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ARCTIC
CABARET
6/10
Pa
hau i havet : Norway 2004 : Knut Erik JENSEN : 102
mins
A burlesque,
high-spirited and colourful encounter with the local cabaret community
on Magerøya. We become familiar with the local cabaret heroes – old, young,
women and men – and hear their stories. Scenes from the cabarets deliver
racy lines and juicy jokes. This is a journey in time and space, brimming
with intimate and human portraits from past and present, driven by song
and music against a backdrop of arctic landscape. … A phenomenon of surplus
energy has become a phenomenon of survival.
(from official Tromsø 2004 Film Festival programme)
Jensen was
responsible for 2001’s widely-distributed Norwegian-male-voice-choir documentary
Cool and Crazy
- and Arctic Cabaret certainly doesn’t stray far from that turf,
either in terms of geography or subject-matter. ‘Cold Singers II’, perhaps,
or, more accurately, ‘Cold Singers III’, as Jensen did actually make a
Cool and Crazy sequel in 2002 which didn’t obtain much of a release
outside Scandinavia. This is likely to be the fate of Arctic Cabaret,
an overlong - but likeable and entertaining - look at one of the main
leisure-time activities in Jensen’s home town of Honningsvag, perhaps
the most northerly ‘city’ in the world.
Trimmed down
to an hour or so, Arctic Cabaret would make excellent small-screen
fare – Jensen could certainly have cut back on the number of songs he
includes in full. And some understanding/tolerance of the local sense
of humour is a requisite: “I can’t help it, we ain’t got no trees!” is
a typical punchline. The songs, of course, give voice to many aspects
of local culture and politics: “Do you think we could fish a bit? There
are plenty of fish in the sea,” warbles one fisherman, in a very Cool
and Crazy moment.
And, leaving
aside the rights and wrong of the specific issues (many experts would
firmly state that there aren’t plenty of fish in the sea any more),
it’s encouraging that Jensen does at least offer a podium for his former
neighbours to put their points across. In addition, by providing historical
context for the ‘Arctic Cabaret’ phenomenon – the Nazis almost entirely
razed the entire area at the end of World War II – Jensen does ensure
his material is of more than strictly parochial interest.
This attempt
to widen the film’s appeal is presumably why the Norwegian title – a dialect
phrase roughly meaning ‘Head first into the water’ - has been ditched
in favour of the more baldly informative Arctic Cabaret. (Cool
and Crazy also had little to do with that film’s Norwegian title,
Heftig og Begeistret meaning something like “With gusto and feeling.”)
But ‘Cabaret’ isn’t quite the word – the sketches we see are much closer
to the old English idea of a ‘Revue’, and Jensen’s loose, tangential,
episodic style mirrors the Honningsvag format quite closely. Jensen’s
camerawork does include some impressive Steadicam-style shots that swoop
over the alluringly ‘North Cape’ terrain during the ‘pop video’ style
interludes. But anyone in search of a sober, “well-made” documentary would
be advised to look elsewhere.
3rd February,
2004
(seen 14th January : Fokus Cinema, Tromsø – opening ceremony of Tromsø
International Film Festival)
click here
for a full list of reviewed films from the Tromsø International Film Festival
2004
by Neil
Young
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