OSLO, 31st AUGUST: CAPSULE

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Cast: Anders Danielsen Lie, Hans Olav Brenner, Tone B. MostraumDirector: Joachim TrierRuntime: 95 min. Verdict: A plea for voyeurism.Language: NorwegianCountry: NorwayGenre: Drama       
Mr. Trier’s film might make for a rather heart-wrenchingdouble-bill with Mr. Guerin’s In the Cityof Sylvia. Here’s a film, at last I guess, that understands voyeurism notas a perverse emotion or a disconnected no-stakes erotic luxury, but as thevery basic element of our needs, fuelling almost all of our moods and emotions anddesires. If one were to describe Mr. Trier’s film as a plea for voyeurism, I mightnot find any reason to disagree. At its center is a sequence that causes a rather magnificentriff, both geographically and thereby thematically, on the café setting in Mr.Guerin’s film, where the man is mostly an empty vessel of desire, sort of astand-in for the archetypical male gaze, enjoying the aesthetics of bodies crossingeach other as the ten o’clock sun bounces off them. I mean, for all we know,the scene and the film could very well be the ideal example Mr. Andrew Sarris’ whenhe sums it all up in three words – “Girls! Girls! Girls!” It is a multi-planarstructure out there, with our man mostly indulging himself in a low-stakesobsession, sort of like the way most of us often find ourselves at the movies. Mr.Trier is considerably more serious, probably more respectful of the rigors ofeveryday life and the value they hold, and he probably doesn’t have much withinhim for otherwise bohemian soul of Mr. Guerin’s masterpiece, or Mr. Woody Allensilly little escapade in two-dimensional Paris, where the opening presents adepthless ahistorical completely uninfluential city, where it has beenbasically cut out of a postcard, and exists like a piece of dead furniture.Oslo here is a subjective place who geography and history is created out ofpersonal memories, and where the city might cease to exist outside of them. The café. Mr. Trier has Anders (Mr. Anders Danielsen Lie) sitnear the edge of this rectangular café, whereby he begins as an outsider to allthe chatter around him. The glass wall near him becomes a screen of sorts, tothe “outside” Oslo, and what feeds his perspective of it is the inside of the café.There’s a magnificent display of transference, thereby pulling Anders intobeing the center of the circle, and which establishes the two-way communicationhere by influencing his (thereby ours) perspective of the inside by theoutside. I would want to consider this the most respectful tribute to themedium, as opposed to the “referential” brand of filmmaking, because hey, we’reat the movies even when we aren’t at the movies. While watching movies, theframe of reference is life. While watching life, the frame of reference ismovies. And our life, for the most part, is an indistinguishable muddle of theinteraction between the exterior and the interior, between the imagination andreality.                              Mr.Trier draws considerable leverage from stray bystanders and people passing by,and even a momentary shot of an anonymous walking past Anders on the street, orof a hunk having a conversation with his buddy whets our voyeuristic instincts.It makes us desire. The tragedy here isn’t that Anders cannot get rid of hisdrug-addiction. The tragedy here isn’t that everything is over between him andIselin. The tragedy is that Anders cannot desire. The tragedy is that Andersmight be the exact opposite of that man in Sylvia’s city, and that Anders is aware of it. Oslo, 31^stAugust is Anders journey through a day in Oslo to find desire, and he findsnone. The final few shots are probably the only “objective” views of Oslo, and unhingedfrom any memories it’s just about as dead as Mr. Allen’s Paris. Feels justabout right that it’s the only place where Mr. Trier feels the need for aclassical picture-postcard composition.