Armand

Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel: Armand (NO 2024). Center: Renate Reinsve (Elizabeth). Background left: Ellen Dorrit Petersen (Sarah), Endre Hellestveit (Anders). Right: Thea Lambrechts Vaulen (Sunna), Øystein Røger (Jarle).

La Convocation.

    NO/SE/DE/NL © 2024 Eye Eye Pictures / Keplerfilm / Prolaps / One Two Films / Zefyr / Film i Väst. P: Andrea Berentsen Ottmar.

    Réalisation : Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Scénario : Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Photographie : Pål Ulvik Rokseth (FNF) – couleur — 16 mm

Décors : Mirjam Veske

Costumes : Alva Brosten

Musique : Ella van der Woude

Soundtrack: "Le Cygne", treizième mouvement du Carnaval des animaux (1886) de Camille Saint-Saëns.

Son : Mats Lid Støten — 5.1

Montage : Robert Krantz

    Distribution

Renate Reinsve : Elizabeth

Ellen Dorrit Petersen : Sarah

Thea Lambrechts Vaulen : Sunna

Endre Hellestveit : Anders

Øystein Røger : Jarle

Vera Veljovic : Ajsa

Assad Siddique : Faizal

Patrice Demonière : Emmanuel

    Langue originale : norvégien

    Durée : 118 min

    Genre : Drame

    Société de distribution : Tandem

    Dates de sortie :

Festival premiere: 18 mai 2024 Festival de Cannes : section Un certain regard – 1er Film – Caméra d'Or 2024.

Premiere in Norway: 27 Sep 2024

Premiere in France : 12 mars 2025 (sortie nationale)

Official submission of Norway for Best International Feature Film of the 97th Academy Awards in 2025.

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 40, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er

NB. According to L'Officiel des Spectacles, the duration is 100 min. The actual duration is 118 min.

Wikipédia: " Un après-midi, Elizabeth est appelée à l'école primaire de son fils Armand. Il y a eu un incident entre le garçon de 6 ans et son camarade de classe Jon, du même âge. Lorsqu'elle arrive, Elizabeth découvre que la conversation est menée par l'enseignante inexpérimentée Sunna et que les parents de Jon sont également présents. Le camarade de jeu d'Armand a été retrouvé blessé au visage. Jon en a blâmé Armand et l'a accusé de viles menaces. "

" Mais personne ne sait avec certitude ce qui s'est passé entre les deux garçons. Bientôt, d’autres enseignants participent à la conversation. Armand est accusé d'être un « déviant sexuel » et d'avoir dépassé certaines limites. À mesure que l'après-midi avance, les mères d'Armand et Jon deviennent de plus en plus désespérées et des secrets et mensonges longtemps cachés sont révélés. Il devient de plus en plus difficile de découvrir la vérité. Bientôt, la conversation porte davantage sur les adultes que sur les enfants concernés. "

Cannes 2024: " During one fatal afternoon in an empty elementary school the two mothers of Armand (6) and Jon (6) get into a desperate fight to be believed when one son is accused of crossing boundaries

against the other. All means are used, and soon a blend of madness, desire and obsession arises. Where the truth lies is impossible to know, and soon everything evolves less and less around the children, who we never meet, and more about the adults. "

AA: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's feature film debut Armand is an achievement of high intensity. The story of a crisis meeting at a primary school obeys the classical unities of time, place and action.

It belongs to the films about protagonistas ausentes, to quote the title of an inspired retrospective mounted once upon a time at the Cinemateca Portuguesa, composed of films such as Rebecca, which is all about her, although we never see her. At Armand's primary school, children are absent, present only via drawings.

Armand has affinities with Carnage, based on the play by Yasmina Reza, and it belongs to a current trend of school dramas such as The Teachers' Lounge, but draws directly on Ullmann Tøndel's own experience: "I have also worked in a primary school for many years and experienced how we mirror children with their parents, for better or worse. And how all behaviour (from kids or parents) that’s even slightly outside of the norm is almost frowned and paid very close attention to."

Armand is story-driven and performance-driven. It is the story of a crisis meeting, based on an alarming account of something that happened between the 6-year old boys Armand and Jon. Jon is bruised, and Armand is suspected of sexual transgression.

Armand's mother Elizabeth is flabbergasted: why had nobody told before? The details of the account are so far out that she breaks out in Homeric laughter in one of the most unforgettable laughter scenes in the cinema. Her reaction only worsens the situation, and there is talk of involving welfare officers and the police.

Elizabeth as played by the extraordinary Renate Reinsve is a drama queen. At the crisis meeting her presence is at once prominent and vulnerable. To transcend the madness, Ullmann Tøndel breaks from realism in a musical production number for Elizabeth, joining the peculiar "back to the musical" trend in contemporary cinema (see Emilia Pérez). 

During the breaks, the parents of the children and the trio of school representatives have time to reflect upon the absurdity of the charges. The notion of a sexual transgression between 6-year-olds turns out to be a misunderstanding and a case of "a broken telephone". Jon's bruises remain a mystery, but they had appeared before the fatal situation, and Jon's mother Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) seems to have something to hide. Finally, in pouring rain at the schoolyard, people come to their senses and reconciliation takes place. 

The revelation of the movie is that although Elisabeth is the obvious drama queen, there is an even more formidable drama queen: Sarah. She has the talent and genius of pursuing suspicion and spinning webs of deceit, perhaps even without being fully aware of what she is doing nor of her hidden talent of creating an alternative reality with fake news.

Ullmann Tøndel has a firm vision in the mise-en-scène. Pål Ulvik Rokseth is in charge of the powerful cinematography. Armand is in the end a benign psychological drama, but there are accents of the thriller and even horror in the visual approach. Low angles make the school loom like a Gothic castle, and empty corridors have been lensed like the Overlook Hotel. The opening scenes of Elizabeth racing against the clock on narrow mountain roads instil a sense of urgency, powered by an intense score by Ella van der Woude.

Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel. I look forward for more.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK : CANNES 2024 INTERVIEW WITH HALFDAN ULLMANN TØNDEL:

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK : CANNES 2024 INTERVIEW WITH HALFDAN ULLMANN TØNDEL:

Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s first film to be screened at Un Certain Regard stars the Norwegian director’s compatriot Renate Reinsve, winner of the Best Actress Award 2021 for her work in The Worst Person in the World.

Q: What inspired you to begin work on this film?

A: It often starts with a character for me, and then I try to find out where to place them. And this film started with Elisabeth’s character, played by Renate Reinsve. I heard a story from someone who had been on a camping trip with his class, they were six years old and there had been a conflict between two of the boys, when suddenly one of them had become very aggressive and said something that a little boy normally wouldn’t know anything about. And I was thinking, where and how did this six-year-old learn that kind of language? Then my fantasy started to spin out into what his parents must have been like etc. and I was very intrigued on how much I could imagine about the parents without knowing anything about them or the boy, but just with that little nugget of information of what he had said and done. I have also worked in a primary school for many years and experienced how we mirror children with their parents, for better or worse. And how all behaviour (from kids or parents) that’s even slightly outside of the norm is almost frowned paid very close attention to. Eventually it became obvious for me that there was a film here where I could say something about our society, how we deal with conflict, but even more importantly: this film could platform the characters I had in mind.

Q: Please describe your working method and the atmosphere on set. Anecdotes welcome.

A: It was a very intense shoot, so we did quite a lot of rehearsals beforehand because we needed to be prepared for all the dialogue-heavy scenes. We shot the film in chronological order, which was very cool to do, and very good for the whole feel of the film. We kind of let go when the rehearsals were over and the shooting started, and started to embrace the craziness. I loved that. But it was too intense at times, and we all went a little bit mad inside the same school, day in and day out. I had nosebleeds every morning before shooting, which was kind of strange because it also crops up in the film. I have a movie on my iPhone of me bleeding A LOT from my nose with the composed music playing over the top. That sums it up.

Q: What would you like people to take away from your film?

A: That dancing and talking go hand in hand. Also: be kind with each other, and be careful about judging other people. I also hope the feel of the film lingers with people.

Q: What made you want to become a director? What are your influences?

A: It was a slow-burning process. I didn’t want to work with film at all when I was in my early 20s. But then I did some filmmaking for one of my modules at university (which I didn’t know was part of the course), and it was so fun that I applied to film school, and then I never looked back. It is truly the greatest privilege to be on set and see everything come alive.

I have really eclectic taste, and I embrace that in my filmmaking as well. For this film my biggest influences were Thomas Vinterberg, Luis Buñuel, Isabella Eklöf and Brian De Palma.

Q: A movie you want to recommend? And why?

A: Angst (1983) by Gerard Kargl. Also a debut feature. I am very inspired by it. So much bravery, so many ideas, so interestingly executed. It became his only film for reasons I don’t know. It has some sequences that are truly mind-blowing. But despite the very heavy and grotesque plot, the film also finds room for some humour. Very impressive.