[Quick Summary: In the family home, a director and his two adult daughters try to bridge years of misunderstandings and absences.]
This is a film about family memories and how they get in the way of present relationships. Here's a little background:
- The father, Gustav, is a film director, who hasn't made a film in 15 yrs.
- Gustav left his wife when his daughters, Nora and Agnes, were young.
- The wife remained in the family home with the two daughters.
- The wife was a psychologist and has recently died.
- The daughters have returned to deal with her estate and the house.
- Gustav also returns, with a role for his daughter Nora to act in.
- He wants to shoot his film in the family house.
One of the things that impressed me in the script is how the writers indicated that this house will be important to this family's story.
It is used a metaphor, but also used literally as the structure in which the family has to wrestle with memories. The house is a silent participant/witness to their lives.
In this early scene in the script (below), the writers use a montage of rapid images to establish how often the house is a participant in the family's daily life:
INT. FAMILY HOUSE (VARIOUS TIMES) - DAY
MONTAGE of rapid images of the house being used and abused as the voice continues:
NARRATOR: She remembered wondering if the house preferred to be light and empty or full and heavy...
High heels scrape the parquet of floor at a party (1965).
An eager dog's claws scratch the wooden floor in front of the door (1980).
NARRATOR (CONT'D): ...if it liked being trampled on, or that people crashed into its walls, that eager dog claws scratched the floorboards.
A chair scraping against the kitchen floor (1998).
Children's dirty fingers stick to the railing on the stairs (1994).
A wine glass falls to the floor and shatters (1965).
A milk glass topples over (1955).
A laptop falls corner-first, creating a deep gouge in the wooden floor (2000).
NARRATOR (CONT'D): ...and she thought yes, it liked being full, and that the marks were just scrapes like you get playing tag or soccer.
Gustav (35) is moving his hands behind the two small windows over the kitchen door. The shadowplay makes it seem to Nora (3) that they are two eyes looking toward her. (1990s).
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I'd never seen a house used as participant/witness/location/framework of the story like this. The memories make a house a home.
Sentimental Value (2025)(8/18/24 draft)
by Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier
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