Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.12.2016, Qupperneq 44

Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.12.2016, Qupperneq 44
Movie Saga of Icelandic Cinema44 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 18 — 2016 “Christmas—the hardest day of the year.” Hlynur (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) is dreading the tradi- tional Icelandic Christmas din- ner, rendered in Baltasar Kor- mákur’s ‘101 Reykjavík’ (2000) as a soul-sucking trip out of the down- town bubble and into the heart of bourgeois darkness: a new Scandi-modern house in Grafar- vogur, full of interminable jæja- ing about the weather, the Land Cruiser, the shopping trip over- seas. It’s only natural for Hlynur to spend the afternoon hiding behind his mother’s sunglasses, sparking up a cigarette for the pre-tween cousin watching TV in the den, and fantasising about taking a pump-action shotgun to the entire extended family. ‘101 Reykjavík’ is many things: the stylistically confident first feature film by Baltasar Kor- mákur, then an prominent actor and now Iceland’s leading cin- ematic exporter; a still unpar- alleled reference point for the downtown postcode’s mythic nightlife, a ritual scroll of deca- dence unfurling continuously from Friday night to whenever ev- eryone wakes up on Sunday. But it’s also a Christmas movie. “I drop dead each weekend,” Hlynur says, as he walks through blizzard-beaten streets to the poi ntless ea rd r u m-bu rst i ng sardine-packed oblivion of Kaf- fibarinn, where everyone’s al- ready slept with everyone else. He kills his days eating cereal in the bath, and watching online porn—whether or not his moth- er, with whom he lives, is in the room. (There is a strong Oedipal component to this pushing-30 un- employed man-baby’s emotional life.) Baltasar’s adaptation of Hall- grímur Helgason’s zeitgeist novel of 1996 plays up Hlynur’s delib- erately “un-PC” worldview, a mix of impotent misogyny and witty self-loathing; the holding pattern is nailed down further by Hlynur’s go-nowhere mates, played by Óla- fur Darri Ólafsson and Baltasar himself, brazenly and horribly soul-patched. They go to Kolapor- tið to haggle over the price of a white plastic Christmas tree, and host the all-night house-party to which Hlynur takes his mother’s close friend, seductive flamenco instructor Lola (early Almodóvar muse Victoria Abril), after watch- ing the fireworks. (Baltasar builds the New Year’s sequence wonder- fully, capturing the mix of alien- invasion carnival grandeur and casual anarchy of Reykjavík’s rolling, collective festive-season fireworks show, mixing pan- oramic long shots looking out over Tjörnin from Vesturbær’s Catho- lic church, with more intimate views of parents and children set- ting off firecrackers in backyards and on sidewalks.) ‘101 Reykjavík’ is the climax of an unofficial trilogy charting the birth of the modern downtown scene over two decades. ‘Rokk í Reykjavík’ (1982; see Issue 9 of this year) documented the punk underground that emerged after the lifting of the live music ban; slacker farce ‘Sódóma Reykjavík’ (1992; see Issue 11 of this year) em- bellished the alternate-universe nightlife that popped up follow- ing the legalization of beer. ‘101 Reykjavík’ feels contemporary: fifteen-odd years along, the crush at Kaffibarinn hasn’t abated, though there’s fewer Awesomely 90s Britpop haircuts and jump- ers to be seen these days. The film arrived just as Reykjavík’s proximity to London airports and weekly Saturnalia were turning it into “the new Ibiza,” in the wor- ried words of Damon Albarn, who, before composing the ‘101 Reyk- javík’ score with ex-Sugarcube Einar Örn Benediktsson, dragged his Blur bandmates up here in the summer of 1996 to record much of their self-titled fifth album, and spent so much time at Kaffibar- inn that its then-owners started letting him drink for free and telling everyone he had an own- ership stake—a marketing gam- bit which, hand-in-hand with ‘101 Reykjavík’, cemented the bar’s iconic status. Set around the end of one year and the beginning of another, ‘101 Reykjavík’ isn’t just a story of coming-of-age or rebirth or whatever—it’s the first Icelan- dic movie of the 21st century. How to watch: The film has been re- leased on English-subtitled Region 1 and Region 2 DVDs, and is available to stream from Amazon.co.uk. SHARE: gpv.is/re18 ‘101 Reykavík’ Words MARK ASCH OPEN 7-21 BREAKFAST, LUNCH & DINNER T EMPL AR A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS LUNCH, DINNER & BRUNCH 25.11-23.12.2016 CHRISTMAS AT BRYGGJAN BRUGGHÚS 24th & 25th of December OPEN FROM 5 pm 31 of December OPEN FROM 5 pm Book your table booking@bryggjanbrugghus.is +354 456 4040 Reykjavik’s docksite micro brewery & bistro BRYGGJAN BRUGGHÚS * GRANDAGARÐI 8 101 REYKJAVÍK 00354 456 4040 * WWW.BRYGGJANBRUGGHUS.IS DAILY TOURS ON THE HOUR BETWEEN 13-17 BEER TOUR 2O - 30 MIN TOUR INCLUDING A THREE BEER TASTE MENU FROM OUR MICRO BREWERY. 2.900 KR. DOCKSITE BREWERY & BOSTRO
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Reykjavík Grapevine

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