Force Majeure Movie

I've been reading about this movie since its film festival premieres. It opens in NYC tomorrow; I look forward to checking it out. Here's a review and an interesting  interview with the director (scroll to the bottom for the movie trailer).

Shot at the French ski region Paradiski, where I'm hoping to visit this winter.

Looks like a good movie!  A "ski movie comedy" rated R about male-female dynamics by a Swedish creator set in the French Alps.  Won an award at Cannes.

From the review linked above:
"I never would've thought I might encounter a ski movie comedy at Cannes, and that it would be something I could call brilliant, yet every year I'm surprised by discoveries and this is another that will go down as one of my favorites of this festival. From Sweden comes a film titled Force Majeure, or also known as Turist (in French) at the festival, a dark comedy set in the French Alps following a family on a ski vacation. Directed by Ruben Östlund, who made two Free Radicals ski movies back in the 90s, the film plays with human dynamics and our responses to situations, but is enlivened by hilarious dark comedy. I really loved this one."

Another review tells more about the storyline.  Don't read it if you don't like spoilers.

I read the spoiler review and it doesn't seem like a comedy?

I couldn't figure out where it was filmed either.

I do like the idea of a ski movie that is a regular kind of movie, but I wonder if there will be enough skiing in it for me.

Doh!

marznc wrote

Looks like a good movie!  A "ski movie comedy" rated R about male-female dynamics by a Swedish creator set in the French Alps.  

With an avalanche that was shot in British Columbia.

Harvey wrote

I read the spoiler review and it doesn't seem like a comedy?

Not a laugh-out-loud type of comedy, I'm guessing, rather more subtle like the smartass guy with the beard in the trailer who asks the father, "so you were planning to come back and dig them out?"

I'm in, it's hard to find a "smart" ski movie sometimes.

tabloid review: http://nypost.com/2014/10/22/force-majeure-skillfully-shows-a-marriage-on-the-rocks/

Harvey wrote

I read the spoiler review and it doesn't seem like a comedy?

I couldn't figure out where it was filmed either.

I do like the idea of a ski movie that is a regular kind of movie, but I wonder if there will be enough skiing in it for me.

Doh!

Umm, did you get that it's not in English?  Have to read subtitles.  Saw one reviewer called it a "dramedy."

Apparently, it's a top contender for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Harvey wrote

I couldn't figure out where it was filmed either.

I couldn't find info in any English-language site/publication, including Internet Movie Database, which usually has everything about a given film. I went to French Google and found lots of articles, like this one that identified the film location as Les Arcs (the left half of the Paradiski region map below).




Like many ski resorts in the Alps, instead of using only artillery to do avy control, Paradiski has these fixed installations to remotely trigger slides via an air blast (you can see them in the film trailer). I watched them work at the Portes du Soleil last year and it's pretty cool.

Going to see the movie tomorrow night!

I watched the trailer and did read the subtitles.  I still thought it was supposed to be a sad story about a relationship that had some major flaws exposed.  The tone of the trailer and review mislead me to thinking it wasn't really funny.  That comment about digging the kids out felt brutally sarcastic to me.

James, very curious about your reaction to the film.

I find it interesting that the English and French title "Force Majeur" is completely different from the original "Turist."  Turist means "tourist" and that does not have at all the same connotation as "force majeur" that obviously refers to the avalanche that initiates the core story.