O'Horten

O'Horten (2007)

O' Horten

Odd Horton is dependable and contained: he's a train driver retiring after 40 years of service, living a simple life. His idea of adventure is to fly from one city in Norway to another. Starting on the night of his retirement dinner, Odd has a series of dislocating experiences: a boy insists that Odd sit by his bedside while he falls asleep; misadventure causes Odd to miss his last run; he witnesses an arrest; he assists an old man and makes a friend; he takes a trip with a blindfolded driver; he adopts a dog; he takes stock late one night at the roundhouse; he revisits his mother's disappointment in him. How should he live the rest of his life?

Date of release
2007-12-26
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (57)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Drama, Comedy
Director
Bent Hamer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 2. Including: Silver nugget for the best Norwegian film

O' Horten is a 2007 internationally co-produced comedy-drama film written and directed by Bent Hamer. The film's title character Odd Horten is a habit-bound train driver, who is about to retire. On the day of his retirement he ends up in an unexpected situation, and is forced to reconsider his life. As in other films by Hamer, the themes are loneliness and old age, and the courage to take chances. O' Horten has been described as a film without a strong plot or a clear chronology.

Production

The film contains several cameos from well-known actors and other celebrities, made possible by Hamer's high standing as a director. His previous film was the international production Factotum, based on the novel by Charles Bukowski, starring Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, and Marisa Tomei.

Among the more original castings was Anette Sagen, the world's leading female ski jumper, in her first film role. Sagen, 22 at the time, played the part of 70-year-old Owe's ski jumping mother, although in a younger incarnation. Hamer had already considered Sagen for the role, when he ran into her by chance at the Holmenkollen Ski Museum.

The two lonely old men make part of a recurring theme in Hamer's films, as seen also in Eggs (1995) and Kitchen Stories (2003). However, Hamer himself has described the film as equally much about women; "the women who once gave birth to these men". He also cites a great fascination with trains as an inspiration for the film's setting, and claims that he had long wanted to make a film with this theme.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended