Hamsun

Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun seems to have led a fascinating life, but you wouldn't know it from Hamsun, Jan Troell's lengthy, dull account of the Nobel Prize winner's misguided support of the Third Reich. If this representation is accurate, Hamsun would have made an ideal Fassbinder protagonist--Troell and screenwriter Per Olev Enquist portray him as a dupe, whose allegedly good intentions are twisted both by the Nazis and by his duplicitous wife (Ghita Norby) for their own nefarious purposes. The difference is that Fassbinder wouldn't have absolved the fool at the eye of his hurricane, and would have imposed his unique cinematic sensibility on the material; Troell's take is both politically dubious and visually flat. (Directors making period films, as a general rule, need to worry a lot less about art direction and set decoration, and a lot more about where to put the camera and which lenses to use.) Even an actor as brilliant and iconic as Max von Sydow, as Hamsun, can't breathe life into this stuffy, unadventurous "quality drama." After two tedious hours, with forty more to go, I found myself wishing I were watching Hansen instead. If nothing else, it would at least have been a lot shorter. Not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)[DVD Review—May 30, 2006—First Run, 154 min., in Swedish, Danish & Norwegian w/English subtitles, not rated, $29.95—Making its first appearance on DVD, 1997's Hamsun features an acceptable transfer. DVD extras include a text bio of the film's subject Knut Hamsun, text director and cast text bios, a photo gallery, a WWII film collection preview, and trailers. Bottom line: a disappointing extras package for a disappointing film.]