CS Weekly Archive > From the Trenches > 5/15/09

Odd Man Out:
O'Horten's Bent Hamer

BY JENELLE RILEY

Writer-director Bent Hamer takes audiences on a melancholy trip with his solitary leading man in O'Horten.

Odd Horten is a character not often seen in film—or any medium, for that matter. For one thing, he's 67. And on the surface, he's not particularly interesting. Every day for 40 years, he's reported to the same job at a train station, manning the train through the stark Norwegian mountains. But on his last day on the job, a random series of events causes his life to take unexpected turns and leave the familiar behind. As played by Norwegian actor Bard Owe, Horten endures these upsets with an unruffled façade that calls to mind the work of Buster Keaton.

Horten is the creation of Norwegian writer-director Bent Hamer, and the sweet and surreal O'Horten, which opens in limited release next weekend, marks his fifth feature film. Hamer is probably best known in America for his 2006 film Factotum, based on the novel by Charles Bukowski and starring Matt Dillon as a hard-drinking writer clearly based on the author. With O'Horten, Hamer returns to his roots in Norway, where his first three films—1995's Eggs, 1998's Water Easy Reach, and 2003's Kitchen Stories—earned him international acclaim. "I love meeting people from all over who have seen my films," Hamer enthuses. "That's the universal power of movies and the universal language."

Where did you get the initial idea for the story?
I really don't know. The process of writing this script, it was a little different from writing my other films. I cleaned up my office after I wrote and shot the film and found some notes I wrote and had obviously forgotten about. The other things I've written began with focused ideas; I started in the center and worked my way out. This time, as I wrote it, I tried to find the center. Maybe I'm still trying to find the center. It's been a strange process. I let it go wherever it wanted to take me. I really tried to let things happen naturally to Odd as the story began to unfold. I think it's important when you write that you don't try to force ideas or a dramatic structure.

Speaking of forcing things, do you ever encounter writer's block and how do you cope with it?
Yes and no. I think we all get stuck now and then. Or I can get distracted by cleaning my coffee cup 100 times a day. What I learned about my own work is that I use a long a time to decide to sit down and write it. I let ideas roll around in my head. So even when I'm not writing, I have a consciousness about the project. I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking about the characters. I do a lot of beating around the bush until I decide I've had enough and need to sit down and do some proper writing. When I actually do write, some days are harder than other days. Some days it just comes flowing out of me.

Your lead character has a very unique name—Odd. Was there an intended significance in that?
It's actually a very common Norwegian name, but I did like it very much because of its English meaning. "Odd" is a good way to think about him at this point because he is taking new chances and finding himself in strange situations for the first time ever.

Do you have a set schedule for when you do most of your writing?
It varies. Sometimes, I go into my office and start writing in the morning until late evening. I have to get up and walk away for awhile, go make some food. I'm not usually a marathon writer who can sit there for 10 hours, not doing anything else.

Can you tell us more about your process—do you write directly on the computer or in longhand? Do you use notecards?
Again, it differs from project to project. Sometimes I have an idea and I go right to the keyboard and I don't take any notes. Other times I write things down and put them in the bank to use for later. I guess I have no real method.

How long did it take you to write O'Horten?
Hard to say. I do sketches, I forget a lot of things—which maybe means they weren't that important. From when I decided to sit down to write to having a first draft, it took a few months. It's also hard to say how many drafts I went through, because what qualifies as a draft? Sometimes I'd make small changes, but I wouldn't put a number on it because it wasn't going out to anyone. I think there were three good, solid rewrites.

How open are you to making changes once on the set? Or are you thinking only about directing at that point?
I plan it very carefully so when I have a shooting script, I can concentrate on directing. But I try to be open-minded on the set—and through the whole process, really. Or I like to think that I'm open-minded. When people bring me great ideas, I will say thank you, wherever they come from. Because, of course, I want it to be as good as possible.

Between this film and Factotum, it would appear you are drawn to isolated loners. What is it about these characters that speak to you?
I am, in a way, but I didn't plan it. My first film, Eggs, was the same. It was about two old brothers who live together and one day one finds out the other has a son he never mentioned. He had one trip out of the house during the war and managed to have a son. That was the first time I dealt with old men and solitude. I felt like, "Okay, I've done that." But still I have stories to tell. And I hope that this also represents other stages of life and other situations, not just old men like O'Horten. You hope that you're always writing about more than one person.

Would you be open to directing a script you hadn't written?
Yes, I'm open to anything. I know very well how to say no if I don't like something, so it's just a matter of finding something I like. But why not? Stories are stories, and if I find one that speaks to me, I would do it.

Your next project is going to be an adaptation of the short stories of Norwegian writer Levi Hendrickson, and Factotum was an adaptation, as well. Do you find adapting someone else's work more or less difficult than penning an original screenplay?
It's just as difficult as writing an original screenplay. You have to turn it into your own while keeping whatever it was that attracted you in the first place. The challenges are maybe on another level, but it's just as hard.



Jenelle Riley is a journalist based in Los Angeles whose favorite foreign film of last year was Let the Right One In.



Bent Hamer, O'Horten courtesy Sony Classics

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