Sculpting the Emotional Scaffolding of Generational Trauma with ‘Sentimental Value’ Editor Olivier Bugge Coutté
Most recently scoring the international film trophy at the BAFTA Awards, Sentimental Value is Danish editor — and Spirit Awards alum for The Apprentice — Olivier Bugge Coutté’s sixth collaboration with director Joachim Trier. The filmmakers have previously worked on The Worst Person in the World (which also stars Renate Reinsve from Presumed Innocent) and Oslo, August 31st. The Norwegian-English family drama from Trier follows actress Nora (Reinsve), who resents her father and once-successful director, Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård from Dune and Chernobyl), for abandoning the family after divorcing their mother many years ago. Along with sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), Nora has to deal with him again when he returns following their mother’s passing. In a desperate attempt to revive his career, Gustav offers the lead role in his next movie to Nora. But when she refuses it, he turns the project into an English-language film so that the role could be inhabited by American actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning, Spirit Award alum for the Hulu series, The Great).
After 30 years of friendship and cinematic collaborations, newly-minted Oscar-nominee, Coutté, is in sync with Trier after working together for so many years. “We’ve done six films together. Joachim and I have very similar taste in films, music for films, art, and literature. We are fascinated by the same things. And we are so in tune with what moments we like in the acting, the rhythm of the scenes, how to use music, when to hold back or give information, the playfulness of montages, etc.,” he shares, adding that: “When I see material from Joachim, I often feel “I know what you thought here, I know why you did this shot. Of course we have a lot things to solve in the edit, and it takes a lot of work but we are artistically 100% on the same page.”
What is Joachim like as a collaborator and what is the shorthand that you’ve developed over the years?
We play this game, where I let a shot run and put a marker where I would cut out. Without looking at my marker, Joachim does the same. We always hit within the same 12 frames. We are in sync. On the one hand, it’s very challenging to cut Joachim’s films because of their complexity in storytelling, but it’s also very easy because I just need to ask myself: “Does this work for me? If yes, then there’s a 98% chance it will also work for Joachim.”
My favorite part in this film is the artistic play with the bilingual element in the film-within-a-film, where Rachel first reads a very emotional section of Gustav’s script in English early in the story, and towards the end, Nora reads the same in Norwegian. It highlights the fact that translations, no matter how well-done, sometimes simply cannot fully capture a moment or feeling, which is best left to its original language. How did you tackle both sequences?
Rachel’s delivery is very strong and very emotional. She proves to Gustav and everyone at that moment that she is very good actress. But also, just an actress. To me, it’s not so much her convincing acting that hits me, it’s Gustav’s reaction. He leans back and smiles, but what is that smile about? It takes a while before he smiles. Is he convinced that Rachel is right for the part, or is he forcing himself to be convinced?
When Nora reads the scene, it becomes personal. She recognizes it from her own life and finally understands that this script is not about Gustav’s mother [but about Nora instead]. There was one long tracking shot from the side as she reads. It was supposed to be kept in one, but it was not nearly as strong as this handheld shot, which puts you right in the feeling with Nora. It doesn’t need the tracks to tell you that “this is an important moment.” It also made it possible to cut to Agnes on the same axes as she watches her sister. That for me is the strongest part, even more intense than Nora’s read. With her hands on her face, crying, Agnes feels Nora’s pain, but I can also see hope in her eyes, because this finally allows Nora to understand their father. All three actresses — Elle, Inga, and Renate — are so incredible. What a privilege it is to cut scenes like this.
A beautiful Dragestil (or “dragon style”) house, the Borg family home is a crucial part of the story. How did you convey the tension, love, and grief that has transpired in that house?
The opening montage is what sets the house as a center stage for the story to unfold: it has witnessed several generations of the Borg family. We would cut to an empty room or view thru the windows, let the people enter and exit the frame to leave it empty again. We would also see empty rooms and hear activities outside the frame. In one shot, a window is closing and you hear the outside world from an open and closed window’s perspective. With Nora’s voiceover, it gave a strong sense of the house just being there, not moving and witnessing the world passing by. The windows became the eyes, the rooms became the stomach, etc.
That’s fascinating! Even though the story deals with heavy topics like depression, suicide, and abandonment, how did you keep some levity for the audience?
We believe very much in humor to bring people in and engage the audience even in stories that involve death and pain. You become more receptive when you are allowed to laugh. If it’s only painful, you will shut down and protect your feelings. That’s why you often see both in our montages about the house. In the second montage, Gustav’s mum is closing the door before her suicide while teenage Gustav peeks at his aunt’s girlfriend’s naked breasts. Life is complex. You can both cry and laugh at the same event, and still be normal.
The montage where the faces of Gustav, Nora, and Agnes morph into each other on rotation is very emotional. What was that meant to symbolize?
The sequence was created in-camera by the DP Kasper Tuxen, by exposing one face, rewinding the film, and exposing on top of it again. It’s not CGI. It wasn’t written in the script. He also did the same for The Worst Person in The World, but we never found a place to use it. I can’t tell you what it symbolizes. It’s one of those open-ended lyrical abstractions that anyone can put their own meaning to. When you know the story of these three characters and their “psychological knot,” it can mean everything from an image of pain to forgiveness. It comes right after Nora’s breakdown and before Agnes’ fight with Gustav and the sisters’ reunification. From this point on, things will have to change; the status quo is no longer an option. Is it a warning? Is it about forgiveness? I don’t know.
What was the most challenging, unexpected, or rewarding sequence to cut on this film?
One of my favorite parts is the little jazzy montage around Nora, when she was with her co-worker in the bed, before it ends at Agnes’ house. I just love the playfulness of that style of editing.
After Nora finally reads her father’s script, the emotional scene with Agnes and Nora hugging and crying is very moving. How did you accentuate this pivotal moment?
In the original script, this was meant to be earlier in the film, even before Nora and Rachel meet at the theatre. But the scene was so strong between the sisters: once Nora understands that it’s about a character similar to herself (maybe herself), they come together in a mutual understanding of what they experienced during their childhood. It felt like the highest peak in the story. After that, everything was secondary conflicts and you could feel the film was getting a life on its own and starting to close in on itself. When Nora and Agnes hug each other on the bed, it was shot with many small improvised moments. As an editor, it’s all about carefully going thru the material over and over again. Agnes saying “I love you”, and Nora replying “me too” was improvised on only one of the takes. Imagine if we had missed that.
Let’s talk about the final sequence where Nora is acting in Gustav’s movie on the soundstage.
I get very emotional every time I see this ending shot. I know it’s a film-within-a-film and Nora is an actress, and I can see the blue screen outside the windows. But every time I want to stop her from going behind that door and scream “Nora please, don’t do it, let me help you.” Originally, Gustav gives stage direction to Nora, but we took it away. Without it, the scene is much stronger and you identify with her and with Gustav’s story about his mum and his daughter much more this way. It makes you think of the whole film that you’ve just watched. It’s a catharsis. After Gustav says “cut” and they look at each other, you see the admiration and love they have for each other. All of their problems are far from being solved, but the love and respect is back between father and daughter. They have finally found a way to communicate. The power of art has healed the void between them, and hopefully, set them on a path to communicate better as father and daughter.
Earning nine Oscar nominations, Sentimental Value is playing in select theaters for a post-nomination run and available on PVOD.
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Featured Image: Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning in ‘Sentimental Value.’ Courtesy NEON