NEBRASKA

Nebraska is a lovely little film, for which Bruce Dern was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for best actor. An old man in the first stages of Alzheimer's is convinced that he has won US$1 million in a lottery, and decides to travel to Nebraska in order to get it. The letter is of course nothing of the sort, but his son decides to humour him by driving him the 700 miles anyway. Along the way they stop off in the father's childhood town, where he quickly becomes a celebrity for having made it out of small town farming and struck it rich. And thereby attracts the interest of his relatives.

The film is shot and black and white, and there are nice performances all round. It's not really about the money, but about giving old people a purpose in life. Nothing much happens, but that is probably the lot of old people most of the time. I really liked it, as did the two other people who saw it with me.

There have been a succession of good films recently, which have had critical acclaim, but not sold many tickets in the local cinema. Dallas Buyers' Club, Gravity, American Hustle and August: Osage County were all good, but didn't sell in rural Denmark. I don't mind, since I get to see them, and we make money from other things. Die Andere Heimat starts this evening for four days, and will probably be the same. I still remember the original 24-hour film from the 1980's. At 4 hours, this is just a snip, but it wouldn't surprise me if I was the only person in the cinema when I am the operator this Saturday evening.

Walter Blotscher