Joachim Trier put Oslo on the cinematic map

Using this location had personal benefits: On days when he was filming at home, he could see his daughters for breakfast and put them to bed. Trier deeply understands a director like Gustave, with his brutal artistic tendencies and his half-fatal, half-charming attempts to reach his daughters, but he hardly wants to. He is Gustav. In fact, a large part of Trier’s process seems to be about finding ways to buck that model. It helps, Haley told me, that Trier is “endlessly fascinated” by the psychology of others — “penetrating the upper layer of big feelings and trying to understand Why People as they are. “This is an ongoing conversation, at home and with our friends.”

Tall and lanky, with neatly trimmed hair, a short beard, blue eyes behind tortoiseshell glasses, and a penchant for wearing black chinos and sneakers, Trier looks like your favorite history teacher. On set, he jumps with natural athleticism. He was racing down the ski slopes. He’s gotten slower since an accident in 2019 that nearly required the amputation of his foot. The Terrier is sociable and emotionally accessible, tends to clasp his hands together in excitement, and vocalizes enthusiastically.Exa-a-actly!“When he agreed to a comment, and cried while directing. (He also became a blur when I told him something nice his wife said about him).”

It is this latter tendency that he shares with the director of photography for Sentimental Value and The Worst Person, the Danish cinematographer Casper Toxen. “A lot of people who are DP are kind of super masculine,” Trier said. “Kasper is so sensitive and beautiful, he’s really involved in what the actors are doing.” Toksin told me that this posed an artistic risk to the film’s scenes, which he found particularly moving. Trier’s films are shot with a 35mm lens, and Toxen moves close to the actors, often on a rolling chair known ignominiously as a “dolly.” “When you shoot on film, you have the actual optical glass viewfinder,” Tuckson said. “It’s nice to see things clearly, but condensation from a wet eyeball is a problem. When my operating eye gets wet, the glass becomes foggy. So I need to use a hot camera lens, to cook my tears.”

American director Mike Mills (“Beginners,” “20th Century Women”) is a close friend of Trier. It also works with Tuxen. Both Mills and Trier approach the filmmaking with unabashed sincerity, even as they play with winking archival montages, flash-forwards, and other arc techniques. The two have regular Zoom conversations that can last for hours, sharing raw clips from their films with each other. Mills said that he and Trier, “two very treated men,” were uncomfortably aware that the history of cinema was “full of narcissists who might have made great films but were terrible to be close to.” He continued: “If you’re the type of person who sees a lot of it as a dead end, or a problem, or not leading to happiness or a richer life, how do you do that? reaction So?” And like Trier, Mills tends to make clever, therapeutic remarks, then worry out loud that they sound pretentious.

I posted Mills’ comments by Trier when I met him for coffee during the New York Film Festival. In directing, “there’s a lot of heavy lifting, both in controlling your creativity and getting everyone involved — leading a large team of people early in the morning when they’re tired, half of whom have undiagnosed ADHD but you love their energy,” Trier said. This attitude “can encourage macho behavior, because you’re a leader — a military general.” When Trier needs to rally his forces, he deepens his voice, claps his hands, and announces, “politely but sternly, like a teacher: ‘We must focus; Hey everyone!” He prefers to work with “gentle encouragement, because people work better that way – at least people.” I You want to work with.”

I visited the set of the movie “Sentimental Value” last October. Filming took place on a soundstage a thirty-minute train ride from downtown Oslo. Inside, the first and second floors of the Frogner House have been recreated. To film a montage of the house at different historical stages, from the 1990s to the 1980s, it was easier – though not easy and inexpensive – to build an exact replica than to update the actual house. The production design team covered the walls of the replica house with layers of wallpaper. When the scenes were completed for one time period, the team peeled back the layer to reveal the layer underneath.

That day is depicted at a house party in the 1960s, when Gustave’s aunt, Edith, his mother’s sister, who is openly living with her friend, takes the place. We learn that Gustav’s mother joined the resistance during the Nazi occupation of Norway and was imprisoned by the Gestapo. She later died by suicide when Gustav was young. Edith likes to play music at her parties when the neighbors complain – and sure enough, one of them has ratted on her sister.