First of all, "Inge" is a name reserved for MEN. "Inga" or "Inger" would be a female name. Second, the "norwegian" she is talking in the beginning of the trailer is the worst I ever heard, completely not understandable. She even uses the german word for "no", "nein", istead of the norwegian "nei".
Jan Ingar (yes, Ingar is a male name), a native norwegian.
Ha ha. I'm norwegian and I could'nt understand a single word of the supposedly norwegian dialogue.
It sounded like a mix between german, dutch and the swedish chef from The Muppet Show.
And as mentioned Inge is a male name in Norway. Bad research!
Get some real norwegians to speak the next time please.
EDIT:
Okay, maybe I misunderstood. They think she's norwegian, but she's actually from Germany?
If that is so I withdraw what I first posted, but it does'nt sound really german either, the dialogue. Well.
EDIT:
Okay, maybe I misunderstood. They think she's norwegian, but she's actually from Germany?
If that is so I withdraw what I first posted, but it does'nt sound really german either, the dialogue. Well.
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From imdb:
Plot Outline: Set in 1920, Inge travels from Norway to rural Minnesota meet the man destined to be her husband. Bureaucracy and social morality cause major complications
Plot Summary: As Inge buries her husband Olaf on their Minnesota farm in 1968, we relive her life story as she tells her grown grandson about how she arrived from Norway in 1920 as Olaf's postal bride and of the epic obstacles they overcame in order to marry...
Both states that Inge is Norwegian. However, Inge is a female name in German (and Danish), so that would make sense. But if she is German, than the monologe in the beginning make no sense. It's neither Norwegian, or German, but a mix with a twist of Dutch. She uses "krieg" and "nein" ("war" and "no" i German), and "gifte meg og ta et bad" ("marry and take a bath" in Norwegian). And when she speak English she have a Russian/slavian-accent.
Inge is meant to be German as that is one key sources of conflict in the story.
shareI think she's supposed to be German but I have no idea what language that is supposed to be in her little speech there in the beginning of the trailer? I'm fluent in German and Danish and can understand some Norwegian and Dutch, but this is true Gibberish! Why wouldn't the make her speak something in a language at least some people in the audience might understand, is beyond me.
Normally I would jump at this kind of movie but I'm a bit put off by the apparent bad research made for it. Seriously, how difficult could it be to have somebody on the set who actually CAN speak the language used in the film?
Its even worse than the Norwegian spoken on John Carpenter's The ''Thing''.
Norge eier dere alle!
I may be arriving a little late for this string but I wanted to clarify two points raised in the messages above. (Yes, I have seen this film.)
1. Inge is a German national who comes to Minnesota via Norway. As others have alluded, this is a critical issue in the plot.
2. You may notice in the trailer that Inge's outburst does not have any subtitles. The actual words she (Elizabeth Reaser) says, or is scripted to say, are far less important than her tone, cadence, facial expressions, body language, etc. It makes for a very effective, and funny, scene even if what comes out of Ms. Reaser's mouth is a hodge podge of Nordic gibberish.
This is truly a wonderful film and I think it would be a mistake to avoid it simply because of the linguistic imperfections.
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1. Inge is a German national who comes to Minnesota via Norway. As others have alluded, this is a critical issue in the plot.
2. You may notice in the trailer that Inge's outburst does not have any subtitles. The actual words she (Elizabeth Reaser) says, or is scripted to say, are far less important than her tone, cadence, facial expressions, body language, etc. It makes for a very effective, and funny, scene even if what comes out of Ms. Reaser's mouth is a hodge podge of Nordic gibberish.
This is truly a wonderful film and I think it would be a mistake to avoid it simply because of the linguistic imperfections.
I was on the crew of this movie.
Inge is a German mail order bride who comes over to be with Olaf in a western Minnesota farming community, mostly Norwegian.
Who ever wrote the listing for IMDB wrote it wrong.
There is no need for subtitles in this movie because the language barrier is part of what makes this story what it is. There is a reason why Elizabeth won best actress in I believe the Florida Film Festival.
The film has won numerous awards around various film festivals around the country, including audience choice, best of festival and best first time director.
If the film is coming to your city, please see it. You will not be dissapointed.
www.sweetlandmovie.com for all the information you need to know.
I don't know, but I find it rather insulting to both us Norwegians and Germans to have her speak a gibberish hogpodge of both languages and made up words with no attempt at pronouncing the words like a foreigner at all.
It kind of disrupts the scene and makes it seem just foolish. Why is it so difficult for people making films to hire a language consultant when they have foreign roles in the movie ? Heh, I also remember the X-files episode "Dod Kalm", where they spoke proper Norwegian words but pronounced them like a drunken Turkish guy raised in Austria and instructed to speak Chinese.
- NightRaven
I just enjoyed this wonderful film this evening, in Sweden. As an immigrant to Sweden from the United States 6 years ago, I can certainly relate to Inge's experience with language and, in spite of what so many in this thread criticize as gibberish, I can truly say that the odd blend of German (her supposed native heritage in the story), Norwegian, indeed sounded Dutch from time to time.
I learned French in school as a child. English was my mother tongue. My parents both spoke fluent German also. As I began to speak Swedish, the result was a melange of all of the above--my brain seeking out whatever word came to the front of whatever segment of my feeble brain contains 'language'.
While it is always a challenge for actors to learn languages and dialects, I do believe that Elizabeth Reaser manages to handle three languages and an English dialect extremely well. (and given the number of Norwegian and Swedish dialects that exist in Scandinavia, it'd be tough to say that whatever she concocted might not be realistic somewhere in these parts!)
I live in Minnesota and worked with a woman who was of 100% Norwegian descent. Her great-grandparents had made sure that their descendants remembered their Norwegian language and traditions. She returned to Norway for the first time several years ago and visited the village where her grandparents had come from. When she tried to speak the Norwegian that she had been taught, none of the locals could understand much of what she was saying - either the dialect she had learned was no longer in use or perhaps there were subtle changes in the Norwegian over the previous 100 years.
Her story sounds remarkably like some of the comments here. I'm wondering if the actress was either trained by someone who knew a defunct Norwegian dialect or else was speaking the language as it may have been spoken long ago?
My grandparents came from Norway at the turn of the century. While it is 50 years since I had daily contact with them, I still can make out some of the wording. In 1998 we had a visit from my mother's relatives from Norway (East of Stavanger.) I had almost no luck at all understanding them. Yet when I watch a modern Swedish movie, it's pretty easy. Conclusion: Before 1905, the Norwegian dialect was quite Swedish. [Norway was dominated by Sweden after the Napoleonic era] Later generations have learned a more Danish dialect, Nynorsk. Researchers have been coming to Minnesota in the past to record native speakers of dialects that are almost now extinct in the native land. But they are almost all gone here too.
sharedalsecl:
"Before 1905, the Norwegian dialect was quite Swedish. [Norway was dominated by Sweden after the Napoleonic era] Later generations have learned a more Danish dialect, Nynorsk. Researchers have been coming to Minnesota in the past to record native speakers of dialects that are almost now extinct in the native land. But they are almost all gone here too."
This is even a bigger insult than the gibberish Norwegian in the movie, because this lesson in Norwegian language history is copletely false.
Norway has been under Danish rule more or less from late 14th century up to 1814. Since all cultural life in Norway litteraly died out during the Black Death, the Danish language dominated the cultural and intellectual life since. Copenhagen was the only place for higher education, and Danish was the official written language. After the Napoleon wars Norway came under Swedish rule, but now the Norwegian nationalism was rising. An attemt to declare an independant nation in 1814 failed, but an interest for the Norwegian culture and language began. "Nynorsk", neo-norwegian, was a new written language based on the Norwegian dialects, created to make an alternative for the Danish language written among the cultural elite. Neo-norwegian has nothing to do with either Swedish nor Danish, and only 12 % of Norwegians use it today. The orignal Danish language has been norwegian-fied over the years and is now called bokmål an is used by most Norwegians for writing.
Jan Ingar: Well, I might be mistaken about my conclusions, but it still remains that my Grandparents who came from the Rogaland area spoke a Norwegian that my 3rd generation cousins don't. Guests at our Son's of Norway meetings, who are from there, and who are over 80 years old, still sound just like my Grandparents. And I still say that modern Swedish sounds quite a bit like the Norwegian my old folks used. Do you know if Rogaland dialect was a special case?
I also recall that my dad's father, who was from Voss and was educated at a military high school in Christiania, spoke a dialect that my mother's parents thought was difficult. Maybe he learned the more "official" language. Both grandfathers left Norway in 1901.
Around Stavanger there are many dialects. And for people living in downtown Stavanger it can really be hard to understand people further south. And we are talking about an hour away with car...
Even further in the fjords the dialect changes alot.
kind regards from Sandnes,Norway
Thank you for your comments.
shareBetween 1900 and 1960 Norway went through a "samnorsking" (Reforms in 1907, 1917, 1938 and 1959), which practically mean that they tried to combine the two official written forms (bokmål and nynorsk) of the language to become one. Also, Norway got a lot of different dialects, sometimes making it hard for people to understand eachother completly.
If you for some reason want to learn more, a great and accurate source is actually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_language
I am from Rogaland and have grandparents from Stavanger and outside of Stavanger. The only difference between how I speak and how my grand parents speak is that I use some slang and I talk faster. Older people from Rogaland are more 'clear' in their speach than younger ones and probably used older expression, but it's definitely the same dialect.
There are variations in the dialect in Rogaland, but apart from a few words and expressions it should not be hard for anyone to understand. The only dialect I have any problems with in the entire country is the one they speak in Lom. So the only explanation for you not being able to understand their language, is that the language you have learned has changed over the years... The dialect we speak has not changed enough for it to become so hard to understand.
And the dialect we speak in Rogaland is as far from swedish as you can get in my opinion. Except for the Skåne dialect in Sweden we don't even use the same 'R', and we don't have the same intonation.
The woman in the film who is trying to speak norwegian, is probably saying the right words, but the intonation and the emphasis on the words are completely off. She doesn't even sound like a german-norwegian. And it is impossible to tell what dialect she is trying to speak. I'm guessing that she only said what was in the script, which was probably written in bokmål, which again isn't a spoken dialect.
My conclusion; very bad research, but it's probably a great movie. When it comes to Norway, I'll probably go see it :)
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Wow. In response to Night Raven and the other naysayers: You completely missed the point of the language barrier in the film. I hope you havent lost any sleep over being so "insulted" by the film, nightraven. Inge does not speak english. I think everyone would agree with that. The way she communicates with the community is though a bit of german, a bit of norwegian, and some choppy english. This melting pot of languages is what she percieves to be the most coherent to the community. If anyone knows people that speak multiple languages they often attempt to use a combination of them to get around. For example, an Italian who speaks spanish is more likely to use a combination of the two when trying to get around in France. This is suppossed to be charming and humerous, not offensive. Next time I suggest trying to understand film on a deeper level rather than unsuccessfully attempting to disect the imperfections of the film. I hope that clears some things up and people are no longer insulted.
shareNice response.
To Night Raven, if you would have stayed through the credits, you would have seen that there was a dialect coach.
Reaser did an amazing job. She was cast for this role 10 ( yes ten ) days before shooting was to begin because someone else backed out at the last minute.
Stop being so critical and go enjoy the movie.
You ought to forgive a very low budget movie for not fixing flaws that most people won't be able to notice. I certainly wouldn't expect a small film with no extra cash to get English or Greek correct...
shareinanhaze:
"I certainly wouldn't expect a small film with no extra cash to get English or Greek correct..."
Why not? Getting accents and pronunciation correct doesn't cost money.
-NightRaven
Why not? Getting accents and pronunciation correct doesn't cost money.
inanhaze:
"You ought to forgive a very low budget movie for not fixing flaws that most people won't be able to notice. I certainly wouldn't expect a small film with no extra cash to get English or Greek correct..."
I Translated your English to German, using my Babylon 6 program. However, although I am of German ancestry, I do not speak or understand much of the German language. This is just to show you how quickly and inexpensive language translations can be.
"Sie sollten, einen sehr niedrigen Budgetfilm dafür zu vergeben, Fehlern diese meisten Leute nicht zu arrangieren, wird nicht fähig sein, zu merken. Ich würde bestimmt keinen kleinen Film mit keinem besonderem Bargeld erwarten, Englisch oder Greek korrekt zu bekommen..."
You're welcome or “Du bist willkommen.”
PS I truly loved and enjoyed this great movie by overlooking its flaws, as all movies have their certain amount of flaws. :-)
Billy Cox
JFC, do people go around LOOKING for things to be "insulted" about? It's a freaking movie.
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
I agree and I am neither German nor Norwegian. The language issue was confusing. I "got" that we weren't supposed to understand her but I ended up turning on the subtitles anyway because it was confusing when Olaf was speaking to her in Norwegian? (German? That's what I thought at first). I couldn't figure out if she was supposed to speak both German and Norwegian fluently or just German but with some understanding of Norwegian. And if the girl at the station immediately knew she was German from her last name, it didn't make sense that Olaf didn't know. Anyway, in an attempt to give the audience a "pure" experience of the frustration of the language barrier, they confused it while glossing over obvious plot holes. That said, I really did enjoy the movie and the performances were great. I just wished someone involved had stepped back and realized that given the importance of language to the plot, that they should have gone out of their way to work with the languages involved rather than trying to make them just a plot device.
shareAs something of a farm or homesteading historian, I also wondered how hard it would have been to ask someone for technical advice on the farming practices of 1919. It wouldn't have cost them so much. They could have shot scenes on Amish farms and at threshing demonstrations.
But after talking to a few others on 03Nov06 in Fargo, I realize that 99.9% of the public hasn't any inkling of how farming was done 3 generations ago. In fact they are very vague about how it's done today.
I realize that art is quite generally hyperbole. But just to get it off my chest, here are a few things I noticed:
Any respectable farmer would have had a grove and windbreak around his building site. He would have had a windmill to power his well. He would have fences to separate his animals and his house yard and his garden. He would have had hay meadows to feed his livestock, and he would have had pastures. He wouldn't have fields of corn a mile wide and two miles long.
He would have been inseparable from his faithful dog. No one would sneak into the house at night without the dog making a ruckus. I believe they were correct, though, in not showing a chicken flock. Taking care of chickens was a job for the wife or the the children. And by the way, the English word for Swine is hog, not ham.
Secondly, the steam threshing scenes would have been appropriate for small grains, but not for corn. No one in 1919 harvested ripe corn with a machete. They could have husked corn by hand, throwing the cobs into the wagon. And corn rows would have been wide enough for horses and horse drawn equipment, not narrow like for combine harvesting in the year 2005. No one would be threshing wheat with a flail in 1919. The iron wheeled wagons were conceivable, but most had wooden wheels at the time. They were easier for the horses to pull. The tractor a successful small time farmer would have had in 1919 was probably a Fordson. The IHC tractor shown didn't come onto the market until a few years later. The Model T Ford car with the brass radiator would be correct.
Also, a bachelor with only 10 years on his land would be living in a minimum type of house, nothing so grand as what was in the movie. WWI was a tremendously prosperous time for farmers, so a lot of new barns and houses were built in 1919-20. By about 1921-22, the European farmers had gotten back into their fields, and demand for American food dropped. This began the slide toward depression. But the sheriff's sales of farms was still mostly 10 years in the future in 1919. It is true that some sales were bid at 1c or 2c per item, and then all donated back to the family that had been evicted.
During WWI it was against the law in Minnesota to speak a foreign language in public. Teachers clamped down on school kids. However, I never heard of Lutheran ministers doing this in religious settings. By the way, no-one called himself "Minister", too modest for that. Just using his first two initials and last name would be the tip-off. Fancier hats, gloves, and shoes, another. Carrying a Bible or satchel with Communion supplies, another. Smoking cigars, another. He would have been Reverend only in special situations. The people of the congregation would have used his last name only, in the third person, without title. My grandfather was one. At church, the women would have sat on the left side, and the men on the right side of the church. By the 1950's this started to go out of style, and younger husbands and wives sat together on the right side. I don't think any men sat on the left side.
Enough from me, I guess. I'll recommend this movie to the younger people without hesitation.
I don't know...shouldn't you just try to enjoy a movie? its one of the best I've seen in a long time and to harp on a really low budget film for "Wrong" farming techniques just seems like wasted energy.
shareThat is the worst review of a movie I have ever seen on here.
They have movies for you however. They are called documentaries. You can usually see informational films like these on the History channel or on your local PBS affiliate.
Give me a break. Who has time to note whether or not there was a wind break on the farm?
While I appreciate your historical accuracy and finicky nature, and while I would even be so much of a hardliner about it myself in my specialty, I think you miss the emotional tone of the film by dwelling on what you perceive are inaccuracies.
Now then. One of the reasons there are no windbreaks is because the location scouts were looking for that specifically. The director and scouts reasoned that having been on the farm only 10 years, the classic windbreak of pine stands would be too tall on most of the existing farms. So they drove in concentric circles away from the Twin Cities until they found an area without them.
Also, you say that the film had no technical advisors on early 20th century farming in the area. Wrong again. If you watch the credits, a man by the name of Kurt Arner is credited as such. Not only is he an area farmer who raises the Belgian horses featured in the film, but he runs his farm with Amish farming techniques, and lives as such. He's been living and working Amish farms for over 2 decades, and seemed to know his stuff.
The film also had the good fortune to be allowed to film in the Olof Swensson Farm Museum house and barn. Check it out if you're ever in far western Minnesota: 151 Pioneer Dr Montevideo, MN 56265.
As for the steam threshing scene: I direct you to the Montevideo, MN Heritage Hill Threshing Club. All of the machines used, and many members of that club were kind enough to come and work with the filmmakers on the day of the harvest scenes. Please feel free to check out http://ww.heritagehill.us - very nice people, and a lovely threshing show.
Finally, the houses used in the film were not only period accurate, but they were bought from the Sears kit catalog at the time. The people who owned those houses were on the land long enough to know exactly when they were built and from where. Not only could you order a decently priced home back then, but the catalog was nicer than cobs in the outhouse.
Sometimes it is a whole lot more important to get it right than get it correct.
This film was wonderful.
sharedalsecl-
Go watch public televsion. They should have enoght "reality" for you. The rest of us shall watch a cinematically beautiful film and not worry about the extravagence of Olaf's house or why he doesn't have a dog. Lighten up.
Kokocookie
Well, "lightening up" is a pretty hard thing for a Norwegian to do. I'm sorry that I expressed some criticisms. I thought, in my twisted mind, that I was adding value to the discussion.
I've spent over 7 years since my retirement volunteering at a Threshermen's museum such as mentioned above. I kind of feel, what's the use? if fantasy is more valued than factual representation. Becomes propaganda of some sort, I think.
Yes, the only TV I watch very often is Charlie Rose. I haven't spent much time reading novels, since Nevil Shute or John Steinbeck, but do have Rolvaag, Nexo, Undset, and Moberg and a bunch of Scandinavian immigrant stories. As you might guess, I really dive into such things as "The Society for the History of Technology" and etc.
For further reading on the immigrant experience in the WWI era, I recommend writings by Professor Christlock of Augsberg College. I further recommend a cursory review of the differences between the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, and the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod (which is the German counterpart).
Sorry about the seriousness.
No need to apologize - I thought this was a pretty good discussion and I learned a lot besides!
shareI find it interesting that you feel so adamant about the 'errors' in this movie.
First off, the movie was filmed in the fall and they needed to use an existing cornfield, planted by modern methods. It was too late to plant an historically correct crop.
I have lived in the Montevideo area for over 40 years and people often speak of 'reading for the minister in Norwegian, Swedish, etc' (this was confirmation in case you didn't recognize the old term). Many local churches distinguished themselves by saying they were 'Swedish Lutheran'; 'Norwegian Lutheran' because the services were held in that particular language.
Windbreaks: I have many, many old pictures that show fine new farm homes at the turn of the century until the 1930s with nary a tree windbreak. They became popular after the 'dust bowl' days.
I guess some people find it hard to seek out the beauty and need to look for the negative. Perhaps the others are right, you need more a documentary film, something this was not advertised as....
" She uses "krieg" and "nein" ("war" and "no" i German), and "gifte meg og ta et bad" ("marry and take a bath" in Norwegian). And when she speak English she have a Russian/slavian-accent. "
For a very good (imo) scandinavian accent, get the movie "Dude where is my car", and listen to the twins. They've got a typical Oslo-accent.
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Would you like a lovely smash?
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At best, Inge is a gender-confused norwegian woman with a russian accent! I just saw Inge speaking "norwegian" in a particular scene, and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time... :-D
shareFrom the Wikipedia entry for "Sweet Land" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Land
Elizabeth Reaser signed on after another actress dropped out because of a scheduling conflict. [4] Reaser initially balked at having to master her multilingual dialogue on such short notice, and she tried to back out of the audition. Her agent talked her out of it, and she got the part.
Cant blaim her, norwegian is pretty hard language to learn
And when it comes to Inge, yes, Inge is a male name in Norway, but so Is Kim and Kim is also a female name, so in germany Inge is probaly a female name too.
I want to see this movie because of the norwegian stuff :)
can you hear her talk in the trailer?
"Stupid questions are better than stupid mistakes"
If you go to the movie's official website (www.sweetlandmovie.com), you'll get an earful as the page loads.
shareThis movie is all over norwegian media right now, just because of the completly hilarious "norwegian". Here is an article from Norways second biggest newspaper, Dagbladet, entitled "What is she trying to say?", with a longer clip of Inges monloge from the trailer:
http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2007/01/16/489043.html
Watch it and laugh. LOL. Sounds almost like russian to me...
shareI just want to mention that Inge is usually considered a manle name, but there are about 105 women in Norway today with this name (alle nordmenn kan sjekke ssb.no/navn/). But I still have to admit that Inge's 'Norwegian' monologue was really funny.
"Never let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking."
She was supposed to be a german trying to speak norwegian.
Shes not norwegian in the film
Its not always easy trying to understand a german trying to speak norwegian
"Stupid questions are better than stupid mistakes"
well she isn't doing a german-norwegian accent.
shareShe seems to be talking a little bit of Norwegian, and a little bit of german
only understood a couple of words
"Stupid questions are better than stupid mistakes"
I actually don't think she has a german accent at all. Sounds like a polish or russian person trying to speak norwegian.
Sounds very very funny, and quite stupid.
I guess it's easy for those who don't understand a word norwegian anyway to tell everyone to just enjoy the movie, but for norwegians the hilarious accent simply becomes too funny.
Filmskaperene glaubt at it nicht matter om it is forståelig oder nicht. It is nicht meningen that publikum skal verstehe. Tidenes tynneste unnskyldning for slett arbeid? Norge ist nicht the worlds navle. Så warum care what eine B-kjendis says in a C-film?
shareI actually understood all that.
I don't think anyone here believes that Norway is in any way the center of the world. I think that the reason that some norwegians care, is actually because Norway is far from the center of the world. Some people think it's fun to see stuff that has to do about Norway on TV because it doesn't happen a lot.
Some people think it's fun to see stuff that has to do about Norway on TV because it doesn't happen a lot.
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