed some disappointment with this, while hoping that the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
-release would fare better. Internationally, the film did somewhat better, and was sold to forty countries. By early August 2009, the film had in fact been seen by more people in the United States than in Norway.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film was released in 2008, under the name Music from the Motion Picture O' Horten. It was fully composed by Norwegian popPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/ experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
singer Kaada.
External links
- Official site
- O' Horten at Yahoo! MoviesYahoo! MoviesYahoo! Movies , provided by the Yahoo! network, is home to a large collection of information on movies, past and new releases, trailers and clips, box office information, and showtimes and movie theater information. Yahoo! Movies also includes red carpet photos, actor galleries, and production...
- O' Horten at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...