Time stops for love in the first trailer for The Worst Person in the World

Renate Reinsve won the Best Actress prize at Cannes for Joachim Trier’s multi-layered romance.

Words

Charles Bramesco

@intothecrevasse

One of the breakout successes from this year’s Cannes Film Festival was The Worst Person in the World, the latest film from Norway’s Joachim Trier. The reviews were glowing across the board, star Renate Reinsve took home the Best Actress prize, and distribution deals for the UK and North America quickly followed.

Today, everyone can get a glimpse of what all the fuss is about with the first trailer for the downbeat romance, posted online this afternoon. To the sounds of the all-too-apropos “I Said Goodbye to Me” by Harry Nilsson, we meet the passionate yet rudderless Julie and the two men between whom she’s torn.

The third part in Trier’s so-called “Oslo Trilogy,” the film chronicles the quarter-life crisis sending Julie from the arms of her boyfriend Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) into the embrace of the enticing Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), her romantic ambivalence in sync with her aimless career path. Divided between the men, each challenging in their own uniquely handsome way, she’s likewise divided between versions of herself, unsure what she wants to do or who she wants to be.

At Cannes, our woman on the scene Hannah Strong had plenty of positive things to say about the drama in her review: “…there’s a truth behind every pithy utterance which feels novel, and when the script veers toward heartache it hits harder for how much we’ve come to care for the three oddballs at the film’s centre. It’s early days at Cannes 2021, but The Worst Person in the World already feels like a future classic, and Renate Reinsve is hopefully a star on the rise.”

NEON acquired the film for the US and MUBI will release it in the UK, but neither outfit has set a date as of yet. The film being Norway’s odds-on submission for the Academy Award, a late-in-the-year run to coincide with that campaign is all but assured.

Published 20 Sep 2021

Tags: Anders Danielsen Lie Herbert Nordrum Joachim Trier Renate Reinsve

Suggested For You

The Worst Person in the World – first-look review

By Hannah Strong

Joachim Trier returns to Cannes with a keenly-observed drama about the often turbulent nature of modern romance.

Joachim Trier: ‘Making movies takes something out of you every time’

By David Jenkins

The Norwegian director of Louder Than Bombs talks us through the intricacies of his writing process.

How movies reveal the intimate details of romance

By Little White Lies

A new short documentary taps into cinema’s potential for presenting love in all its complex forms.

Little White Lies Logo

About Little White Lies

Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.

Editorial

Design