Lasse & Geir

Lasse & Geir (1976) is a Norwegian social-realist drama written and directed by Svend Wam, made in collaboration with Petter Vennerød and marking the beginning of one of the most distinctive filmmaking partnerships in Norwegian cinema. Torgeir Schjerven and Lasse Tømte play Lasse and Geir, two unemployed and increasingly disillusioned teenagers growing up in the Bogerud housing estate in eastern Oslo. With little direction in life and troubled relationships with their families, the boys channel much of their frustration into drinking, petty crime and open hostility towards the adult world. Their behaviour eventually gets them arrested after a particularly outrageous confrontation with passengers on a public bus, but a night in a police cell does little to change their outlook. Over the course of three days, the film follows them through Oslo as they drift between their dysfunctional homes, friends and occasional encounters with people who show them some understanding. Although firmly rooted in social realism, Lasse & Geir also contains a considerable amount of dark humour, improvised dialogue and deliberately provocative situations. Its raw performances and colourful Oslo slang helped turn it into one of Norway’s most enduring cult films, with several lines of dialogue becoming familiar even to people who have never seen the entire film.

Lasse & Geir (1976) was filmed entirely on location in Oslo, with the city’s eastern suburbs and older inner-city neighbourhoods providing a remarkably authentic picture of the Norwegian capital in the mid-1970s. Production began on 15 March 1975 and continued until 15 May, with the filmmakers using lightweight 16 mm equipment to give themselves greater freedom when shooting in real streets and public spaces. Bogerud and the surrounding Østensjø district establish the suburban environment in which the two protagonists have grown up, while one of the film’s most notorious early sequences takes place aboard a bus travelling from Manglerud towards central Oslo. After the boys provoke the other passengers, the driver stops along Østensjøveien beside Østensjø Lake and calls the police. Geir attempts to escape by jumping over a fence near Østensjø School, only to be caught and arrested. Jernbanetorget’s underground metro station appears later, when the boys meet other young people on the platform before continuing their aimless journey through the city. Several identifiable locations are found around central and eastern Oslo. Halvorsens Kolonial, a small grocery shop at Skedsmogata 1 in Kampen, appears when Geir encounters his alcoholic father and reluctantly gives him ten kroner to buy a morning beer. The shop’s distinctive entrance and the old H. Halvorsen lettering above the doorway have survived, making it one of the more easily recognisable locations. Another storefront appears at Fredensborgveien 37, formerly occupied by the Oslo food supplier Sagen & Grønvold. The film also makes particularly good use of the city’s older residential streets. Lasse and Geir walk uphill along Telthusbakken, where they encounter an elderly woman complaining about her aching legs, before continuing towards the cobbled Damstredet. Here they search for loose change and inspect a telephone box near the street’s preserved wooden houses. Although the telephone box has since disappeared, much of the surrounding architecture remains recognisable, including the pale pink building visible in the background. Additional filming took place outside Nordahl Bruns gate 11, which at the time housed the offices of the production company Elan Film. Rather than presenting Oslo through its famous monuments, Lasse & Geir spends much of its running time among ordinary apartment blocks, grocery shops, tram stops, backstreets and public transport. The result is not only a portrait of two alienated teenagers, but also a valuable visual record of everyday life in Oslo during the spring of 1975.

Map

Locations

Lasse & Geir

Damstredet

Østensjøveien

St. Hanshaugen Park