The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

  • All
  • Theater Buzz
    • Claremont 5
    • Glendale
    • Newhall
    • NoHo 7
    • Royal
    • Santa Monica
    • Town Center 5
  • Q&A’s
  • Locations & Showtimes
    • Claremont
    • Glendale
    • NewHall
    • North Hollywood
    • Royal (West LA)
    • Santa Monica
    • Town Center (Encino)
  • Film Series
    • Anniversary Classics
    • Culture Vulture
    • Worldwide Wednesdays
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

Indiewire Interview with FORCE MAJEURE Filmmaker: “The tourists dressed up in neon colors, and the goggles, the well-to-do people who don’t have problems in their lives. I was fond of the idea of messing things up for those people.”

October 24, 2014 by Lamb L.

On October 31 we open the Swedish film FORCE MAJEURE, Ruben Östlund’s wickedly funny and precisely observed psychodrama about a seemingly model married couple who suddenly find themselves in crisis after the husband does something extremely cowardly and selfish. Written and directed by Östlund (Play, Involuntary), the film was a word-of-mouth sensation at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard. Östlund recently sat for an interview with Indiewire’s Ryan Lattanzio to talk about this top contender for the Foreign Language Oscar:

Indiewire: What initially interested you about a couple in crisis?

Östlund: It started with the avalanche: I had been skiing a lot and when I was between 20 and 25, I was making ski films in the Alps, traveling around Europe and in North America. Then I went to film school, and I left the ski world behind me, and I was trying to go back to the ski world, and to highlight the absurdity of that world. I was inspired by a YouTube clip of a group of people sitting at an outdoor restaurant filming an avalanche tumbling down the mountain. I was interested in the three seconds where it goes from “wow, beautiful” to nervous laughter to total panic.

Then I developed the idea and got to the point where someone said, “What if the father is running away from his wife and his kids when this happens?” Immediately I understood that this situation is raising questions about gender, expectations on gender, the role of the man and the role of the woman. If you see the ski resort, it’s totally constructed around the nuclear family. All the apartments are made for a mother, a father and their kids. It was a setup of holiday, the avalanche, the man doing something that is so forbidden when it comes to the expectations of the man, and that made me dive into the questions in between the relationships after this incident.

Ruben Östlund



I read sociological studies about airplane hijacking. You can tell from this study that the frequency of divorce is extremely high after airplane hijacking. It points out expectations about how we should behave in a crisis situation and when a man isn’t the hero he’s expected to be, couples have a really hard time getting over that.

What’s so absurd about the world of ski resorts?

The tourists dressed up in neon colors, and the goggles, the well-to-do people who don’t have problems in their lives. I was fond of the idea of messing things up for those people, having them meeting human mechanisms that you mostly see in war or a nature catastrophe: they don’t have any experience how they would react when in survival instinct mood. The ski resort itself is like a metaphor: there’s a constant struggle between man and nature. The civilized, trying to control the force of nature. The resort is always trying to stabilize the snow. There was something about that that fit the subject of the film very well.

To read the full interview, go to Indiewire.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjjzVbTBF8o

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Filed Under: Featured Films, Playhouse 7, Royal, Town Center 5

Search

Featured Posts

A Big Screen Must-See, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH 70th Anniversary Screening June 25.

A new comedy that draws inspiration from the great ones of the past, BAD SHABBOS opens Friday.

Instagram

Part of the #WorldWideWednesdays Series! 🎟️ l Part of the #WorldWideWednesdays Series! 🎟️ laem.ly/3Y8arFI
#PerfectEndings 
After a decade-long relationship ends, filmmaker João finds himself at a crossroads in both his personal and professional lives. While trying to break into the film industry, he ends up directing amateur erotic films. With the support of loyal friends, João embarks on a dating journey, navigating modern romance and finding inspiration.
Part of the #AnniversaryClassics Series! 🎟️ l Part of the #AnniversaryClassics Series! 🎟️ laem.ly/42NC2NX

Croupier actor #CliveOwen will participate in a Q&A following the June 4 screening at the Royal.  Producer-marketing consultant #MikeKaplan will introduce the screening.

Clive Owen, who had mainly appeared in British television dramas before this, rose to full-fledged movie stardom as a result of this movie. He plays an aspiring writer who takes a job at a casino where he juggles a few romantic relationships and also has to contend with a robbery threat. Alex Kingston, Gina McKee, Kate Hardie, and Nicholas Ball costar. The script was written by Paul Mayersberg, who also wrote Nicolas Roeg’s 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' and 'Eureka,' as well as Nagisa Oshima’s 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.'
A NEW GIVEAWAY! Laemmle has 2 epic prize packs for A NEW GIVEAWAY! Laemmle has 2 epic prize packs for the new Wes Anderson film The Phoenician Scheme opening June 6th!

How to enter:
⭐ Like this post
⭐ Enter the contest from the bio
#ThePhoenicianScheme #Giveaway #Laemmle

A winner will be randomly selected from all entries on June 10!
🗓️ Giveaway ends June 6th, 2025.
“Are you tired of streaming movies from your cou “Are you tired of streaming movies from your couch?” Conan O’Brien has a solution for you.
"Wait, isn't this just a movie thea-......"

Epic films, elevated food, and LA's best popcorn! Visit your local Laemmle this Memorial Day Weekend and all summer! Serving cinephiles since 1938. 

Get tickets: laemmle.com
Follow on Instagram

Laemmle Theatres

Laemmle Theatres
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/k-pop-demon-hunters | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | When they aren't selling out stadiums, K-pop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey use their secret identities as badass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever-present supernatural threat. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet – an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise.

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/k-pop-demon-hunters

RELEASE DATE: 6/20/2025

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv
Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/lost-starlight | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | In 2050 Seoul, an astronaut dreaming of Mars and a musician with a broken dream find each other among the stars, guided by their hopes and love for one another.

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/lost-starlight

RELEASE DATE: 5/30/2025
Director: Han Ji-won
Cast: Justin H. Min, Kim Tae-ri, Hong Kyung

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv
Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/echo-valley | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | Kate lives a secluded life—until her troubled daughter shows up, frightened and covered in someone else's blood. As Kate unravels the shocking truth, she learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/echo-valley

RELEASE DATE: 6/13/2025

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv
Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Load More... Subscribe

Recent Posts

  • Allison Janney & Bryan Cranston in EVERYTHING’S GOING TO BE GREAT ~ “Buy One, Get One Free” Father’s Day Screenings!
  • A Big Screen Must-See, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH 70th Anniversary Screening June 25.
  • A new comedy that draws inspiration from the great ones of the past, BAD SHABBOS opens Friday.
  • The brilliant documentary A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY opens June 12 with in-person Q&A’s.
  • THE LAST TWINS Q&A’s June 19-21 at the Royal and Town Center.
  • Upcoming films in our Worldwide Wednesday series include movies from Brazil, Japan, France, Australia and Kazakhstan.

Archive