In Venice magazine, Terry Keefe points out that Norwegian
film-maker Bent Hamer “has managed to develop a worldwide audience with largely
character-driven films such as O’Horton and Kitchen Stories, which have visuals
and elements that feel very specific to Norwegian, or at least Scandinavian,
culture…There is a lesson here for filmmakers [and I’d include novelists] that
all you need to find a large audience might already be in your own backyard.
Hamer agrees, saying, “People talk about ‘big’ films. What
is a ‘big’ film? There is some connotation there I don’t understand. What it’s
all about is if you can recognize something which is universal and specific in
a film. Of course you can talk about pure entertainment, but hopefully there’s
something more than that.”
(There's useful information on how to construct your story in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey, and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)
