The Bothersome Man
Synopsis
Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment - even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that something is wrong. Andreas makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there's no way out. Andreas meets Hugo, who has found a crack in a wall in his cellar. Beautiful music streams out from the crack. Maybe it leads to "the other side"? A new plan for escape is hatched.
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The World Is More Than Enough - 30 Countries In 30 Days Challenge (24 / 30) - Norway
I love dystopian films. I love them even more when I don't know that they are going to be dystopian films.
With something of a nod and a wink towards the likes of Brazil and even Nothing Lasts Forever, The Bothersome Man is a Norwegian blackly comic fantasy about a man who is taken to a mysterious town and doesn't quite understand the bland yet happy and strangely unaware existence that the townsfolk lead.
This is a world that seems to be strangely lacking in colour from the moment he is dropped outside the town, at a strangely isolated petrol station, by…
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The easiest comparison to The Bothersome Man I can make is Fight Club without Tyler Durden and a dash of Being John Malkovich thrown in for good measure. Nowhere near as pervasively cynical as those two films, Norway's The Bothersome Man also benefits from a protagonist (Andreas, played by an impressive Trond Fausa Aurvåg) who is actually sympathetic for a majority of the film, if the story does drag him into sad-sackitude just a little too often. As a satire on the mundanity of everyday life, it can get very heavy-handed, but the dashes of fantasy keep it from being overwhelmingly morose. I thought the opening scene was a very clever use of misdirection, and while making everything after its…
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A kind of Orwellian nightmare for the IKEA set, an existential scream (or quiet yelp) against a superficially ‘perfect’ existence. I loved this, the dry Norwegian black humour (and creepy vein of surrealism) suiting my taste down to a tee. It also helps that the film is gorgeously shot and designed, with the sleek, spotless city photographed (ironically?) in loving detail – reminiscent of ‘The Truman Show’ in that sense. In the lead, Trond Fausa Aurvag has the same bemused look throughout, but his one-note performance gives the film its humour, as he quietly rallies against the vacuous paradise he is seemingly forced into. There is perhaps little to analyse here (individualism is good!), but as a quirky-dark comedy-horror I enjoyed it immensely.
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In the world of The Bothersome Man, everything is done dutifully. Working, eating, having sex, loving, everything has an emotionless neatness to it. Our hero, however, doesn't fit in. He remembers things from a previous existence from another world, another life. He does not know how he got where he is, nor does he seem to remember why he is there. Or why he doesn't seem to be able to die for that matter.
This weird universe we are shown works as a wonderfully sharp satire on our everyday preoccupations. The people that inhabit Andreas' hell only concern themselves with material needs and are robot like in their emotions. What really works in this film is that we get some…
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In a satirical look at a world cleansed of passion Jens Lien provides us with a stark reminder that the world in which we live, filled with disagreements, hate, violence and pain is also the only world in which we can excercise our free will to love, cherish, and be happy. We see the 'utopian' society in which everyone gets along through the eyes of Andreas, who arrives in this world for an unknown reason. He is provided with the most basic and inoffensive necessities: shelter, a job, money, tasteless food, alcohol that doesn't get you drunk, acquaintances who have mundane dinner parties, permanently 'good' weather, a quiet monochrome landscape and more important, a world free of degeneration.
Andreas soon…
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It was an uncomfortable watch largely because I found the film extremely confusing.
On the level of absurdity I understood much what was going on but only to a point and my lack of understanding wasn't much help when it came to appreciating the depth of the material that director Jens Lien was examining.
That said I still enjoyed the film but only in a limited sense. I'm not put off though and I will read around the subject and come back for more.
I would have loved to have scored higher put I'd be pretending I understood the film if I did that.
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The World Is More Than Enough - 30 Countries In 30 Days Challenge (24 / 30) - Norway
I love dystopian films. I love them even more when I don't know that they are going to be dystopian films.
With something of a nod and a wink towards the likes of Brazil and even Nothing Lasts Forever, The Bothersome Man is a Norwegian blackly comic fantasy about a man who is taken to a mysterious town and doesn't quite understand the bland yet happy and strangely unaware existence that the townsfolk lead.
This is a world that seems to be strangely lacking in colour from the moment he is dropped outside the town, at a strangely isolated petrol station, by…
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The Bothersome Man is a quirky Norwegian film that reminds me of the Truman Show, a man trapped in an artificial environment where everything is perfect and everyone is happy. The film is also a clever satire on our current bland society with office cubicles and the search for perfection.
Whether you like fantasies that may not make much sense, this movie is also very much worth watching for its incredible style and atmosphere. It's beautifully crafted and directed and the lead actor, Trond Fausa, is excellent as the confused and eventually horrified "hero."
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SHIT'S FUCKING QUIRKY, YO!
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A wonderfully directed and acted surreal absurdist comedy, with something to say. My favorite Norwegian film of all time.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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A suited man waits on a subway platform for his train to arrive. He notices a couple kissing passionlessly, grotesque in their coupling. The lights of an incoming train shine against the wall as it thunders into the station. He steps forwards.....
A man is on a coach arriving into deserted petrol station. From there he is taken to a modern ideal city and given a clean and furnished flat, an undemanding job and has his other desires catered for. But he feels something is wrong in his seemingly ideal life and this city and it eats away at him......
An interesting metaphysical drama with a dark comic sensibility underpinning things. Jens Lien sets up this seeming utopia where everyone…
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The easiest comparison to The Bothersome Man I can make is Fight Club without Tyler Durden and a dash of Being John Malkovich thrown in for good measure. Nowhere near as pervasively cynical as those two films, Norway's The Bothersome Man also benefits from a protagonist (Andreas, played by an impressive Trond Fausa Aurvåg) who is actually sympathetic for a majority of the film, if the story does drag him into sad-sackitude just a little too often. As a satire on the mundanity of everyday life, it can get very heavy-handed, but the dashes of fantasy keep it from being overwhelmingly morose. I thought the opening scene was a very clever use of misdirection, and while making everything after its…
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I like that we are traveling with the protagonist in his journey to figure out what is going on.
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A mix of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Truman Show and Plato's allegory of the cave.