Beatles (Peter Flinth, 2014): Norway

Reviewed by Swedish exchangestudent Erik Johansson. Viewed at Metro 4 at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2015.

Beatles is a warm and beautiful feel-good romantic comedy that takes place in the 1960 Norwegian capital Oslo. Creating a movie with elements from one of the most famous pop-bands in the worlds history gave the director Peter Flinth and his cast a big challenge to conquer legally and technically. During a Q & A with the director Mr. Flinth told us about the restrictions he had to deal with as well as the big bills from recording all of the “The Beatles” music and songs from the original studio. He also mentioned the experience he received from working with actors with no experience in front of a camera and with an age not more than 15 years old. Mr. Flinth is trying to give the audience the feeling and environment of when you view back over the best summer you ever had and pictures it being very very long. For me this message is received very easily, since I come from a country considered as Norway’s twin, Sweden, where the summers are short, very valuable and which is when many people have the best memories of their lives. I’m not sure if this effect would be as strong for a person without scandinavian origin. However, the different environment, language and norms are aspects that can be very stimulating for this kind of audience.

The story begins with explaining the characters Kim, Seb, Gunnar and Ola. Kim is a shy student who has a very innocent approach and who is very enthusiastic about his favorite type of music. The role he has in his friend group is that he is the enthusiastic one who wants his friends to get deeper involved in the music that they all love. His idol is Paul Mccartney who he surprisingly looks a lot alike. He is also the character who chocks his friends when he time to time comes up with something unexpected. Seb is the talent among the group, and does not only play the guitar. Unlike the three other boys Gunnar is the one who is popular among the people in their environment. He is also the most mature one since he has a bigger brother. Ola is a shy young man who studders. He spends a lot of time in the background. Together these friends has one source of motivation in common. Girls. One day Kim brings up the idea of starting up a band. Beatles let you follow these enthusiastic young men on their journey towards becoming a professional pop band. On the way obstacles as well as romances are filling up the story.

The cinematography in the movie is very warm and pleasant. The movie is filmed dynamically. By that I mean that the camera is smoothly moving in a couple of scenes though out the movie. Most of the scenes are filmed in a very bright environment, where the Norwegian summer is flowering out in a beautiful way together with the beautiful architecture of Oslo. Most of the music in the movie is from the famous pop band “The Beatles”. In one or a few scenes the director consciously mismatches the mood of the scene with the song playing. The scene i remember was when Gunnar was beaten up while the other 3 boys where playing in front of people and making their dream reality. This created an interesting contrast.

The director says the movie is about finding yourself and what you’re good at, and be brave enough to follow that in your life. I would also mention that as the theme of the movie “finding yourself” or “following your dreams”. In general it’s a feel good movie and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a beautiful environment as well as a comical, beautiful and quite simple story.