1311 Sentimental Value

[domino harvey]

PTA writes up Sentimental Value for Variety

A few years back, Joachim Trier did the world a favor and introduced us to Renate Reinsve. So when superfans like me heard Joachim and Renate were reuniting, there was lots of jumping up and down. Renate’s made-for-the-movies face and talent will take anyone’s breath away. I’ve seen her do things on-screen that make my stomach drop and blood pressure rise. She’s a gift from movie heaven, and Joachim and his co-writer Eskil Vogt know how to provide her with material worthy of her talent.


We hit the jackpot with “Sentimental Value.” It’s like being gently grabbed by the most tender filmmaker working today; you don’t know he’s got you by the throat — he’s just creating people and images you cannot look away from for fear of missing a single frame. Joachim and his film family (Kasper Tuxen, Anders Danielsen Lie and Olivier Bugge Coutté, to name a few) have created a story about real families and cinematic families, memories, mothers, sons, sisters and fathers. And if that isn’t enough to get excited about, the cast includes Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, who have a scene at a dinner table that will make any filmmaker ask themselves, “Am I really satisfied?”


If you like your acting pitch-perfect — this is the film for you. And if you want to see the real best special effect of the year, it’s Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas’ performance as Agnes. Joachim and his cinematic family, in the words of his fictional dad, Gustav Borg, “achieve complete sync between space and time.” Must be something in the Norwegian winter. Whatever it is, I’ll have what they’re having.


So now, like any superfan, I want to ask the most annoying question: “When do we get another one?”


Paul Thomas Anderson has been nominated for 11 Oscars; his credits include “Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Magnolia” and his current film, “One Battle After Another.”

[domino harvey]

Confirmed as coming from Criterion

[Andrey Rublev]

I watched Trier's hyped Sentimental Value. The film is okay, but one actress caught my attention, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, she was excellent as Nora's sister, Agnes Borg. Her understated, subtle, and naturalistic acting and emotional breakdown in the third act of film brought back memories of Ingrid Thulin in her Bergman works.

[domino harvey]

Coming in May

Joachim Trier, one of contemporary cinema’s great humanists, excavates layers of history and memory—both national and personal—for this rich, ineffably moving story of one family’s attempts to come to terms with generations of trauma and healing. After the death of their mother, two sisters must contend with the return home to Norway of their estranged father, celebrated filmmaker Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård). In the case of Nora (Renate Reinsve), an actor, he hopes to reconnect by casting her in his new film—a project that both inflicts fresh wounds and reopens old ones. With a virtuoso ensemble cast that also includes Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (in a breakout performance) and Elle Fanning, Trier’s film delicately balances each moment of humor and hurt, conducting a stunning emotional exploration of how the past echoes in the present and art can transform pain into catharsis.

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Film Info
Norway
2025
133 minutes
Color
1.85:1
Norwegian, English
Spine #1311
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital master, approved by director Joachim Trier, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
New conversation between Trier and filmmaker Mike Mills
New selected-scene commentaries by Trier, coscreenwriter Eskil Vogt, production designer Jørgen Stangebye Larsen, and sound designer Gisle Tveito
New interviews with actors Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning
Deleted scenes
Trailer
New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by author Karl Ove Knausgård

New cover by Chris Ware

[jbeall]

Mild spoiler alert: Fascinating story behind a painting that appears in Sentimental Value and Oslo, August 31