This post is a pretty early push for a film I am incredibly excited to see: Joachim Trier’s Thelma, showing at the Indiana University Cinema on January 5 and 6, 2018. Yes, these screenings are still weeks away, but I wholeheartedly believe my anticipation for seeing a film that The Independent calls “a new take on body horror” is well worth it (see more here).
In the past few years, I have found myself a fan of many of the Norwegian director’s films — more so, admittedly, than his distant relative, Lars von Trier’s. Although it was his 2011 film Oslo, August 31st that gained Joachim Trier wide success, 2006’s Reprise is my favorite.
Trier’s films are beautiful to watch, both in terms of their visual style as well as the stories they tell; for, as many have noted, Trier is a skilled director and storyteller (in fact, he co-wrote the screenplay for Thelma and his other six films alongside Eskil Vogt). Those that I have seen are truly tributes to the art of directing, as well as lovely studies of the bittersweet reality of life. As one 2016 writer labeled them, his films are “sweetly melancholic,” both a bit dark and “also oddly uplifting.”
Nominated for multiple Best Feature/Film awards at several international film festivals (see the list on IMDB here), Thelma has received quite a positive response this past year. A recent Variety review from September says of Trier’s film, it is “an unnervingly effective slow-burn, and those with the patience for Trier’s patient accumulation of detail will find it pays off in unexpected ways.”
Be sure to see Joachim Trier’s Thelma at the IU Cinema on January 5 at 7 pm or January 6 at 3 pm as a part of the International Arthouse Series.
A PhD Candidate in Communication and Culture, Katherine studies film and media, genre (particularly the Western), gender, and performance. She has a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and has been fascinated with film since she could remember.