Change Your Image
fabianl
Reviews
Long Gone (2003)
Compassionate documentary about American hobos.
I just saw Long Gone at the Gothenburg film festival, and had the chance to chat with one of the directors afterwards. The film, shot during seven summers, lets us in on the little known lifestyle of train-hoppers in the USA. The story focuses on five of these characters and we get to hear their stories about how they became what they are, and what it's like riding cargo trains, confronting the police, and be a homeless war veteran who can't find a place in regular society.
During the first half of the film, i felt a little bit uneasy about what i felt was a romantic glorification of the lifestyle of a bunch of people with severe problems -- most of the guys portrayed in the film are either alcoholics or drug addicts. However, i had changed my mind after seeing the whole picture. Long Gone is a bare-bones documentary with no narration. The editing doesn't really make the film point in any direction, which may make the scenes seem a bit straggling. However, life doesn't always follow the dramatic rules of regular film making, and still there is a very compassionate overtone to the whole film.
If you have seen "Dark Days" (if you haven't, i recommend it), you'll see the similarities. But while Dark Days is stylish and nicely edited, Long Gone has a much more amateurish feel to it, be it positive or negative.
Skenbart: En film om tåg (2003)
Excellent slapstick comedy in black and white.
Skenbart takes place in the 1940s, right after the second world war. Main character Gunnar (Gustav Hammarsten) quits his job to get a chance to "make a difference" in the bombed-out postwar Europe. He packs a book by his favourite philisopher, Ludwig Witgenstein, and embarks on a trip which will eventually prove Witgenstein's famous statement true: Nothing is what it seems.
There are two main plots, and several subplots, to this film, which takes place on a train bound for Berlin. Writer/Director Peter Dalle (also playing the role as the conductor of the train) has assembled an impressive cast including swedish legends Lena Nyman, Gösta Ekman and Robert Gustafsson. Overall, the acting is excellent.
Skenbart offers some rather twisted slapstick comedy combined with more subtle black humor (like the nun who loses her faith and starts cursing violently). It's like Killinggänget meets Peter Jackson (Braindead, Bad Taste) in Schindler's List. I laughed during most of the film, and when i woke up the next morning i laughed even more. An intelligent film for fans of Swedish comedy.