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United buddies or Norwegian film

"Where have all the guys been?" the author Lars Saabye Christensen asked repeatedly over a period of his writing, before he managed to break free from the repetition button of the boy gang. I know the answer to his question: The guys have gone to the movie!




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

There is jubilation around Norwegian film at the moment. The film has shaken off its bad reputation in its home country, and Norwegians see Norwegian cinema film like never before. While concepts such as "national theater factor" and "solid social realism" used to be commonplace, today film critics are strewn with "playfulness", "playfulness" and "professional production". As film enthusiast Pål Bang Hansen said at this year's Amanda Award ceremony: "It's to be enjoyed every single day!"

Wide and narrow

On en way, there is a great breadth in the film production of recent years. We've seen everything from documentary successes like Heftig og begeistret og Alt om min far, for kids movies like Ulvesommer and subtle low-melt movies like Hymns from the kitchen. In addition, Harald Zwart and Erik Skjoldbjærg put Norway on the map in Hollywood One night at McCool's og Prozac Nation. But at the same time we see tendencies towards clear unification in Norwegian film these days. We see this in what we can call the "Buddy movies". It is precisely these cinema-goers who most associate with Norwegian film at the moment. They are the films are products of the generational change of recent years among Norwegian filmmakers. The Buddy movie is youthful, solid, playful and popular feelgood movie.

Buddy Film. A usermanual

Here is the recipe: Take a handsome Oslo boy with a twinkle in his eye. Give him a ruffle and a fun shirt (preferably a Hawaiian motif). Place him in a collective in Oslo with other cute ruff boys or in a small godforsaken place with many village originals. Place a very sweet and responsible girl – preferably with a ponytail – on the sidelines. Then stir in a little hardship and cook on medium heat for two hours. Served with an interview at Skavlan and a generous blob of boyish charm.

Here are some buddy movie examples: Jonny vang – is a charming story about an indomitable young man who goes to great lengths to run earthworm farms and similar promising projects. United is a nice low-budget comedy with a local identity about football, dreams and ladies. The film went straight to the top of the audience list premiere weekend. Otherwise, the film on everyone's lips is currently the critically acclaimed urban comedy Buddy. Here, it comes down to petty media criticism when the protagonist sells himself and his friends for a reality show on TV2. However, the film ends happily and shows that problems are, after all, best solved on TV. The list is otherwise long: Kvinnen i mitt liv, detector, Mongoland and the TV series Lekestue. Now also the buddy book Pornopung become a movie.

Boring

Of course, it's not just the plot that makes a romantic comedy worth seeing. A credible universe, where dialogue and timing work, is just as important. And this works in the buddy movies. It is when there are too many of them that we get bored. Movies in this genre are supposed to entertain, and there are limits to how many times it is fun to see men around 30 who still count the Russian era as the highlight of their lives. And it's not just because I'm a girl that I'm bored – as the Norwegian Film Institute's Vigdis Lian has said: "I would not have been less bored if 30-year-old women made films about 30-year-old women".

The unification of the Buddy wave also sticks to outdated gender role patterns. Wenche Mühleisen has said: “Norwegian women on film must make do with sensible and decent supporting roles. They must not be "happy" individualists. The films signal that a boy is allowed to play through life well into his 30s, until a girl who is ideally a cross between Britney Spears and his mother forces him into the adult world. I miss some independent and playful women in Norwegian entertainment film. Women who have a right to exist on the screen regardless of a male protagonist. In the absence of other role models – we need more like Pippi Longstocking.

Where have all the girls been?

The Buddy films are examples of filmmakers often creating stories based on their own experiences. They are films of young men about young men. Why don't we have room for female fiction filmmakers with a female look at the moment?

Renowned English filmmaker David Putnam explains it this way: "Behind every successful male filmmaker stands a woman, while behind every successful female filmmaker there's a sad and empty life". Many, like him, believe that film production is so labor-intensive and time-consuming that it is impossible to combine a filmmaking career with a family life. Film students are taught to believe that a 12-hour workday is a prerequisite for accomplishing something in this industry. That is why many young female filmmakers are reluctant to embark on such large-scale projects as an all-night feature film.

Nevertheless, there is a large proportion of women in Norwegian film, both during education and at work. But they are not so visible. They make less prestigious film types such as documentaries and short films. In feature films, women to a greater extent fill anonymous roles in production, for example with facilitation and editing. The visible and prestigious jobs such as directing, photography, script and production are largely performed by men. While women may initially seem to stick to smaller projects to have the opportunity to also have a life outside of work, a number of young talented men have made it through and been allowed to make feature films. But that's not how we can have it in "the land of female directors" as we were called in the 80's? Then come on girls, and make feature films!

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