Odd Horten (Bard Owe) knows who he is and what he does. He's a driver for the train, and has spent so many years on the same route that he knows it instinctively; he has his work, he has his life. But in Bent Hamer's O' Horten, which played in the Un Certain Regard selection this year at Cannes (and has since been picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics), Horten has to face the fact that his life, as he knows it, is changing; he's hit retirement age, and he simply has no clue what to do next.

Hamer's earlier films had a finely-tuned capacity for observation, perhaps best demonstrated in Eggs (1995) and Kitchen Stories (2003); Hamer's English-language debut, Factotum (2005), took the boozy, woozy prose of Charles Bukowski and put a little air and space in it, turning the alcohol-fueled anger of Bukowski's words which, on the page, hit like a shot of cheap whiskey and turning them into something smoother and finer with the smooth burn of regret going down. In O'Horten, Hamer's back in Norway, and still crafting careful, considered portraits of day to day life, but ones which nonetheless have a deadpan comedy to them, a careful and humane sense of the absurd.

After a somnolent week in which it appeared that IFC Films was the only US distributor making deals at Cannes, Sony Pictures Classics sprang into action and snapped up two pictures, with a third possibly on the way. According to Anne Thompson of Variety, Sony Classics has acquired North American rights to the latest film by French filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Lorna's Silence, as well as Norwegian director Bent Hamer's comedy/drama O'Horten, and are also in talks to pick up James Toback's documentary Tyson.

Cinematical's James Rocchi felt "in tune" with Lorna's Silence, which he says has provoked polarized reactions in Cannes; he concluded: "It's a strong film from strong filmmakers." The titular character is an Albanian woman living in Belgium who has entered into a marriage of convenience that turns out to be a complicated, life and death affair.

Factotum, the first English-language film by Norwegian director Bent Hamer, has reportedly been acquired by IFC Films. The film, an adaptation of Charles Bukowski's second novel, stars Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, and Marisa Tomei. Dillon plays Henry Chinaski, a loser obsessed with drinking, sex and gambling (not necessarily in that order) who gets fired from every job he has. Dillon's performance in the film has been lauded - between Factotum and Crash he is staking out a major career revival that could include an Oscar, and Factotum was being buzzed about at Outfest today, so it's not surprising to learn it's been picked up. The film opened last year at Cannes to critical acclaim and his been steadily picking up steam ever since. Karina will have a review up of Factotum by tomorrow.

[ via filmfestivalstv.com ]