RECONSTRUCTION

Denmark/Sweden, 2003, 90 minutes, Colour.
Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Maria Bonnevie, Krister Henriksson.
Directed by Christoffer Boe.

Reconstruction won many awards at film festivals. In fact, it is very much an art-house film festival film. It is existential in its treatment of its subjects and the dialogue on reflection about life and its meanings. Many commented on its Kafkaesque style.

The film focuses on a young man who encounters a woman who resembles his girlfriend - and then goes on an existential journey, alienated from those he thought he knew. The plot is very difficult, but one is drawn in by the style of the film, curiosity about the character. Other commentators link this film with the work of David Lynch.

One is left with many questions, especially about the nature of film as construction - and this film with its complexities, a reconstruction.

1. The film as a first film of a student from film school? Experimentation? In techniques, in narrative? The Cannes award?

2. The impact on the audience, inviting them to watch the characters, puzzle over them? The distancing techniques, the explanation that this was a film being made, beginnings, middles and ends, not necessarily in that order? The introduction to the young man, the young woman? The conjurer with the cigarette at the beginning in the street, during the film on the railway station, at the end? The film's storyteller doing conjuring tricks with his plot line, introduction of characters, their knowing and not knowing each other?

3. The voice-over, the storyteller, the novelist and his making his novel with the characters in the film? Audience familiarity with meetings, first words, declarations of love, sexual encounters, affairs, jealousy and disillusion? The aftermath? Audience response to relationships, sexuality?

4. The use of grainy film photography, the touches of realism, distancing reality so that the audience was observing it? Editing and pace? The musical score, the use of classic music?

5. The novelist, his relationship with his wife, at the hotel, meeting his agent, their discussions? His leaving, returning early, discovering that his wife had been with a man, going out and coming back, her not knowing that he knew, their having breakfast, their leaving the hotel?

6. The wife, meeting in the bar, the film returning to the beginning, her not staying in the hotel to sketch, her going out, the railway station? In the bar, the encounter with the young man? Their discussions, infatuation? Their return to the hotel, talk, lovemaking, the morning after, his leaving, the note, the appointment, leaving his cigarette lighter? His going out to meet his girlfriend?

7. The young man, his relationship with his girlfriend, her father, the meal together, his not wanting to stay with the father, the device to get away? The railway station, seeing the young woman on the station, following her? The bar, the introductions, the relationship, his going back with her? The morning after? His passing the novelist in the corridor? His seeking his fiancee, discovering that she did not know him, their talking in the street? His going to his apartment, the woman walking up the steps, the small door, his apartment disappeared, his asking the lady, her not knowing him? His going to see his friend whom he had met previously, the friend thinking he was to see the wife, the wife thinking he was to visit the husband? Wanting the money for the cab? Their ordering him out? His going to his appointment, meeting the young woman, her going to the ladies' room, her first remembering him, returning and not remembering him, joining him at the table?

8. The girlfriend, the meal, her father? Meeting him the next day and not knowing him? The encounter in the street, the bar, her wanting to stay with him? Making him miss his return to the hotel to see the novelist's wife? The novelist's wife not recognising him, cold to him, going off with her husband?

9. The two women being played by the one actress? The different appearance? As women in the young man's life, part of his experience, imagination?

10. The young man, his world being shattered, finding himself in an alien world? His bewilderment? The Kafka overtones of this kind of experience?

11. What was the audience left with in terms of understanding character, in understanding the construction of films, the nature of plot, the nature of conversations, audience response to these? And the film-maker as a conjurer?

12. The nature of film as a construction - and this film as a reconstruction?