{"id":657464,"date":"2025-12-27T08:27:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/657464\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T08:27:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:27:27","slug":"truthfully-you-can-never-be-a-good-parent-inside-sentimental-value-the-years-frankest-most-emotional-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/657464\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Truthfully, you can never be a good parent\u2019: Inside Sentimental Value, the year\u2019s frankest, most emotional film"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There is a scene in Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier\u2019s Oscar-tipped family drama<\/a>, in which an ageing director played by Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd tells his estranged daughters, \u201cYou can\u2019t write Ulysses driving to soccer practice.\u201d Ostensibly, it\u2019s an off-the-cuff comment about nobody in particular. Implicitly, it\u2019s a defence of his own glaring absence from their lives growing up. Neither of the women are buying it. <\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, the actor playing Gustav agrees with the statement. \u201cIt\u2019s true. You cannot,\u201d says Skarsg\u00e5rd, on a layover in London before flying back to Sweden for the holidays. The 74-year-old star of Mamma Mia!, Chernobyl and Dune is not ashamed to say he wasn\u2019t the sort of dad to stick around at his kids\u2019 football training. \u201cIt would be so boring,\u201d he huffs with some melodrama. \u201cI would die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tug of war between art and family is one of many conflicts in Sentimental Value. In it, Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s Gustav attempts to reconcile with his grown-up daughters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Nora, a successful theatre actor, is caught off guard when he offers her the principal part in a film he has written for her. When she refuses, he casts a young American star (Elle Fanning) who becomes an unwitting participant in this family\u2019s decades-long discord.<\/p>\n

The film received a 19-minute standing ovation when it premiered this summer in Cannes<\/a>; it scooped nine Golden Globe nominations<\/a> and is considered a serious contender for next year\u2019s Oscars. I speak with Trier and the cast across several weeks, some in person and others over Zoom from Norway. Lilleaas phones from her car in Oslo; elsewhere in the same city, Reinsve\u2019s young son bounds over to show his mother a drawing mid-conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry,\u201d Reinsve says, admiring the artwork and scruffing his hair before sending him on his way. Reinsve is most famous for the self-searching 30-year-old she played in Trier\u2019s prize-winning The Worst Person in the World<\/a>. Released three years ago, that film awakened the world to Reinsve\u2019s charms and skill on screen. She won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance, plus a Bafta nod. <\/p>\n

\n

Joachim is very aware of what he\u2019s asking people to sacrifice in terms of family, because he\u2019s making the same sacrifice<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas<\/p>\n

Trier says he has since heard from some of the world\u2019s most starry stars that they think Reinsve is phenomenal. Certainly, she is part of the reason Skarsg\u00e5rd signed on to the film. \u201cShe\u2019s one of a generation, the kind of actor with translucence,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can see all the feelings, what is going on inside; she can blush on cue.\u201d <\/p>\n

Working together again felt like the natural choice, Reinsve and Trier both say. He wrote Nora specifically for her, and indeed, she slips into the character so fluidly \u2013 Nora\u2019s pain, humour, and prickliness conforming to her contours, the way water fills a vessel. <\/p>\n

One hopes a similar breakout awaits Lilleaas, whose detailed, naturalistic performance as younger sister Agnes is among the film\u2019s most touching. Unlike Nora, whose every facet of life feels coloured by her father\u2019s abandonment, Agnes has found contentment working as a historian with a family of her own. Still, when Gustav comes crashing back into their lives, she finds herself bound by her identity as the family pacifist. And while Trier did not write Agnes for Lilleaas, the actor shaped the character in ways he did not foresee. <\/p>\n

\"Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd and Reinsve as father and daughter in \u2018Sentimental Value\u2019 (Neon\/AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been looking for someone who would be giggly and avoidant of emotion, someone who was trying to make everyone feel good, and Inga was not that,\u201d says Trier. \u201cShe had a grounded sincerity, and I realised that\u2019s much more interesting.\u201d His comments chime with what Lilleaas told me a week earlier: \u201cThe role becomes a combination of you and the character \u2013 and it doesn\u2019t have to be literal, but it is truthful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lilleaas had initially been puzzled when her audition began with a 90-minute conversation about her life and backstory. Likewise, Fanning says she shared personal stories that Trier used to \u201crewrite my character a little\u201d; when Rachel arrives in Oslo for rehearsals on Gustav\u2019s film, she is out of place and out of sorts. She feels lost and is longing for something more meaningful, and hopes that this film will be it. As someone who has been acting since they were two, Fanning says she can empathise with those feelings of wanting more for yourself: \u201cYou can\u2019t help but feel the ebbs and flows of being in this industry, and at times, feeling that defeat. I\u2019ve certainly felt that before.\u201d On what Trier sees in Reinsve for Nora\u2019s character, Reinsve laughs and suggests she wouldn\u2019t begin to pretend to understand.<\/p>\n

As for Gustav, some men might be offended to learn that the role of an absent father and egocentric artist was written with them in mind. Skarsg\u00e5rd knows better. \u201cIt\u2019s never an insult, because I don\u2019t play myself usually,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think they can know my personality. And I never thought of Gustav as being like me in any way. Our situations are similar, but it\u2019s totally different. Or at least, I thought so until my son saw the film and said to me, \u2018You recognise yourself?\u2019\u201d He laughs. \u201cI said, no! But of course, they see things that I don\u2019t see \u2013 but you can never satisfy a kid. You can never be a good parent to a kid, because truthfully, they have things to complain about because we\u2019re only human \u2013 and they\u2019re not perfect either. So you\u2019ve got to live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Unlike his character, Skarsg\u00e5rd has a good relationship with his eight kids, seven of whom have followed him into the business. But he admits now that he can see some parallels. \u201cI realised more that maybe I wasn\u2019t totally present when my kids were growing up,\u201d he says, quickly adding, \u201cbut I have eight kids \u2013 it\u2019s f***ing impossible.\u201d Later, he says: \u201cI have been very tolerant to my kids, and they have to be tolerant of me, too. I\u2019ve let them go and do whatever they want, and they can let me go and do whatever I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family thinking no doubt impacts the way Trier runs his sets. \u201cHe is very family-oriented,\u201d says Lilleaas. \u201cWe try to end on time so that people can go home. He\u2019s very aware of what he\u2019s asking people to sacrifice, because he\u2019s making the same sacrifice.\u201d It\u2019s as much a result of having kids of his own \u2013 the home where they shot Sentimental Value was close enough to Trier\u2019s apartment that he could be back for bedtime \u2013 as it is of having once also been a child, waiting for his parents to get home from set. Trier is a third-generation filmmaker, \u201cso I know what it means\u201d, he laughs. <\/p>\n

These interviews all take place separately, but without fail, all four actors speak at length about trust and the unique way that Trier facilitates it through weeks of rehearsals. \u201cThe reason I do a lot of rehearsals with actors is not really to read the text or figure out the story, it\u2019s to get into the groove of the trust thing, where they get accustomed to taking a risk doing something unexpected, and I catch them,\u201d says Trier. \u201cIt\u2019s like a trust fall exercise that you need to get warmed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Trier<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Trier and the cast of \u2018Sentimental Value\u2019 at Cannes Film Festival (2025 Invision)<\/p>\n

That trust fall is at the heart of his collaboration with Reinsve. \u201cI know so deeply that I\u2019ll be taken care of as an actor, so I can be free to mess up and f*** up a scene, or be really bad sometimes, because to be that free is very risky,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very scary. I wouldn\u2019t dare doing that with anyone.\u201d Likewise, Fanning says she can trust that Trier is \u201cseeing everything you\u2019re doing and what you\u2019re trying to do, because he\u2019s not off in a tent looking at a monitor; he\u2019s right in the room with us in the scene.\u201d It\u2019s why Trier will never relinquish the final cut of his films. It\u2019s not a power move with the studios, he insists, but \u201cthe actors put their trust in me, and if some third-party group would take that away, it would diminish that\u201d. <\/p>\n

Similarly, the point of the rehearsals is never to drill the scenes to perfection. \u201cJoachim, he is very well prepared, but his preparations never become rigid,\u201d notes Skarsg\u00e5rd. \u201cHe never says, \u2018It\u2019s like that. You should do it like this,\u2019 but you investigate the role together. You feel relaxed and you can do anything.\u201d In that way, Skarsg\u00e5rd continues, \u201cthis Trier is a lot like the other Trier\u201d, referring to Danish director Lars von Trier, with whom he has worked several times. Skarsg\u00e5rd recalls walking onto the set of his first Von Trier film, 1996\u2019s Breaking the Waves, and seeing a sign reading: \u201cMake Mistakes.\u201d There were no signs on the set of Sentimental Value, but the message was clear. <\/p>\n

Trust and mistakes, and trusting someone enough to make mistakes, is how Trier hopes to capture something real. \u201cYou can allow yourself to go there, you don\u2019t have to push to get to an emotion. You just see what comes up and that is very scary. But when you feel seen, you become very brave,\u201d Reinsve says.<\/p>\n

\"Fanning<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Fanning and Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Rachel and Agnes in \u2018Sentimental Value\u2019 (Neon\/AP)<\/p>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd says pretty much the same: \u201cAs an actor, your experience gives you tools, but the tools are boring and the tools are dangerous because you can rely on them and make a film with your tools and think, \u2018Oh, it looks pretty good.\u2019 But it\u2019s not good because it doesn\u2019t have the irrationality of life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trier will often give his actors the same note: \u201cGo back to zero.\u201d In his words, it means getting rid of intention. \u201cNot using muscle memory but being brave enough to see if it can appear by itself.\u201d Trier isn\u2019t interested in seeing an actor\u2019s quote-unquote skill, or \u2013 to borrow Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s term \u2013 their tools. Going back to zero is how you get scenes like the one in which Agnes visits Nora\u2019s apartment to convince her to read their father\u2019s script. Talking afterwards, Nora asks her younger, more even-keeled sister how she emerged from their childhood seemingly less scathed. \u201cI had you,\u201d Agnes replies, weeping as she climbs onto the bed, hugs Nora and says, \u201cI love you.\u201d None of that was in the script.<\/p>\n

\"Fanning<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Fanning poses in a \u2018Joachim Trier Summer\u2019 T-shirt at the Cannes festival (2025 Invision)<\/p>\n

All four actors have earned Golden Globe nominations for their performances, with Oscar nods perhaps soon to follow. It\u2019s strange to think that for Skarsg\u00e5rd, whose career traverses more than a few watermarks, it could be his first. \u201cI\u2019ve done pretty well without them,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut of course it\u2019s exciting and good for the film \u2013 and good for cinemas.\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd is speaking about Netflix, which is lightly spoofed in the film when Gustav sells his script to the streaming giant. \u201cThe biggest behemoth in the cinema industry is Netflix, who want only a one-week window for their films in cinemas,\u201d says Skarsg\u00e5rd. Translation: \u201cKill the cinema! Netflix has an ambition to kill the cinema. It\u2019s so f***ing scary.\u201d He hopes the prestige and allure of the Oscars may help to keep Netflix at bay \u2013 and if he comes up against his actor son Alexander, in the running for his BDSM flick Pillion, this awards season? \u201cThe gloves are off.\u201d <\/p>\n

But before then, there is much campaigning to be done. In a stroke of marketing genius, at the film\u2019s Cannes premiere, Fanning wore a T-shirt reading \u201cJoachim Trier summer\u201d \u2013 a play on the Charli xcx \u201cBrat summer\u201d memes proliferating at the time. So what does a Joachim Trier summer consist of? Trier laughs: \u201cThere was a newspaper that said it means walking into a party and feeling alone, or being melancholic in the morning, or lonely by the sea.\u201d Maybe it is all of the above. Summer may be over, but as Fanning says: \u201cI guess it\u2019s a Joachim Trier autumn, winter, and spring, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Sentimental Value\u2019 is in cinemas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-657464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115790587950808427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}