FILMS/
THE ART OF NEGATIVE THINKING
New Directors
Norway, 2007, 79 minutes
SHOWTIMES
Fri, May 2 / 9:30 / Kabuki / ART02K
Sun, May 4 / 3:45 / Kabuki / ART04K
Thu, May 8 / 8:15 / Clay / ART08Y
CREDITS
- dir
-
Bård Breien
- prod
-
Dag Alveberg
- scr
-
Bård Breien
- cam
-
Gaute Gunnari
- editor
-
Zaklina Stojcevska
- mus
-
Stein Berge Svendsen
- cast
-
Fridtjov Sáheim, Kjersti Holmen, Henrik Mestad, Marian Saastad Ottesen, Kari Simonsen, Kirsti Eline Torhaug, Per Schaaning
- source
-
Norwegian Film Institute, PO Box 482 Sentrum, N-0105 Oslo, Norway. FAX: 47-22-47-45-99. EMAIL: stine@nfi.no
Norwegian filmmaker Bård Breien offers a bracingly subversive take on the cult of positive thinking. Paralyzed and impotent after a car accident, Geirr numbs his psychic pain by getting high, watching violent movies to psychedelic rock songs and keeping his gun close by (just in case he decides to numb himself for good). Desperate to help Geirr and save their marriage, his wife, Ingvild, invites over a therapy group for the disabled in an effort to persuade him to join. The group and their therapist, a woman who employs bizarre methods bordering on intimidation, descend upon the desperate couple with good intentions. Geirr’s brutally funny negativity proves so persuasive, however, that he stirs up mutiny among the ranks. Without the therapist to keep them in line, the group promptly follows Geirr’s own course of therapy, which includes large doses of gin, cigar-sized reefers and a stark reality check about the severe limitations handicaps impose on their lives. The unorthodox session stretches well into the night, as the group’s members deal individually with the naked truth of their predicaments. At times outrageously burlesque, this black comedy delivers a brave message about survival and acceptance.
—Beverly Berning
Presented with support from the Royal Norwegian consulate General, San Francisco. New Directors Prize contender. Sponsored by SFSTATION.COM.
