Word: norwegian
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...this for an also-ran explorer whose legacy is the inspiring result of his great failure. We meet Shackleton (Kenneth Branagh) on a lecture tour, when he learns that Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen has beaten him to the South Pole, a voyage he has tried and failed at. Undaunted, he vows to become the first to cross Antarctica. His wife (Phoebe Nicholls) pleads with him to keep his promise to stay home and go into business. "I'm not a salesman," he demurs...
Cool & Crazy, which has plucked the heartstrings of the Nordic countries and arrived to praise in Britain, is to open in the coming weeks in France, Germany and elsewhere. But hold on a minute. A documentary about a year in the life of the Berlev?g Male Choir? In Norwegian, with subtitles? Wouldn't watching icicles form be more interesting? Actually, no. This charming feature-length film by the Norwegian director Knut Erik Jensen is so full of warmth, humor, sensitivity, beauty, social commentary and stirring music that it will melt any negative preconceptions...
Among the most popular and financially successful Norwegian films ever, Jensen's "documusical" has been lauded at numerous film festivals. One critic aptly dubbed it an Arctic version of Buena Vista Social Club, Wim Wenders' 1998 documentary about a legendary group of Cuban musicians. "The people up here don't take themselves too seriously," says Jensen, himself a Finnmark native. "The farther north you go in Norway, the more Latin the mentality...
Cool & Crazy has already mightily impressed the Swedes, who can be dismissive about anything Norwegian. "There is a lot of humor and a lot of love in the movie," says Monika Tunbäck-Hanson, chairwoman of the Gothenberg Film Festival jury that named Cool & Crazy last year's best Nordic film. "For city people," she adds, "it's an eye-opener to see humble people expressing their deepest thoughts so fluently. And in such a landscape...
...marked by tough lives in the Arctic, giving themselves over to the poetry of these simple songs, I was very touched. The whole experience went straight to my heart and I felt tears in my eyes." So, too, will many movie-goers who don't understand a word of Norwegian...