Episode 93: Avalanches, Blame, and Cowardice (With Yoel Inbar)

Very Bad Wizards

Scandinavian film scholar Yoel Inbar joins the podcast for a deep dive on the Swedish film Force Majeure, a darkly funny meditation on what our instinctive behavior in a moment of panic can reveal about our characters and relationships. The story: while having lunch on a ski slope in the French Alps, a family believes that an avalanche is bearing down on them. Just as it seems the avalanche is going to hit them, the father (Tomas) grabs his phone and gloves and runs indoors, abandoning his wife Ebba and two children. How does the family reckon with this incident? Is the act itself unforgivable, or is it Tomas’s behavior afterwards that makes him despicable? How blameworthy is Tomas for his display of cowardice? Is it even cowardice since he didn’t have time to think about it? What’s the deal with that creepy janitor and all the tooth brushing scenes? Why can’t Yoel and Tamler agree about the answers to any of these questions? Plus, more on the Redskins and Tamler tells an embarrassing story from his past.

Links

• Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net]
• On that one awkward sex scene from The Americans [vulture.com]
• Scandinavia [wikipedia.org]
• Force Majeure [imdb.com]
• Louie Season 1 Episode 9 "Bully" [imdb.com]

Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.

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