A film about Rikard, age 30. He is autistic and severely disfigured. He lives in a home for disabled people. He was separated from his mother as a three-year-old, and this continues to torment him today. To deal with life's trials, Rikard escapes into a fantasy world in which he's a 50-meter-tall giant.
거인, El gigante, Kæmpen, Великан, Великанът, Jättiläinen, 巨人, Der Riese, いつも心はジャイアント
Canada
Toronto International Film Festival
Sweden11
Denmark15
JapanG
SwedenBtl
Canada
Denmark
Japan
Sweden
Fairly certain that, at the very least, the finale herein will remain one of the most beautiful denouements throughout the entirety of 2017; it singlehandedly raised my rating a half-star. I'm tempted to say that my one, minor qualm with this film is the aggressively documentary-esque, cinéma vérité style of camerawork (which I struggled to view as being a motivated visual approach), but the way that it was juxtaposed with the chimerical and almost phantasmagorical nature of the magical realist segments ended up striking the perfect contrast.
Reminded me a lot of the Icelandic film Virgin Mountain, another tale of a loner clumping through a life that he's forced to work for him. In this case, the loser is a man suffering from cranial tumors that render him mute and mostly blind. He lives for competitive boule, which makes this a familiar kind of underdog-sports story. Except it's also a strange, haunting fantasy, with the protagonist frequently slipping into a reverie where he's a giant, tromping across the Swedish tundra, startling reindeer and making the earth tremble. Fairly conventional, but still haunting.
Idag var första gången jag har haft tid att kolla på film på typ en månad och dagen till ära valde jag Jätten. Jag kunde inte gjort ett bättre val, jag kunde inte heller gjort ett sämre val. Den var så jävla fin MEN hela filmen är som byggd på allt det jag tycker är allra sorgligast, hela atmosfären får mig att hyperventilera. Jag grät genom hela filmen (alltså verkligen från 15 min in tills eftertexterna) vilket resulterade i att jag behövde ställa in kvällens planer och sitter istället hemma i mitt rum HELT FÖRSTÖRD. Björn Olsson är också min absoluta favoritartist och tar mig tillbaka till min barndom som en tidsmaskin vilket tryckte på mina gråtknappar ännu mer. När Rickard cyklade över älvsborgsbron med min lägenhet synlig i bakgrunden till ”Låt i h-moll” så brast det totalt, hur kan allt vara så fint men så sorgligt på samma gång.
For Malevolent Giants and Giant Human Movies: Ranked list
Another independent film in the line of movies where the monster or giant is a tangible manifestation of an individual's torment. Other examples of this theme include Peter and the Colossus (2014), A Monster Calls (2016), and I Kill Giants (2017). The difference here is this movie would have never been made in the United States. This is not Mask (1985) or The Elephant Man (1980). There is a giant in this movie. But the real dissonance of this film is you the viewer are being torn between sympathy for the main character, the abhorrence of stepping into a carnival freak show, and an even more discomfort of a comedy you…
The Giant is a very unusual film about a disfigured man obsessed with a bizarre sport called pétanque. It drags at times and the elements of magical realism don't work, but such off-the-beaten-path subject matter is inherently interesting enough to give it a look.
Hard to figure out exactly where this is going for much of the runtime—especially given the fusion of the fantasy scenes which have little bearing until the end.
When the film kicks into gear and reveals itself to be an underdog sports movie about a rinky-dink pétanque tournament culminating in a wildly mismatched duel, it kind of all clicks into place and it's easy to get swept up in.
Otherwise it's a sensitive but sometimes overly meandering portrait of a nice man who just wants to throw some balls at some other balls. I liked it! Great score too.
N.B. I watched this cause I really liked Koko-di Koko-da but there are very few similarities here, and this is a lot less stylised, with an almost documentary-like feel at times. So make of that what you will I guess.
“If you have an impossible situation, it's always possible to solve”
At first, Johannes Nyholm’s acclaimed feature feels hard to get a grip of as it shifts between characters, fantasy and reality in a quite shaky manner. Eventually however, a very small-scale and simplistic plot opens up, with a pétanque-loving autistic man and his best friends in focus, the film does have a goal but is ultimately more about the intimate small moments. Christian Andrén's performance is severely touching and the characterization truly grips with pretty small means. The titular giant is brought to life through some beautifully realized fantasy-elements, but the most powerful aspect of Jätten (The Giant) is simply how these bits are only there to add some touch to an otherwise simple tale about friendship, loneliness and some pétanque.
Quase como um O Homem Elefante contemporâneo com um quê de Harmony Korine, menos pelo pulso ao caos ou pela liberdade do improviso do que pela câmera de mão que materializa a instabilidade. O retrato terno e a amabilidade para com minorias, marginalizadas biológica ou cognitivamente, é o passo koriniano em busca de um Herzog (a mãe que toca sanfona com certeza faz lembrar de Bruno S. em Stroszek). A cena de Rikard com sua mãe na caixa de correio da porta é de chorar o coração.
Zughi Bk. ❤
Beautifull little swedish flick that definitely needs more international attention than it's gotten so far.
4.8/10
Good casting
Nice shooting places
Johannes Nyholm is 2/2 on features for me. I watched Koko-di Koko-da about a month ago, and instantly added this first feature of his to my watch list.
Watch both of them! I streamed this with Amazon prime.
Koko-di Koko-da is on shudder.
