Episode

190. Oslo, August 31st: Beginning and Ending (Deep Focus preview)

Podcast
Seventh Row Podcast
Published
Apr 2, 2026
Duration seconds
779
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not_requested
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https://seventhrow.libsyn.com/190-oslo-august-31st-beginning-and-ending-deep-focus-preview
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/seventhrow/190._Deep_Focus_preview_-_Oslo_beginning_and_ending.mp3?dest-id=1934753
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/seventh-row-podcast-1017704/episodes/190-oslo-august-31st-beginning-and-ending-deep-focus-preview
Markdown
/podcast/seventh-row-podcast-1017704/190-oslo-august-31st-beginning-and-ending-deep-focus-preview.md

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Summary

Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st starts with a sequence that doesn't advance the plot — and yet shifts how you watch the entire film — and ends with a sequence with almost no dialogue but a lot happens. They're sequences I've returned to again and again over 14 years to figure out how they work — and keep discovering something new that shifts how I see the film. In this episode, Joachim Trier talks about the problem the opening was trying to solve, Eskil Vogt talks about the challenges of writing the ending, and I talk about the pleasures of digging into them. This month, I'll be hosting in-depth workshops on the opening and the ending of Oslo, August 31st as part of The Deep Focus. 👉 Find out more about The Deep Focus