I have had a lot of exposure to Norwegian language, culture, and people.  I took Norwegian literature classes in college.  However, Norwegian film is something I have never studied.  When I was at St. Olaf, I watched a lot of Norwegian movies, but never really analyzed them.  The University of Oslo showed Norwegian movies a couple times a month for the international students so I saw a few more there, but a lot of them were the same as the ones I had seen at St. Olaf.  One must remember that Norway is a small country with a relatively small population, so one wouldn’t expect Norway to be like Hollywood or Bollywood. 

Norway’s film industry developed later than those of Sweden and Denmark.  In fact, very little is known about the first film produced in Norway.  The film itself is long gone and we don’t even know what year it was produced-sometime in the first decade of the 20th century.  It was produced by Hugo Hermansen and was called either “Fiskerlivets farer” (Dangers of a Fisherman’s life) or “Et drama på havet” (A drama at Sea).  So we know who produced it and that it was called one of two things. 

It wasn’t until the 1920s that Norway began to really produce professional feature films that were sucessful.  It was also during this time period that the nature of Norwegian film changed.  While the birth of the Norwegian film industry produced motion pictures that were based in the big city, during the late 20s, filming in nature and in the rural areas of the country became more popular.  As you might imagine, during the Nazi occupation of Norway, the film industry was sensored and so the voicesof the majority of the Norwegian people were not heard during that time.  Following the second world war, documentaries were popular, especially those about wartime related events.  By the 1960s, more people watched the television than movies, so the film industry hit kind of a stagnant point.  As can be expected, the social activist and rebellious atmosphere of the 1970s was portrayed on film.  The vehicle for expression was politics, not art.  Films from this period were straight-forward and intentional.  There was a brief period in the 1980s that film viewing was decreasing, but at the end of the 80s, into the 90s, and still today in the 21st century, the Norwegian film industry is on the incline in many ways, including sophistocation, technology, and popularity.  Although most Americans probably have not seen many Norwegian films, Norwegian films have become more and more internationally reknowned in recent years.

I think this statistic will change at some point, but still today the movie “Kon Tiki” (about Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition on a raft in the Pacific) is the only Norwegian movie to have won an Oscar-for best documentary in 1952.

I have thought long and hard about it, but have come to the conclusion that there are few well-known American movies that are filmed partially in Norway or have something to do with Norway.  I think of myself as a person who has seen a lot of movies in my lifetime-movies from all genres-and I can only think of one off of the top of my head that involves Norway-“Miracle.”  There is a part in the movie where the American hockey team plays Norway.  It’s fun to watch once you are comfortable with the Norwegian language.

What I love about Norwegian movies is that they don’t rely heavily on technology to be enjoyable.  Even with limited technology, Norwegian film still manages to tell great (usually simple, but intricate and realistic) stories that can be suspenseful, scary, upsetting, whatever the feeling might be.  I feel like I’m reading a really good book when I’m watching a good Norwegian movie.  That’s just me and I could be crazy, but that’s how I feel about them. 

I think I’ve mentioned before several of my favorite Norwegian movies, but it doesn’t hurt to say it again.  I really like Elling and Heftig og Begeistret (Cool and Crazy), Villmark, and Kitchen Stories.  I highly recommend watching all of these movies.  They are all similar in some ways and very different in others.  Let me know what you think of them!

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