Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.07.2010, Blaðsíða 45

Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.07.2010, Blaðsíða 45
Suðurgata 41 · 101 Reykjavík · Tel. +354 530-2200 · www.natmus.is The country’s largest museum of cultural history featuring a permanent exhibition on Iceland’s extraordinary history from settlement to present day. Opening hours: Summer (May 1st – September 15th) Daily 10–17 Winter (September 16th – April 30th) Daily except Mondays 11–17 National Museum of Iceland Reykjavík Literally A Guided Walking Tour Join us for a fun introduction to Icelandic literature, with a bit of history mixed in. This 90 min. walk is at an easy pace and suits everyone. Starts at Reykjavik City Library in Tryggvagata 15. Free of charge. Reykjavik City Library www.borgarbokasafn.is Tel. 411 6100 Every Thursday in July and August at 5 pm. Geysir Fact #3 Cheap Cars www.geysir.is Icelandic home cooking with a modern flair Pósthússtræti 9 Reykjavík Tel : 578 2020 www.icelandicbar. is info@icelandicbar. is Shark • lobster• Lamb • Whale • Puffin • fish • Wild game ALL the icelandic beers Kitchen open till midnight! 28 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 09 — 2010 Despite the economic crash, Icelan- dic film has come into its heyday. From Sunshine Boy, a 2009 docu- mentary about a mother’s search for an autism treatment, to Nói Albinói, a bittersweet coming-of-age story (the best kind), Icelandic films have come into their own. The film industry got a slow start because of a lack of fund- ing over most of the 20th century, yet Iceland still managed to squeak out films from as early as 1904. The ex- hibition ICELAND :: FILM explores Icelandic film all the way back to its roots. Take a couple of hours and a notepad, and let yourself get fired up about all the Icelandic films you need to watch. All you need is the watching sta- tions organised along the wall, each showing two- or three-minute clips of a handful of films made around the same time period. The exhibit guides you chronologically through Icelandic film. ICELAND :: FILM is mostly friendly to those who don’t speak the language, with write-ups in English and several other languages, except for a key feature: there are no sub- titles. I guess this is advantageous because those without a good grasp of Icelandic will be less tempted to spend the entire afternoon watching a screen—the exhibit also has watch- ing stations showing several features full-length. The downside is that you don’t know what in tarnation is going on, especially in the language-heavy films. The visuals are still stunning, the music still moving, the charac- ters still multifaceted, but the plot is almost impossible to decipher, espe- cially from the three-minute clips. Icelanders are proud and protec- tive of their landscape and culture. This is apparent even from the ear- liest films in the exhibit—mostly documentaries. The Rescue Feat At Látrabjarg (1949) was created in a re- markable coincidence. It was meant to be a documentary and re-enact- ment about the demise of the British fishing trawler Dhoon on the rocky cliffs of Látrabjarg a few years earlier. But as the film crew were making the doc on-site, another British trawl- er capsized near the same spot, the people of the nearby village valiantly rescued the ship’s crew, and all was captured on film. Another antique film, Horn- strandir (1944-1948), features the dramatic Hornstrandir peninsula in Iceland’s Westfjords. The landscape is spectacular, its cliffs hosting vast numbers of birds in the summer. And for a weird mix of new (at the time) filmmaking technology and traditional folklore, make sure you watch The Last Farm In The Valley (1950), Iceland’s first feature length fictional film. Its wonderfully ter- rible special effects make it an acci- dental comic gem. ICELAND :: FILM is an ongoing exhibition at the Culture House in Reykjavík. Art | Films STEPHANIE ORFORD JULIA STAPLES Cold On The Outside, Warm On The Inside ICELAND :: FILM chronicles 100 years of Icelandic spirit A SELECTION OF ICELANDIC FILMS The Raven Flies (Director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, 1985) “I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my fa- ther. Prepare to die.” Well almost, but not quite. This is a revenge historical fiction that doesn’t quite end as you’d think. Dirty faced Vikings fight it out against stunning basalt cliff beaches in southern Iceland to a soundtrack that’s sometimes distracting- ly ‘80s. An insight into the workings of Ice- landic Viking tribes a thousand years ago. ChildRen oF naTuRe (Director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, 1991) A pensive, tragic, surprisingly funny love/ adventure story of an elderly Icelandic couple reclaiming their freedom from a nursing home. Icelandic landscape porn— ravishing to the greatest effect, with a soundtrack to equal it. Could have done without the inexplicable magical realism. Nominated for an Oscar. angels oF The univeRse (Director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, 2000) The powerful illustration of a man’s de- scent into mental illness. Páll’s bouts of rage, complete with table flipping, are emotionally trying to watch, but make the film’s quiet moments all the more effective. One scene you’re cringing at the stress Páll puts his family through, and another you’re chuckling conspiratorially with the boys from the psychiatric hospital in their glori- ous night on the town. As in Children Of Nature, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson’s fade-out visuals create a dreamy atmosphere and impart an altered sense of passing time. How delicate “normal” perception of real- ity is. 101 Reykjavik (Director Baltasar Kormákur, 2000) A tale of sex and love in Reykjavik. Each scene is like a short story in itself, and is crafted with the care of a Wes Anderson film with fastidious attention to character details. We find ourselves laughing at sad things, like the hapless protagonist—an adorable loser with no future who lives with his mom and eats cereal while he’s in the tub. Reykjavik is painted as a crazy- sex-party town where everyone is doing everyone. But there’s another side to sex, too. nói The albino (Director Dagur Kári, 2003) Nói, a misfit boy from an Icelandic fjord town, takes awhile to warm to, but you do. A storyline that threatens to be ham-fist- ed at first (e.g. boy genius solves Rubik’s cube) unfolds into an unusual coming of age tale. Some would say bleak, but a ray of optimism shines through. Careful visual symbolism—blue tinted scenes offset vio- lent splashes of red, and sixties wallpaper features prominently. Special | Best Of Reykjavík Bókin, or Bókabúð Braga as it is of- ten called by locals, is quite easy to spot when walking down Hverfisgata. It’s the only storefront on the street with piles of books blocking the win- dows. This is not your neighbourhood Borders. Or Eymundsson. There is no quaint cookie-cutter café to be found on the upper level, nor are there any stuffed puffins or tourist souvenirs near the register. This is a grown-up book- store. It is not for the faint of heart. It is impossible to just pop into Bragi’s for a few minutes. When you go, you need to set aside a few hours. The books, all previously owned, are stacked everywhere and arranged in no recognisable order. You can find gold here, but you need to look for it. Bókabúð Braga rewards perseverance. Operated since 1964, Bókin has a sys- tem that seems to work, although that may not be evident the first time one stops by, intrigued from the exterior only to walk in bombarded from all an- gles with large stacks of musty tomes. Admittedly, it can be a bit intimidating. Sometimes you just don’t know where to start. When you do finally muster up the courage to enter this amazing book- store, you will be met with books, magazines, records, and comics on just about everything, in just about every language, from just about every time period. It’s a treasure chest for book- worms, antique collectors, and anyone who wants to check out a unique Reyk- javík establishment. Check it out. Used Books Are The Best Books Reykjavík’s Most Unique Bookstore Bókin (Bókabúð Braga) Klapparstígur 25-27, 101 ALLISON SAVAGE JULIA STAPLES
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