Det burner i natt!

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Movie
Original title Det burner i natt!
Country of production Norway
original language Norwegian
Publishing year 1955
length 98 minutes
Rod
Director Arne Skouen
script Arne Skouen
production Owesen-film
music Gunnar Sønstevold
camera Finn Bergan
cut Bjørn Breigutu
occupation

Det burner i natt! is a Norwegian fictional film in black and white from 1955 by director Arne Skouen . The world premiere in Norway took place on January 6, 1955. He was nominated for the Cannes International Film Festival in 1955 .

action

Tim is a middle aged single man who works as a proofreader for a major daily newspaper. He attracts the attention of his colleagues because he often shows up late for duty and then often behaves in a strange way. Tim is a pyromaniac and very often sets small fires in town at night. Only his boss and childhood friend, himself the editor-in-chief of the newspaper mentioned, knows about his colleague's illness. Tim himself suffers from the loss of control that he is painfully experiencing in himself, and is thinking of bringing himself up to the police. His friend keeps holding him back.

Tim met Margarete, a social worker, during a lecture on pyromania. He follows her into her apartment and she quickly recognizes in him the pyromaniac who has already caused quite a stir in the city with his arson. Tim is overwhelmed by his own courage and wants to flee, but Margarete persuades him to stay and offers him her professional help. While Margarete is looking for a psychiatrist for him, Tim interprets Margarete's offer of help as an interest in a relationship and falls in love with her. From now on he focuses all his hopes and life on her. His passion for fire wanes completely. However, he soon realizes that it is not love that Margarete feels for him, but just pity.

Meanwhile, a colleague of Tim, a journalist, suspects that Tim could be the wanted arsonist and pursues him. He manages to stage and photograph Tim in the act. Tim gets into a deep psychological crisis in which he not only tries to set fire to his own apartment, but also to set himself on fire. After a major fire in an industrial plant, he is arrested by the police. What he had always wished for as a sick person came true: to be saved from himself in prison.

criticism

Det burner i natt! is a cinematic study by a pyromaniac that examines the causes and conditions of the disease and the reactions of those who witness the disease. The focus is on Tim, who impressed many of the critics of the time with his acting performance. Writes Aftenposten on the day after the premiere of the film: "A figure like Tim has hitherto never been shown in Norwegian film: strong in his violent outbursts, gentle in his childish joy and delightful in his love." However, some critics accused the Director Arne Skouen suggests that the portrayal of pyromania was staged too exaggerated.

In Arne Souen's oeuvre, Det brenner i natt! to those films that deal with the social problems of Norwegian society. The film cannot only be described as a psychological study of a pyromaniac, but is primarily about the loneliness and lack of communication in a modern media society. As a psychological study, it is a forerunner of the three films Skouen made in the 1960s about mentally retarded children that were to become case studies of outsiders and their relationship to society: Om Tilla (1963), Vaktpostene (1965) and Reisen til havet (1966).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Det Brenner i natt! In: Film.no. Retrieved July 27, 2017 .
  2. ^ John Sundholm et al .: Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema . The Scarecrow Press Inc., Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth 2012.