List Price: $29.95You Pay Only: $17.99 You Save: $11.96 (40%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 9786305389514
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 6305389519
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 13, 1999
Running Time: 96 minutes
Sales Rank: 21295
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: May 29, 1998
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Disgraced Swedish detective Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) travels to northern Norway to solve a brutal murder in Insomnia. Unable to sleep through the night of the midnight sun, Engström quickly loses his grip on the case and his mind. Erik Skjoldbjærg's debut feature is a deft amalgam of psychological thriller, morality play, and police procedural. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Insomnia in a new widescreen transfer.
Amazon.com:
This 1997 film from Norway and neophyte director Erik Skjoldbjærg delivers the goods with unsettling effectiveness. It's an intense, smart, and taut thriller if only because what it eerily implies is creepier than the film's reality. Opening with a churning, chilling murder of a young woman, Insomnia invites the viewer--as well as its protagonist, celebrated Oslo homicide cop Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård)--into the mind and thoughts of a killer by making Engström fatally flawed himself. While in pursuit of the murderer, Engström makes a mistake; he accidentally shoots his partner and friend and covers up his deed in a panic. But he overlooks a minor detail: the real killer has seen him commit the crime. What ensues is a layered, complex, and unnerving descent into chaos, brought on by the inability to sleep in this land of the midnight sun. Engström suffers from insomnia, which warps his logic and resolve, and before long he's totally unraveled and unsure of his every move. But not before a twisty transference and countertransference occurs between cop and killer. The two play a game of high-stakes one-upmanship that surprises in the end. Insomnia is fresh and psychologically bent, full of Scandinavian despair and dark humor, and it boasts a film noir pulse beneath its blinding light. --Paula Nechak
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Cat and mouse game
A Nordic thriller, this bleak but beautiful film is meticulously constructed. It tells of a cop who mistakenly shoots a man, then tries to cover it up, only to have his acts slowly unravel as his colleagues look for clues and they all seem to point to him. He's guilty, so he can't sleep. Thus the title. Nice twist at the ending, too. Watch it.
Rating: - Psychological thriller...
Norwegian film with English subtitles. Psychological murder thriller that is a brisk 90 minutes in length. Two Swedish detectives, lauded for their crime solving prowess, arrive in Norway to solve the murder of a 19 year old girl. Engstrom, the lead detective, craftily cons the murderer back to the crime scene and surrounds the site with Norwegian police. The murderer manages to elude the group and Engstrom and the police take pursuit. Engstrom manages to make a terrible mistake in the man hunt - he then takes actions to cover it up. His guilt overwhelms him and he is unable to fall asleep - night after night he faces waves of dreams of the horrific incident - and wakes up in cold sweat...and then walks around bleary eyed and paranoid during the day - trying to solve the murder on one hand and getting further entangled in his cover-up on the other. You walk in Engstrom's shoes during the movie - feeling his exhaustion - his paranoia - his overwhelming guilt - and the tension runs in this flick until its conclusion. Great movie...set in beautiful northern Norway - alternating between land of the midnight sun and dreary heavy fog - a perfect background.
Rating:  - Norge! Norge! Norge!
I just finished watching this movie and I have been wondering what makes this movie special. Stripping this film of its foreignness, I realized that this would be a great thriller/crime drama here in the states, sure to do well in the box office and probably be up there in the average B+ range for critics. Tossing that foreignness back on, the movie shifts to that A range (which it seems barely any movie makes it to nowadays).
The reason for this is no doubt the Norwegian/Swedish cast and Erik Skjoldbjærg direction in the ethereal landscape of Norway. The fact of the matter is, there is rarely a ethereal scene. Most shots are focused on the characters or are limited to a space in which the character may run off to. Skjoldbjærg somehow manages to find the grime and darkness of Norway (which, for those of you who have been there may agree, is one heck of a feat; as houses are brightly painted (as are buildings in the cities), trees lush and green, rolling hills with hues of yellow and green so rich). Not to mention the fact that this is Northern Norway, one of the "Lands of the Midnight Sun". Swedish actor, Stellan Skarsgård who is currently doing quite well in Hollywood, is fantastic. His spiral downward is as rough on him as it is on the viewer.
For language buffs, like myself, Norwegian and Swedish are spoken throughout the movie. In the world of linguistics, it seems that is is a well known fact that Norwegians understand Swedish much better than Swedes understand ... Read More
Rating: - The fine line between good and evil.
The thing I love about foreign language movies is that the heroes aren't always all that good. They're allowed to be morally ambiguous, just like most human beings are. The original Norwegian version of "Insomnia" is a perfect example of this fact. "Insomnia" is a case study of how anyone can make mistakes under the right (or wrong, depending on how you look at things) set of circumstances and how often the line between cop and criminal can become blurred. Stellen Skarsgard plays hot-shot Swedish detective, Jonas Engstrom, who has been called to northern Norway to investigate a murder. However, as the film progresses, Engstrom's actions resemble more and more those of the killer whom he is trying to catch. It is possible that Engstrom's actions are due to his lack of sleep caused by the endless days in the Arctic Circle, but unlike in the 2002 remake, which starred Al Pacino and Robin Williams, it is never really made clear as to whether this is the real reason or not. It is left up to the viewer to decide. It is for this reason that I believe the original version of "Insomnia" is far superior to the remake and for this reason that I strongly recommend it.
Rating: - Mich Better than the US Version
This was a well-acted, excellent tale of murder and human frailty. As usual, hollywood's interpretation was shallow by comparison. Don't let Pacino/Williams' less cerebral version stop you from watching this, the original.
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