Yet another incarnation of the title Through a Glass,
Darkly is to be implemented, this time by Danish filmmaker Jesper W.
Nielsen. His adaptation of the tale
based on Jostein Gaarder's novel takes place at Christmas time (to give it that
extra whimsical ambiance). It is about a
thirteen year old girl named Cecilie who is in bed most of the time, as she is
deadly ill, fantasizing about a boy named Sebastian of whom she became smitten
by the previous summer, whilst on a holiday in Southern Europe.
One night a self-proclaimed angel in the form
of an odd little man named Ariel comes to visit her, wherein they form a pact
to tell each other about the secrets of heaven and earth. Ariel tells Cecilie of the mysteries of life
and the world's place in regards to the bigger plan, and Cecilie tries to show
Ariel what it is like to be a human. Sounds like something Guillermo del Toro might like to have
had a go at.
Norwegian Film Fund consultant Nikolaj Frobenius says of the
film "Although the theme sounds incredibly sad, I think that the film still has
wide audience potential. Seriousness and
sadness can indeed open the door to humour, compassion and longing, strong
emotions on which some of the greatest films are based."
Frobenius' opinion is not far off the mark from describing
the oscar winning Through a Glass, Darkly that was written and directed
by film auteur Ingmar Bergman. His
interpretation was also loosely based on literature; more specifically a short
story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman called "The Yellow Wallpaper." In the story a woman is locked in an upper
bedroom by her husband to overcome depression, only to degenerate into a more
severe state of psychosis as she starts to become obsessed with the yellow
wallpaper, believing there to be women creeping around behind it. Bergman had his starlet Harriet Andersson
play a schizophrenic named Karin who believed that the voices coming from
behind the wall in the attic were prophesizing the arrival of God who would
meet her. It was certainly a serious and
sad portrait of a family that was under a lot of pressure due to Karin's
psychotic outbursts and claims of divine contact.
Strangely enough Liv Ullmann who was one of Ingmar Bergman's
revered protagonists, starring in around eleven of his films as well as bearing
his child, is to have a role in Nielsen's 2008 Through a Glass, Darkly. All that is known is that she will be the
grandmother of Cecilie. I very much
doubt, in fact I am certain that Nielsen will be unable to outdo Bergman's 1961
masterpiece but only time will tell whether his family film will be able to
force those strong emotions of compassion and longing on the audience like his
predecessor could. It will also be
interesting to see how Ullmann fairs in this film and whether she will be able
to pull off a performance like she did in Autumn Sonata as the anxious and
resentful daughter or Scenes from a Marriage as the trapped and listless
housewife.
Nathan
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