Welcome to the 2021 edition of the Chiaroscuro International Film Series! We've gone virtual for our 15th season, highlighting fan favorites from our past that are available to view online and adding to the experience with extra supplemental materials. Enjoy the film, please explore the extras below, and feel free to head over to our Facebook page to comment and add to the discussion of the film!
Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund, 2014)
The film can be viewed online via these platforms:
- Kanopy (free via Grand Rapids Public Library)
- Hoopla (free via Kent District Library)
- Hulu (free with subscription)
...it is also available as a paid rental through many other streaming services.
Introduction / Commentary Video:
Filmmaker Interview(s):
Reviews:
Related Film Recommendations:
- The Square (Ruben Östlund, 2017)
Östlund's follow-up film (which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival) wherein the filmmaker shifts his darkly comic gaze to the art world, satirizing its extravagances and hypocrisies.
- The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, 2011)
If you remixed the central premise of Force Majeure, you might get something like this quietly stunning movie: a vacationing couple's relationship is challenged during their backpacking trip after a single spontaneous moment - and a shocking reaction - changes everything.
- Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
As fluid and textured as Force Majeure is stark and cold, this sublime film also explores masculine roles, emotional frustration, and what can remain repressed or unspoken - all surrounded by a strange desert landscape.
- The Power of Kangwon Province (Hong Sang-soo, 1998)
Östlund would likely appreciate the patient observation and wry humor of this film, which tells two separate but interconnected stories of various characters coming together and coming apart while on vacation at a popular mountain retreat.
- Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger, 1947)
The ominously imposing portrayal of the French Alps in Force Majeure could have taken inspiration from this classic, where the Himalayan mountain setting intoxicates a small group of visiting nuns, with mounting tensions - erotic and otherwise - made worse by the temptations of a man in their midst.
|
