Force Majeure (film)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Force Majeure'' (; sv, Turist, "tourist") is a 2014 internationally co-produced
black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...
written and directed by
Ruben Östlund Ruben Östlund (born 13 April 1974) is a Swedish filmmaker best known for his black comedic and satirical films ''Force Majeure'' (2014), '' The Square'' (2017) and '' Triangle of Sadness'' (2022), all of which received largely positive reviews an ...
. It follows the marital tension resulting from an apparent
avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and eart ...
in the
French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as ...
, during which the husband prioritizes his own escape over the safety of his wife and two children. The title used for the film in some English-speaking countries comes from '' force majeure'', a contractual clause freeing both parties from liability in the event of unexpected disasters. ''Force Majeure'' was acclaimed upon release, with critics praising its script and cinematography. It won the
Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
award at the 50th Guldbagge Awards, and was named one of the best films of 2014 by various publications.


Plot

A Swedish businessman named Tomas, his Norwegian wife Ebba, their young daughter Vera, and their preschooler son Harry stay at a luxury resort in the
French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as ...
. On their second day, they see a controlled avalanche as they are having lunch outdoors on the deck of a restaurant. The powder cloud of the avalanche gives the appearance that the snow is rising and will wipe out everyone on the deck. Tomas, who is filming the avalanche on his phone, panics and runs as the deck quickly empties of patrons, leaving Ebba with their children encased in a dense fog. Patrons return to their tables as the fog dissipates, and no one is hurt. That evening, they eat dinner with one of Ebba's friends, who has picked up an American man for the evening. Ebba tells the story of the avalanche in English, but Tomas insists he did not run away from the table, and in Swedish adds that one cannot run in ski boots. They argue in front of their embarrassed guests. Ebba is angry that he would not admit he ran away from the avalanche, abandoning them. He is clearly ashamed, and says he does not agree with "her version", further infuriating Ebba. Ebba decides she would like a day of skiing by herself. She has drinks with her friend they had dinner with the night before, as the woman says goodbye to another man. Ebba confronts her friend on her
adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
, asking her if she loves her husband and children. Her friend says she is fine with having an open relationship with her husband, and that she is happy if he finds a woman to have great sex with, as he is with her. Ebba becomes more insistent, and the friend advises they not argue, and leaves. Mats, one of Tomas's old friends, joins them at the resort with his young girlfriend, Fanny. They join Tomas and Ebba for dinner in their suite. After dinner and much wine, Ebba interrupts the conversation to recount the story of the avalanche, to the silent horror of Mats and Fanny. Tomas curls up with Harry to play a video game, and listens to Mats who insists that we are not ourselves in emergencies, naming the ''Estonia'' disaster as an example. Ebba says Tomas won't admit what he did. Tomas returns and again insists he has a different perspective. So Ebba fetches Tomas's phone and has the four of them watch the video of the incident. Tomas reluctantly agrees the footage showed someone running, but is silent when Mats speculates that Tomas was running away so that he could come back and dig out his family later. As Fanny and Mats leave, Fanny suggests that she would expect Mats to react in the same way as Tomas. Mats is offended, after arguing all night their relationship is changed for the rest of the trip. Tomas and Mats ride the ski lift in silence. They ski down fresh powder. Mats suggests Tomas try primal screaming, and Tomas does, screaming swear words into the Alps. Tomas later confesses to Ebba that he hates himself, his cowardice, his cheating in games with his kids, and his unfaithfulness. He weeps as his children inside huddle and cry together, hearing their parents argue. On their final day, the family ascends in the ski lift silently. Ebba is concerned about the thick fog. Tomas says he will go first, then the children, then she can follow. Ebba gets lost in the fog, and Tomas briefly leaves the children alone to go rescue her, returning carrying her shortly after. He sets her down, grinning. As the family and their friends leave the resort by coach down the winding mountain road, Ebba decides the driver is incompetent and demands to be let off. Panic ensues, and Mats takes charge, insisting women and children get off first. Eventually, all exit the bus except for Ebba's friend, and the group descends the road on foot. Mats and Fanny are walking apart. Ebba asks Mats to carry Vera. A stranger offers Tomas a cigarette, and initially Tomas declines, but then accepts. Harry asks his father if he smokes — he has not during the entire vacation — and Tomas replies that he does.


Cast

* Johannes Bah Kuhnke as Tomas *
Lisa Loven Kongsli Lisa Loven Kongsli (born 23 September 1979) is a Norwegian actress. She debuted as an actress in 2008, and has since had key parts in Norwegian films. She has also had roles in films, including '' Fatso'' (2008), '' Knerten'' (2009), and ''The O ...
as Ebba * Clara Wettergren as Vera * Vincent Wettergren as Harry *
Kristofer Hivju Kristofer Hivju (; born 7 December 1978) is a Norwegian actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Tormund Giantsbane in the HBO fantasy series ''Game of Thrones'' and Connor Rhodes in ''The Fate of the Furious''. Early life Hivju was ...
as Mats * as Fanny


Production

Filming Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
took place at Les Arcs, a
ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In Nort ...
in
Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population ...
, France. Prior to entering film school, Ruben Östlund had created
ski film A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partial ...
s, and wanted to use his knowledge and experience from that in a film concerned with existential issues. Ruben Östlund attributed the inspiration for the film's key scenes to a few viral
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
videos which he felt corroborated the plausible situation and emotions of the characters. The director reasoned that "...if someone captured an event or action or pang of emotion on camera and uploaded to the Internet, then it happened in real life. And it could happen in ''Force Majeure.''" The scene where Ebba demands to be let off the bus is based on the YouTube viral video titled "Idiot Spanish bus driver almost kills students".


Reception

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a 94% approval rating, based on 162 reviews, with an average rating of 7.92/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Gleefully uncomfortable, ''Force Majeure'' is a relationship drama that's hard to watch — and just as difficult to ignore." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a score of 87 out of 100, based on 37 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


Awards

The film was selected to compete in the
Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...
section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. It was also screened in the Special Presentations section of the
2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert D ...
. The film was nominated for the 2014
Nordic Council Film Prize The Nordic Council Film Prize is an annual film prize administered by the Nordic Council. The Nordisk Film & TV Fond is the funding body that administers the prize. History The first award was handed out in 2002 to celebrate the Nordic Council's ...
. It was also selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the
87th Academy Awards The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30  ...
, making the early round of shortlist, but was not a nominee. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. At the 50th Guldbagge Awards in Sweden it won
Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
,
Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...
, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing and was nominated for Best Actor,
Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Sound Editing.


Remake

An English-language remake of the film starring
Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show '' Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 2 ...
and
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus ( ; born January 13, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and producer who worked on the comedy television series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1982–1985), ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), ''The New Adventures ...
, titled ''
Downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...
'', was released in 2020. A stage version was performed at The
Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Mi ...
in London in 2022.


See also

*
List of submissions to the 87th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of submissions to the 87th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has invited the film industries of a number of countries to submit their best film for the Academy A ...
* List of Swedish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film *
List of films featuring drones There is a body of films featuring unmanned aerial vehicles colloquially known as drones. ''The Hollywood Reporter'' wrote in February 2016, "There has been no shortage of films dealing with drones over the last few years... audiences have recently ...


References


External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Force Majeure 2014 films 2014 black comedy films 2014 comedy-drama films 2010s psychological drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s French-language films Adultery in films Swedish comedy-drama films French comedy-drama films Swedish black comedy films Norwegian comedy-drama films French black comedy films 2010s Swedish-language films 2010s Norwegian-language films English-language Swedish films English-language French films English-language Norwegian films Best Film Guldbagge Award winners Films directed by Ruben Östlund Films set in the Alps Films set in France Films shot in France Films whose director won the Best Director Guldbagge Award Avalanches in film 2014 multilingual films Swedish multilingual films French multilingual films Norwegian multilingual films 2010s French films 2010s Swedish films