This film has the longest title of any we have screened for a long time - if ever.
I'd missed it at the cinema and did not know the book either, so I approached it with an open mind - and was pleasantly surprised. I think it did show its literary genesis, but as a film it had echoes of both Zelig and Being There. I enjoyed it very much.
Here are my notes:
The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of the Window and Disappeared / Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Jonas Jonasson which became a best seller initially in Sweden and then, after translation, globally with total sales of three million. The film was first screened at the Berlin Film Festival and subsequently has been shown in more than 40 countries. It is the third highest grossing Swedish film of all time, beaten only by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and The Girl who Played with Fire (2009).
Here's the trailer:
I'd missed it at the cinema and did not know the book either, so I approached it with an open mind - and was pleasantly surprised. I think it did show its literary genesis, but as a film it had echoes of both Zelig and Being There. I enjoyed it very much.
Here are my notes:
The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of the Window and Disappeared / Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann
Sweden 2013 114
minutes
Director: Felix
Herngren
Starring:
Robert Gustafsson,
Mia Skaringer, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg and Jens Hulten
Awards
and Nominations
- Won
five awards
- Nominated
for seven further awards
“What we're left with
is a peculiar example of the regional specificity of humour; a reminder that
there's nothing so particular as that which makes a nation laugh. While
Scandinavian doom and gloom remains a saleable commodity in the UK, Swedish
humour appears to travel less well and it seems unlikely that the success that
this ambitiously ramshackle picture has enjoyed elsewhere will be matched on
these shores.”
Mark Kermode
The title of the film
sums up the starting point for the plot: after the old man (Robert Gustsafsson)
leaves his retirement home the film follows his adventures as he is chased by
drug dealers and the police, intercut with episodes from his long life where,
amongst others, he knew Harry S Truman, General Franco and Stalin.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Jonas Jonasson which became a best seller initially in Sweden and then, after translation, globally with total sales of three million. The film was first screened at the Berlin Film Festival and subsequently has been shown in more than 40 countries. It is the third highest grossing Swedish film of all time, beaten only by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and The Girl who Played with Fire (2009).
Here's the trailer:
