Reprise (2006)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Nate Z

  
  [font=Arial][color=DarkRed]This very New Wave-styled Norwegian film manages to be thoughtful and intelligent, stylish without being vapid, touching, and it brilliantly captures the exuberance of youth on the cusp of adapting into maturity. [i]Reprise[/i] follows two best friends and… More
  [font=Arial][color=DarkRed]This very New Wave-styled Norwegian film manages to be thoughtful and intelligent, stylish without being vapid, touching, and it brilliantly captures the exuberance of youth on the cusp of adapting into maturity. [i]Reprise[/i] follows two best friends and aspiring writers; Phillip finds success immediately but cannot handle it, and Erik must fight through rejections. Director/co-writer Joachim Trier (cousin to Lars) has given the film a hypnotic triptych narrative structure, meaning there are flashbacks, flash forwards, flashbacks within flashbacks, and the viewer is best advised to just succumb to the thrills of the narrative and sort it all out later. The structure made me feel totally immersed in the lives of this small unit of 20-somethings. You get a lifetime of detail thanks to the tangential narrative structure and the help of an occasional narrator. The film has a remarkably deft touch when it comes to crafting realistic characters; the pangs of uncertainty, jealousy, and insecurity all ring true without being trite or obvious. But the movie never gets dour or pretentious as it covers weighty topics. The movie also has an indelible energy that is hard to ignore. [i]Reprise [/i]is playfully edited and constantly moving, sometimes forward, sometimes backwards, sometimes telling us a possible scenario that sounds better than reality. I found several small moments to be provocative, like Phillip trying to replicate the happy memories of time and place by trying to restage a photo of his girlfriend with his girlfriend (a lovely Viktoria Winge). [i]Reprise[/i] is full of small tender moments that speak volumes. This is a terrific film brimming with life and verve and clearly targets Trier as an inspiring filmmaker to watch. Nate's Grade: A[/color][/font]

• William D

  
  [size=3]During the first third of "Reprise," a new film from Norway, I thought I was watching a masterpiece. During the second half, I felt I was watching a film made by a pretentious bore. That's quite a long distance to travel.[/size]… More
  [size=3]During the first third of "Reprise," a new film from Norway, I thought I was watching a masterpiece. During the second half, I felt I was watching a film made by a pretentious bore. That's quite a long distance to travel.[/size] [size=3][img]http://labuzzblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/reprise_galleryposter.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3]Director [b]Joachim Trier[/b], here making his film debut, is without doubt a supreme talent for the 21st century. He clearly has studied the films of Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard, among others, and created a work of art in that vein that is at times breathtaking. But if Trier doesn't learn to put story and characters first and cinematic style second, his immense talent will be for naught. [/size] [size=3][img]http://fest07.sffs.org/i/stills/main/films/reprise.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3]Initially, "Reprise" has a laser-like focus on its characters, two men just out of college who aspire to be serious novelists. One mysteriously drifts into mental illness after becoming a literary sensation with his first novel. It is absolutely harrowing to watch his mind start to fray. But after about an hour the film runs out of things to say, and it becomes a celebration of itself. Look at me, I'm so innovative. Look at me, I'm so stylish. Look at me, I'm so artistically sophisticated. [/size] [size=3][img]http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/09/reprise_450x250.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3]"Reprise" ends up becoming an advertisement for the director, as if the director were trying to prove that he's well-educated. This was very disappointing. [/size][size=3]There is something uniquely depressing about a super-talented artist getting full of him or herself. What a waste of talent self-congratulation is. No true artist would sink to self-aggrandizement. I hope Trier fell into this trap because of immaturity. I pray that he gets himself out of it as he matures. If he does, he could become the next Godard or Bergman.[/size] [size=3][img]http://www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/pix/r/re/reprse2.jpg[/img][/size] [size=3]At its best, "Reprise" beautifully captures the vim and vigor, as well as the confusion, of intellectual youth. The protagonists have a tremendous amount of artistic inspiration, and the film itself seems to embody their inspiration. With all its jump-cutting and experimentation with sound and editing, it sumptuously brings to life the world of the young artists.[/size] [size=3]It also takes exciting risks in presenting the immaturity of young artists, rather than completely lionizing them. The two protagonists are part of a larger group of young men, and the film gradually starts to widen its lens to explore these other characters. We hear the most ridiculously misogynist ideas get presented by some of them, and then we watch some of them make absurd decisions in an attempt to live up to these silly ideas.[/size] [size=3]I like the idea of showing smart characters succumb to stupidity. But this is the point where the film began to come undone. It became kind of silly. We started laughing at the characters, but I wasn't sure what the deeper meaning of this laughter was. The film started losing its way, relying on shallow, predictable humor. The more the film started to make fun of its characters, the more I began to disengage. [/size][size=3]As the content thinned, the heavy style (jump-cutting, for example) began to feel more like a gimmick than a meaningful way to explore an idea.[/size] [size=3]Despite its flaws, "Reprise" is worth seeing. If this director develops properly, we could end up looking back at 2008 as the year we first saw a Trier film. That's how much potential he has. He could represent the return of auteurist cinema to Europe in the 2010s.[/size]

• Glenn G

  
  A revelation. Wonderfully complex and emotional. A beautiful, elliptical film about friendship, competition, and fate. Highly recommended, although for the first time in my life, this film makes me want to avoid Oslo!

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]"Reprise" starts at a mailbox where Phillip(Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik(Espen Klouman-Hoiner), lifelong pals, are about to mail their completed manuscripts to publishers. They imagine that both their novels will be accepted, become modest successes,… More
  [font=Century Gothic]"Reprise" starts at a mailbox where Phillip(Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik(Espen Klouman-Hoiner), lifelong pals, are about to mail their completed manuscripts to publishers. They imagine that both their novels will be accepted, become modest successes, create controversy before collaborating on a novel together.(Considering these fantasies do not include either movie deals or supermodels, they are rather modest.) In reality, Phillip's is accepted while Erik's is rejected. But several months later, Phillip is recovering from a nervous breakdown and is not allowed access to his girlfriend, Kari(Viktoria Winge), because it is assumed that his obsessive love for her drove him over the edge...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Reprise" is an intriguing movie that tries to utilize a complex structure to mask some of its flaws,(Think "Run Lola Run" and "Last Year at Marienbad" mostly.) especially in how it confuses youth and immaturity in attempting to depict the lives of two writers. By its nature, writing is a solitary art and also one that earns very little money(I forget the exact numbers but they were not pretty.) which are two things that society usually frowns upon. There is nothing wrong with that when you are young and able to fully test your talent. But in this case, presumably because they are young, the writers spend their valuable time hanging out with a maladjusted and sexist group of men, following their lead, instead of leading their lives on their own terms.(Even the movie is not immune, since one promising female character is little more than a literary groupie.) In the end, the movie narrowly defines a decent job and a relationship as indicators for being a mature adult but they are not absolutely necessary, even though being in love is nice. [/font]

• William G

  
  Energetic and unique coming-of-age tale, and an impressive directorial debut.

• Marion R

  
  What an awesome treat. I really liked this film. The description makes it sound boring but it is not. It was interesting and I especially like the look of the film.

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