“Fishing Place” is a visually arrested quest for resistance, including that of writer-director Rob Tregenza. Set in a Norwegian village under German occupation during World War II, it tracks several characters circling each other in a world that is striking with its natural beauty and the threat of humming. Outwardly, everything here and everyone looks so normal. At his gatherings at his home, including prosperous residents who honour his guests of honor. “Our friendship goes back,” he says, “We were on the same team.” He then lifts his glass, invites the room in the same way, and gives a guest, a Nazi officer. Cheers.
Beautifully filmed in a Tregenza film and divided into two separate sections, the film opens in the fjords of Norway County, south of Telemark. It's winter. The snow covered the ground badly, dusted the surrounding forests and jagged peaks, lending the village the quality of the picture postcard. Although Tregenza offers little historical background, it is worth noting that Telemark is the birthplace of Vidkun Quisling, the head of the occupied Norwegian government whose name has become synonymous with traitors. It seems there is. It was also the setting for Anthony Mann's 1965 war film The Heroes of Telemark, where Kirk Douglas became a heroic resistance fighter for Norwegian physicists.
The gentle plot of “The Fishing Area” is almost by chance throughout the film, focusing on Anna (Ellen Dorit Petersen). After a while, she is approached by Nazi officer Hansen (Flad Winser). “Can I have this dance,” he says with a threatening undertone just before reminding her that she once turned him down. He seems to be holding grem. He also has power. So when he orders Anna to begin working as a housekeeper for the newly arrived priest, Honderich (the desire of the quietly charismatic Andreas), and reports on his activities, she gets to work.
Much of what happens involves German Lutherans Anna, Hansen and Hongdelich. As life progresses, the priest tends to be strangely unwelcome communities – some residents warn him about the town – Anna and the policeman keep the clock. Along the way, Tregenza appears to nod directly to the Mann film, which includes scenes inside the priest's church. More generally, Tregenza's films offer a counterpoint to fantasies (and national myths) that turn history into screen entertainment. Tregenza is adept at developing mainstream fiction practices. The guns are fired here, hit, and frowned – but he is more interested in dismantling the norms than recycle them.
In that respect, the most interesting person in “fishing spots” is Tregenza, who, as he speaks, has attracted attention for camerawork throughout the film. There is a more stylized scene adjacent to the hieroglyphs. His touch is evident from the beginning with the eerie image of what appears to be a ghost fishing boat drifting in the water, amongst the mist-wrapped boards of the sea. Soon, Anna arrives and as the camera parks behind her, she slides towards town. She appears to be floating in the air, as if she were a ghost too.
As the thinly plotted story develops, Tregenza suggests there is a commonality between the priest and the Nazis. This image, which is expelled from normal colors, is vividly washed with bile, as if the world itself had become nauseous, and then temporarily changes the orange red that looks like hell. As two men are holding a fishing rod in their hands and talking (“Is nothing biting today?”), the camera circles the boat and effectively puts a solid line around them. It moves to attract. One character may prove to be more sympathetic than the other characters, but these two men imply that Tregenza is also connected.
Tregenza reveals at least some of the mysteries surrounding Anna's arrival in the second, surprisingly different section of the “fishing grounds.” In this much shorter part, where players continue to mill, Tregenza's cameras often heat up and piroute with almost historic wandering, the filmmaker opens a long, self-reflective curtain It suddenly peels away the fiction of the story. To bring attention to the film's artificiality, this quasi-Bretutian move has proven to be less visually and intellectually satisfying, at least for this audience, than what came before. . That said, Tregenza is a genuine, independent thing that is always worth seeking. When he's behind the camera, he rapts you from the start.
Fishing area
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In the theater.
