Tuesday, April 21, 1998
Voyeuristic Oslo mailman delivers off-color message
FILM: Norwegian director hopes audiences read into gritty hero
of ‘Junk Mail’
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
From the 25th floor of the Wilshire office building that houses
E!, Pal Sletaune can see the Hollywood sign.
The April wind has chased away the fog, and the landmark string
of letters juts out from a collage of tiny mansions. The Norwegian
director and screenwriter gazes out of the picture window and
shakes his head.
"It’s very strange," Sletaune muses. This is a new view for the
former documentarian and short filmmaker – Hollywood, big money,
L.A. "weather." And it’s a little overwhelming. "In Norway we make
like 10 to 15 feature films each year. It’s like a small studio
here. It’s very small."
But while his publicity bio is just five lines long, Sletaune’s
first feature film, a dark comedy called "Junk Mail," is getting
recognition from around the world. The "Fargo"-esque portrait of a
voyeuristic mailman who gets caught up in a bizarre crime circle
won first prize at the International Critics Week at the 1997
Cannes Festival in addition to awards in Napoli, Flanders, Tokyo,
Stockholm and Sao Paulo.
And while Sletaune says the critical buzz came as something of a
shock, he is no stranger to the world of movies, American movies in
particular.
"It’s everywhere, it’s unavoidable," Sletaune says in accented
but articulate English. "I’m a big fan of American films. I’m
especially a fan of Martin Scorsese. We of course watched ‘Taxi
Driver’ (before filming ‘Junk Mail’). If you’re going to make a
film about the lonely guy in the city, that’s one film you have to
see."
Sletaune is referring to "Junk Mail’s" unlikely protagonist, a
greasy-haired mail carrier named Roy. Roy lives vicariously through
other people’s letters and soon finds himself sneaking into the
apartment of a deaf woman named Line. The deeper Roy’s obsession
with Line becomes, the more danger he faces from her rather
unsavory acquaintances.
Throw in a karaoke scene with a heavily accented rendition of "I
Will Survive" and you have the makings of a very odd love
story.
And if it sounds like the Coen brothers would be right at home
in this interpretation of Oslo, good call. Sletaune and director of
photography Kjell Vassdal viewed the duo’s "Barton Fink," Roman
Polanski’s "Cul-de-Sac," Jane Campion’s "Sweetie" and of course the
Scorsese stand-by in order to get a feeling for what the tone of
their film should be.
"Pal wanted to create a sense of minimalism with a bit of
style," Vassdal said in a previous interview.
The result is a somewhat static screen world of dingy
apartments, fluorescent lights and a bottle green tint that veils
the characters’ lives.
"I don’t know if you’ve seen Scandinavian films, but most of
them are neat and clean and newly washed," Sletaune says. "I like
this gritty feeling."
The director’s preciseness may come from his background as a
still photographer.
"I like films that you can feel. I like texture in films,"
Sletaune asserts. "We had a lot of meetings – me and the DOP
(director of photography) and the art director – to find the exact
tone of the film. We saw a lot of photographs, screened a lot of
films. (We tried) to find the colors, the greens – lots of greens
in the film. Lots of different aspects of green and also a bluish
tone, which is very hard to get, especially since film stock is so
good these days. You have to destroy it."
Yet Sletaune’s favorite part of directing a fictional work was
working directly with the actors, themselves new to feature
filmmaking.
"I spent so much time with them, creating that character
development with them," Sletaune says. "So much of filmmaking is
really hard work, and it always ends up a bit worse than you
imagined, but with actors you can get so much more. It’s like
getting 10 times back."
Sletaune encouraged the two leads to employ method acting
techniques; to transform himself into an overworked postal worker,
actor Robert Skajaerstad walked around in worn-out shoes for
months.
"I think he still has some kind of problem with his leg after
this," Sletaune laughs.
Actress Andrine Saether entered the world of the deaf by
stuffing cotton balls in her ears. And Sletaune feels the cast’s
diligence and attention to detail comes across in every frame.
"After a while they were so secure about their characters they
could be in the room and just sort of be the character," Sletaune
recalls. "You say, ‘Yeah, that’s Roy,’ or ‘That’s Line. That was
great.’ I didn’t have to have them do big things. Just the way you
light a cigarette or the way you walk."
As both director and co-screenwriter of the film, Sletaune
confesses to being something of a control freak, making it hard to
delegate on the set of "Junk Mail."
"I’m used to doing short films," Sletaune says. "I liked to
arrange 30 different lamps in a room. But when you’re filming in 30
different locations, you just have to trust your set designer."
Yes, it takes a little getting used to. Though Sletaune is
considering shooting a film in English, his next project (an "even
more impossible love story") is again set in Oslo. And, he says,
he’s not in the market to make "Alien 5."
"I’m not 21. I don’t want to do everything people want me to
do," Sletaune says earnestly. "I want to spend time doing things I
want to do and always be a kind of independent filmmaker. I want to
decide everything for myself."
But when it comes to reigning over his next project, it doesn’t
hurt to have a Cannes trophy up your sleeve. Concludes Sletaune: "I
don’t think financing will be hard for the next film."
FILM: "Junk Mail" opens Friday.