to norwegian Kristoffer Borgli We discovered him thanks to the clip of that hit that was “Inspector Norse” by Todd Terje. Now, a decade later and thanks to his new film, “Sick of me” (Sick Of Myself), has been presented at the Seminci in Valladolid and applauded in Cannes. On March 10 it arrived on our screens.
In “Sick of me” (Sick Of Myself) Kristoffer Borgli in which he shares a story of people who, due to their incessant search for attention, make us despicable and attractive at the same time. There is a book called ‘Save the cat!’ by Blake Snyder, which talks about how to make your characters likeable. You’re supposed to show the protagonist alone and make him save a cat. So, the audience will think that he is empathic and altruistic. I feel there is a tendency that the more we like a character, the more quality the narrative in which he appears will have. And by like I mean that you would invite that person to your birthday party. However, I am more attracted to one who does bad things. I love Jordan Belfort in ‘The wolf of Wall Street’also Travis Bickle in ‘Taxi Driver’ or Daniel Plainview in ‘Wells of ambition’. I’m not interested in having them on my birthday, but as characters. What worked for me is that I was attracted to these types of characters and their behavior. You don’t need them to save any cats to make them interesting.”. And the truth is that this Norwegian director of almost forty years has achieved it. He has created characters with whom he can move on controversial issues. “It is that fiction is where we must experiment with these themes, explore the darkest parts of our psyche. In this way we can release, in some way, the pressure that these thoughts exert on us and keep them away. I am of the opinion that the film industry should be sanitized in a way that is not a means to educate how to be, but rather a space for how not to be”he argues with great conviction. “In this movie I was seeing the worst versions of myself. I dug into my mind and found narcissism, manipulation, opportunism, pity, competitiveness… They all exist in me, but I stop myself before acting on it.”. Now it is worth wondering what would happen if we faced characters without any filter, that we could turn into interesting people as Borgli comments. “It’s just that you could hardly blame them for being like that for all the pressure he feels. Signe, the lead, gets that special scar and people are like ‘Whoah, what an interesting person! Her story must be powerful.’ She gets the attention she needs because her narrative is in her face. I think Signe’s idea is brilliant. If you’re stupid enough to carry it out, sure.”.
“It would be a mistake to diagnose the current moment as a crisis of the networks, because it is something bigger than that”
The result of all this research into the psyche of the characters is a game of contrasts that allow the director to talk about something from which we cannot escape and that fits into the current moment. “Yes, I think it is a very modern story, of young people living in the now. I think the impulse would be to tell this type of narrative in a digital way. No matter how much is happening around us now, the desire to be recognized, to be the main character, is something innate, which makes the subject timeless. In modernity there are many ways to satisfy our desire for prominence, but I wanted to present it as something ancient that is found in a modern world”. In fact, “Sick Of Myself” it is not a digital film, but was shot in thirty-five millimeters. “I shot it in 35mm and used classical music for that very reason. The idea was to have a bit of the past and a bit of the present. However, I didn’t want to blame social media, because I didn’t want it to become a movie about social media. They do not appear in the film. It would be a mistake to diagnose the current moment as a network crisis, because it is something bigger than that.”.
The film presents certain coincidences with another Norwegian work from the same production company. We talk about “The worst person in the world“which for Borgli is something with a certain sense. “I have not seen. She came out after we finished shooting. She is the same producer and she knew what the story was about. In fact, while we were scouting, the producers were telling us in which places to film so as not to coincide. So any overlap is purely coincidental. However, both films are shot in Oslo during the summer and we come from somewhat similar cultural backgrounds. It’s funny, because despite all of that, some people have told me that that should be the title of our movie, because Signe is, without a doubt, the worst person in the world. I find it funny because that similarity is a way of seeing the perspective and the issues that are dealt with from Oslo”. Besides, “Sick Of Myself” It is Borgli’s debut feature film, outside of what had been his usual medium, the short film. “The pressure I felt going to the feature film format came from the script. Filming is similar, instead, finding a way to tell a story that has three acts, creating a world for the character, working his dramatic arc, takes precedence in the story. And that is the great challenge. I feel that this project has made me grow more as a writer than as a director”. Now we only have to see how he will have grown in his next job, “Dream Scenario”a comedy starring none other than Nicolas Cage and Michael Cera, produced by Ari Aster himself for A24.
