Oslo Stories Trilogy: Sex
The final chapter in Dag Johan Haugerud’s Norwegian trilogy focuses on sex, sexuality and two chimney sweeps.
Image courtesy of Modern Films.
With the arrival in the UK of this film written and directed by Dag Johan Haugerud the whole of his Oslo Stories Trilogy is available and it proves beyond doubt that each of the three is worth seeing but that each one stands on its own. Now that all three have emerged, it does become clear that just one character, a psychiatrist named Bjørn played by Lars Jacob Holm, does appear each time. But, while he is a central figure in the second film, Love, he has only a cameo role in Dreams and his appearance in Sex is even briefer. Indeed, his repeated presence can in these circumstances be regarded almost as an in-joke.
On balance I would take the view that for all its many appealing aspects Sex is the least successful of the trio, but that does not mean that the trilogy tails off since in point of fact it was the first of the three to be made. Indeed, despite its weaknesses, one can say that all the things that make this film worthwhile are pointers to what works best in its successors. That includes the remarkably accomplished performances of all the players with the leads here once again being fresh names to us (this time the cast is headed by Jan Gunnar Røise, Thorbjørn Harr and Siri Forberg). Once again, we find Haugerud limiting action as such and allowing his characters to reveal themselves through their conversations.
But, even if talk is a notable feature in all three films, each handles it in a distinct manner. In Dreams which has the strongest plot line the importance and quality of the dialogue remind one of that Hollywood luminary Joseph L. Mankiewicz who gave us the memorable All About Eve (1950). But in Love the wider ensemble element involving conversations among a number of contrasted characters reminds one of the films of Eric Rohmer. This time around the main focus is more concentrated: Røise's chimney sweep has a manager played by Harr and these two are close friends who confide in one another while at the same time Røise's character is in a situation which involves heartfelt issues that need to be talked out with his wife (that’s Forberg’s role). Here the comparison prompted is more with the intimate trilogy by the American filmmaker Richard Linklater which started in 1995 with Before Sunrise.
By electing to give this piece the title Sex Haugerud may give the impression of offering a work that features graphic scenes of intimacy but that is not what he delivers. Even so, the title is a relevant one because the aim here is to air issues especially relevant in an age when questions are more than ever being asked relating to the extent to which one’s sexuality may be fluid rather than fixed and to the controversies around issues of gender. To engage with such matters in a way that encourages thought and discussion Haugerud has in effect devised two stories that are linked together. At the outset Harr’s manager admits to his friend that he is regularly having dreams in which David Bowie appears and looks at him in a way which he finds pleasurable but which later leaves him feeling troubled. The manager has a wife (Birgitte Larsen) and a 13-year-old son (Theo Dahl) and as a Christian believer sings in a church choir, but he now develops an obsessive notion that his voice has changed. In spite of that others notice no such alteration and it must surely be that his mind has embarked on this fantasy due to the dream in which Bowie appears. In describing it he has declared that although in his dream he is not dressed as a woman the singer approaches him as though he were female.
Once taken into the manager’s confidence over this, the chimney sweep describes his own situation. He has been married for years and has two young children and has always believed in being open and honest. He has therefore recently told his wife of how on the spur of the moment he has had sex with a man who had approached him making it clear that he was attracted. He had found the experience pleasurable but declares that he is not gay and feels sure that he would never choose to do it again. But, since he regarded this incident as something entirely different from anything else, he had not seen it as a betrayal of his wife and is now shattered to realise that, by admitting what has happened, he has caused his wife to have serious doubts about their relationship.
A few touches here invite one to think of yet other directors. Shooting Forberg from behind during her first scene with Røise reminds one of Godard’s Vivre sa vie (1962) and Godard, famous for name-dropping in his films, is echoed again when references to Hannah Arendt are incorporated first in dialogue and then through the sight of a book by her. When it comes to shots of Oslo that are inserted between sequences one is reminded of how Ozu often did this as punctuation between episodes in his films. But the thought-provoking conversations about relationships can now be identified as a personal fingerprint of Haugerud’s work and those included here are first class. The problem that arises is that the chimney sweep’s story is by far the more engrossing leading as it does to issues about just what a relationship entails. In contrast to that the manager’s tale feels relatively undeveloped and superficial. Unfortunately, it is the latter which becomes central in the last section of the film leading to a performance by the church choir which is no more effective as a climax than was the Oslo celebration which Haugerud used to conclude the otherwise impressive Love. Good as all of the players are, one's impression throughout Sex is that the two tales are out of balance: either the manager's situation needed deeper development or it required a treatment that made it a more subsidiary element altogether. Nevertheless, the best sections here have a distinction and an individuality that make them characteristic of what we can now identify as a Haugerud film. The bracketed release of the three films may have been a bit of a gimmick but, regardless of any flaws to be found in them, they establish Haugerud as a talent now worthy of international recognition.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Jan Gunnar Røise, Thorbjørn Harr, Siri Forberg, Theo Dahl, Birgitte Larsen, Anne Marie Ottersen, Vetle Bergn, Iver Innset, Nasrin Khusrawi, Hadrian Jenum Skaaland, August Skaaland, Helle Vaagland and Lars Jacob Holm.
Dir Dag Johan Haugerud, Pro Yngve Sæther and Hege Hauff Hvattum, Screenplay Dag Johan Haugerud, Ph Cecilie Semec, Pro Des Tuva Holmebakk, Ed Jens Christian Fodstad, Music Peter Kjellsby, Costumes Ida Toft.
Motlys/Viaplay Group production/Oslo Filmfond/Arthaus-Modern Films.
118 mins. Norway. 2024. US Rel: 13 June 2025. UK Rel: 22 August 2025. Cert. 15.
