Daisies at work. These flowers have nothing to do with this post, I just thought it needed some colour.
It took some time, but I finally tracked down a copy of 101 Reykjavik (2000) after some fruitless enquiries at Blockbuster and Rogers Video. I didn’t think this film would be difficult to find, but the only DVD rental I found was at Queen Video, west of Spadina. Judging by the selection of titles on their shelves, I’ll probably head there directly for rentals rather than the big names. I stopped by the Blockbuster at Liberty Village last night and their foreign film section is minuscule.
Anyway, I was interested in seeing 101 Reykjavik because I’d read a fair amount about it (some of the viewers’ comments on IMDB.com are hilarious*) and I was interested in getting a feel for Icelandic pronunciation. Seriously, some of the Icelandic words are so long I don’t even know where to begin trying to pronounce them. It’s as if someone plonked a massive word steak in front of me and didn’t give me any utensils.
I’ve watched a number of Danish films (thanks in part to Dogme 95) and I wanted to see how closely the languages resembled each other, how the Icelandic filmmakers portray their own country. A Danish friend told me that Icelandic is the closest to the original Viking language, and later I heard a professor on a CBC Radio program talking about the Icelandic sagas and giving examples of early to modern pronunciations. I’m quite fascinated by culture and linguistics, especially isolated languages such as Icelandic, the Basque region of Spain, Finland, etc. While technically not language isolates except for Basque, it is to be expected that a strong sense of nationalism is evident in these countries/regions. Having a distinct language is a source and expression of pride.
The movie itself is as I’ve read, showing the younger generation of Iceland in a rather hedonistic light, giving authority the finger (or two), and living on a steady diet of ennui. Not exactly favourable, but some of the lines in the movie are priceless. I’d post them, but they aren’t nearly as funny as text.