Search - Insomnia [Criterion Collection] on DVD

Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Profanity Movie Release: 1997 DVD Release: 07/13/1999 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Dual Layered,Special Collection Audio Tracks: Norwegian, Swedish Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 37 mins Studio: Criterion Members Wishing: 19 Genres: Thriller, Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Psychological Thriller, Police Detective Film

Norwegian filmmaker Erik Skjoldbjaerg makes his directorial debut with the psychological police drama Insomnia. Swedish homicide detective Jonas Engström (Stellan Skarsgård) and his partner, Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal), arrive in a small Northern Norwegian town to help the local police investigate the murder of a teenage girl. When Jonas finds the girl's backpack, he sets a trap for the killer near a remote shed. While waiting to make an ambush in the morning fog, Jonas accidentally shoots Erik. He knows it was only an accident, but he decides to keep it a secret because he could lose his job. Jonas chooses to carry on with his investigation while trying to cover up the evidence of Erik's death. Meanwhile, he's unable to get any sleep due to the constant sunlight of the Norwegian summer and his increasingly guilty conscience. His only help comes from highly intuitive local police officer Hilda Haugen (Gisken Armand), who begins to form her own doubts about Jonas. As he continues to lose his grip on the case at hand, he becomes dangerously close to the suspects, Jon Holt (Bjørn Floberg) and Frøya (Marianne O. Ulrichsen). Filmmaker Christopher Nolan directed the English-language remake of Insomnia in 2002 with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Stellan Skarsgård - Jonas Engstrom
Gisken Armand - Hilde Hagen
Maria Bonnevie - Ane
Bjørn Floberg - Jon Holt
Sverre Anker Ousdal - Erik Vik

In keeping with its setting in the land of the midnight sun, Insomnia is bathed in perpetual sunlight. Luckily, the widescreen anamorphic transfer keeps all the varying degrees of whiteness in balance with no apparent bleaching of images. A key scene in the film occurs in fog, an element which has proven to be a troublesome area for many transfers, but here no pixel breakup is apparent. The film is presented in its original Norwegian and Swedish, with newly created optional English subtitles. Supplemental features include a theatrical trailer, TV spot, and color bars. The informative booklet notes are written by Peter Cowie, a noted expert on Scandinavian film. It would have been nice had Cowie offered a scholarly audio commentary track such as those found on other Criterion releases such as =The Seven Samurai and =Peeping Tom. All in all, though, this is a crisp digital transfer worth viewing. ~ A.R. Ferguson, All Movie Guide