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Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Oslo Stories: Sex review – A fitting climax to this appealing trilogy
Osclo Stories: Sex Director : Dag Johan Haugerud Cert : None Genre : Drama Starring : Jan Gunnar Roise, Thorbjorn Harr, Siri Forberg, Birgitte Larsen, Hadrian Jenum Skaaland, Theo Dahl, Anne Marie Ottersen Running Time : 2 hrs 5 mins Never mind that title. Dag Johan Haugerud's Sex is the talkiest and least erotic instalment of the novelist turned film-maker's Norwegian trilogy. A gentle exploration of masculinity, marriage and sexual orientation, this instalment unfolds mostly through long, searching conversations between two unnamed Oslo chimney sweeps, a thoughtful, Christian boss (Thorbjorn Harr) who has recently started to dream about David Bowie, and his oversharing subordinate (Jan Gunnar Roise). Haugerud leans into sustained theatrical dialogue, stylised and stagey, yet loaded with emotional ambivalence. [ Film-maker Dag Johan Haugerud: From laid-off librarian to Golden Bear-winning director of the Oslo Stories trilogy Opens in new window ] Harr's character is puzzling over the meaning of Bowie's nocturnal appearance – is he a stand-in for God? – when Roise's sweep points towards queer desire. He only recently had sex with a man; not because he's gay, he insists, but because he felt desired by his unexpected lover, an older gentleman client. The bruised heart at the centre of the film belongs to the sweep's blindsided wife, played with sincere bafflement by Siri Forberg. She has many questions, some sexually curious, others worried and wounded. If her husband gave in to feeling wanted once, can't it happen again? Forberg is often obscured by Cecilie Semac's otherwise warm and geometric cinematography, amplifying her many vocal concerns. For her it's not the sex; it's the intimacy. She is haunted by the idea that some stranger knows her husband's expression during ejaculation. [ Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love) review – The first part of Dag Johan Haugerud's trilogy is intimate, ambiguous and lingering Opens in new window ] The sweep's religious colleague proves less concerned – 'You remember being penetrated. You can keep that to yourself. Treasure it in your heart, like the Virgin Mary.' He has his own choral concerns. Maybe it's Bowie or his chum's confession, but his singing voice has changed. He brings his son to an appointment with a voice coach, who seizes his tongue and suggests that he read Hannah Arendt. It's one of several pleasingly bizarre interludes that culminate in a campy song-and-dance number, a fitting spectacle to round off this appealing trilogy. READ MORE [ Oslo Stories: Love review – Pay attention to the details in this understated, patient and disarming film Opens in new window ] On limited cinema release from Friday, August 22nd
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Oslo Stories Trilogy: Sex review – confessions of a chimney sweep
Here is the first instalment of the stimulating Oslo movie trilogy about modern relationships from Norwegian novelist and film-maker Dag Johan Haugerud: this one is Sex, followed by Love and Dreams. It is marginally my least favourite of the three, being slightly more didactic and less humorous than its companions – but still very lively and full of ideas. Two guys work for a chimney sweeping business, and unlike Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, there's no smudge-faced larking about with brushes. But the job still appears to involve a certain amount of perching on rooftops; perhaps Haugerud has chosen this so that he can get plenty of reflective high-up views of the city, rooted in dramatic reality, and which aren't just hackneyed drone shots. They are close friends, and in an idle moment of chat, one of them (Jan Gunnar Røise) confesses to the other (Thorbjørn Harr) that recently, out of sheer curiosity, he had sex with another man. He does not consider himself gay but the experience was pleasurable. His fellow sweep, a committed Christian and heterosexual family man, has also had a self-questioning experience: a recurring dream in which a beautiful being, like David Bowie, responds to the female side of him. The problem now for Røise's character is that, because he is so convinced that his adventure means nothing to his marriage, he recounts it at once to his wife; in his view, it isn't even a confession, though his wife (Siri Forberg) is deeply upset. (Oddly, it is his male friend, and not his wife, who asks if they used a condom.) As for Harr's character, he tells his wife about his dream and her take is that this gender-questioning experience is spiritual, because God and love go beyond gender. Finally, this man is to take part in a drama-dance theatre show about Christianity wearing a slightly ridiculous red outfit that his son has run up for him on a sewing machine, which shows that he is not neglecting the non-traditional side of masculinity. There is an interesting final conversation between the two men in which Røise insists that sex with a man does not make him gay; Harr smiles indulgently but is clearly sceptical. But then Røise says how moving it is that he can tell Harr about his sex-with-a-man experience, just as Harr can confide to him about being a Christian. Another type of movie would have reached for a comic effect here, with Harr perhaps nettled that his Christian beliefs are being considered equivalent to gay sex. This is, however, not what Haugerud intends: Sex is earnest, but cerebral and challenging. Oslo Stories Trilogy: Sex is in UK cinemas from 22 August.
Irish Times
11-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Film-maker Dag Johan Haugerud: From laid-off librarian to Golden Bear-winning director of the Oslo Stories trilogy
Dag Johan Haugerud recently turned 60. Being Scandinavian, he doesn't look it. Trim and neat, he could easily pass for 20 years younger. But, sure enough, Haugerud has spent decades writing novels, making films and, until budget cuts intervened, working as a librarian at the Norwegian Academy of Music. It would be overstating the case to argue that overnight celebrity has visited him later in life. But, after winning the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, he suddenly finds himself among the front tier of European film-makers. 'I don't know how people see me,' he says in his calm way. 'I am just trying to go on with my work, really. It was obviously very nice to win the Golden Bear, but I don't think it affects me that much. Probably – or hopefully – it will be easier to make the next film. But I don't think that's necessarily so.' The prize came for one prong of his complex, beautiful Oslo Stories trilogy. Dreams (Sex Love) tells the story of a teenage girl who turns her obsession with a teacher into a memoir that kicks up ethical quandaries as it edges to publication. That Bear winner sits loosely beside episodes entitled Sex, in which two chimney sweeps discuss sexual adventures, and Love, following two relationships that play out on a ferry to the Nesodden peninsula, across the water from Olso. The films are being released throughout this month, but don't worry if you've missed the first title. You can always catch up later. 'Maybe it's a good thing that these films can work in every possible order,' says the director. 'That's maybe a strength. I wasn't opposed to that.' I am interested in life as a librarian who, when not cataloguing texts, makes films and writes books. One can't help but think of Philip Larkin. That famously pessimistic English poet spent 30 years working in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull. 'It's very funny that you mentioned Philip Larkin, because I'm a very big fan of him,' says Haugerud. 'There are many quotes from him in the films. I use him quite regularly. But I had been working as a librarian – not full time, just part time – for 25 years, maybe. And I really liked it. 'But then I got fired two years ago, because of the budget overdraft at the academy of music. They had to fire 14 people. So I was among them. Since then all this happened with the trilogy.' [ Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love) review – The first part of Dag Johan Haugerud's trilogy is intimate, ambiguous and lingering Opens in new window ] Haugerud would be far too unsentimental to say that everything occurs for a reason, but the timing was certainly convenient. He began making short films at the turn of the century and moved into features with I Belong, in 2012, and Barn, in 2019. Reviews have always been strong, but major festival interest in the trilogy elevated his profile immeasurably. Sex premiered to acclaim at Berlin in early 2024. Love won raves at Venice later the same year. Dreams (Sex Love) then bossed the 2025 Berlinale. The stories are loosely linked by one character who is largely in the background for two episodes. The films' titles lay out the connecting themes: all key characters are uncertain in their relationships. Calling the trilogy Oslo Stories was the distributor's idea, he says, but it does make a great deal of sense. There is, alas, no avoiding the cliche about the city being a character in itself. We get a sense of the changing demographics. Love, in particular, with its many ferry journeys across the Oslofjord, revels in the delightfully crisp architecture. Oslo Stories: Love: Andrea Braein Hovig and Thomas Gullestad. Photograph: Motlys This looks like a very agreeable place to live. I wonder if he was aware he was recommending the city to the world. The tourist board can have no complaints. 'That's kind of a dilemma,' he says. 'When you are pointing a camera at something – when you're putting something in focus – it tends to become more beautiful. Almost always. 'I don't think you are really showing the truth when you are pointing a camera towards something. You are taking away everything that's on the sides, and you're just focusing on one thing.' I think it's a trilogy because I say it is Love takes in a few conversations on municipal politics. We're really getting at the superstructure of the city there. 'While Sex and Dreams are reflecting on how the city has developed,' Love 'is going back to the old Oslo and showing a look at how the city has been and how the city has been built on social-democratic values.' One might reasonably ask what makes it a trilogy. The three films stand confidently on their own. 'I think it's a trilogy because I say it is,' he says, laughing. 'Also because I wanted to explore themes about love, about sexual identity. And I think you can dig into those themes in very different ways. I find that these things are very individual. 'People have very individual feelings about sexuality, for instance – about how big a part sexuality plays in your life. Do you not have as much sexuality as you'd like to? Or you can imagine that you have too much sexuality. If you want to explore those themes I think you have to tell more stories.' Oslo Stories: Sex. Jan Gunnar Roise and Siri Forberg. Photograph: Motlys Haugerud is not afraid to inhabit lives very different from his own. Dreams, the film that won him one of the big three European-festival awards, has him telling a story from the perspective of a teenage girl. In the modern age there is a lot of hand-wringing about appropriation. If some new puritans had their way, middle-aged blokes would write stories only about middle-aged blokes. Yet Johanne – played by Ella Overbye in Dreams – is perfectly drawn. She is intelligent and articulate but still convincingly uncertain how the adult world works. 'I didn't really have so many options,' he says, realistically. 'I wanted to work with this actor, Ella Overbye. I wanted to write something for her. I could probably have made a story that wasn't based on voiceover – that had more distance. Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love): Dahl Torp, Ella Overbye and Anne Marit Jacobsen. Photograph: Cecilie Semec/Motlys 'But I think if I had made a more distant film, a more objective film, it would be about a 60-year-old director looking at a teenage girl. That would have been awkward and troublesome. The only way I could do it was to remember my own teenage years and when I first fell in love.' It feels as if Johanne's dilemma is one that most writers run into during their careers. Is it right to use other people's lives as the basis in the work? Johanne's version of her ambiguous relationship with a teacher looks to be treading the bounds between reportage and creative reimagining. Graham Greene wrote that all writers should have a splinter of ice in their hearts. He meant they should have the capacity to shut down any such moral pettifoggery and reprocess observed human experience into fiction or drama or poetry. 'I think you need to keep your distance in a way,' says Haugerud. That's the only way it is possible to tell something interesting. But you also have to dig deep.' So was the splinter of ice a factor in the creation of the trilogy? 'I could say that all the characters in the three films are about me,' he says. 'I use my own experiences. To make films, for me, is a way of both daydreaming and to fantasise. 'It's also very much about trying to reflect on society and reflecting on how things are. It's a way of thinking. Whether you are telling about your own life or making something up, it's the same thing.' At any rate the stories seem to have connected with the world outside Scandinavia. Can he explain why this has happened to him now? 'I think it's always a bit of luck if you get a good reaction from the audience and from critics and from distributors,' he says. 'It depends a lot of what else is in the competition.' One is tempted to suggest that he can now leave behind all his part-timing in the stacks for a life on the glamorous festival circuit. But that is not how Haugerud sees things. 'I don't really have time to work at the library right now,' he says, modestly. 'But I will certainly try to find work again, if it's possible. Because I really, really enjoy it.' Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love) is in cinemas. Oslo Stories: Love is in cinemas from Friday, August 15th. Oslo Stories: Sex is in cinemas from Friday, August 22nd
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Norwegian Berlinale Winner Dag Johan Haugerud Named Jury Head for Venice's Giornate Degli Autori
Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud, who won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear earlier this year for Dreams, has been named the jury president for Giornate Degli Autori, the independent section within the Venice Film Festival promoted by the Italian filmmaker associations ANAC and 100autori. The decision marks a 'homecoming' of sorts for the filmmaker after Barn (Beware of Children), which had its world premiere in competition at the Giornate degli Autori in 2019, was Haugerud's international debut.'I'm thrilled and excited to be entrusted with the honorable assignment of presiding over this year's jury of Giornate degli Autori', said Haugerud. 'Giornate is close to my heart, with its passionate and selective programming, and the fact that it's cherry-picking only 10 films with special care for innovation, originality and independence.' He added: 'Art, literature and cinema are more important than ever, they represent an opportunity for both intellectual and political reflection and – if you're lucky – an expansion of the senses. In that way, cinema has the ability to make changes, both on an individual level and for society as a whole.'Said artistic director Gaia Furrer: 'Welcoming him back to Giornate six years after the memorable premiere of Beware of Children, we marvel at the evolution of a filmmaker whose Sex, Dreams, Love trilogy received recognition by winning a Golden Bear Award at the Berlinale. His cinema is timeless and yet profoundly of our time, rooted in a deep philosophical interest for everything that makes us human – our aspirations, vulnerability and shortcomings' More from The Hollywood Reporter June Squibb on Her Nonagenarian Career High: "A 70-Year-Old Will Say, 'I Want To Be You When I Grow Up!'" Cannes: Wes Anderson Teases His Next Film Cannes: Wes Brings The Whimsy in 'Phoenician Scheme' Press Conference Haugerud's distinctive style is one of tender complexity, which is the best answer to mending the frayed edges of the age we live in'. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
Wall Street Journal
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Love' Review: Intimacy and Interconnection in Oslo
The 60-year-old Norwegian novelist and filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud has embarked on a loose trilogy whose parts bear titles so death-and-taxes fundamental as to suggest a ponderously sweeping ambition. First comes 'Love,' opening this weekend, and then come 'Sex' and 'Dreams,' due later this year. Yet 'Love,' at least, has few pretensions of being a grand statement. It's a modest, moving drama abundant with conversation, and while the movie considers major questions—about intimacy, monogamy, care—it never becomes weighed down by them. This is, in part, because it's also a shimmering, contemplative portrait of a handful of people and the modern city in which they live. Fair warning: It might make you want to move to Oslo.
