A MAJOR FORCE FROM SWEDISH FILMMAKER
Family satire forces us to examine what relationships really mean
The avalanche is from B.C., the actors are from Norway, and the Alps are French, but the emotional fallout is entirely universal in Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure.
A psychological thriller with a slippery dark layer of comedy lying beneath an icy crust, Ostlund’s film was recently named Sweden’s Oscar contender for best foreign film, but his drama about one family’s eventful ski holiday is really in a class unto itself.
No one has ever really shot a film using the fairy tale quality of a ski resort as an integral part of the narrative, but Ostlund always knew he would turn snow canons, zero visibility and avalanche bombs into human drama.
“I come from the world of ski movies and I love this scenery. I love being in the mountains. And I think skiing in powder is hard to describe, because it’s like no other feeling in the world. To make your own tracks and look up at what you have done …. It’s something very special,” he says.
“There is something existential about it.”
For those who have never felt the weightless giddiness of a rhythmic descent in desert powder, the metaphysical high of the alpine experience is hard to explain, but Ostlund taps the essence of that emotional purity, and puts it to use thematically.
“The power of nature is so prescient on the mountain. It is uncivilized and you have to adapt to nature in a different way. In the city, in your house, at work, we are consumed by the trivial problems of life. But in the mountains things are pure: You are a human being in nature.”
Ostlund says the idea of a ski resort allowed him to contrast the wild, untamed world of the mountains with the height of luxury living and the idea of control.
“The resort controls the nature. We blow avalanches. We groom tracks. We make the snow. And this is how the main character of Tomas is: He wants to be a controlled civilized person without needs or instincts,” he says.
“I want him to represent all men. I wanted to find a situation we can all relate to, where we try to understand the role of the man, the expectations of the man, as that relates to the nuclear family.”
Finding the universals in the theme demanded specific locations, but Ostlund found every piece he needed.
“The location is the French Alps and the whole family is actually Norwegian, but we actually shot the avalanche in British Columbia, and the restaurant is on a sound stage in Sweden.”
Without unveiling too much of his elegant plot, Ostlund introduces us to Ebba, Tomas and their two children, then he pushes Tomas to the edge of a cliff and forces him to act reflexively.
The results are not heroic, which in turn puts Tomas on the defensive for the duration.
As family satire, Force Majeure is brilliant. As deconstruction of the male ego, it’s ruthlessly honest, and just a little funny.
“Tomas does not do what he is supposed to do as a man. And I think many of these gender expectations are very constructed.”
Ostlund says his film attempts to mirror those constructs in its own design as he paints a portrait of the human condition using the rigidity of architectural lines and the curvature of an alpine horizon.
“I think one of the things I wanted to address was the idea that we are living in an honour culture. Masculine culture is about honour. At its worst, it says if our daughter doesn’t marry the right man we have to kill her,” he says.
“Honour is a concept strongly connected to our core culture, and it sets up expectations, many of which are stupid. But some of which have value.”
If he has any single wish, Ostlund says he hopes his film causes divorce rates to skyrocket. Seriously. “I want to raise the frequency of divorce,” he says with a laugh. “
Force Majeure plays VIFF Oct 6, 6:30 p.m. at The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. The movie opens theatrically Oct. 31.