Trier | 2025 | Norway

My most anticipated 2025 release, and it delivered. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus posits that suicide is the only true philosophical question. He ultimately rejects suicide and outlines his absurdist philosophy, using the stage actor as one of his illustrative examples of the “absurd man” [sic]. The stage actor can live a thousand lives, but they are all ephemeral lives. It is an essential absurdity to live this way. A film performance, meanwhile, is captured and can thusly outlive the performer; achieve immortality.

Trier is swimming laps in this same pool with a central character – played by the singular Renate Reinsve – who seems to prefer the stage to the screen, but is repulsed by both. If one views her struggle as a choice between absurd ephemerality or individualistic (and inescapable) immortality, we transcend a mere “hero’s journey” and instead receive what Camus would call a “tsar […] covered in glory”.

So yeah, I adored it.