Utøya as a Sequence Shot

Why is it that the long take is a way of achieving realism? Why is it that the cut is taken as a trick whereas the long take is taken as the truth? These are some of the questions the text tries to answer by analysing Utøya: July 22 (Utøya 22. juli, Erik Poppe, 2018). It approaches the film with the concepts of absorption and theatricality as developed in Michael Fried’s art-historical work to show how the long take can have an interestingly unrealistic or even anti-realistic effect.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!