One person’s “Worst Person in the World” is another filmmaker’s new favorite collaborator.
Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier, director of the cult-favorite coming-of-age romance “The Worst Person in the World,” is reteaming with that film’s star, Renate Reinsve, for “Sentimental Value.” The show-business drama will be their second film together after she won the Best Actress award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for portraying a restless, mercurial spirit Julie. “The Worst Person in the World” was nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Trier with Eskel Vogt) and Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards.
As first reported by Variety, “Sentimental Value” follows an actor named Nora (played by Reinsve) and her sister Agnes (yet to be cast), both grieving the death of their mother. Meanwhile, their estranged father, a formerly successful filmmaker named Gustav, re-enters their lives with a comeback script, offering the leading role to Nora. She refuses. Meanwhile, while on a career retrospective in France, Gustav meets a Hollywood star to whom he offers the part. Once the movie starts shooting in Norway, Gustav takes advantage of the geography to repair bonds with Nora and Agnes.
“The Worst Person in the World” completed Trier’s Oslo Trilogy, which began with 2006’s “Reprise” and was followed in 2011 by “Oslo, August 31st.”
Represented in international markets by MK2 Films, “Sentimental Value” begins filming in August in Norway, France, and Germany. Trier wrote the film with “Worst Person” screenwriter Eskil Vogt. Producers include Juliette Schrameck at Agat Films, Nathanaël Karmitz and Elisha Karmitz for MK Production, Maria Ekerhovd at Mer Film, and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar at Eye Eye Pictures. Germany’s Komplizen and Denmark/Sweden’s Zentropa will also produce.
Schrameck told Variety the project is “more ambitious and mature with a combination of comedy and drama” compared to “The Worst Person in the World,” which featured plenty of ambition, maturity, and mixing of comedy and drama. The project is said to be about “family, memory, and how we need to rewrite the stories we tell about ourselves in order to survive.”
Reinsve has a raft of other projects coming up, from A24’s “A Different Man” with Sebastian Stan to “Another End” with Gael García Bernal and Bérénice Bejo. There’s also “The Governesses” with Lily-Rose Depp.
