It might surprise you to hear that one of this year’s awards season contenders is a Norwegian film. But it’s not the first time. In 2022, Joachim Trier’s sly, POV-shifting relationship drama The Worst Person in the World snuck into the Academy Awards with nods for Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay. His family-anchored follow up, Sentimental Value, has been pegged as an Oscar hopeful since its big Grand Prix win at Cannes, alongside a number of other European accolades.
Trier’s newest film is tied up in the mess of parental issues. Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) plays a negligent father and a filmmaker himself who has returned with his magnum opus: a script written about his own mother who died by suicide. He’s written the lead role for his daughter, Nora (Renate Reinsve, a frequent Trier collaborator). But she’s less than forgiving of her father’s absence and ultimately passes on the part.
As much as Trier’s film operates as a pair of moving character portraits, he believes his use of space and location are just as important. The house where much of the movie takes place is treated as much as a character itself. “It’s like you can smell it, you feel it. And that is cinema to me,” he tells me. (Longtime Trier fans might even recognize the house from a critical scene in Oslo, August 31st, the second of three films in his Oslo trilogy.)
The director talked with The Verge about how he used what he calls a “polyphonic structure” to move Sentimental Value’s narrative through his protagonist’s pain, the key to spotting a good actor in just two minutes, and how process brought together this awards season contender.
Robyn Kanner
I heard that you and [cowriter] Eskil Vogt watch a lot of films while you’re writing. What were you watching while you were writing Sentimental Value?
Joachim Trier: Not as specific references, but I think we love kind of human story films. It’s just inspiration of something being human and entertaining and intimate. I showed the team Opening Night by [John] Cassavetes. This is a great performance piece, and it’s also about someone who is grappling with creativity and the crisis in personal life.
Is that how you like to set the tone?
Yeah, I’m trying not to emulate other films. We do our own thing, but I want to remind people on the team — all of them, my great collaborators, all their assistants and everyone — that we’re shooting on film, 35mm. And there’s a beauty to that and watching on a big screen. So we’ve got a 35mm copy and just the vibe of that film was really beautiful.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but was that the same house from Oslo, August 31st that you shot in?
... continue reading