Hot on the heels of the release of quirky comedy O'Horten, Movie Vortex has tracked down director Bent Hamer to discuss trends in his work, the state of the film industry and what he'd do if he wasn't a director...

MV: O'Horten is a massive shift from you last film, Factotum. You seem to have gone from somebody who's very anarchic and free-spirited to a restrained man at the end of a very ordered and simple career. What sparked this change?

BH: In America it was even called 'Factotum: A man who performs many jobs', so you're right! But I didn't even think of that. It's so close that I didn't even think about it. Why do we make films? What kind of stories do you tell? It's hard to say. I mean often my films are based on situations, a very focused idea like Kitchen Stories, but this one was different. Before I used to have a subject I'd have to find my way out but this time I had to find the subject.

MV: So the others were found stories and...

BH: Yeah, or ideas. With the Kitchen Stories I just found a diagram that I'd had for years without knowing that I'd ever make a film about it. But this one is so wide so I'm still travelling with him [Odd Horten] in a way.

MV: The film is very much like a journey, and a central part of that were the shots of the train journeys themselves and the landscapes. Is that something that inspired the character?

BH: I think so. If you see films from my part of the world it's very often about loneliness and I think my taste of this, I have a kind of melancholy way that fits very well into the cliche of Norwegians or Nordic people, although we don't live like this - we live more or less as you do here - still, when it comes to expressing something it's easy to stick to these kind of stories. But hopefully people aren't only watching because it fits the cliche, I hope you can connect it to your own life also, to other ages and stages of life.

MV: Are you feeling a lot more comfortable having returned to filming in Norway?

BH: I wouldn't mind shooting more films in the US, I get scripts from there but I do work on one project at a time, for me it's the whole concept. If I shoot something other people have written I really have to like it a lot.

MV: What attracted you to railways?

BH: I have no good answer. It has been in my head before but you can also say 'why are filmmakers so interested in trains?' and of course there's a lot of symbolism in trains, but in a way that makes it more a question of why I didn't avoid trains! Really I just had some ideas I really liked and I didn't want to let go.

MV: It sounds a lot like it's difficult to compartmentalise your ideas, do you think it's just the filmmaker's lot to try and tell stories while we sit here and ask questions like this?

BH: One thing I know is that as film companies start to do these retrospectives people can watch all my films and can probably find a lot of the same elements in my films, and then they will know even more than I do!

MV: Given that you write such ponderous, thoughtful films, and that you're so involved in the whole process, do you ever find it hard to ground yourself in reality when you finish them?

BH: It's always kind of empty but I'm quite good at it. I also follow the films, I do the promo and not all directors want to do that but I find it very helpful and it's good to compete but it's a kind of smooth way back too. After the shooting it's always empty though. 

MV: Do you ever worry that the short attention span of the YouTube generation make films like O'Horten hard to sell?

BH: It's not easy now, but people have been have been saying these sort of things for a long time. TV came and then video came and then DVD so we've heard it before. But there is some kind of paradigm shift when you have the internet and use of it on cell phones: before it was a case of waiting maybe years to see a film and now you can just get things on your phone! And when there is so much information coming out about a film it is hard sometimes to keep your integrity. So maybe in that context I am a little bit pessimistic. But to go to the theatre and see films on the big screen is still really different.

MV: So you're not planning an alternate career in case of emergency then? What would you do if you weren't a filmmaker?

BH: Well, if I was a better writer I would really like to write.

MV: You're not tempted to give up and be a train driver then?

BH: Well maybe!

MV: People often compare you to Aki Kaurismaki and Jim Jarmusch, but are there any directors that particularly inspired you?

BH: No I've been asked about listing books and films and directors and I've always said no. I feel I'm influenced by anything, maybe more by literature than by film even. I like a lot of filmmakers also, more films than filmmakers really, but I don't feel like I'm influenced by this or that. But it's always nice to be compared to people you know and respect.

MV: What's the most surprising experience you've had as a filmmaker?

BH: Probably that I got away with my first film! I came to Cannes with the film and I remember we went to Paris with an unfinished working print and it's 25 kilos and we had 25 kilos of separate sound, and the sound was made in three days just so we had something and the dialogue in English was only on paper with a timecode next to it! And they accepted the film, I don't know if that would happen today but it gave me a huge kick to be recognised even with my work at that stage.

MV: If you could give one word of advice to any young filmmakers out there what would it be?

BH: It has nothing to do with film. What's important is the thing you want to tell.

O'Horten is out in UK cinemas now! You can read Mark Cappuccio's review of the film HERE. 

Interview by Michael Edwards