Reprise (TBC)
Director: Joachim Trier
Released: 07 September
(Diffusion Pictures)
After a breathless introduction full of exploratory narrative, flashbacks and fast forwards that impresses more than most directors manage with an entire canon of work, Reprise takes shape. Two friends and aspiring authors desperate to make their mark on the literature scene encounter mixed fortune; Phillip’s novel is released to acclaim, but his strained relationship with girlfriend Kari leads to a breakdown, which threatens his writing talent. Erik’s script is rejected, but his career progresses as Phillip recovers.
Reprise’s supersonic opening can’t be maintained for the entire film, but it’s still an amazing debut from Trier. The story’s ingenuity is matched by his creative visual flair and it’s also loaded with sharply ironic humour. And if such sophistication occasionally threatens to be too much, there’s also the sight of a competing author giving an interview through his voice box and a punk band playing their signature track ‘Fingerfucked By The Prime Minister’ at a wedding. Reprise is sublimely brilliant.
