Anja Breien Films | Anja Breien Filmography | Anja Breien Biography | Anja Breien Career | Anja Breien Awards

In England over the course of three decades, Michael Apted produced a series of sociological documentaries, titled 7 Up, 14 Up, 21 Up, 28 Up, and 35 Up, in which he filmed a group of individuals, from all British classes, beginning in 1963 and starting at age seven. Then he reappeared every seven years to find out how they had matured, and if their youthful aspirations had been met as they reached adulthood.

In Norway, Anja Breien created an equally unique and absorbing series with her fictional Wives trilogy: three films, the first directed in 1975 with each follow-up coming a decade later, which chronicle the lives of a trio of women played by the same actresses: Anne Marie Ottersen (cast as Mie); Katja Medboe (playing Kaja); and Froydis Armand (in the role of Heidrun). While Breien is credited as the screenwriter or co-screenwriter of each film, she worked in conjunction with the actresses to create characterizations and dialogue. The result is a revealing look at the evolution of contemporary middle-class women and their enduring friendship.

The first installment is titled, simply, Wives. Its scenario is inspired by Husbands, the 1970 John Cassavetes feature which charts the response of three middle-aged suburbanites to the sudden death of their best friend; Wives also predates John Sayles?s The Return of the Secaucus Seven, Lawrence Kasdan?s The Big Chill and Anne-Claire Poirier?s Over Forty as a generational reunion movie. The women once were close friends, but had not seen each other in years. Now, all are married, with two already mothers and the third pregnant. They come together after a school reunion and spend three days in each other?s company where they recollect old times and, as they are picked up by a pair of men, explore the choice of marital fidelity versus infidelity.

More to the point, the women collectively rekindle a girlish spirit and sense of freedom they had not experienced in ages. They do express some desperation over and disappointment with the course of their present lives; still, Wives primarily is a vigorous, clever, and quick-witted story of female friendship, and the bond that exists across the years among friends both male and female, if that friendship is predicated on emotional honesty.

In Wives: 10 Years After, the same three characters first meet on Christmas Eve, and then spend several days sharing their company and updating each other (and the audience) on the progress of their lives?especially the children they are raising, and the men to whom they are married (contrasted to those they really want to be with). In this installment, the characters must deal with the reality that time is passing. They are becoming even further separated from their girlish pasts as they are fast approaching 40?and middle age.

In Wives III, the women reunite for Kaja?s surprise birthday party, an event that symbolizes the further passage of time. Here, the characters are well-ensconced in middle age, but their fantasies and dreams are just as distinctly portrayed. Their lives may be disparate, but the feelings, thoughts, tears, and smiles they share attest to the substance of their lifelong bond. Indeed, the camaraderie between Mie, Kaja and Heidrun is extra-special, and transcends their individual relationships with their husbands.

In countless movies, an earlier photograph of an actor may be placed on a wall or desk to add authenticity to a setting. But because of the unique structure of the Wives trilogy, and the fact that the same actresses are cast in each film, Breien is able to include flashbacks, made up of footage from the previous films. Thus, the audience sees the characters literally age before their eyes?the same feature which makes Apted?s documentaries so riveting.

Beyond the Wives trilogy, Breien has worked successfully in a variety of genres. Her debut feature, Rape?The Anders Case, is a jarring black-and-white chronicle of a rape case told from the point of view of the accused. The Serious Game, a project Breien took over when its original director, Per Blom, became ill, is the story of a newspaperman whose rigidity prevents him from marrying his true love. Next of Kin is a comedy about the manner in which various family members react upon inheriting immense wealth. The Witch Hunt, set in the 17th century, chronicles the plight of a woman whose independent spirit and open sexuality results in her being prosecuted (and eventually beheaded) as a witch. Paper Bird may be a thriller about a woman who attempts to solve the mystery surrounding the death of her father, but it primarily explores the personality of the protagonist. Twice upon a Time is the story of a middle-aged Casanova who has lost his touch with women; its point of view is that relations between the sexes must be predicated on emotional commitment, rather than sexual conquest.

The films of Anja Breien are collectively ambitious and provocative, as well as intensely personal?particularly when they spotlight the intimate connections between individuals, and the absolute need for (as well as benefits of) integrity in interpersonal relationships.?ROB EDELMAN