The DVD Forum: Where Norway and N. Korea Unite

Edvard Munch

Peter Watkins' astonishing non-fiction film Edvard Munch is one of a handful of movies about artists that actually succeeds in capturing an artist in his milieu. With a three-hour running time, this 16mm pseudo-documentary is at once sprawling and intimate, succeeding both as a penetrating and insightful portrait of its subject while offering a compelling social commentary on turn-of-the-century Norwegian society.

As in his other works, Watkins presents the historical account as a precise and edgy documentary-the late 19th-century subjects often seem aware of the camera's presence. Watkins narrates in a dispassionate voice as the drama of Munch's early life is recreated on the screen with simplicity and grace. Through innovative use of sound and editing, Watkins hits upon an ingenious method for portraying the passion and the madness that inspire Munch to artistic greatness. All the dialogue spoken (in Norwegian) in the film by Munch is drawn from the artist's diaries. This serious commitment to biographical accuracy amid a flurry of sly cinematic techniques makes Edvard Munch essential viewing for any student of the fine arts or film. It's also a great companion piece to the Museum of Modern Art's Munch retrospective.

A State of Mind

Want a glimpse inside one of the world's most repressive and closed societies? Daniel Gordon's documentary A State of Mind takes the viewer on a journey into Pyongyang by following two adolescent schoolgirls as they prepare for the Mass Games, a gymnastic extravaganza designed to extol the greatness of Kim Jong Il, known affectionately by his people as "The General" (no connection with Buster Keaton). Gordon and his crew are the first Western film crew to have been allowed inside North Korea, where they were (allegedly) given unrestricted access to interview whomever they pleased.

The extreme reverence and cultish devotion that the two girls express toward their leader, as well as classroom scenes where we see teachers extolling the "three-fold greatness" of the General provide a chilling insight and commentary into a government that uses mind control to exact allegiance from its citizens. At the same time, Gordon is rarely polemical, which makes for thought-provoking viewing. The audience is allowed to feel a certain degree of sympathy with the film's subjects that would have been impossible coming from a more judgmental and less subtle filmmaker.