The Worst Person in the World, quiet wisdom on contemporary life in the post #MeToo era

University dropout Julie moves in with her boyfriend, an older man, who wants children. Then she meets a married man at a party... But she’s not The Worst Person in the World of the title.

The Worst Person in the World, which screened in Cannes in 2021, where Renate Reinsve won the Best Actress award.

The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske) (MA15+)
In cinemas
★★★★

Unlike its Scandinavian neighbours Sweden, Denmark and Finland, Norway hasn’t produced filmmakers of the stature of Ingmar Bergman, Carl Dreyer or Aki Kaurismaki – at least not yet. But the increasingly interesting work of Joachim Trier, who was born in Copenhagen but lives and works in Oslo, suggests that he might join the pantheon. Trier’s first two films, Reprise (2006) and Oslo, August 31st (2011) were probing examinations of the lives of young urban Norwegians; he ventured to America to make Louder than Bombs (2015) but has returned to his roots with The Worst Person in the World, which screened in Cannes in 2021, where Renate Reinsve won the Best Actress award.

Reinsve plays Julie, who is about to turn 30. Up until now she’s been living a life of indecision. When she left university, she had trained in medicine, then turned to psychology, but she was constantly disappointed in herself and dropped out. Photography beckoned, but in the end she wound up working as an assistant in a book shop where, after having a few lovers, she meets Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), the author of comic books which feature edgy material in the Fritz the Cat/Robert Crumb mould and centre on a provocative animal named Gaupe (translated in the English subtitles as Bobcat). Aksel is 44 and wants children; Julie isn’t ready to be a mother but, despite their differences, they move into an apartment together. For a while they seem happy.

Then, during one of Aksel’s book launches, a bored Julie drifts off and crashes a party where she meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), a married man…

The film is structured in a highly formal fashion. It’s divided into 12 chapters, plus prologue and epilogue, and though on the long side (over two hours) it is never dull thanks to Reinsve’s interior and deeply subtle performance. Incidentally, the title doesn’t refer to her; another character in the film warrants that description.

Trier’s most mature film is filled with striking sequences, such as one where Julie flees from one lover to another travelling through a world where every passer-by is frozen in his or her place.

Scenes with friends and family are beautifully handled and add to the film’s quiet wisdom about contemporary life in the post #MeToo era.

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One Second (Yi miao zhong) (M)
In cinemas
★★★★

Zhang Yimou started his illustrious career as a cinematographer; his fine work on Chen Kaige’s trailblazing Yellow Earth (1984) was a major reason that the film was seen worldwide. When he turned to directing, Zhang alternated between intimate dramas and action epics, like House of Flying Daggers (2004); you could describe One Second as an intimate epic.

The film opens with an image that could have come from Dune: a lone man is trudging across a landscape of sand, a treeless wilderness of severe beauty. The man, played by Zhang Yi, has, we eventually discover, escaped from a labour camp; he’s described in the credits simply as ‘The Fugitive’. It’s the 1970s, the era of the Cultural Revolution, and the lonely man is heading for a remote township where there happens to be a cinema. He’s obsessed with seeing the latest newsreel, No 22, because he’s been told that the 14-year-old daughter he hasn’t seen for years features in it. But the newsreel is stolen from the courier assigned to deliver it by Liu (Liu Haocun), who wants the celluloid 35mm film to use to make lampshades, the selling of which is her livelihood. The Fugitive pursues Liu and eventually catches up with her, but when they arrive at the cinema they discover that the feature, Heroic Sons and Daughters (1964), has been badly damaged and tangled after the reels of 35mm film fell from the courier’s cart. The cinema manager and projectionist, known as Mr Movie (the superb Fan Wei), insists that the film be untangled, washed and dried before he will project the newsreel – so The Fugitive is roped in to lend a hand.

This simple story is imbued with Zhang’s evident affection for this old cinema with its hard seats, makeshift screen and unreliable projector. The scenes of the film’s restoration, and the subsequent excerpts from it – it’s a real movie set during the war against Japan, and the scenes we see are quite impressive – are lovingly presented. Although the plot of One Second is a bit contrived, Zhang’s warm direction, and the fine work of his regular cinematographer, Zhao Xiaoding, make for a compelling glimpse into China’s recent past.

A scene from One Second

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Clifford the Big Red Dog (PG)

In cinemas

★★★½

Norman Bridwell’s series of books about a very large, very red labrador named Clifford first appeared in 1963. Subsequently there was a TV series based on the stories and, in 2004, an animated feature, but Walt Becker’s film is the first live-action treatment the books have received – and it’s a lot of fun.

Twelve-year-old Emily Elizabeth (played by a charming youngster named Darby Camp) lives with her widowed mother, Maggie (Sienna Guillory), a lawyer, in a small New York apartment. Emily attends an elite school, where she’s bullied because she’s “different” – being different, and it not mattering, is the noble theme of the movie. When Maggie is called upon to handle a legal case in another city, Emily is left in the care of her charming but irresponsible Uncle Casey (a very amusing Jack Whitehall), who quickly leads her astray. At the mysterious pet emporium owned by the charming but enigmatic Mr. Bridwell (John Cleese, who is clearly having fun), she somehow acquires the bright red puppy she names Clifford which, overnight, grows into a giant causing all kinds of fuss and bother involving neighbours, the police. Why does he grow? Apparently because Maggie loves him so much.

Of course, there has to be a bad guy in this kind of story and he turns up in the person of the nasty Zac Tieran (Tony Hale), the villainous head of a company called Lyfegro that is carrying out experiments on animals (although Tieran has lofty claims “to feed the world”.) Tieran sees Clifford as a shortcut to solve his stalled attempts to increase the size of animals to be used in the production of food and claims that the canine escaped from his laboratory, a claim believed by the police despite the protestations of Maggie and Casey.

The film has plenty of action scenes in which Clifford creates havoc all over the place, including the inevitable chase through the streets of the city. Shrewdly aimed at kids, Clifford is a holiday film that’s easy to take with its mostly likeable characters, its brisk pacing and its ever-so-adorable canine lead. Even parents and grandparents will probably find it easy to take.

Jack Whitehall in Clifford the Big Red Dog