This week, the festival-goers at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival were treated to an exclusive preview of Life is the time it takes to die. – I am incompetent and overwhelmed, says author Lars Saabye Christensen to news shortly after the film screening. The film with the poetic title is precisely about the author, and aspects of him that are not so well known. Become a writer because of the music Christensen has previously been open about the fact that he was stricken with cancer during his work on “The Book of Shadows”, the third in the “Traces of the City” trilogy. The film is, among other things, about the serious illness, but also about music and poetry. From the screening of the film “Life is the time it takes to die”. Photo: Eivind Bulie / news Christensen has been setting the tone as an author, but music has also played a big role in his life. For more than thirty years he has performed poems in the blues poetry band Norsk Utflukt, which he started together with guitarist Kåre Virud. In fact, music is a lot of the reason why he became a writer, he says. – It was through music that I became a poet and writer. Rock was my first artistic impulse and experience. The lyrics to the music were my first poetry that I experienced independently. Standing ovation The filming was finished only a few weeks ago. It still says fine-tuning of color and sound, but the festival still wanted him as the opening film for the side program Jazzfilm. – The audience’s reaction was very overwhelming. The fact that people got up and clapped afterwards was really great to experience, says director Bjørn-Owe Holmberg. The film will be finished during September, says director Bjørn-Owe Holmberg. Photo: Eivind Bulie / news The main character himself is more comfortable creating main characters rather than being one. He is nevertheless very satisfied with the film about himself. – I think it was a very good film. I don’t necessarily think about myself, but the form, the mood, the image and the music, says Christensen. The positive response of the author seems to put the director at ease. – Because I know how preoccupied he is with a number of things, so when he turned to me when the film was over and took me by the arm, I was happy and thought “ok, then he accepted what is”. A non-renewable resource The idea for the film came about when Holmberg heard a bit of the upcoming record for Norsk Utflukt Heder og viðurning at home with keyboardist Espen Fjelle in the band. Christensen liked the idea. Kåre Virud and Lars Saabye Christensen photographed in action in the 2000s. Photo: NTB In the film, which consists of seven chapters, the viewer gets a good insight into the work with the band in the studio at Notodden. The documentary will show a more unknown part of Christensen that has shaped and inspired his view of life and his entire writing, write the festival about the film. As the film’s title perhaps reveals, time is a recurring theme in Christensen’s writing. – Time concerns us all the time. Time is a non-renewable resource. That is perhaps why I write, compose, sing, compose and paint, because I want to get more time, says Christensen. – Is the time now something you enjoy or fear? – Both parts. I don’t think I, in my now quite adult life, have experienced scarier and gloomier times than now. That doesn’t mean that you can’t also have a good time now and then, but there are difficult times for many.
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– I am overwhelmed – news Culture and entertainment
