Zero Kelvin (1996)

the audience applauded

Beautiful, moving film.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This Norwegian film was listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, but it was pretty much impossible to get my hands on the UK, either online or on DVD, I'm glad I did finally find how to watch it. Basically set in the 1920 Norway, in Oslo, Henrik Larsen (Gard B. Eidsvold) is an aspiring poet, he proposed marriage to his girlfriend Gertrude (Camilla Martens), but she is unsure if she want to commit to anyone. Larsen is hurt, so he decides he needs a change, so he finds a job working for a year as a trapper in East Greenland, there the temperature is zero kelvin (absolute zero). It is not a welcoming environment for the sensitive Larsen, used to the city life, he is teamed up with seemingly rough old sailor and fellow trapper Randbæk (Stellan Skarsgård), and scientist Jakob Holm (Bjørn Sundquist). The three men are trapped in a tiny hut, as the arctic winter sets in, a complex and intense love/hate relationship develops between Randbæk and Larsen. Holm remains mostly quiet, Larsen gets a lot of ribbing from his rough-hewn veteran trapper companion, but he and Randbæk are more similar to one another than either would like to admit. It comes to a point when Holm disappears, the two men have to decide to search for him, or remain sheltered and safe, but they are forced to leave when a fire accidentally causes the hut to burn down. The two men ride out by dog sled across the icy plains to find Holm, they do eventually find him, in a ravine and dead by hanging. The two men take the body, but get lost in the snow and end up going the wrong direction, across a large lake, the ice is not very thick, there is a clash as to whether to go across or round. The two men fight, but Larsen manages to subdue Randbæk and gains control of the dog sled, going across the lake, until he finds shelter in an abandoned ship. Larsen is surprised when Randbæk returns, but he simply sits back to have a talk, the two eventually go outside and have a physical fight, until Larsen kills Randbæk. In the end, Larsen returns to civilisation, where the authorities question what happened, after he tells the story and the bodies are discovered, but it seems there is not enough evidence to convict him, Larsen is released and allowed to reunite with Gertude. Also starring Paul-Ottar Haga as Officer, Johannes Joner as Company Man, Erik Øksnes as Captain and Lars Andreas Larssen as Judge. When I watched this film, there were no English subtitles available, only Norwegian, so it took me much longer to watch, just over five hours, but it was worth it. Skarsgård in his native language is great as the suspicious sailor man, as is the vulnerable Eidsvold, the story is interesting, and it is cool seeing the conflict play out in isolation amidst stunningly bleak arctic scenery of Svalbard, (if you can get your hands on it) it is a simple enjoyable drama. Good!

Norwegian screenwriter and director Hans Petter Moland's second feature film which he co-wrote with Swedish screenwriter Lars Bill Lundholm and Peter Tutein, is an adaptation of a novel called "Larsen" from 1929 by Danish author Peter Tutein. It premiered in Norway, was shot on location in Norway and Greenland and is a Norway-Sweden co-production which was produced by Norwegian producer Bent Rognlien and Danish actor, producer and director Esben Høilund Carlsen (1941-2011). It tells the story about a poet named Henrik Larsen whom after having proposed to his girlfriend named Gertrud who believes in free love, leaves Christiania, Norway and goes on a fur hunting expedition to Greenland where he is to write a book about the men of the wild and live with a Swedish man named Randbaek and a Norwegian man named Jakob Holm.Subtly and engagingly directed by Nordic filmmaker Hans Petter Moland, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a dense and involving portrayal of an increasingly conflicting relationship between a scientist, a superstitious and antagonizing former sailor and a lyrical violinist. While notable for it's distinct and naturalistic milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by Norwegian cinematographer Philip Øgaard, production design by Polish production designer Janusz Sosnowski, costume design by Norwegian costume designer Bente Winther-Larsen and use of sound, this dialog-driven and narrative-driven story about a winter expedition which turns into a battle for survival between two contradicting personalities and the man in the middle, depicts two in-depth and merging studies of character and contains a great and timely instrumental score by Norwegian composer Terje Rypdal.This somewhat romantic, modestly literary and reflective drama from the mid-1990s which is set during a winter in the mid-1920s in Greenland and where a sadistic misogynist instigates a war with a humane philogynist whom he thinks has to become a real man according to his notions of what a real man is, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, scenes between Henrik and Randbaek and Henrik and Gertrud and the memorable and authentic acting performances by Norwegian actors Gard B. Eidsvold and Bjørn Sundqvist and Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård. A majestically atmospheric, existentialistic and psychological chamber piece which gained, among other awards, the Amanda Award for Best Norwegian Film at the 12th Amanda Awards in 1996.

I can't give a full review of this movie. I could only watch half. After the third rabbit shot with a gun, sled dogs being whipped, one rabbit having it's head bashed against a rock to kill it and a puppy being shot I was done. I don't know how much of all of that was real but all but the puppy being shot looked horribly real.Which is sad. The story was intriguing, the characters interesting, the scenery breathtaking, I was enjoying everything else about the movie but my stomach couldn't handle finishing it for fear there would be more scenes of animal cruelty that I wouldn't be able to wipe from my memory.

As a squeamish woman who rather hates film violence, I have to say that Zero Kelvin was an exceptional film. Henrik Larsen is a struggling writer who wants "raw material" and subjects himself for a year with 2 experienced hunter-trappers. I agree with the other film reviewer that this is a "character study" but want to point out that it is not flat or dull by any means. There's plenty of action throughout. I don't think that Larsen's boss and nemesis, Randbaeck, is evil but "troubled", and this distinction gives a lot of credence to the true struggle and relationship between the two men.