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Going postal >> Junk Mail is delivered, at last by JOANNE LATIMER
"Everyone is saying Junk Mail is like [Jim] Jarmusch," said Dag Nordahl, a young economist who runs a furniture store in Norway and has produced 500 short films and documentaries since 1985. "There's talk of this "Norwave" film resurgence. There is, I think, something to it." Nordahl and Junk Mail's director Pal Sletaune were relaxing at the Carlton Beach bar after their film's screening. The promotional black Junk Mail T-shirts were already a hot commodity along the Croisette and anything Norwegian was being viewed in a new light. Junk Mail seemed to come out of nowhere. This droll and nutty comedy about the escalating misadventures of an Oslo mailman is a smart oddity. Robert Skjaerstad--a Tim Roth look-alike--plays Roy, the hangdog letter carrier. "Roy's such a screw-up," laughed Sletaune. "The world's worst postman. But even if he vomits in your lap while trying to steal your wallet, you will still begin to like him." This sounds like something Roy might actually do. He lives in a dumpy studio, eating cold spaghetti, listening to his Polish neighbour do renovations with a jackhammer. Bored with his job and frustrated with his lack of a personal life, Roy takes to stealing mail. "He's one of the invisible, the unlucky and the insignificant," explained Nordahl, eyes twinkling. "He is the guy you don't notice till he crashes onto the seat next to you on the bus on Saturday night." Nordahl was delighted to be at Cannes, after making Junk Mail for $2 million (U.S.) and landing 100,000 domestic seats at the box office. "Financing was easy, with main support coming from the Norwegian Film Institute." The two hooked up when Sletaune approached Nordahl to finance a short film called Eating Out. Sletaune had a background as an award-winning director of TV commercials, and wanted to try something new. Eating Out won Best Fiction that year at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad. "Sletaune wanted to take one of the characters from Eating Out further--this guy who walks out of a snack bar," recalled Nordahl. "Jonny Halberg, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sletaune, was brought in and the two were constantly blaming each other for going over the edge. In the end, we got a great tale." "Actually," interrupted Sletaune, "it's a black comedy about rutting and the joy of being comatose." And nosey. Roy livens up his dull life by winding up his fellow letter carriers, dumping mail that's too heavy to carry and reading the juicy stuff. One day Roy graduates to bigger transgressions. A young woman (Andrine Saether) leaves her keys in her mailbox. Roy enters her apartment and overhears a telephone message that lures him into a criminal mess. Junk Mail moves along at a good clip, without feeling hurried. The short scenes are slow, creating a wonderful rhythm as Roy's escapade spins out of control. Skjaerstad and Saether make commonplace romantic leads--no supermodels with acting coaches--who take the time to build real chemistry. The other Norwegian films at Cannes were getting a similar reputation. Insomnia (starring Stellan Skarsgard from Breaking the Waves and Good Will Hunting) was a devious cross between Barton Fink and Edgar Allen Poe. Again, Insomnia was in no hurry to plant a scare, so the payoff was all the more creepy. Skarsgard was fast becoming a William Hurt-type hunk around international casting circles, and Skjaerstad began occupying a place between Steve Buscemi and Tim Roth. "Roy lives on substitutes," said Sletaune. "He does not write his own love letters, but read a lot of them addressed to others. I think many people exist on substitutes. So, in a way Roy is a lucky man: he has easy access to them." Sletaune considers himself equally lucky. He fell into filmmaking through still photography and TV commercials. "And I initially arrived at the University of Oslo to read philosophy. I was met by five gentlemen discussing Kant in German. On the other side of the corridor, 70 girls were watching colour slides. They called it Art History. It was an easy choice." Junk Mail opens Friday, June 5
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Junk Mail is finally coming to screens in Montreal. And it's about time. One calendar year after its smash debut at Cannes, this low-budget film from Norway has finally trickled down through the morass of international distributors and publicists who are supposed to help films get seen.