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Danish film director Bille August's new film, Jerusalem, was first released
in Scandinavia last Fall and is now being released in limited markets in
the United States (this initial release, strangely, not including New
York). An expanded American release (which would include New York) is set
for the near future, though the precise date was not known as of press time
for this review. I must say I find the distributors' hesitation fairly
inexplicable. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Mr. August has another
new film in current release, Smilla's Sense of Snow, a fairly conventional
thriller in English starring Julia Ormond. I think a more likely
explanation has to do with Jerusalem's length (2-3/4 hours) and the fact
that it is in Swedish. Now, we've all been made aware ad nauseam of
Americans' infantile attention span, particularly when it comes to reading
subtitles, but it's become a ludicrously tiresome point. If it's true, then
Americans should grow up and/or learn to read. And if it's not true (which
I'd like to believe is the case), then distributors should stop being so
condescending. In any event, Jerusalem is a wonderful film – epic in
proportions, intense, visually evocative and superbly acted -- just like
August's previous efforts Pelle the Conqueror and The Best Intentions. And
as for the film's length – it's a downright breeze compared to the longeurs
of, say, Breaking the Waves, which is actually 9 tedious and pretentious
minutes shorter.
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Based on the classic Swedish novel by Selma Lagerlöf, who was the first
woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Jerusalem concerns itself with
the growing religious fervor in Sweden just before the turn of the century
and the resulting wave of emmigration to Palestine, the Holy Land. It was
an historical phenomenon not at all uncommon at the time.
In the film, a small farming community, already feeling the strain of growing religious schisms and family quarrels, is set on its head by Hellgum (Sven-Bertil Taube), a fanatical fundamentalist preacher, newly arrived from Chicago. Strict sides are immediately drawn. The protagonist, Ingmar Ingmarsson (Ulf Friberg), a practical, hardworking and strapping youth, is soon alienated from his older sister Karin (the ever-extraordinary Pernilla August), his well-intentioned step-father Tim (Reine Brynolfsson) and even from his beautiful fiancee Gertrud (Maria Bonnevie), all of whom have become devout followers of Hellgum. To make a long, somewhat complicated story short, the Ingmarsson farm, along with almost everything else in town, is auctioned off when the most devout villagers (following a stunning scene of hysterical religious conversion on par with the very best Bergman efforts in the same vein) leave the village to join a religious community in Jerusalem. This community is headed by Hellgum's partner from Chicago, one Mrs. Gordon (Olympia Dukakis, speaking English and seeming only slightly out of place in the proceedings). Back at home, Ingmar, now separated geographically as well as ideologically from Gertrud, can only regain control of his father's farm by entering into an arranged, loveless marriage with the beautiful Barbro (Lena Endre, every bit as luminous here as in The Best Intentions and Bergman's recent stage production of The Misanthrope). We cut back and forth between Sweden and Palestine where, as you can imagine, things are not quite what folks expected. Big surprise: daily life under the intensely hot Jerusalem sun is just as grueling as the bitterly cold Swedish farm life they left behind. Jerusalem is a sweeping epic in the traditional (and best) sense of the word, and much of the pleasure here is simply watching a darn good story unfold. But there are other, more subtle pleasures too, like contemplating that thin and fascinating line which separates religious faith from religious fanaticism. After all, it can be a very ambiguous line, and more than one character here has, for want of a better phrase, mystical experiences and/or visions. But it is all presented in the most straight-forward, emotionally honest manner possible, and wisely, Director August refuses to judge his characters. He simply tells his story, and he does it not only with a masterly eye for atmosphere (August makes you feel in your bones the raw, bitter cold of the Swedish hinterlands), but more importantly, with an unwavering sympathy for human frailty, faith and desire. Jerusalem is, after all is said and done, a profoundly moving experience. See it. |
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