Hustruer
Norway,
1975, 84 min
Shown in 1986
CREDITS
- dir
-
Anja Breien
- scr
-
Anja Breien
- cam
-
Halvor Naess, Nils Raknerud
- cast
-
Anne Marie Otterson, Froydis Armand, Katja Medboe, Noste Schwab, Stein Collett Thue, Helge Jordal, Svere Anker Ousdal
- source
-
Norsk Film, Oslo
-
COMMENTS
Anja Breien in person.
OTHER
In 1975, Norwegian theater and film director Anja Breien offered an (unsolicited) sequel to John Cassavetes’ Husbands. Wives is the decidedly in-cautionary tale of three housewives in their late twenties, old school chums who meet after many years at a school reunion. A night of drinking revives nostalgia for the young women they might have been, but never really were. An escape plan is hatched. Pooling their money, they embark on a three-day lark, picking up men, playing with each other, flirting with danger and with freedom. It is all captured with wonderfully deadpan intimacy by Breien, who developed the script through improvisation with her three stars. A wry, knowing humor informs the smallest moments and, if the husbands and other lovers are all straw dogs, it is because this is a film about wives. At the prospect of returning to home and hearth, one of the trio exclaims, “We can’t stop now;” but, a title announces, “the film stops here.”
—Judy Bloch
FACTOID #92
In 1997, the 40 th anniversary of the Festival, four films shared the spotlight for opening night: Bliss, Love Valour! Compassion, Wake Up Love and When the Cat’s Away.
