THRANE'S METHOD  (1998)  **

Reviewed 4/4/99

Middle-aged Thrane (Bjørn Sundquist) moves into his new apartment and becomes obsessed over his gorgeous and married neighbor, Mol (Petronella Barker). Virtually more a stage play than a movie, Thrane's Method comes off as stiff as its main character who speaks in dour monotone throughout. The camera fawns over the glowingly beautiful Mol, but since we see her through Thrane's eyes, she's always just an object. Without being able to get close to these characters, we have nothing to connect to. All we can appreciate is cinematographer Harald Paalgard's high-contrast lighting and myriad color palettes and Barker's long neck and perfect body. Strangely, this film is directed by a woman, Unni Straume. The only instance of enlightenment that enters Thrane's Method is when Thrane realizes he may not want to be to Mol what most women are to men when it comes to sex -- a momentary object of diversion.

Thrane's Method is that rare Norwegian film that makes it to the U.S. albeit only through New York's New Directors/New Films series and next week's Norwegian series at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade. I saw it accompanied by a 10-minute short by Columbia University student Jodi Kaplan called Immersion. Kaplan choreographed three female dancers performing mostly underwater, either nude or entwined in billowing white sheets. However, continuation of movement or a sense of flow is necessary to really appreciate a dance. Kaplan gives us rapid editing of body parts, splashing water, and off-kilter framing. We have no spatial orientation or sense of where the "dance" is going. The irritating music doesn't help.

Copyright © 1999 George Wu