An art-house and festival circuit hit at the time of its release, (Per Oscarsson won the Best Actor prize at Cannes), Henning Carlsen's "Hunger" has now largely disappeared. Based on Knut Hamsun's novel 'Sult' it's the story of one man's descent into something akin to madness as, destitute, he wanders the streets of Christiania too proud to ask for help. He's a writer but his failure to find proper employment and his general attitude towards the people he meets has brought him to his lowest ebb.
Hardly ever off the screen, Oscarsson is superb; he has that lean and hungry look the role demands, part predator and part victim and he totally dominates the film which is superbly shot by Henning Kristiansin. As the title and the subject suggests this is a bleak and fairly unrelenting film and yet one with a potentially hopeful ending. One of the great Danish films, it cries out for a revival.
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