re:mote voices

Title:Container
Cast: Jena Malone, Peter Lorentzon, Mariha Åberg
Director: Lukas Moodysson

Container is the most recent film by Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, who has established himself as someone to watch thanks to films like Fucking Amal (aka Show Me Love) and Lilya-4-Ever. However having gained himself that reputation, he has set about creating the reputation of being difficult instead. His last film A Hole In My Heart, which revolved around a group making home made porn films in their flat in Sweden was pretty challenging, and there were certainly people that walked out of the showing that I attended.

So, what has he done with Container? Gone back to safe and acclaimed? Or continued to be challenging? By the end of this showing I was only audience member left. I guess that means that he has gone for challenging. A black and white piece lacking in plot or dialogue, with a monologue narrative that is intended to feel like a stream of consciousness. From the voice we can ascertain that the man in the wig and dress believes that he is a woman in a man's body, convinced that she is a celebrity, and obsessed with fame and celebrity. The material of the man is interspersed with a woman, the way the film flows there is the suggestion that this is the woman that is inside the man? Though by turns you see her helping him as though she is his carer, but then just in case that makes sense you see him help her. All the while the film switches from the two "characters" to random clips, the voice over is in English, provided by Jena Malone, who confesses over the course of the film that she is Jena Malone an American actress and that she has never been to Sweden before.

Container is a kind of art poem on film. Kind of. With themes of sexuality, celebrity and identity being fairly obvious. As a piece its not too long, and isn't really as in your face as A Hole In My Heart. Though certainly its not a piece of narrative cinema and will never gain the acclaim that his early films attained.