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Film: Involuntary
Release date: 28th February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Ruben Östlund
Starring: Villmar Björkman, Linnea Cart-Lamy, Leif Edlund, Sara Eriksson, Lola Ewerlund
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Studio: Trinity
Format: DVD
Country: Sweden
Sweden's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2010 Academy Awards, and an award winner at various international film festivals, Involuntary tells five parallel stories that take place in and around the suburbs of Gothenburg. Intercutting between the five different stories, director Ruben Ostlund takes an unflinching, unsentimental look at how group dynamics impact on human behaviour.
Involuntary begins as it ends, with the view from the front of a vehicle driving through city streets at night. Only at the end of the film do we realise that the view is from an ambulance transporting a man to hospital. The man is Villmar, a grandfather who earlier in the evening refused professional medical attention after he was injured by a firework that exploded in his face at a birthday party.
Very different to the stoic Villmar are Linnea and Sara, two giggly teenage girls who take pictures of themselves posing together as models and get drunk with their friends, leading to Linnea passing out and being abandoned by the side of a road. Alcohol is also an important ingredient in the story of a group of thirty-something men holidaying in the country, one of whom is sexually assaulted in a prank gone too far.
In contrast, the mood is as sober as it is sombre in the story of a teacher who feels she is being ostracised by her peers after she accuses an older male colleague of abusing a pupil, and in the tale of a middle-aged actress on a coach trip who lets a young boy take the blame after she accidentally breaks a curtain rod in the on-board toilet…
The individual stories may, on the surface, sound as though they’re lacking in dramatic tension, but the way Ostlund weaves them together gives Involuntary an intriguing, surprisingly absorbing quality. Not a lot happens, but it happens in such a way that issues of group identity and behaviour are slyly, fascinatingly dissected.
Comparisons have been made to Michael Haneke, but while Ostlund shares something of Haneke’s detached, unsentimental approach, his narratives are, for better or worse, clearer cut and more obviously resolved. The Swede has also injected Involuntary with a streak of deadpan humour that adds a touch of warmth where Haneke would probably opt for an icier, more solemn feel.
The humour in Involuntary is hardly laugh-out-loud funny, but it does raise the odd knowing smile, and serves the film’s overall theme well. The discomfort of the teacher who feels that that her colleagues are marginalising her is contrasted against her earlier attempts to teach a group of pre-schoolers that submitting to peer pressure is wrong, and on the coach trip the solitary actress has to cope with a talkative fan who pesters her incessantly.
There is also a certain wry humour in the way that Ostlund deliberately sets out to tell five separate stories that do not converge or intersect at any point. If Involuntary was a Hollywood film, the five separate stories would most likely overlap at some point, but the only link in Ostlund’s film is the way the characters in each of the five stories are affected by the groups they are a part of.
Some viewers will enjoy this approach, while others may just find it alienating. Similarly, Ostlund’s use of long takes and unusual camera angles and positions will not be to everybody’s taste. Individual scenes were apparently painstakingly rehearsed and then shot uninterrupted, with Ostlund filming as many as twenty takes of each scene before achieving what he was looking for. Maria Lundqvist is the only well known actor in the film, but the entire cast deliver exceptional, highly naturalistic performances.
The results often feel more like a documentary than a work of fiction, but Ostlund counters this by placing his camera in unusual positions: at one point at floor level so that we see only the lower limbs and feet of the characters, and in another scene facing a car door so that we watch the reflections of men talking. Ostlund also allows the camera to film when there is very little movement, and, at times, his visual approach seems closer to contemporary art photography than filmmaking.
The overall effect is a highly distinctive film that some viewers will find poignant and quietly entrancing for the same reasons that others will find it obtuse and uneventful. Like a William Eggleston photograph, Involuntary has a low-key, quotidian charm that is refreshingly lacking in melodrama and hyperbole.
Involuntary offers an absorbing and insightful look at how different individuals abandon free will in the face of peer pressure, and is filmed in such a way as to encourage viewers to use their own free will and imagination to interpret events that unfold. JG
Ruben Ostlund writes and directs this Swedish comedy drama exploring the nature of group behaviour and peer pressure through various intertwining storylines.
Birthday boy Villmar (Villmar Bjorkman) is injured by a firework but refuses to let the incident ruin his party; Leffe (Leif Edlund Johansson) and his friends go a bit too far in a drunken prank; two teenage schoolgirls get into trouble after dressing up and posing for a sexy photo shoot; and a teacher delivers a lesson on the power of peer pressure which cites something uncomfortably close to home as its example.
Film: Involuntary
Release date: 28th February 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Ruben Östlund
Starring: Villmar Björkman, Linnea Cart-Lamy, Leif Edlund, Sara Eriksson, Lola Ewerlund
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Studio: Trinity
Format: DVD
Country: Sweden
Film: Involuntary
Release date: 29th October 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Ruben Östlund
Starring: Villmar Björkman, Linnea Cart-Lamy, Leif Edlund, Sara Eriksson, Lola Ewerlund
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Studio: Trinity
Format: Cinema
Country: Sweden
Sweden’s entry for the 2010 Academy Awards, and a multi-award winner/festival favourite besides, Ruben Ostlund’s Involuntary takes familiar situations from everyday life to look at how a group dynamic can influence the choice and actions of an individual.
The film sees us following five unrelated stories intermittently.
An accident with a firework upsets the celebrations at a birthday party, with the injured, elderly host unwilling to attend hospital or receive medical examination, fearing he will upset the shindig for the attendees.
A bus trip goes off track when the driver refuses to continue the journey after discovering the curtain rail in the vehicle’s toilet has been damaged, and nobody is willing to take responsibility – although he suspects the group of foul-mouthed teenagers who have been fooling around at the back.
Two young girls, who love to pose together for sexy photos on their web cam, get wasted with their friends. However, one of them is left lying unconscious and alone when the group scarper having been confronted by a motorist whose car has been damaged by their immature antics.
A virtuous school teacher takes umbrage with the teaching methods and attitudes of her fellow educators, and takes her complaints against one even further after he physically reprimands a pupil.
A drunken all-male reunion takes an uncomfortable turn when a misbehaving prankster urges his fellow revellers to hold down one of their ‘friends’ as he performs a sexual act on him….
Ruben Ostlund’s concept, running across a number of unrelated stories - which we cut in and out of throughout – may have allowed him more possibilities to make his point, but the lack of one clear narrative, or a protagonist to follow is its biggest failing. Wanting the viewer to work is one thing, but you have to give them something to work with (unfortunately, his less is more approach to filming didn’t apply across the board).
Some of the best comedy derives from the humdrum/over familiarity of our everyday lives – and the director creates a number of identifiable scenarios within scenarios, and awkward situations that should be primed to have viewers squirming and chuckling with embarrassment and guilt (how often have you kept silent rather than admit your guilt over a trivial matter, for example?). The Office, and its star Ricky Gervais, became huge for doing just that. Unfortunately, we are never able to get to know any of the key characters here, no empathy built before we are thrown straight into their own personal disaster or events that already nark us in our own lives - and we’d rather not relive – before we are taken back out of the situation just as quickly.
It is hampered further by the director’s filming technique. It’s rare the camera will focus on a person’s face as they deliver dialogue, and once we cut to one of the stories, the camera stays fixed throughout, either at a distance, obstructed or focussed away from the where the action is taking place. It’s an interesting idea, as if we are voyeuristically listening in, but any initial intrigue soon gives way to annoyance – like being forced to listen in to a loud, inane conversation, or subjected to the behaviour of drunken youths on public transport (one of the scenarios in fact played out in this film).
It’s a shame because there was potential to provoke – the woman who is ostracised for reporting the abusive techniques employed by a fellow teacher, or the coach driver finally losing patience with his disrespectful travellers - but the director’s two key techniques, intended to disorientate the viewer and give us a distant, non-judgemental take on these events ultimately leaves us not caring as we deal with the aftermath of the five key events, and what are clever developments and reveals.
You can’t criticise the performances of those involved – although we barely see the party host or the bus driver – especially the two girls, Linnea (Linnea Cart-Lamy) and Sara (Sara Eriksson – all actors retain their real first name), who are believable as the conceited teenagers pushing their luck. The scene where the mother berates them after they are fortunate Linnea wasn’t picked up by a “sicko or paedophile” will resonate with many - both sit glumly, clearly holding back a smirk as the mother’s words go over their heads.
Had the director given more time to fleshing out the characters and stories (definitely achievable given the running length – though, he should have cut one or two of the stories out completely) and less on patting himself on the back for his unconventional framing method, this would have been a worthwhile exercise. Unfortunately, it’s an arduous task to sit through until the end despite the universally excellent performances. DH
Interview courtesy of Trinity.
First-time Swedish director-writer Ruben Östlund’s multi award-winning debut Involuntary is an inventive, social comedy of embarrassment akin to the stinging satires of Neil Labute or Todd Solondz.
Delving into the nature of group dynamics, and the power of a group over the individual, Östlund’s perceptive ensemble piece depicts the imperfections and enmities of everyday life, and potential catastrophes which lie behind each character’s moral dilemma with glacial wit…
You came to filmmaking in a rather original way…
That’s true. Before going to film school, before even thinking of it, I was obsessed with downhill skiing. Between 1995 and 1998, I travelled across Europe and the United States going from one ski resort to another. It seems like I spent the second half of the ‘90s in Chamonix. I became interested in cinema because back then I made films about skiing, a mixture of images and music destined for very specific audiences. In the films I make today, I make systematic use of long takes. This originates from my skiing films.
When you film someone skiing there is one rule: the longer you can keep filming without a cut the better the exploit. For as soon as a cut can be seen, the audience could take it as a sign of covering up a fault made by the skier.
Contemporary Swedish cinema is little known, but it seems that something is happening just now. Do you feel that you belong to a cresting wave?
Yes indeed, particularly in my home town of Göteborg. The Film School of Göteborg University was created just ten years ago, and it is currently reaching its peak. It may sound idiotic to say so, but a good school changes many things. All the students live in residence and work together on each other’s projects. We call it the ‘Göteborg bubble’. Right now, that’s where the most interesting things are going on.
What was the genesis of Involuntary?
In my first feature film, The Guitar Mongoloid, I addressed the theme of individual people seeking their place in society. Characters who never took into account what their entourage might think of them. At the same time, I witnessed totally opposite situations, people who would do anything not to lose face in front of other people - The Guitar Mongoloid examined those people who don’t give a damn what others think of them. Involuntary looks at those who attribute too much importance to the opinions of others, and are terrorised by the idea of losing face.
In Sweden, everybody knows the story of Engineer Andrea, who attempted to reach the North Pole by hot-air balloon, an attempt which resulted in the deaths of the whole crew. In his diary, it is evident that he himself didn’t believe in the viability of the project, he was convinced he was going to die. But the event had taken on such huge proportions – it seemed that all of Sweden participated in one way or another – so he couldn’t pull out without losing face. And that led to disaster.
The influence of a group on one individual is extremely and fundamentally powerful. While I was working on The Guitar Mongoloid, we started making a short film called Autobiographical Scene Number 6882, which is set on a bridge and studies group behaviour. Initially, this short film was to have made up one of the parts of Involuntary, but it was selected in so many festivals that it was no longer possible to include it.
In one of key scenes of Involuntary, a schoolgirl must decide which is the longest of two lines drawn on a sheet of paper. Twice the other members of her class say she has chosen wrongly. The third time, against all visual evidence, she opts for the shorter line. This scene could resume all the others…
It is undoubtedly the scene which expresses the general theme of the film in the clearest manner. That’s why it is placed in the middle. Put at the beginning or the end it would have made the film both too simple and too mechanical. It encapsulates the notion that a group can exercise irresistible power over a single individual forced to adapt so as to be integrated. Originally, it was an experiment that my mother, a teacher herself, conducted with her Grade 3 pupils. I must have been 14 or 15 years old when she told us about it on her return home from school. I was shocked at the time that such a thing should be inflicted on children. But obviously when making the film, we did exactly the same: the little girl in the film had not read the script and the experiment was repeated on her.
A small detail: it was written in the script “the third time around she points to the shorter of the two lines.” We shot the scene a number of times with different young girls; six out of ten opted for the shorter of the two lines at the third try.
Is her action really involuntary? For each of the five situations which crisscross throughout the film the title could include a question mark…
Being under the influence of a group can deprive us of free will, but does that also free us of individual responsibility? In each story, the characters have the impression that they have no choice, but that is not the case: they simply don’t take the opportunity given to them. In the best of possible worlds, no-one would let the opportunity of reacting in the best possible way pass by. But things are very different in reality.
I am well aware that it is provoking to say that it is ‘involuntary’, but it is an ongoing repetitive phenomenon. Let’s take the case of the damaged curtains in the toilets of the bus. The driver refuses to continue the journey until the guilty person owns up. There is a very brief moment here when it would be easy to say: “Yes, it was me, I’m sorry,” without any consequences. But when that moment has passed, it becomes increasingly difficult to admit guilt, because that now involves admitting to a lie.
It’s not so much the group that influences the individual, as the individual him/herself, in his/her relationship with the group, who feels obliged to react in one way or another…
It all comes from the image a person has of self within the group. The dynamics of a situation come from the fact of feeling obliged to react in a certain way so as to fit into the image one has of oneself inside the group. Each individual has his/her own share of responsibility in the way they are led by the group.
In each story we find a ‘victim’ of this phenomenon, but the reaction of those who are ‘guilty’ is also a direct consequence…
That’s very true. The story about the gang of pals in their thirties came from something that happened amongst my skiing friends. I am well acquainted with the man who was ‘forced’ into homosexual practices, as well as those who forced him. It was therefore very important for me to use due caution. No question of designating ‘guilt’ but of putting both sides of the question: “How could such a thing take place, and why did the victim let it happen?” A group is an entity which functions as if of its own free will. Inside a group, all the individuals commit ‘involuntary’ acts.
The fragmented structure of your film, with different slices of life presented in mosaical form, brings to mind the work of Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl and Roy Anderson...
Their films have greatly influenced me. If, when watching a film, I am too aware of following a narrative, I start to get bored. To maintain audience concentration on the familiar situations from daily life depicted in my film then spectators must be disoriented, not made aware of the narrative - they must not see where I am leading. Disorientation leads the viewer to seek clarity, and thus encourages concentration.
Similarly, the different scenes are filmed from a radical point of view deliberately parcelled up: either too close, or from too far away, making it impossible to understand the whole context of a situation at a single glance...
As a spectator, I like to be active; I like the director to leave some of the work for me to do myself. As a filmmaker that is also what I want to give the audience. It was a keyword during the shoot: keep the viewer busy, Find a visual language that makes the spectator ask all the time “Where am I?” “What’s that?” “What’s going on?” I like a voyeuristic style: you watch something happening in front of you and it’s up to you to interpret the scene using your own moral values. As a director, I like to keep my distance, putting my own values aside – although, of course, they are expressed throughout the whole film – to enable the audience to test their own values themselves. TR
It’s almost summer in Sweden and minor indiscretions and misbehaviour abound.
Leffe likes to show off for his friends and play salacious pranks, especially when he’s drinking. Meanwhile, a righteous grade-school teacher doesn’t know where to draw the line: she insists her fellow educators need a bit of instruction. Then there are two young teenage girls who like to pose for sexy photos and to party, but one night in a park, a complete stranger finds one of the girls passed out drunk.
A humorous look at lessons to learn, lectures to give and lines not to cross.
Film: Involuntary
Release date: 29th October 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Director: Ruben Östlund
Starring: Villmar Björkman, Linnea Cart-Lamy, Leif Edlund, Sara Eriksson, Lola Ewerlund
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Studio: Trinity
Format: Cinema
Country: Sweden
