Death Is a Caress

The first Norwegian film directed by a woman presents an archetypal noir tale about an unhealthy, burning love full of escalated emotions and destructive passion, which drives both participants to their doom. The retrospectively narrated film deals with the turbulent relationship between young car mechanic Erik and an older lady from a higher social class. In the introductory dialogue with his lawyer, the young man reminisces in prison about his fateful meeting with the married Sonja, which turned his life upside down, and describes the disturbed history of the relationship, which was driven and simultaneously continuously destroyed by fatal obsession and excessive jealousy. From the inflated narrative, full of twists, one can see that this is an adaptation of a novel – Arne Moen’s book of the same name was turned into a screenplay by the director’s husband Otto Carlmar, who also figured in the film in the role of producer. The visually absorbing work, which is particularly remarkable in terms of its editing composition, will surprise the viewer with its level of nudity, which would not have been acceptable in Hollywood films of the same era. (Noir Film Festival)