Norwegian Film
3. The film

There is a popular notion that there is a clear difference between "film" and "movie", werein the former holds artistic quality and the latter is mere entertainment. In Norway, there is a strong movement towards the former category. This doesn't mean that Norwegians cinematographic products are films, but more that they try to be. In part 2 we discussed actors and their need to play out scenes in ways hard to find outside of a theatre since the introduction of sound. Another artistic merit Norwegian films have, is the lead character's complete inability to do anything. Apathy is the true path to wisdom in a Norwegian film (for a prime example of this, watch the cornucopia of artistic clichés that is "Hawaii, Oslo").

Part of the reason for the Norwegian love for these films is that Norway has relatively recently and somewhat reluctantly broken free from the mentality that Social democratic providence will help Norwegians make the right decisions. Entertainment for its own sake is therefore a somewhat new concept (stand-up comedians did not enter the Norwegian scene before the late 90s). Another reason is the Norwegian word "Angst", which has no good English equivalence (it's a mix between "anxiety" and "depression", not unlike how many foreigners feel after having seen a Norwegian film).

This does not mean that there are no Norwegian movies. In fact, the most known Norwegian films are light entertainment in comedy (Fleksnes, their version of Tommy Hancock, is particularily popular), action and some crime (albeit they are often overtaken by broad strokes of sensitive issues of police brutality, corruption, political agenda, rendering the finding of the killer almost unimportant). In recent years, film directors have discovered that countries outside Norway make films of their own, and that these are as a rule better. Therefore Norwegian films have more international elements, making them at least tolerable to the international viewer.

1. The Director
2. The Actors
4. A typical Norwegian film