Women in Oversized Men's Shirts

2015 | Norway | NR | 106 min.

Showings

City Opera House Wed, Jul 27, 2016 12:00 PM
Film Info
Section:Foreign Official Selection: Narrative
Release Year:2015
Runtime:106 min.
Rating:NC-17
Production Country:Norway
Original Language:Norwegian
Subtitles:English
Cast/Crew Info
Cast:Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
Henriette Steenstrup
Anne Krigsvoll
Hallvard Holmen
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal
Director:Yngvild Sve Flikke
Produced by:Yngve Sæther
Screenwriter:Yngvild Sve Flikke
Gunnhild Øyehaug
Cinematography:Marianne Bakke
Editing By:Jens Christian Fodstad

Description

The tradeoff between self-sacrifice and artistic commitment is cleverly explored in Yngvild Sve Flikke’s directorial debut, which falls somewhere between a chick-lit romcom and a bawdy Pedro Almodovar-style romp. 23-year-old feminist poet Sigrid abhors sexist clichés like women who don their male lovers’ shirts after sex, and rails about them to anyone who will listen in her pretty little Nordic hometown. But her youthful ideals are tested when a chance encounter with a famous writer twenty years her elder blossoms into an uneasy romance. Sigrid’s dilemma is loosely linked to that of Trine, a heavily pregnant fortyish performance artist who plans to give birth inside a cage while dressed as Marie Antoinette, and Agnes, a sixty-something timber warehouse worker haunted by her radical feminist past. Sprinkle in magical realism and recurring cameos by cartoon birds, plus symbolic slo-mo footage of butterflies, jellyfish, and other animals, and you get a wonderfully self-aware, spiky slant on rom-com conventions with a steady undercurrent of cheerfully crude humor that is sharper and deeper than the sunny comedy first appears.