Keswick Film Club - Sentimental Value

Synopsis

Another Cannes prize winner for you, this time the Grand Prize. "History, memory, expression, art, trauma—they're all woven through Trier's breathtaking drama, a movie that recalls Ingmar Bergman more than any he's made yet but also one that truly cements his status as one of the working masters. It's a movie that sneaks up on you like great fiction, blending theme and character in a way that allows it to live in your mind after you see it, rolling around what it means to both the people in it and your own life" - Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com.

Gustav (played magnificently by Stellan Skarsgård) has abandoned his family years ago to make films. Now his wife has died and he has come back to his family home for the funeral to find his two daughters want nothing to do with him. How does he try to make amends? By offering his eldest daughter the role of his own mother in his latest autobiographical film, which she turns down flat. Not to be beaten, he gives the role to an American actress, cue much anger and resentment, especially when it turns out he intends to make the movie in their house.

"Sentimental Value is about regret and trauma and the things left unsaid. It also asks some pointed questions about art: Gustav is a great filmmaker. And Nora is a great actress. Was the collateral damage of their hopelessly fractured relationship worth it? And is there a way they can learn to communicate, if not directly, perhaps through their art?...Trier, who has two young daughters himself, directs the whole affair with beauty and pathos and wit" - Max Weiss, New York Magazine