In Contention

Tag: Bent Hamer

  • ‘O’ Horten’ trailer

    Bent Hamer’s “O’ Horten,” Norway’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film, has just got the shiny Apple treatment for its trailer. It looks melancholy, sweetly strange and altogether rather winning, as one would expect from the always interesting Hamer, whose Matt Dillon-starring 2005 effort “Factotum” really deserved more notice.

    The trailer comes complete with besotted quotes from Kenneth Turan and Lisa Schwarzbaum, and I’m hearing a fair bit of Oscar buzz around this one — that February 20 release date is auspicious indeed. Two years ago, Sony Pictures Classics released surprise winner “The Lives of Others” around the same time, and it paid off handsomely. Are they planning a similar coup for “O’ Horten”?

    With so many of the presumed frontrunners in the category on the bleak, gritty side, the voters may well gravitate towards a gentler, seemingly more sentimental contender like this.

  • ‘O’ Horten’ among further Foreign Film entries

    Leading a quick roundup of some recent entries in the Best Foreign Language Film race, Norway has unsuprisingly selected Bent Hamer’s absurdist comedy “O’ Horten” as their pony. The film garnered a number of followers at Cannes and Telluride, with Variety declaring it a “warm and gently humorous divertissement.”

    I was a big fan of Hamer’s previous films “Kitchen Stories” and “Factotum,” the latter a sadly underexposed Charles Bukowski adaptation that featured a career-best performance from Matt Dillon. I’m looking forward to “O’ Horten”; I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the final shortlist, at least.

    Other titles joining the mix (that we haven’t already reported) include:

    “Taare Zameen Par,” from India, starring and directed by Aamir Khan, a 2001 nominee for “Lagaan”;

    “Last Stop 174,” from Brazil, a Toronto entry from Bruno Barreto, a 1997 nominee for the brilliant “Four Days in September”;

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